The Happiness Factor: 5 Things I Needed To Learn

When I first lost my weight it was quite noticeable and I definitely turned a lot of heads.  I'm not trying to be egotistical here, just honest.  It felt great!  After struggling for years with weight issues I had finally reached a goal that gave me the freedom to wear new clothes, walk into my job at the time with confidence, and feel energetic everyday.  My happiness was all about being skinny again. 

A trap I fell into and needed to get out of.  My happiness faded after a year or so of constantly talking about my weight.

The Happiness Factor, how do you get it back? When you look at your physical and forget about what is within.  When all the admiration, double takes, questions of how you did it and that feeling that this is your 15 minutes of fame end.  You're left wondering what to do next.  Having a few things in place once reality hits is very important. 

Don't get me wrong, you should celebrate every milestone of your weight loss journey.  You should stand tall again.  The truth is that you also need to know that people do stop looking and you need to remember why you did all of this in the first place.  For YOU.  For YOUR health. Taking your positives and turning them into something even better is something I recognized I needed to do.

Here are 5 things to remember once you hit those weight loss goals:

1.  Happiness is not physical it's from within.  Your heart and health are your strongest assets. Knowing this is enough to keep you going for the long haul.

2. New Goals - Once you've reached a level of happiness due to your weight loss, reality will set in.  New goals need to be made to compliment your new you!  Make a list today and focus on the great things you'll do now that you feel so great!

3. Be Grateful - For who you are.  For what you've accomplished. Not who others think you are.  Be happy about climbing those stairs that were so hard to climb.  Get excited that you can enjoy family time again without being conscious of what you look like.  Think of how strong and energetic you are again. You have your life back!

4. Be Optimistic -  Find ways to be positive about life.  You can approach people with confidence, you're feeling good inside.  Know that everyday brings new and exciting opportunities that aren't related to your weight and how you look. 

5. Help Others -  Now that you have lost your weight, help others do the same.  Help others stay on track.  Maybe you just feel better about approaching people and helping them out.  I deliver meals to shut-ins, I help clean roads with a great group I belong to.  Things that have nothing to do with your weight loss are the best things to an even healthier heart and mind.

Having lost your weight is a great thing but it's what you do afterwards that counts.  Remembering who you are inside is the most important part, the rest is just icing on the cake.

Just Be -- The Key To Maintaining A Healthy Lifestyle

I don't know about you but some nights I can barely get to sleep because my mind is racing.  I wake up and my day starts out frenzied and ends with a crash.

Hurrying meant eating on the go, never exercising, and feeling tired and sick most of the time.

What does it mean to just be? 

In order for me to get to my goal weight I had to learn to practice this feeling.  If I hadn't then I would have been unsuccessful.  Rushing around and never taking time out to breath or take care of yourself is one of the reasons it becomes so difficult to maintain or lose your weight.

Being present, aware, and removing your doubts and fears about the day, or your life is so important.  It can be difficult to just be still and focus.  Those bundle of thoughts you have are useless in creating a better lifestyle for yourself. 

I am still struggling with this notion of just being and not filling my calendar with something to do every waking hour.  I and others I have talked to tell me they feel guilty when they aren't doing. 

Today I'm practicing just being. 

I will take time out of my day to just be me. 

Here are some things you can do to start the practice of just being:

1.  Meditate or yoga 

2. Stopping for 10 seconds to just breathe and listen to your own breath.

3. Be grateful for this calm moment.

4. Get rid of all your thoughts and focus on something that makes you calm and happy

like the ocean scene above. 

Once you've done this you'll find yourself slowing down and appreciating things that you're doing for yourself, your body and your mind.   All a part of your new healthy lifestyle and keeping it off.

Just Be.

Keeping It Off -- A Mindset

Keeping it off and dieting is a mindset.  Like everything else in your arsenal of dieting tips, tricks, and tools your mind is the key to achieving what you desire in weight loss and lifestyle change.   

Get It Out Of Your Head

In the past after I lost pounds on several popular diet plans my mindset was that I could go back to my old ways.  The old me would start eating everything in sight and the exercise would be put on the backburner.  Lose the thought that things will be this way and you will move forward.

Now, after my last attempt at taking off the weight and keeping it off my mind tells me that this is my life.  Everything I did wrong is a thing of the past and new habits have emerged and will remain. 

Look At Your Food

Dieting means you never get to eat good food again, right?  You give up everything you love either foodwise or how you go about your day, right?  WRONG!  Lifestyle changes in diet and exercise are not a life sentence.  For me, I still eat all the same meals with my family only now I watch portions and choose healthier options for my recipes.  Ground turkey for tacos,  whole wheat pastas for our Italian nights, turkey bacon for breakfast or veggie sausages.   Life and the grocery store have so many wonderful options now.  Food is a delight when I try new fruits or healthy recipes.  My taste palate has learned to love new textures and colors on my plate at every meal.  Feeding my body with better things (and I'm still learning) are exciting not boring.

Exercise is fun because I make it fun!  I ask family and friends to join me and I do things I love like bike riding and walking. 

The Pollyanna Principle

Research indicates that, at the unconscious level, our minds have a tendency to focus on the optimistic while, at the conscious level, we have a tendency to focus on the negative. This unconscious bias towards the positive is often described as the Pollyanna principle.

In dieting and keeping it off we need to focus on the positive and truly believe it.  Recite to yourself how important you are and how great you are feeling and looking.  Believe it, walk it, make it real! Some of the ways I keep the positive is by reading positive quotes from others who are in the same place as myself.  I have friends who motivate and believe in me and I only surround myself with those positive people.  I gravitate towards powerful, positive pictures, stories and places.

Exercise The Mind

Taking time out to just be is so important to staying on track.  Meditating, listening to favorite tunes, writing down your thoughts, taking walks in nature and listening to the birds and feeling the sun on your face, listening to your own breath without the background noise of life always heading towards you.  Take time out and you'll feel refreshed and ready for whatever gets thrown at you.  You'll realize how important you are and why you're doing what you are doing for your body and soul.

Thinking positive and telling the negative to go away is so important.

Everybody gets stressed, bored, depressed, discouraged.  Our hurried world hands us these things everyday.  It wasn't always easy for me.  Changing my mind took time and practice.  These everyday idiosyncrasies still creep up on us when we least expect it and when we wish they wouldn't at the worst times.  They have taught me perseverance, goal setting, and hard work all over again.

Change your mind, change your life!