Mindful Weight Loss Blog

Can You Lose Weight without Going on a Diet?

Bellsai — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:07:21 +0000

When you think of losing weight, what do you envision yourself doing?

Going on a diet and having to exercise!

It makes sense because ultimately you will have to change the way you eat and move your body more. Why? Because you need to create a deficit of calories. In other words, when you intake healthy, low calorie dense foods and increase your physical activity, you ultimately use more calories than you have absorbed. You burn the calories that you stocked in the form of fat in your body.

The problem lies in the strategy to get to this result. Most people cannot force themselves to follow a certain diet they don’t truly like. Therefore, they eventually turn back to their previous behavior.

So, what is the solution?

The solution has to come from within!

Did you consciously want to get fatter or was it a consequence of the way you handled your life? For most people, putting on weight is directly linked to their life challenges. This means that the right strategy must start from wherever you are in your lifestyle and to not ask you to instantaneously embrace a perfect weight loss diet. If your whole being dreads the change, how can you make it last? Furthermore, if handling your life implies you overeat, how can you not reach for food when something comes up?

The key is to realize that you can live your life and deal with your life challenges differently. It starts with realizing how your perception of what goes on in your life stresses you or makes you anxious enough to reach for food.

Following a weight loss strategy not focused on the behavior, but on what makes you behave, will naturally and effortlessly bring you to lose weight, because the triggers to overeat will have been eliminated.

If you want to eat healthy, you will feel compelled to eat healthy. It is the same thing with exercise; the change has to come from within if you want it to last.

Permanent weight loss—this is Bellsai’s mission!

If you want to learn more about the Bellsai weight loss method, I invite you to take my Free 5-Keys to Successful Weight-Loss e-course: www.Bellsai.com/5keys

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You’re welcome to use this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “About The Author” info below:)

About the Author:

Isabelle Johansen is a life coach specialized in helping people address their overeating and weight loss challenges. She is the founder of Bellsai Mindful Weight Loss and Binge-Eating-Solutions.com. She coaches individually and in groups, and lead weight management classes at top Silicon Valley companies and the YMCA. Her clients gain a more positive outlook on their life, feel more centered and happy as they lose weight without struggle with the Bellsai Method. To learn more go to: www.Bellsai.com.

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys

Stress

Bellsai — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:10:09 +0000

Today, I just started a new weight loss class, and as I was talking with my new participants, they mentioned the number one raison for overeating: stress!

Stress is a tricky trigger, because it doesn’t say anything about what really compels you to overeat. It is challenging to work on stress because, for many of us, it feels like there is always something bringing stress into our lives.

First, we need to identify the thoughts that cause stress. As you explore those thoughts, you will unveil the underlying negative beliefs that generate the pattern of negative thoughts, the negative emotions, and the overeating behavior.

Then, bring yourself into the Now.

As an example, I recently had someone tell me: “I don’t want to be in denial. I want to be aware of my problems, but, if I bring myself in the present, I don’t think of my problems anymore. I feel like I escape from them.”

What do you think of this affirmation?

Let me share with you my beliefs: It’s when we focus too long on our problems and on what might or might not happen in the future that we escape reality—not the contrary! Your life is happening now—not yesterday or tomorrow—only right now. When you worry, you are not present; you are in the future or in the past.

How can you realize that your mind is playing tricks on you and generating that stress? When you are in the now, in the reality, you don’t worry about your so called problems. You do not feel tense. The story your mind plays causes you the stress, but it’s not the reality. The reality is what you live without the story.

For instance, if you lose your job, you might find the experience stressful. Maybe you have the belief that a job is hard to find, that no employer will want to offer you a work. These are your beliefs that stress you. The fact is that you don’t know what is going to happen. You might be offered a job and earn twice what you made before, or you might meet your future spouse… The situation itself is not stressful. Just the thoughts you unconsciously choose to associate with it can make it stressful.

To avoid being caught up in stress just be aware that your thoughts are just thoughts. You have made them up which also means that you can undo them. When you bring your mind to what you experience in the present moment, you are not subjected to stress any longer as you are in the NOW and not in your head thinking.

Next time you catch yourself feeling stressed or worried, try to step back and focus on the present moment. Listen to all the sounds around you. Look up and observe everything that’s around you—all the objects, the colors, the shapes, the distances between things. In your mind, take a step back and observe yourself. This will bring you into the present and draw your energy into the now. When you do this, your problems and worries disappear, because they are not real. They are just projections of a past that no longer exist and a future that has not yet happened.

This concept is simple, but not simplistic, and that’s the beauty of it. If you really apply it yourself, you will live stress free. If stress is a big trigger to overeat, you remove it just like that—a big problem you had!

If this resonates with you, I strongly recommend that you read the “Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle or “The Mandala of Being” by Richard Moss (see www.Bellsai.com/reading).

I Love Criticism!

Bellsai — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:11:43 +0000

How do you feel about criticism? I’m talking about these feedbacks from your family, friends, co-workers, and sometimes strangers…when you learn that you are not as great as you thought, or that you really messed up. Do you feel a rush of anger or frustration? If so, you react like most people, but it could be totally different if you were to give this criticism a different meaning. Why would you be interested in doing that? Because feeling a negative emotion is a stressful place to be, and the first trigger to overeating and binge eating.

Feeling balanced and in harmony keeps you away from the need to cope. Anytime you feel stress, it’s a signal that self-exploration is necessary. Your feelings are your guidance system.

People in your life are your best coaches. They really put you to work! They know all your flaws and don’t forget to let you know. They most likely are not even aware that, by doing so, they give you an amazing opportunity to grow as an individual.

Let me illustrate this point:

You come home exhausted after a hard day at work. You rapidly clean up the house and take care of the dinner: macaroni and cheese while preparing for an early meeting the following day. Your spouse and kids tell you that you could have done better! They don’t really like that dish anymore because you have made it too many times before.

Do you feel hurt, because you think you have done your best considering the circumstances? Do you explode into an argument and tell them about your day? How about simply explaining to them how mean and ungrateful they are? If you do, how does it feel for you…and for them? Remember they are the people you love and cherish… and that includes you.

Is their criticism reasonable? They are surely right, at least from where they stand. So how can reacting negatively help? It doesn’t. It brings unnecessary pain to you and to the people around you. It may feel good in that moment, but the consequences outweigh that brief moment.

Now, if we simply accept their criticism:

“I understand what you are saying, and you know my dear, you are right. I had no time to prepare dinner. Surely I could have done better. I will get more organized and have a dinner ready in the freezer to prevent the same circumstances from reoccurring.”

In this case, you feel good and close to your family. There is a real communication going on between the members of your family. You feel strong because the little things of life—insignificant events that you will not remember in two weeks—don’t make you forget the big picture. In fact, it is the contrary; these situations that can turn into drama in some families make yours stronger and confirm the cohesion of its members. Indeed, accepting feedback is the proof that real communication exists. It also shows that people care and respect each other enough to allow honest feedback. Criticism is sometimes hard to take, but if we accept to look at it, instead of reacting with anger, we actually can learn a lot. Each and every time, we get an opportunity to grow. Whether we decide to take into account those criticisms because they are constructive or we are just challenged to acknowledge other’s opinions, we end up gaining a better understanding of the people we love, and of course, ourselves! Most of the time, we can also learn something valuable that will help us improve in a practical way! If you don’t see your own weaknesses or errors, people around us sure do! Let’s be grateful for that gift!

If you want to learn more about the Bellsai weight loss method, I invite you to take my Free 5-Keys to Successful Weight-Loss e-course: www.Bellsai.com/5keys
WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE?
You’re welcome to use this article online as long as it remains complete and unaltered (including the “About The Author” info below:)

About the Author:

Isabelle Johansen is a life coach specialized in helping people address their overeating and weight loss challenges. She is the Founder of Bellsai Mindful Weight Loss and Binge-Eating-Solutions.com. She coaches individually and in groups, and lead weight management classes at top Silicon Valley companies and the YMCA. Her clients gain a more positive outlook on their life, feel more centered and happy as they lose weight without struggle with the Bellsai Method. To learn more go to: www.Bellsai.com.

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys

The full text of the articles should be posted on our blog, accessed at:

http://bellsai.wordpress.com/wp-login.php

Self-Sabotage versus Self-Care

Bellsai — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:13:14 +0000

You know you should stop eating chips, cookies, and chocolate!!

You know should implement physical exercise in your daily routine.

You know you should take action, and sometimes, you do, but somehow you just can’t be consistent with your commitment to truly care for yourself.

I hear you wondering, “Why am I doing this to myself?”

Why?

This is a really good question. Indeed, you know that you can do better than get into this self-destructing pattern where you overeat, don’t exercise, gain more weight and become depressed.

You need to realize that your self-destructive behavior, even if it rationally doesn’t seem to be “the best choice”, serves you to some extent. Yes, you read this right! You sabotage yourself, because it protects you from your own fears.

For instance, you tell yourself that you can’t get that perfect job because you are too fat. But if you were trim and you didn’t get it, then it might just mean that you were just not good enough for the position. You would take this as a personal rejection, and that hurts too much; therefore, you prefer to stay overweight, and have a more superficial excuse. This way of thinking can apply to your love life, or any of your personal relationships. The idea is that you cannot face what would happen if you were to lose the weight and be rejected while at “your best”.

Being overweight is like a shield. If you drop it, your life changes, and change is one of the scariest things for the human mind. We all have the natural tendency to anticipate difficulties rather than good surprises. When you realize that your fears are just a creation from your mind, which have no roots in reality, you can then consciously decide to overcome your self-sabotage.

How? Give yourself permission to succeed. Allow yourself to reach your healthy lifestyle and lose your extra weight. Start caring for yourself, for real.

About the Author:

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys

Rule Your Life or Let the Television Do the Job!

Bellsai — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 00:14:13 +0000

As I’m working with more and more people who overeat, it’s obvious that television plays a critical role in their overeating habit, but— surprisingly enough— also in most people’s lives.

Start thinking about how television makes you feel at the end of a busy workday or after you’re done taking care of your kids? Does it allow you to relax? Is it pleasant? Most of my clients affirm that they enjoy television because it helps them take their mind off what happened during the day. In addition, they avoid engaging into any demanding thought process. Many of them end up surfing channels or watch any TV show to relax.

The truth is that television offers you a mental journey without you having to do anything besides pressing the ON button—and that is quite convenient. So, why does TV have so many detractors? Why do people who overeat do it in front of the TV 95% of the time? I believe that it’s because of that fundamental need that we all have to get, at some point, a mental break. We need to “let go” of our mind, at least for a while. And as I mentioned, television allows us to do this. The problem is that, as we let go of the control of our thoughts, we absorb the messages the television shows send us, because we are in a very receptive state and we do not want to engage into any counter thought process! In other words, we think we switched off our mind but, in fact, we are intellectually fed by the television!

It is so addictive that when we watch television, most of us lose awareness of time, of what we eat, of tasks we planned on doing, studying, or reading we wanted to start. It also reduces the communication between family members, the time you might have to take care of yourself, go to the gym, etc.

Have you ever clearly realized this?

It surprises me when people, who have some compulsive overeating disorders, start dropping their overeating behavior because I ask them to not watch television while they eat or overeat. They become so aware of what they do to themselves that, even though they experience a food craving and might initiate a binge, they stop it way before they would have if they were watching television.

Overeating is definitely another way to release the mind in the sense that it helps you change the way you feel. If you were stressed, you overeat and feel some relief, except that you are achieving this result “artificially” because you are not doing it, food does. Without television, the loss of awareness is not as great, which over time and with proper guidance, allows overeaters to realize that this is a dead end.

So how can you let go of our mind? Just drop your own thoughts, but not in front of the TV, not in overeating. Meditating is a wonderful way to get that release our mind needs so much. Of course, it’s like everything else in life. If you don’t know how to meditate or what meditation is, you must go through a learning process. But isn’t it worth it? (If you want to learn about meditation, check my meditation program indicated for beginners or for those of you who know about meditation, but don’t quite connect with it and yet are interested in exploring this further.)

If you watch television on a regular basis, try to calculate how many hours you sit doing nothing in a front of that black box. I’m sure it will motivate you to minimize the time you spend watching TV! The website, http://www.trashyourtv.com/, gave some alarming statistics: “UPDATE 9/21/06: the average American watches over 4½ hours of television every single day….That is 31½ hours every week (almost a second job!). That is also 5½ solid days per month and more than two whole months every year. By age 70 that is over 13 years watching television!” That is enough time to learn how to meditate and to levitate J.

At the end of the day, you are still the one in charge—not the television. Realize that if:

You enjoy eating or overeating in front of the TV a bit too much,
You never get to do what you want but have the time to watch TV,

Then, you are giving away precious years of your life to the television; You might also be forgetting about your health as well as the opportunity to create the life you really want!

It’s worth taking the time to reflect on the life you want to create and realize how TV holds you back. Then make your decision: what is it going to be? The TV or You?

About the Author:

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys

Power vs. Force

Bellsai — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:16:44 +0000

When you want to be successful at losing weight long term, it is really critical to understand the difference between Power and Force.

Force

When we use force, it’s always against something, so there are always two forces playing against each other. The use of Force implies an expenditure of energy. Without energy you have no more force. This is why Bellsai doesn’t rely on a diet to help you lose weight—before you work on your beliefs—because it would imply that you force yourself to eat this specific diet. By principle, this behavior cannot be a permanent change. Your “Will Force” will impose on you to collaborate until the other part of you finds the perfect excuse and rebels!

Force is always plural; it implies disunity. In the case of overeating, it means struggle over time.

Power

On the contrary, Power does not have an opposite. The use of Power does not demand any energy. It just requires that you are aware of it so clearly that you allow yourself to tap into it. Power is energy by definition and implies unity. Why? Because it emanates from Genuineness – from Truth. One cannot argue with it, it simply IS.

Therefore, when we seek permanent weight loss, we need to rely on a core belief based on power. You get your power from a belief that:

Offers a true meaning
Doesn’t change over time
Is not arguable
Makes you feel at peace and grounded

Processing situations from such belief will help you reach and maintain your weight loss goal. You must identify the beliefs that compel you, because they must make sense for you. Remember that I am here to guide you towards establishing these new empowering beliefs. That belief that will lead you to make permanent changes in your lifestyle has to emanate from a core power-based belief, instead of other beliefs based on force. Here are a few core belief-based examples:

Power	Force
Health	Fashion standards
Loving and caring	Hate, neglect, or abuse
Accepting and forgiving	Resisting and resenting

Beliefs based on Power originate from a positive mindset.

As an example, being healthy can become your genuine inspiration that consequently will generate weight loss. It is a great concept we all agree on, in theory, but we sometimes don’t really connect with it in our reality. The principle of being healthy is based on power. Indeed, it includes all the criteria that were mentioned earlier:

Being healthy offers a true meaning
Being healthy is a goal you will not change over time
One cannot argue that being healthy is inherent to our condition
When you are healthy (body and mind) you feel at peace and grounded

It will help you reach your goal if you:

Focus on creating new Power-based beliefs that meet the above criteria and
Play with this concept.

Your challenge is to stay with the work until you feel a shift: your desire to be healthy imposes itself on you; so, you are not even tempted by the unhealthy food you used to enjoy.

This shift is very subtle, but I trust you all have experienced it to some degree. That shift must be strengthened by your daily practice: living in RED^* (Rest Exercise Drink), focusing on what you want instead of what you don’t want, and the use of mindfulness tools (offered in the Bellsai programs). You can transform your lifestyle. The beauty of it is that working towards achieving this weight loss goal helps you grow also as an individual and, therefore, improves your overall life.

^*RED:

I teach all my students that successful weight loss starts with a healthy and balanced life hygiene. This can be as easy as:

Rest: Feeling well rested is critical to be able to take on a weight loss challenge

Exercise: I mean moving your body for 10-60 minutes daily depending upon your fitness level to develop more endorphins

Drink: Be sure to drink enough pure and fresh water daily to allow efficient exchanges in your body and to rid it of toxins and waste.

About the Author:

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys

The Only Way Out Is In

Bellsai — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 00:17:49 +0000

You have hit rock bottom. You’ve done the merry-go-round; you’ve been through the revolving door. You can’t stand being overweight anymore.

It can be 15 pounds or 150 pounds. It doesn’t really matter because like for pain, frustration has no scale. It’s relative to the one who endures it.

What is your way out? What can you do to solve this problem? Your only way out is in.

Your extra weight is the expression of what you do to yourself by eating too much—we all know that, but why? Whether you acknowledge it or not, overeating balances you in some way. You feel frustration or negative emotions and you counter balance this by overeating. Overrating makes you feel better, at least for a while.

Your only way out comes from the understanding of why you overeat.

For some of you, it is mainly about poor lifestyle; bad eating habits. But for others, it’s also about what you cover up; what you don’t want to deal with in your life.

To successfully lose weight permanently, you must be psychologically ready to unveil the why of your overeating. You must be willing to examine your life, your actions, your thoughts…and learn from them with the intent to understand your patterns. Only when you realize that the trade is not fair to you, that overeating does not solve anything, but in fact contributes to add to the challenges that triggered you to turn to food in the first place, only then you will be able to modify it in a way that supports your health.

I can help you because I understand this issue. I helped many people who wanted to lose weight with a unique strategy, as follows:

We must start from where you are, not where I know you should be to lose weight. I can help you take small steps in the direction of a healthy lifestyle. The pace might go slower than a usual diet, but the changes are permanent.
I give you the knowledge you need to feel compelled to be healthy. When you have a deep understanding of what you do to yourself, you feel inspired to change your behavior.
The coaching helps you deal with your personal challenge. You have real answers to your personal questions. You have the attention and support you need in this battle of the pounds.

About the Author:

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys

Sincerity Is the Key to Weight Loss and Happiness

Bellsai — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 00:18:43 +0000

Do you feel stressed, sad, or depressed because of your life challenges? Do you use food to unwind? It doesn’t have to be that way. This might seem surprising to you, but you don’t have to dwell into negative feelings when a challenge occurs.

Let’s imagine that your partner has just left you; someone you really liked. You feel sad. Then you start thinking how your life is ruined, how stupid you were to trust that person, or can you really believe in love?

You have a choice to make: look for a pint of ice cream or look at what causes you pain. What makes the difference?

With the first behavior, you let your gloomy emotions take over your mind. And who wants to feel depressed? Not me, not you either, right? So what is the 100% surefire way to bypass these hurtful emotions? Food—Eating a lot of food—specially your favorite food, ice cream, cookies, or chips.

Overeating is perceived at some level like a way out of that negative emotional state. Indeed, eating truly affects your body chemistry, so it really does change the way you feel. You feel more relaxed, at least, temporarily. Eating is also pleasurable, which explains why overeating is a preferable way to escape negative thoughts and emotions…and that is denial.

The reality is that if you overeat, you are insincere with yourself, because you deny looking at your life to understand your challenges.

Furthermore, we all know that overeating or binge eating has negative side effects: the first one being weight gain. When you gain a lot of weight and want, for various reasons, to lose this extra weight, but can’t achieve that goal, you feel helpless, which in turn, definitely moves you away from happiness towards frustration.

So let’s explore the other behavior: Look at what created the pain; in other words, look at your thoughts and listen to your feelings. This is the complete opposite strategy of overeating or bingeing.

If you consider the example mentioned, you feel sad because your partner left you. Instead of wanting to bypass your negative thoughts and feelings to try to escape them, explore them!

Example of a negative thought:

You: “This person was the only one on this earth I can ever love.”

Ask yourself: are you sure that this person is the only one you can ever love?

Me: “How can you be so sure? Is it possible that there is someone else in the Universe you could fall in love with?”

Example of a negative feeling:

You: “When I think I lost my only love, my stomach and my head hurt.”

Me: “So how do you feel when you don’t think that thought? Furthermore, does it help you in any way to keep focusing on that hurtful thought? No? That’s critical for you to see and feel.”

This behavior doesn’t make things any better. On the contrary, be aware that you have the choice to think this depressing thought or not.

The understanding that thoughts are not real, but that they just appear real, even to the point that they can drive you crazy, is the first step. The second step is to recognize that you can decide to not focus on negative thoughts and emotions. This realization will help you transform your entire life, adding tremendous peace and well being.

Mastering this realization comes with practice and it works amazingly well. As you flush out all the negative thoughts and emotions after having confronted them, you will feel relieved—and that’s crucial. That means you don’t need food to feel better because you are feeling good. You become whole again, instead of feeling split inside: fighting yourself, not willing to look at your life, or simply ignoring it.

You stop overeating; therefore, you start losing weight.

The weight loss process has begun.

It all started with the desire to be sincere to yourself by looking at your life. The end result is that you feel good and more peace.

Sincerity IS the key to happiness.

About the Author:

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys

A New You? The Time Is NOW

Bellsai — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:19:39 +0000

Yes, you can do it! How? Want it and adopt the right strategy!

Is losing weight one of your important personal goals?

Realize that to accomplish such a goal, you need to truly want it and be ready to take the time to focus on you—and the time is now!

What has prevented you from achieving your weight loss goal in the past? Did you get overwhelmed by the thoughts you associate with your weight loss goal? In other words, is diet=frustrations in your mind? If this is the case, no wonder you haven’t reached your goal! Just the thought of those frustrations has been enough to dissuade you to attempt to lose weight again—and you are right.

Your cause is lost in advance if you try to lose weight without taking care of what triggers you to overeat.

I’m sure you know how it goes: you start a new weight loss diet and you exercise more. You keep this new healthier lifestyle until something throws you off the wagon, which sends you right back in your old, unhealthy eating pattern. Why?…because you haven’t really changed “inside”. You haven’t looked at what compels you to eat too much, so the reflex comes back when you least expect it.

I believe that anybody can truly and radically improve their lifestyle, and as a consequence, lose their extra weight. But the process has to be led from the inside out—not from the outside in—which is generally what people try to do. They self-impose a new weight loss diet and hope that they will lose the need to turn to food!

The “Thought Reversal” change is made from the inside out and is the key to your success.

Take a closer look at your behavior without trying to fix it right away, but instead seek to understand why you need the food. As humans we want to feel good; that is our natural aspiration. Eating is pleasurable and calming; when you know what food you like, you have also found a consistent way to experience pleasure and stress relief.

Overeating is a way to get more balance in your emotional life.

To eradicate overeating from your life, you must find a way to balance your life so you are not triggered to overeat. Check within what makes you reach for food, then you can change your outside behavior.

You must change your outlook on life and develop the strategy that works for you.

Now that you know what to do, what better moment is there than to act NOW?

Learn more about Bellsai’s amazing program by registering for the free e-mail course: 5 keys to successful weight loss.

About the Author:

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys

A Kick in the Rear

Bellsai — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:23:10 +0000

Today, it’s sweet and sour! Readers, please be aware—of the straightforwardness of the truth expressed in these lines

You’re going to kick yourself in the rear! Yes, you heard me: a kick in the rear!

1. From very sweet to very stupid

Some people keep telling me, “I want to lose weight, but, Isabelle, you have to be sensible and realistic. I cannot change this aspect of my life neither this other aspect because:

I am too busy or
My husband has lost his job or
My kids are in trouble or
I am not good enough…”

Basically, what I’m hearing is that they want a different result while continuing to do the exact same things!

Well, listen to this: even if it is trivial, these people need to be reminded…

1+1=2 and will never make 3. If you add up the same numbers over and over again, the result will always be the same.

Same thing with you. If you’re not ready to change your lifestyle, don’t expect to lose weight. Consider what made you put on weight in the first place? Your unhealthy lifestyle; overeating and the lack of exercise are generally responsible for excess weight.

If you’re not ready to modify the factors leading you to gain weight, how can you pretend to reach your weight loss goal?

2. Yes, but…Change is painful!

And you’re right…or, it seems that way. This is why you haven’t done it yet, or at least not on a consistent basis.

Nevertheless, the choice is yours!

You either do it yourself or you wait, until one day, the realization of the collateral damage of your overeating catches up with you! Then you realize that NOT changing can be more painful.

The way I see it, you have two options:

Option 1: wait and see, or should I say, wait and feel! You will hit a wall and this will be painful! You do know that you cannot neglect your health forever. You can try to forget about your health and what causes you discomfort in pleasuring yourself with food, but “zoning out” doesn’t cancel your actions and the resulting consequences! You must stop ignoring your body, at least when the first symptom of too-much-food-abuse shows through more than a weight issue. If you wait until then, you know the diagnosis will be painful!

When you realize the damages your overeating caused, you can tell everyone all the good excuses you use today to procrastinate to justify: your Type 2 diabetes, your high cholesterol level, your atherosclerosis, your cancer, etc. Do you think that it’ll make you feel better? Do you think that the pleasure you get from your overeating is worth all the pain, frustration, and suffering that being overweight brings?

Option 2, which I strongly recommend you to consider: give yourself a kick in the rear and do something about your overeating…now! If you give up on you, who’s going to take care of you? If you don’t love yourself, who’s going to love you? If you don’t respect yourself, who’s going to respect you?

It all depends of you, so it has to be initiated by you. I can shake your world a little with a few words to make you realize the absolute necessity to care for your life—but, it’s not mine! In the end, you are the only one responsible for it—and you know it!

Take a commitment to yourself and do not allow yourself any excuse.

Don’t let yourself down!

Remember, your life is you! What you do to you, you do to your life; don’t be surprised and certainly don’t complain about this obvious fact.

You want some love and consideration in your life…give it first to yourself.

You want to be treated well, first treat yourself well.

You want to be trim and healthy, stop abusing your body with food and understand its needs. Then develop your listening skills, to learn to recognize your body signals: feeling of hunger and satiety. Simply satisfy your body needs starting with self-love and self-respect!

About the Author:

Her free 5 Keys to Successful Weight Loss eCourse is available at www.Bellsai.com/5keys