Lose Weight Find Life

Ask yourself the question each morning when you begin your day….”What am I grateful for in my life today?” 

When you start your day from a place of gratitude your attitude will immediately shift to one of complete thanks for all you have in your life.  Are you grateful for all you have?  Are you waiting to lose weight to be grateful and live your life fully?  Do you feel your life is half empty rather than half full?  You get to choose the framework that you want to live from.  An attitude of gratitude will bring your closer to the success you are seeking.  “Are you grateful?  The answer to this question will set the tone for your day.

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

Did you know that a motion major picture out right now is about emotional eating?  There is….it is Kung Fu Panda.  It is a very touching story that you can take at face value as a great animated film.  You will enjoy it.  Or, like me, you can be touched at the deep messages brilliantly woven into this story.  

I won’t give away too much about the movie for those of you that haven’t seen it.  I recommend it highly.  I will probably see it a few times, download it on my computer from iTunes and purchase the dvd for my sons when available.  Rather than the normal actors, it is a touching story about a loveable panda that goes through what we all do…..striving to be our best, living out our dreams rather than settle for what is expected from us, and deal with emotional eating rather than stuffing ourselves with peaches.

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

The American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS), now The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery  (ASMBS) is a fabulous organization.  It is THE society for bariatric professionals and allied health members. 

They just had their Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.  I’m sure they’ll have some information from the most recent conference soon.

In the meantime, here are some links from past conferences: 

http://www.asbs.org/archive/abstracts/plenary_edited_2007.pdf

http://www.asbs.org/archive/abstracts/plenary_edited_2006.pdf

Cathy, Certified Life Coach
Weight Loss Surgery Coach
 

Once we’ve made the decision to have weight loss surgery, or have had weight loss surgery, we want to lose our excess weight NOW.  With the many clients I’ve coached, this is one of the most common concerns all of have.  Remember, you didn’t gain the excess weight in a week or a month, and it will take some time to lose it.  As we make healthy lifestyle changes, we want the scale to reflect our big changes and big efforts.  Patience is sometimes hard to find when it comes to losing weight.

Determination, consistency, and persistence are what is necessary for the long-haul in losing weight.  Don’t be a slave to the scale.  Look at all of the other indicators of your weight loss success.  Are you wearing a smaller size?  Do you feel better in being able to control your food rather than food controlling you?  Are you able to do things that you couldn’t do before losing weight?  The scale doesn’t show those successes but they are equal, if not more, important than the number on the scale.

This isn’t a diet.  The healthy changes you are making today will pay off in weight loss and maintenance.  Yes, the pounds are here today; keep practicing your healthy habits and it will definitely be gone tomorrow….and permanently!

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy

Mindfulness is important when you are eating so you can pay attention to how much you’ve eaten, enjoying what you’ve eaten, and how it feels in your body.  Mindfulness is a great way to capture the power of the present moment and enjoy TODAY.  It is so easy to get caught up in our own day-to-day stresses, problems and forget about enjoying your life now. 

Eating:  As you eat, be mindful and notice what and how you eat.  Become aware of the food going into your body and what is full and what is satisfied.

Exercise walking:  Take a mindful gratitude walk.  Spring is almost here so it is the perfect time to get out and enjoy the beauty of spring.  Pay attention to your breathing, what does the sun or wind feel like on your face as your walk?

Throughout your day, take a moment and be truly present in the moment.  Turn your awareness inward to yourself and tune out the external stimuli. 

At first, mindfulness can be challenging or feel awkward.  You aren’t used to it.  As you practice mindfulness in all aspects of your life, you’ll find yourself calmer, less stressful, and feel less anxiety.  After all, what is important is right now as it is all we’ve got.  The past is the past and you can’t change it.  The future is yet to be.  The present is exactly that - the present is a present for you to enjoy now.

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

“How badly do you want it?”  -George E. Allen, 1832-1907 British Publisher and Author

We can talk about the things we want such as weight loss, maintain our weight, a new job, a different relationship….the list goes on.  Great!  You can have goals, dreams, desires and inspiration.  Anything worth having requires effort and a commitment to the goal and to ourselves.  The next time you think about wanting to lose weight, ask yourself how badly you want it.  What are you willing to do to get what you want?  Go for it!  You can do it!!

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

I hear so many times from my clients the desire for their weight loss to be faster, quicker, without any plateaus.  What’s the song….”What A Wonderful World That Would Be”? 

We didn’t gain weight overnight and we won’t lose it that way either.  How many times have we went on some fad diet, lost weight rapidly only to regain it plus a few bonus pounds in the process of our way back up the scale. 

Slow and steady wins the race.  It is true.  The tragedy is that most people never even get in the race.  Many of those that do hope that success comes easily and rapidly.  When it doesn’t, they drop out of the race, give up and throw in the towel, before it really begins.  What they don’t realize is that the decision to be unstoppable is never made just once.  It is a choice every single day, made sometimes multiple times throughout the day by the choices we make.  Do we exercise, do we eat this or that?  It is all a choice that moves us forward, stay the same or backwards in our quest for weight loss. 

Whether you’ve had weight loss surgery or losing weight on your own or a diet program, setbacks are inevitable.  In fact, they are proof that we are doing something.  Sometimes the greatest lessons come from a challenge.  Those lessons in doing something different in our healthy lifestyle path takes us one step closer to achieving our weight loss goals and maintenance.  When we focus on learning a lesson from a slip up or setback, and stay the course, reaching our weight loss goal will happen.

It is important to remind ourselves that failure is an incident or event, not a person.  If you don’t achieve your weight loss anticipated in a certain period of time, does that make you a failure?  If you make an unhealthy choice in eating or skip exercise, does that make you a failure.  Of course not….Absolutely not!

Failure does not characterize who you are.  It is simply an incident that happens in your life at times.  When you continue to move forward, despite difficult experiences, you have already won. 

If a setback comes your way, find the gift in the setback by asking yourself:

1.  What can I learn from what happened?
2.  What am I grateful for from the experience?
3.  What are the potential benefits from this experience?
4.  What is the best way for me to move forward?

Commit to find the gift in any setback.  Tell yourself that you will never, never, never quit.  If you don’t give up, you cannot fail.  Not only will you achieve your weight loss goals, but the combination of your commitment, courage, and belief in yourself will rise as the greatest victory of all.

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

What does success from weight loss surgery look like?  What is your definition of success?  Of course, the obvious answer for anyone that is a career dieter is the scale.  I know before losing my weight that I would wake up and check my weight.  The number on the scale could turn a bad mood into a happy mindset and take a happy mood into a negative nose dive.  Are you a slave to the scale?  You are so much more than the number on the scale. 

The scale doesn’t tell you everything.  It doesn’t reflect the fact that you passed up a trigger food and said no to the food and yes to yourself and weight loss.  The scale doesn’t tell you that your body is getting more toned and firm.  The scale doesn’t give you the proper acknowledgement that you didn’t indulge into emotional eating from an upsetting situation.  Actually, the scale tells you very little and fluctuates from water, hormones, fluid retention, and so many other temporary body states. 

So how do you know what success from wls looks like?  Take a look at your life.  What can you do (or don’t have to do any longer) now that is different than pre-operatively?  Look at you and your life now.  Celebrate your confidence, inner strength, participating in your life rather than your life passing you by, your energy, and the overall improved quality of your life.  Now, that’s true success!

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

Whether you’ve had gastric bypass, want more information, or curious about it, 60 Minutes as scheduled a segment on gastric bypass surgery.  Corresondent Lesley Stahl reports on the effects of gastric bypass surgery this Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 7:00 p.m. Eastern/Pacific time.

You can obtain more information:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/17/60minutes/main4023451.shtml

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

This is your surgery.  This is your second chance at your life, your health, and a “redo” from pre-op.  As a kid, I played kickball.  If you messed up the first time, you got a second chance.  I think of my weight loss surgery and weight loss as my redo and my second chance. 

This is your time.  Make the most of it.  Even if you’ve regained weight or taken a detour from your weight loss surgery journey, get back on.  It’s never too late.  Pick up those healthy habits that will get you back on the path to your weight loss and health.  When you come to a fork in the road between testing an old unhealthy habit or the path to continue your weight loss, make the choice that gives you inner strength, control and feel great about yourself.  That’s better than any temporary pleasure of food.  That’s the choice of celebrating and honoring your second chance.

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