“Oh man, I ate soooo much crap today. Why do I have no will power?”
“What a lazy cow I am. Why’d I skip my walk?”
“I have no self control. I’ve demolished a packet of chips. Again.”
How often do you ask yourself the above, while hanging your head in shame?
Those of us on the weight loss path have many, many tiny moments of temptation.
And, boy oh boy, do we berate ourselves when we fall for temptation, when we’re “bad.”
We then escalate our ‘badness’ by allowing that one tiny moment of weakness to derail us, with subsequent poor food choices, all because “Oh well, it’s too late now.”
True or true?!
Today you’re going to learn a powerful mind trick to put a stop this behaviour so you can continue on the path towards your happy weight.
It’s called the “Build a Bridge” rule. It’s your mental ally in weight loss.
Ditch perfection, aim for progress
If you’re on the weight loss path, you will hit speed bumps along the way.
We’re all works in progress. We all make mistakes. They’re obligatory! The path to your happy weight isn’t about perfection. It’s about progress.
Losing weight is about setting goals, learning from your ‘fails’ and keeping-on keeping-on.
There’s NO room for shame, guilt-trips or beating yourself up. They serve only to distract and keep you stuck.
The Build a Bridge rule in action
“I ate sooooo much crap today. Why do I have no willpower?”
Build a bridge, sweetheart, get the heck over it! Eat reckless amounts of vegetables for the rest of the day. Deal? Deal.
“What a lazy cow. Why’d I skip my morning walk?”
Build a bridge, move on! Go outside and walk. Like, right now.
“I have no self control. I’ve demolished a packet of chips. Again.”
Yup, you’re getting the pattern now. ..Build a bridge, face forward! Remove further temptation by tossing the packet of chips this instant, brush your teeth, and move on.
The truth
One less-than-ideal choice of meal, one skipped workout, or one day of overeating doesn’t undo weeks of healthy eating. It’s physically impossible. You’d explode before you got to that point!
However, that less-than-ideal choice of meal or missed workout can mentally undo weeks of hard work……. if you let it.
So don’t!
Do this instead….
Draw a line in the sand, build a bridge + focus forward
When you skip one workout, commit to making the next one the most important of your life. We all know how one missed day becomes two, which can become a week, which can effortlessly become a month. Nip it in the bud by committing now to never missing two workouts in a row.
When you’ve had a day of overeating, the next several meals need to be impeccable. For example, eating wreckless amounts of vegetables draws a mental line in the sand between you and the overeating, getting you back to good.
So, when you have a bad moment – build a bridge and get over it.
What you did five minutes ago is done and cannot be changed. What you do five minutes from now, however, is completely up to you.
You are not your past. Whatever poor decisions you’ve made up until now are off the table – the only thing that matters from this point on is how you move forward, starting now.
Create not fate
Your state of health isn’t set in stone, it’s yours to create.
Stop berating yourself for mistakes. Stop comparing yourself to those around you. Stop overcomplicating it.
Quietly, patiently and consistently build bridges over every hurdle, and rejoice as you move towards your happy weight.
Off you pop.
Start.
Right this instant.
Love etc, Avril
PS: If you think you could benefit from a little hand holding building your bridge over life’s daily challenges then weight loss hypnotherapy might be exactly what you’re looking for. Because when your head is sorted, the number on the scale takes care of itself.
