Choices.
It’s a great concept.
Yesterday my overly-angsted kid told me, Mom, stop saying I’m making choices in regards to my actions!
?
You know, just think about it. Who controls your mind? Who controls your body? Who holds the knife to your throat and says, okay, go jump into the pool with all your clothing on while the Halloween party is going on in another area….you know, that party you’re supposed to chaperone?
Well?
Methinks the answer is obviously. You do! It’s your choices, your actions, your consequences that you experience. Nobody else’s.
You own your own behavior. And that goes for dieting and weight loss as well.
One of the reasons why I’ve been so successful in my weight loss journey (and life in general!) is that I choose to own all my own decisions, be they bad, good, magnificent, idiotic, etc. This way I am assured that I have only myself to blame (and myself to praise) when my get up and go, got up and went, and was last seen heading towards Nebraska.
It’s tough sometimes to admit to yourself you’ve made lousy decisions in the past. You have to deal with personal embarrassment, with feelings of letting yourself down….it can be very painful to witness and confront.
But you know….I firmly believe everything in life happens for a reason. And some things happen because your guardian angel is telling you, okay, buckle down now and listen….there’s a level of your personal inner strength that you do NOT know you possess. So I’m going to make darned sure you come into contact with it right now!!
After all, that’s what happens when you confront painful issues, right? You have to rally your own inner strength to say, okay, I was an absolute idjut…I admit it….but it’s not going to derail my future steps! Remember, you cannot change the past whatsoever…but you can always influence how the future unfolds.
Like dieting. And losing weight. And getting on your journey to better health.
Accept ownership and responsibility for all of your choices in the past. Those choices are what led you to being the person you are today. And if you’re not satisfied with that….honor your grief. Give yourself a few minutes to feel self-pity and cry it out (I truly believe crying is a catharsis – it gets rid of negative excess energies and frees you to move on).
Then imagine a biiiig suitcase and put all your negative feelings and regrets and embarrassment in it. Walk in your mind over to the top of a huge cliff that towers in your mind and….
Chuck that suitcase over!
Discard and throw away all your pain from before. Give yourself permission to say:
Okay, I’ve made some pathetic choices in the past – that’s okay now. I’ve accepted my responsibility for them…and I’m now moving on to a better and healthier me! Got that?? Nobody but NOBODY will stop my future success!!
You’d be surprised how much more in control you’ll feel when you take responsibility for all of your choices, the actions that resulted from those choices, and the future paths that are waiting for you.
It’s truly a hero’s journey.
Enjoy,
Barbara
ps – speaking of choices, here’s some dandy ones for Weight Watchers!