Think Positively!

I found this in an email this morning from Joy Life Diet. It's a daily email about weight loss. It spoke to me and I wanted to share it with everyone. It is a struggle these days to focus on that Positive thinking in light of everything going on in the world. Maybe this will speak to you too.

The Meaning of LIFE
Think Positively!
 
One of the worst patterns a dieter can fall into is negative self-talk — the inner voice that tells you you'll never reach your goal, you deserve a chocolate bar because you've had a hard day, you've already blown your diet so you might as well order the cheesecake, and so on.

If you're a victim of negative thinking, a little cognitive reordering may be just the ticket for you. This type of intervention involves identifying your sabotaging thoughts, questioning their validity, and then taking positive action to change things.

Consider the individual who constantly thinks, "I've always been heavy, I'll always be heavy, diets don't work for me." Rather than using past history as an excuse to do nothing, this person would be far better off questioning why no diet has worked for her and thinking about alternative approaches to weight loss.

This individual is me. That is how I think and I know it sabatoges me. My WLS was the alternate route for my weight loss and by remembering that, I fight everday to keep control of my eating. Especially since I went to such a degree (WLS) to fix my body. My mind however is still struggling. That inner voice is so powerful at times. Stresses in life can be so overwhelming. What I do know now and try never to forget is that I feel better physically and mentally when I am healthy and if I keep that in the front of my mind at all times it seems to help me bear the burdens I face. When I overcome an obstacle it makes me feel stronger.
This is our one and only life here on earth. It is a gift and a glory. Lets never forget that.

God Speed to us all.

Johnna in our emotional eating class she had us write a positive affirmation and put it on our bathroom mirror or somewhere that we would see it a lot.  Mine was "I am in control of my snacking and I only eat when I am hungry".  I put it on the fridge, I think it really helped.  After a couple weeks she had us to add another and so on.  Her thinking is that if you read these and play them over in your head you can retrain your thinking patterns. 

Jeannie

Have you ever read the book, "The Secret"? There is a video too and its all about that. It is very interesting how much power we have over our thoughts and lives and since we are all made out of matter (scientifically speaking) then there is a cosmic energy in using positive thinking in order to create positive effects in our lives. It's really very powerful if you think about it. I too am a big one in putting notes up on things. My husband has a positive affirmation written down right now on a sticky note on our bathroom mirror. His company focuses on positive energy and they have meetings and conventions about it with guest speakers like Ed Foreman and others that focus on positive thinking. They also have a chaplain that comes around the office 3 x a week to speak with anyone who might need to talk, on company time even. They say that businesses don't grow, people do and when people focus on doing better the company with thrive.
It's all good!

Thank you for posting this i can really relate right now,the voices are strong telling me i am still the fat one and reminding me that i am now at the weight some of you started at.But when i walk by the mirror it gives me the strength to silence them because i am not what or who i was sometimes when im alone i hear hey there is brownies in the kitchen you know you want one and im like im losing it but i get up and walk outside and breathe in the air and i sometimes look stupid telling them to be quiet.
But i was so blessed to have this tool ands just when i forget its there and eat that thing im not suppose to it lets me know ive done wrong,thanks for letting me know i am not alone.

Thanks for posting this for us to read.  I've worked hard over the years to change my thinking patterns to a lot less negativity and much, much more positive thinking.  We don't need to "Work" at  negative thoughts coming into our heads, but it really is work at first to catch yourself thinking something negative and then to consciously stop yourself and turn it around into something positve.

Thinking positive is something I've worked on everyday and the more I "practice" doing it, the more it becomes a HABIT.  I start out each day thinking of 5 blessings that I am thankful for.  I use to write them down so when I get negative or depressed I could pick up my journal and read them.  Now I still journal but about other positve things that are happening in my life.

Our day to day progress with WLS is not very noticeable to us but when I compare week to week, it is a good guage for me to see how far i've come......or what i need to change to make the next week better than the last.  

I can't stress enough to all of you how much Positve thinking has been instrumental in the success of my weight loss journey and actually my entire lifestyle whether it be food related or otherwise.  I have positive thinking notes around my house too as well as small scriptures that are very inspirational and motivating. These are just small little things that bring about large results and rewards.

One hint I've used  is to write down positive things you've accomplished on a little piece of paper and put them in a jar.  When negative thoughts creep in, or I've having a lousy day, I would go to that jar and randomly pick out one or two of those inspirations I wrote down.   I have memory problems like the rest of you have been talking about, so picking these out of my jar also helped me recall positve things that I had forgotten about.  Oh yeah, I do remember........    How come we don't have a problem remembering the negative things in our life????

No one can HEAR our thoughts, so I also will repeat OUTLOAD positive affirmations so my own ears can hear what I'm saying.  This has helped me alot to detour those negative thoughts.  

It was so wonderful when I first heard someone say to me that they were really inspired by my positive outlook and attitude and that I'm so cheery all the time.  This meant so much to me because this person didn't even know that I had bariatric surgery.  They were just basing this on what they saw within me and how I expressed myself.  I was shocked to even hear them say it and felt like turning around to see if they were talking to someone else behind me.     If this person would have known me 9 years ago,  I was the queen of negative thinking.

I hope this inspires some of you on your WLS journey.  I am a good example of how far we can come in changing our negative thinking into positive thinking.  There are no limitations to what we can accomplish unless we impose them on ourself.  Don't sabbatoge yourself this way.  Negative thoughts trigger negative actions such as eating comfort food. Right? Positive thoughts trigger positive acions.  Its worth the work I put into it.  I would not be where I am today if I would have not worked so diligently on changing my negative thinking.  That is why all my other diets in my life failed me and why this lifestyle change has not failed me.  (Notice I said lifestyle change and not  D I E T.  This is a L I F E now and I couldn't be happier with my life!  

We can all do this together with our supportive bari sisters and brothers.  

Hugs to all,
Kat