Weight Loss Purpose Statement-Part 3, What do I want and why?

Now that I (we, hopefully you’re joining me) have written the words and phrases that describe how I feel when I am on track and when I’m not, now I’m getting into the “meaty” part of my Weight Loss Purpose Statement.  By losing/maintaining my weight, what do I want?  What is it that I want by having a healthy weight and how does that look in my life? 

Why exactly do I want by maintaining  (or losing) weight?  What will it give to me?  Why is it worth it to me?  Again, what will it give to me?  I have asked myself these questions and given a great deal of thought to my answers.  Go deep and search the answers for yourself.  What is it that is motivating you to maintain (or lose) weight?  Here are some of my answers:

What do I want?  Why is it worth it to me to maintain a healthy lifestyle?

1.   To feel good about myself – confidence, high self-esteem and self-worth, strong inside and out, in control and worth more than anything to compromise my physical, mental and emotional health.

2.   To live a healthy, active life to be with my husband and sons.  To see my kids graduate, get married and have grandkids.

3.   To be capable to meet any challenges (physical, mental, emotional) that come my way.  One of the survivors of the Hudson plane crash commented that he was physically able to meet the conditions to secure his survival.  Mental and emotional challenges to overcome and not allow to get the best of me.

As I answered the questions of what I wanted and why (above), I was able to look at the big picture of my life in great detail.  Visualizing is key here.  As an example, what would your day look like if you were at a healthy weight and food wasn’t driving the car of your life.  You are in the driver’s seat and not food issues. 

As a response to my #1 above, I wrote down my ideal day from the moment I opened my eyes to the time I went to sleep at night.  Write yours down.  Mine started out with “I woke up and thought about the things I GET to do for the day.  I felt good laying in bed with a healthy body and not the aches and pains I had when I was so overweight.  I thought about what I was going to GET to wear today.”  I visualized getting up, how it felt putting on my favorite pair of jeans and my “Life Is Good” t-shirt and the details.  Write down how you felt, who you were with, what you did, where did you go, all of the details of the experiences from your ideal day. 

There is a saying that you have to see it to believe it.  In this case, visualizing your ideal day is a great start.  Comparing how you felt before you lost weight to how you’d feel when you do lose weight is an important part of our Weight Loss Purpose Statement.  Visualizing putting on your favorite pair of smaller jeans is a big step in actually living and doing it.  I even wrote about going to the farmer’s market and seeing all the brilliant colors of the fruits and vegetables, smelling the ripe berries in my car as I drove home, and the delicious meal I prepared.  Get into your internal videotape of your ideal day.

I also imagined getting into a hassle with a co-worker that was very upsetting to me.  How I handled it inside and thought about how to deal with it healthfully for myself and my co-worker.  I even visualized going to my co-worker and talking to her and working it out together.  I imagined a couple of other mental and emotional challenges that came along in my day, how I processed them and dealt with them in a way that I felt great about.

That covers my response I did to “What do I want?  Why is it worth it to me to maintain a healthy lifestyle?
1.   To feel good about myself – confidence, high self-esteem and self-worth, strong inside and out, in control and worth more than anything to compromise my physical, mental and emotional health.”  My response to feel good about myself, etc. is great but too general.  How exactly  does that show up in my life?  My answer for me was to visualize and play out how that would look in my life on a daily “ideal day” basis. 

The next time, I’ll go on to continue this process to create my own Weight Loss Purpose Statement.

Believe In Yourself,
Cathy, ACC-ICF, CLC
Certified Life Coach, Weight Loss Surgery Coach
Certified Back On Track Facilitator