Change Your Perspective to Change Your Life

      As I was sitting having coffee with my friend this morning, it suddenly occurred to me how very hard we are on ourselves when it comes to weight loss and making positive changes toward a healthier lifestyle.  Despite the fact that it takes courage to make changes, most of us are very quick to point out the negatives and our slip-ups without acknowledging how truly brave we are to start on such a difficult journey.  It is then that it finally hit me, if we can change our perspective to a more positive one, maybe we can finally succeed in our quest for a new and healthier self.   Here is a list of changes I would like to suggest in order to move us in the right direction:

1. I know we have all heard this one before, but I really think we should take the word diet out of our vocabulary.  When I think of diet, it brings up images of deprivation, bland, boring food, and an endless history of failure.  I am tired of dieting and I propose we replace it with the phrase healthy living.  First of all, diet has the word die in it, which, in my opinion, is reason enough for us to take this word out of the English language.  If we focus on living, it will remind us of why it is essential for us to make healthier choices a part of our lifestyles.  Also, diet brings up the image of short term for most people.  If we are to make these changes a permanent part of our lives, we must focus on lifelong strategies to reach and maintain our flabulous selves.
2. Cheat is another word I would like to suggest that we discontinue using.  As my blog suggests, I am on a journey from flabby to flabulous.  Instead of beating myself up over small slip-ups, I like to think of them as detours.  When Sean and I took a road trip across the country to see relatives in Indiana and North Carolina, there were many unexpected side trips off the road: potty breaks for a just trained toddler, routes around traffic and bad weather, stops for food and drinks.  Despite this we never once thought that we should turn around and head back to California.  Why is that…because we had the end in mind and knew that it would be worth the extra time spent on the road.  Any good trip is bound to have detours, and I feel that we should look at our journey to healthy living in the same way.
3. My final change is actually one that I borrowed from Joy Bauer.  Even though I actually enjoy running, there are mornings that it is difficult to get out of bed at 5 am to get my exercise in before work.  Joy’s suggestion is that we change the way we look at exercise.  Instead of thinking, “Why do I have to get up and run,” we should be saying to ourselves, “I am lucky that I get to run this morning.”  So often we will do anything for others, but we hesitate to take time for ourselves.  I propose that we plan our workouts like dates so we get to work out on a regular basis.

       So to all my friends that are on their own journeys to healthy living, be kind to yourself.  There will be detours, but know that all you have to do is get right back on the next on-ramp, and you will once again be on the road to the new and flabulous you.

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