Are you still using food to solve emotional issues? Is that what you repeatedly do?  Healthy behaviors  create healthy habits so you do not use food as an emotional band-aid.  If you engage in unhealthy behaviors such as eating junk, grazing, eating fast food, or eating refined carbs as one of your main food groups, your body size and weight are going to reflect those habits.

It is actually very simple, if you want a strong, healthy normal weight and body size, you are what you repeatedly do so adopt habits that reflect the body that you want.  It is a bit of a cliche but we are what we do, we are what we eat.

When you set goals, you are shaping the process of success. That means deciding what characteristics, like commitment and dedication, you need in order to reach your targets.  The determination of success is staying committed to your goals when times and emotions are raging.  It is easy to stay on track when things are going your way.  The real commitment to your goals is reflected when you’ve had an argument with your spouse, your kids are behaving less than you’d like, you have a conflict at work, etc.  If you hang tough and don’t emotionally eat no matter what, that determines success in reaching your weight loss goals.

What strategies do you have in place to counteract the old habits of turning to food each time you get stressed or want to emotionally overeat?  As we know, you are going to have more stress in your life and more opportunities to emotionally overeat. Might as well plan NOW for how you can handle the next situation more successfully!

Remember, there is NO NEW FOOD! How many binges does it take to solve work, financial and family stress?  Food really doesn’t solve anything and creates even more problems.  Turn to yourself, not food to solve your problems and ease your emotions.  Food holds NO power.  You hold the power to to deal with emotions and situations in a healthy way.  You don’t need food from emotional eating.  You are all you need!!

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

The temporary fix of food as a calming, soothing way to manage your emotions is fleeting.  When you’re thinking of indulging in the downward spiral of emotional eating, fast forward to how you’ll feel after.  The guilt, shame, worry over being derailed from your weight loss efforts and compromising your weight loss goals aren’t worth it.  The negative self-depreciating feelings you have last far longer than the few minutes of relief from a cookie.  Don’t numb out…tune in to yourself.  You have the answer.  You have to allow yourself the time and create the habit of dealing with emotions without eating.  It is uncomfortable at first.  However, the payoff long term is worth it.

Think of how you’ll feel as you step on the scale and see a weight loss.  Visualize how it will feel as you wear smaller sized clothes.  Now those are the things that are worth it.  They are a long-term investment in yourself.  All the emotional eating does is plant the cookie, chips, or junk food firmly on your body in the way of excess weight.

Emotional eating is a habit.  It is a way we coped with situations and emotions.  Break out of that habit.  Habits can be changed.  Break out of the jail of emotional eating and excess weight.  Feel the joy of being free without the bonds of emotional eating and excess weight.  It is truly worth it….you are worth it.

You are stronger inside than anything that can happen to you!  Don’t numb out, tune in to you!

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

You already possess the power to transform your dream into a reality and reach your weight loss goal?  Have a plan of your own to follow.  Sports teams have a game plan, businesses have business plans, for anything successful, you have a plan.  All you need is to follow the process that allows ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things.  Reach for the sky – the sky’s the limit when it comes to achieving your goals.

When you look at yourself do you see the person you want to be, doing the things in life you want to do?

STEP NUMBER ONE:  DECIDE WHAT YOU WANT TO DO.
Ask yourself:  What do you want?  That is a very powerful question.  To gain a success in reaching a goal, you need to name it.

STEP NUMBER TWO:  WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS.
By writing it down, you commit to your goal.  You can put it in a prominent place that you will see it such as a sticky post on your bathroom mirror or on your refrigerator.  Don’t keep it floating around in your brain.  Solidify your goals by writing them down.

STEP NUMBER THREE: CHECK IN DAILY! LET ME AS YOUR COACH SUPPORT YOU!
How are you doing with your goals?  What did you do yesterday to move forward to your goal(s)?  What are you going to do today to move toward your goal(s)?  With a daily check in, you stay on track and focused on your goals.  Keep your eye on the prize of achieving those goals.

STEP NUMBER FOUR: BREAK YOUR GOAL INTO STEPS…..ONE STEP AT A TIME!
Your goal may be to lose weight.  That’s great but how are you going to get there.  Break in down into more manageable, small steps that you can experience successes along the way.  For losing 10 pounds, load 10 songs on your iPod, get a massage, or other celebration and acknowledgement of reaching that goal.  You reach big goals by one step at a time.

Lastly, do you believe you’ll reach your goals?  It is a wish or a belief?  Do you see yourself as losing weight and reaching your ideal weight?  Visualize yourself fitting into a smaller size, stepping on the scale and seeing your ideal weight number, and moving throughout your day in a smaller body and how that feels.  If YOU believe it you WILL achieve it!

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

Pre-op, Krispy Kremes were my thing. I loved them.  I am a bit embarrassed to admit that I could down an entire dozen easily in a day. I can’t believe it but it is true.

Now, post-op, I’d like to tell you that a KK (I’m on such friendly terms with them that I’ve given them a pet name of KK!!) has not crossed my lips but it has.  In fact, multiple KKs have.  I have a long-standing love/hate relationship with KK’s.  I love them but want to hate them.  I must admit that these images I’ve shared in this post help me with the “hate” part of my relationship with them.  Even I have to admit they are gross here!!

Now being more health conscious and incorporating healthy habits in my life, I am more respectful of what I eat.  As we all know, Krispy Kremes are NOT a healthy choice……fat and sugar. That’s it.  Nothing more.  I might as well sit down to a dish of lard with sugar poured on top.  I’m going to try to imagine that the next time I drive by my friendly KK!

Check this out……as if it couldn’t get worse:

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, CLC
Certified Life Coach

When we are morbidly obese, we can lose ourselves trying to win acceptance and love from others.  We become who others think we should be, act, and lose ourselves. 

Be yourself.  Be your unique, special self.  Be the authentic and genuine self that only YOU can be.

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

Consistency is more than this huge, gigantic effort of moving mountains.  It is also the small efforts that we do every single day.  Consistency is the choices we make with what we eat and what we do.  Don’t give up!  It is never giving up.

Consistency creates habits.  Habits make the difference in success or failure.  Healthy habits won’t make you lose weight overnight.  Healthy habits will allow you to lose weight healthyfully and at a pace that you will maintain your weight loss.  I’ve lost probably 1,000 pounds in my life.  From having surgery and practice consistency in developing healthy habits, I can maintain my weight for the rest of my life.  No more whiplash from yo-yo dieting!

Keep at it and never, ever give up.  Never give up on YOU!

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

How often are you truly living in the present?  Do you live in the past, rehashing events, situations, reliving hurts, and the way things were?  Do you live in the future with your hopes, dreams, and plans?  Our past and our future are both important parts of us.  Too many times though we live in the past or the future more than we do in the present.

Do any of these sound familiar?

*If only I hadn’t gained weight…..
*If only I had made the decision of …..
*When I lose weight, I’ll ………
*Tomorrow (or Monday, or next month, or next year), I’ll be at the weight of …..

Are you living in the past or the future to the extent that you cheat yourself of the present (gift) of the present?  Make the very most of today. 

At the end of every day, write down three things about your day that you enjoyed or made you happy.  For today, focus on the present of the present!

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

The study shows that keeping an honest, accurate record of food and drink doubled dieters’ success rate.   Keeping a food (and activity) diary can be a wonderful tool in recording your success.

Kaiser Permanente’s Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., conducted the study with 1,700 overweight or obese men and women.  One of the co-authors, Victor J. Stevens, PhD, said that participants who kept a record of what they ate while following other weight-loss recommendations lost twice as much as participants who didn’t keep a food diary.  Study participants that tracked their food and beverage intake lost 18 pounds in 20 weeks.  Wow!

Food diaries only work when people write down exactly what they’ve had to eat and drink immediately after consumption.  Yes, that means every taste of this or bite of that.  Food diaries create a moment of pause for you to ask yourself if you really want to eat that AND log it.  Knowing that you need to write it down can be a motivator to JUST SAY NO!  

I’d used the no charge on-line version of Fitday.com.  I made a commitment to keeping a food diary and purchased the download PC version.  Now, I have the window minimized on my computer every day.  It is a nice reminder that if I eat it, I write it.

Give it a try….all you have to lose is weight!

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

This week, make one change…..do a few ordinary things just slightly better.  I think you’ll see an extraordinary change in your results.

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

- YOU EXERCISE BETTER.  People who are well hydrated work out with more intensity, in terms of both strength and endurance.

- YOU EXERCISE WITH MORE SATISFACTION.  Hydration levels seem to affect people’s perceptions of their workouts. People who are even slightly dehydrated describe their workouts as more difficult.

- YOU BURN MORE FAT.  When your body is well hydrated, the body’s processes involved in fat burning are maximized.

So, drink up and work out!

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