Power and Responsibility...long but good! connect!

This is good, I connected. Being responsible for our new eating habits, we are NOT on a diet. Yep, lifestyle change and a new way to think! -Hugs Debbie

Power and Responsibility Posted: 19 May 2010 04:00 AM PDT I was joking with my spin class on Monday.  They had told me the power of my being the instructor had gone to my head.  I countered with the idea that with power comes responsibility.  That got me thinking about the reverse of the statement. It is also true to say:   With responsibility comes power.   When you are responsible for the choices you make about your eating, you have all of the power to indulge your desires  --  either the desire to lose weight, the desire to eat delicious food, or both.   When you accept responsibility for making choices about your actions, you have unlimited choices.  My favorite chocolate cake from the Grand Lux  is no longer off limits (even though the slice is big enough for me to eat as a lunch AND a breakfast -- no lie).  I have to be responsible enough not to eat it for EVERY lunch and breakfast -- but then I am empowered to eat it and thoroughly enjoy it when I do. Power sets you free from feeling like a victim of your choices and their consequences.  You are making conscious decisions about your actions and the outcomes are not forces upon you. This is a much different approach than a diet where you have no power.  The responsibility of a diet is directed on following the diet and all of your power is given away to a book, guide, or guru.  This leave you feeling powerless both for your decisions (no cake for you!) and for the outcomes.  Not a long-term guide to feeling successful.

Failure?...or Learning Opportunity? Posted: 18 May 2010 04:00 AM PDT I was reminded again today that coaching a client through set backs is, perhaps, one of the most important functions of my job. How many times have you felt like you had things all figured out -- things were working -- you were losing weight-- and then life happens and you experience a set back.  Whether or not your weight starts creeping back up is not the point.  You had gotten used to feeling like you were in charge of your eating behaviors.  You liked how you were feeling when you left the table feeling light and ready to move on to the next activity.  You liked trusting yourself to make appropriate choices about what you were putting in your mouth. And then something change...and now you are not feeling successful...at all. Some of the weight loss literature is suggesting we should spend more time per session coaching a client for weight maintenance than we do in actually helping them lose the weight in the first place.  Now...from my perspective, that is a hard sell to clients who are feeling great about their success.  Some of the literature is also suggesting coaches help clients reframe the idea of "failure" (i.e. gaining back some of the lost weight) into the idea of "learning opportunities". Learning opportunities are those times when your resources have been pushed to the limits and the positive behaviors aren't sticking as well as you would like.  Learning opportunities are the times where your old behavior (you know...the ones that caused you to gain the weight in the first place) start to reassert themselves.  This is the point where the rubber meets the road.  Please don't operate under the idea that once you feel you have it all figured out and you have hit your goal weight (or you've lost enough to start feeling really good about yourself) that it will be smooth sailing from then on out. Plan for the bumps and bruises to your routines.  Figure out what makes you successful in losing weight right now and WRITE IT DOWN!!  Put it in a go-to envelope so when life happens and you move away from those helpful behaviors, you have a plan in place that you can implement ASALP (as soon as life permits). It's not a failure if you pick up the pieces and work to get yourself back on course -- you will have learned how to cope with that experience.  You will be wiser and better prepared the next time life presents a Learning Opportunity.

Debbie....EXCELLENT...thank you!!

Hugs .....connie d

Very good!  Thanks for sharing!!!

I really liked "Please don't operate under the idea that once you feel you have it all figured out and you have hit your goal weight (or you've lost enough to start feeling really good about yourself) that it will be smooth sailing from then on out."

I always say losing the weight is the easy part....it's keeping it off that is hard. 

Amen Sister...keeping it off is the hardest part!