Lose Weight Find Life

If I were to ask you to name the first superhero you think of, who would that be?  Superman, Superwoman, Batman, or YOU?

Be your own hero, it’s cheaper than a movie ticket or collector comic book.  Plus, by being your own hero, the outcome is within your control and up to you!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach

Many people that have weight issues suffer from the disease to please.  We feel uncomfortable being assertive which, unfortunately, often leads us to be taken advantage of.  Dr. Phil often states that we teach others how to treat us.  Do you feel as though you shouldn’t say something because you might hurt someone’s feelings or cause them to dislike you?  Being someone’s doormat is unhealthy and it is up to you to change the cycle. 

Speak up - use your voice.  Assertiveness is not agressiveness.  It takes courage to act out of your normal mode of settling and not speaking up for yourself.  You have that courage inside of yourself right now.  Use it.  If you feel taken advantage of, say something.  Warning - at first it will feel uncomfortable.  You may feel as though you are being unkind or hurtful.  Actually, you are being kind to yourself.  Using your voice firmly yet in a respectful way is a train that will take you far and built respect from others and, most importantly, yourself.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach

Just as we each have our own unique set of fingerprints, no two are alike….same with us as individuals.  There is nobody like you.  No one can be you better than you can.  That’s why it is so important to be yourself, to be true to yourself, to be somebody you can respect and value.  If you try to be someone else, there will be nobody being you.  You would rob your family, friends, even the cashier at the department store that you patronize from the real you.  Most importantly, you’d cheat yourself of being who you truly are.  Copies are meant for documents, not people!

You may have low self-esteem or be afraid to be who you are.  You believe you need to be invisible and mold yourself into what you perceive others want you to be.  It took me many years of fighting who I was and disliking the characteristics that make me who I am.  Real success in losing weight and weight maintenance is accepting who you are.  There may be things that you like less than others.  Appreciate the things that you do like about yourself.  Accept you just as you are because that is more than enough.

My very favorite quote is “This above all, to thine own self be true.” -William Shakespeare

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach

We all have the power to choose the life we want.  For every action there is a reaction.  For overeating, there are weight and health consequences; for eating healthfully, there are weight and health benefits galore. 

At any time, we can choose to change.  We all know people that have transformed their lives through the power of choice, and so can YOU!  It isn’t easy, but it is more than possible.  The potential lies within you.  All you have to do is tap into that potential, the power and make the choice.  We all know people who returned to school, started a business, that have trained and completed fitness events, who made a decision…the choice to live the life they truly wanted.  The potential is inside each of us.

Make choices that reflect the life you want.  The power is in you!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach

“There’s nothing you can do about the past. But you can do a great deal about your future. You don’t have to be the same person you were yesterday. You can make changes in your life—absolutely startling changes—in a fairly short time. You can make changes you can’t even conceive of now, if you give yourself a chance.”  -Jim Rohn

Are you living in the past?  Thinking about the “what if’s” and “if only’s” in your life?  We can’t change the past but we make our today and our future by the choices we make today.  We all have regrets and wish that certain circumstances in our lives had been different.  Who we are today is a compilation of our experiences, circumstances, and choices that we made.  We did the best we could. 

Don’t beat yourself up for gaining weight or having food issues.  For whatever reason, it worked for us in the past.  However, today is ours  and we make the choice every day, every meal to do better and have more.  Compulsive overeating and food addiction was a behavior that helped us to get through.  Get through a difficult childhood, a traumatic event in our lives, or just to cope with our emotions.  Now, that behavior doesn’t work for you any longer and, frankly, you don’t need it. 

You can develop new coping strategies for emotional eating.  Turn to a trusted friend or family member, hire your own coach, see a psychologist….anyone that is devoted to you and overcome emotional overeating and develop healthy behaviors to replace emotional eating. 

Today is yours….what will you do with it?  Eat through it or live it to the fullest?

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach

Visualize that you are a beam of light. 
Shine and be an example for others. 
Live your fullest, best life. 
People will be drawn to your light.
Focus on people’s strengths rather than their weaknesses. 
Focus on what is good in your life rather than what is wrong. 
Be a problem-solver rather than dwell on problems. 
Identify solutions.
You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself.
Know yourself, trust yourself, be true to yourself, and my favorite that I always end my posts with….Believe In Yourself!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach

We can let circumstances rule us, or we can take charge and rule our lives from within.  ~Earl Nightingale

Have you ever thought of giving your power away to a cookie or bag of chips rather than keeping your resolve on your eating program?  When I think of it in terms of a food choice is stronger than myself, it bothers me tremendously.  Food choices are fleeting but you, your health and self-esteem are rock solid assets to protect.

Don’t allow any exterior situation or circumstance to rule you.  Take charge!  The next time a food choice is beconing you, choose you!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach

“I read and walked for miles at night along the beach…searching endlessly for someone wonderful who would step out of the darkness and change my life. It never crossed my mind that that person could be me.”  ~Anna Quindlen

Your life isn’t happening “without” you. You are in the driver’s seat. Every day you are setting into motion a process that creates reactions. And within that process, you have the power within you to help you build the life you want to have. You are “creating” your life—every day.

You create the life you have through your intentions and the choices you make.

There is power in the choices you make on a daily basis. Look at the choices you’ve made over time and you will begin to understand how you have directed your life toward the path you’re on. Every choice you make defines, once more, who we are. Every choice gives us a chance to pave our own road further.

Want a different life? Begin with your intentions, and start to make different choices.

Ultimately, the consequences of each of your intentions, thoughts, actions and choices create the life that is yours.  You are in charge.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach

“The pessimist sees difficult in every opportunity. 
The optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty. ” ~Winston Churchill

Let’s use this quote for some empowering self-talk to say to yourself when faced with an emotional eating situation…..

The wls post-op considers unhealthy food choices available to them in an emotional eating situation.  
The successful wls post-op achieves success and stays in control of their food choices in every emotional eating situation.

Give it a try!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach

Recently a friend of mine was going through a difficult time in her life.  As she shared with me the circumstances and feelings of discouragement she was feeling, all of a sudden she quoted Winston Churchill.  As Churchill stated, “Never, never, never, never give up!”  Talk about making a u-turn!  I was so inspired by the challenges she was experiencing in her life yet she had that inner light of hope and strength by telling me she would never, never, never, never give up!  

Strengthen your muscle of never giving up.  A slip up in your diet doesn’t mean you’re a failure or you should give up.  You pick yourself up, be stronger from the experience, and move forward with commitment and dedication.  Tomorrow has passed but you are responsible for the choices you make right here, right now.  Know your priorities to lose weight, make the hard choices.  Say a rosounding “YES” to what you want and say “no”, or “later, maybe” to things of lesser importance.   Say “YES” to create the life that you truly want.  You and your weight loss goals in your life are worth much more than the temporary fix of food.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy