Happy Tuesday! When you want to start losing weight, the biggest question probably is, “WHERE DO I START?” Chances are, the thought of getting started feels big and full of overwhelm, right? Other questions can pop up too, like “This is so out of control, so what do I do? Where do I start? How do I know what to do to make changes? How did I get here? Will this work? How long will it take?” These are just a few of the typical questions that your brain loves to ask with panic and stress when weight loss comes up. It’s normal for your thoughts to create a story of it being too big for you to handle.

 

Here’s a great visual that I use to help clients sort through the overwhelm with anything, but with weight loss in particular. Imagine yourself sitting on the living room floor and all of the loads of laundry that you just spent hours washing and drying is poured over your head. Every single piece of laundry is scattered on you and around you all at once. How does that feel? Probably very overwhelming! It’s too big to handle! It’s a big mess! Well, we tend to view weight loss in the same way: it’s too big, it’s too much, it’s a mess to figure out.

 

When your laundry is scattered about, you simply fold it, sort it in piles, put it neatly back in the basket , and distribute it to family members’ rooms. SIMPLE! So, I offer that you look at weight loss in the same way. It can be sorted into smaller chunks of what needs to be done and can be dealt with step by step, one action at a time. Getting started takes courage because you are facing the fact that change needs to happen and that it will be work. When you make that decision based on where you are now, you’re ready to move forward. Not looking back with unkind, punishing words to yourself allows you to move forward to where you want to be. When we drive a car, we don’t look in the rear view mirror the entire time; we look forward. Weight loss is the same.

 

So, as fall approaches and the holidays will be here before you know it, I invite you to decide what you’d like to set for a weight loss goal and simply take the first step to sort through the overwhelm in order to move forward! I’d love to work with you one on one to get you started, so reach out to me to begin your journey! You are worth it!

 

You’ve got this!

Georgette

Happy Tuesday! As I sat at the memorial service for my dear friend’s dad this past weekend, I was deep in thought about what our life’s story is, especially as we leave our earthly life and leave our loved ones behind as they remember us. My friend’s dad was an amazing man, although I never had the pleasure to meet him. I did feel like I knew him by the time I left, though. All of the pictures at the service certainly painted a vivid picture of him, but it’s what the pastor DIDN’T say that was the most unique tribute I’ve ever heard! He read the words of my friend’s dad that he had written himself before he died. WOW!!!!! It struck me as one of the most powerful ways to comfort your family and friends and to have your own words spoken through someone else. Why don’t people do that more often for those left behind?

My coaching brain started racing and if I had had a notebook with me, which I did not, I would have filled several pages. I was thinking of how this can relate to people who are living their day to day lives. Ah ha! Would you be open to writing the story of your life as you live your everyday life? Why wouldn’t you want to tell your own story and live it out in real time to share with everyone? What version of your story do you choose to tell?

 

How empowering to write about your journey through life with the ups and downs and everything in between! Chances are that you will have so much to write about and YOU can decide what you say and how you say it! Talk about holding the power for your own life! I challenge you to write and tell your story while you are still here on Earth. You will be amazed at who you are and how you live your life!

 

Again, I am so sorry for my friend’s loss and at the same time so grateful for the lesson that at least one of us (but probably many more) received by listening to someone’s own words about his own story! What story are you telling? What story do you want to live and leave behind? A very good question to think about!

 

You’ve got this!

Georgette

Happy Tuesday! I had a chance to purchase something wonderful BUT I missed out! I just didn’t think over the pros and cons fast enough or seriously enough and so I decided to say NO one hour before the deadline of deciding. I made a list of pros and cons and talked it over with my family in great detail. I asked them questions and they asked me questions to see how much I really wanted this purchase. Honestly, I just didn’t feel an overwhelming YES…at first! Did I overthink it? YES!

 

Has this happened to you before? You think about a decision for so long, you make it, but then you wish you could reconsider your choice! I call it “non-buyer’s remorse”. The reality for me was that time was up and there was no option for saying yes later. So many feelings: regret, disappointment, remorse, self-doubt, and anger. OUCH! The big question is “How do you react to these feelings in a more productive way so that you can learn from your mistakes?”

 

Well, I used to let it eat me up inside and drain my energy when I missed out on something as a result of my own thinking and choices. That never served me well and it usually lasted a long time. So, my new strategy is to own the feelings from making a regretful situation and to allow myself to “feel the feels” and to own what I did. I usually give myself a set amount of time to work through this part and to allow myself to face what I was going through. This time, I gave myself 24 hours to think it over and to feel disappointed, remorseful, regretful, angry, and sorry. I also reminded myself that it was not the end of the world and that there was a lesson(or two) to learn. 

 

So, the next step for me is to ask myself what I would do differently next time if the same situation happened again. I actually make a list of what I did and what I would do differently. It helps me to see the words on paper. I am careful to be kind to myself and to flip negative thoughts to be more positive. Was this decision the absolute worst one in my life? Absolutely not! Could I have said YES instead of NO and that would have been a good choice? I do think so! Once I wrote down how I could learn from this by doing things differently next time, it sure did seem obvious that I was waiting for the decision to be a perfect one and for everything to line up so neatly, which I do know is not possible! Nothing will ever be perfect, so you just have to do your best! Life is quite messy!

 

I challenge you this week to walk through one medium sized or big decision with a different approach so that you can make the best possible choice based on what you choose to think, the feelings that come from those thoughts (which you fully control!), and what you do about it! The best part is that you are in the driver’s seat no matter how challenging a decision feels! Decide something on purpose and you can feel at peace with it! Give it a try…I will the next time another opportunity comes my way! That’s how we learn!

 

You’ve got this!

Georgette

Happy Tuesday! Did you take a leap of faith and show any courage this past week? I hope you gave it a thought after reading last week’s blog! I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a mindset shift from avoiding doing hard things to convincing myself that I can do hard things. It’s fresh on my mind as I’ve recently stepped out of my exercise comfort zone and have jumped into a “bootcamp” of weight training and intense exercise. I was ready to kick up my exercise level and my biggest supporter on the planet, my husband, stepped up to design a program for me AND to be my personal trainer. Lord help him because I started this kicking and screaming although I agreed to do it! I must have told him that I can’t do this a million times during the first week of the training. Why do I think that I can’t do hard things? Why am I resisting something that is good for me? Good question!

Would you agree that resisting doing something hard might just be some fear surfacing? Or could it mean that you’re afraid that you actually might succeed? Wow! So many thoughts about what this could mean! A good strategy to flip the resistance would be to remind yourself that you have already done hard things by thinking of a specific example and tell yourself that this current “hard thing” is very possible. How you choose to think about something is in your power! It’s up to you to choose your thoughts! We don’t get to choose our circumstances, but we do get to choose how we react to them with our thoughts! 

How inspiring to realize that you have so much power within you to dig deep and to do hard things! You’re more resilient than you think, so embrace this empowerment and go face your fears and do something hard! I believe in you! Let me know what you do!

You’ve got this!

Georgette