Weekly Meeting Topic Week 5: Stick With It

I made to my regular meeting for this week, and weighed in for the month of February.  My weigh in was not as awesome as my January one, because of the crappy week I allowed myself to have.  I know on several occasions I caught myself feeding my emotions.  Also because I went out for Indian food Friday night and I find I'm always up after Indian (I'm guessing the salt... but it was VERY good!).  I really wanted to get this month's Weigh In out of the way as soon as possible for several reasons, I'm going to be very busy!  I have a Taekwon-Do all day seminar to go to next Saturday so I won't make my regular meeting, then the following Friday I'm getting on a plane with 11 students from the school I work at and we're going to the Dominican Republic for 1 week on a third world experience.  I did this trip last year and I found my body didn't seem to handle the carb-rich diet very well (gained about 4lbs) so I'm trying to mentally plan for a gain when I return (though I'd like to try to avoid one).  So that's pretty much February done and dusted!

Now onto this week's meeting topic... sticking with it!  This is a timely topic for myself and for many, as we are a month after New Years and this is when resolutions start to wane.  Like I've mentioned I'm having trouble coping with EVERYTHING lately so I need a pep talk myself (still need it).  We pretty much reviewed the Helpful Habits/Tools for Living this week.

Helpful Habits

• Positive Self Talk/Manage Your Thoughts: You have to be in the right frame of mind to loose weight, if you think you can't do it or talk yourself out of doing it... guess what?  You are going to fail.  Positive Self Talk is something I really need to take advantage of at the moment, I am struggling to get out of bed, to go to work, to go exercise, even to accept invites.  I just want to stay home.  I need to remind myself that yes I can do this, can continue to do this!  Boy did I have to constantly self talk myself through my gym workout Friday night!  I kept telling myself you're not feeling great, its okay to stop, but in the end I talked myself into seeing it through.  Did I feel better in the end, no.  I normally do after a workout but not this time.  We need to use words such as can, will and should not can't, won't, and no!
• Anchoring: An Anchor is a thing, image, thought, gesture... a reminder that you can use to bring you strength, inspiration, and or empowerment.  An anchor can be anything, a ring to remind you not to grab that treat or an image that will make you say no, or something that will remind you of a day/time/event where you felt great, powerful, etc.  An anchor can help you visualize that feeling and give you strength.  Sadly I don't have an anchor, nothing cool or inspirational to share with you there.
• Learn From Experience:  My meeting leader put this in the best words "screw ups are opportunities to learn from" also that there is no such thing as failure, learn from the times you fall down and figure out how to make it better.
• Ask for Help: You NEED a support system!  This can be family, friends, fellow WW members or your WW leader.  Also there is a support system out there others don't consider and that's the online community you can really connect with others who understand out there on the web!  There are different ways to ask for help (and this is a hard thing for me to do because I like to think I'm independent and proud).  Ask the people around you to help you avoid or not bring trigger foods, and if you need something use the worlds "I need".  I need to eat earlier I can't get too hungry, I need help, I need your emotional support.  Its hard but we all NEED something at some time.  I know right now I need help, I need support I don't know how to put into words what is bothering me, what is making me unhappy, what is making me feel like crap all the time.  Its very unlike me not to want to get up and face the world.  I'm not sure yet who I need to talk to, what kind of help I need, or even how to truly put into words what is wrong.  Maybe this is a start.

The long and the short of it is no matter what journey you're on, setbacks will happen its what you do with them that truly show your strength.

I saw this on one of my local Church's billboard about a year ago and its so appropriate!

"Setbacks lead to comebacks"