Did anyone watch the finale last night of The Biggest Loser? Check out the picture of the winner on the right! I don't watch the show on a regular basis, but was flipping channels and got hooked. Talk about inspiring. It's almost mind blowing the amount of weight these people loose- by the end they are literally half of their former selves. Because it was a finale they show a recap of each contestant's journey, and they were consistently loosing 8-15 pounds PER WEEK. I can't even imagine that. It's amazing to watch the contestants push themselves and makes me grateful I never had to start from such a challenging weight, one girl weighed in at 400+. I thought it was pretty fascinating although I almost wanted to laugh a little as I saw Jillian (the hard core trainer who I WISH lived at my house!) screaming at these people as they are visibly struggling and crying on a treadmill yelling "It doesn't matter that your mother never loved you. Do this for you!" She is serious! It was almost like intensive therapy. What I thought was interesting (and it could be part of the screening process to even be considered for the show) but how many of these seriously overweight people had experienced some sort of major trauma in their life, like the death of a loved one or family member that was the "trigger" for the weight gain. It seemed like in those cases- it was critical for the person to get past that in order to "love themselves" enough to put their health first and start loosing weight.
Although I don't have any major issues to get past- I was thinking about how an average person could apply the same philosophy to their own weight loss. And I was trying to think if there was anything that mentally "clicked" for me when I started this weight loss journey. I think a lot of people struggle with committing time and spending money on their health. But in order to lose weight, or get fit, you HAVE to put yourself first and make taking care of your body a top priority in your life.
If you are not quite there yet- feeling like you're ready to make a life change, but not quite sure how or not convinced that "this time" will be any different than any other- I'm going to make some recommendations. Please do not think I am getting preachy- obviously I'm still a work in progress, but these are a few things I feel like really worked for me.
-Make A Drastic Change. Mine was signing up for boot camp. The financial commitment was enough to make me not want to "waste" it. And the boot camp itself wasn't easy either- it was a DRASTIC lifestyle change for me to be doing hard core workouts 3 days a week.
-Make a Commitment to someone other than yourself. This is huge. For me- my accountability partners were Chris & Julia. Chris and I had a deal that he would pay for half of my bootcamp if I made it to 3 classes a week for the entire 12 weeks. And I did it! It was such a strong motivator for me to go even on the days I dreaded it and we celebrated when I met my goal! Julia was my weekly weigh-in buddy and we would (and still do) text each other our results after our weigh-ins. Speaking of- Jules lost 3 POUNDS this week!! Congrats!
-Give Yourself the Tools You Need to be successful. Here's where the spending $$ comes in to play. Invest in yourself. Whether it's a gym membership, personal trainer, healthy wholesome food, new running shoes- if getting fit is really your #1 priority- and these tools get you working out or eating better- it's so worth it.
-Get To Know Yourself. This one may sound weird- but I think it's key. Spend some time hanging out with yourself. For me- my favorite (and I don't do enough of this) is taking a walk with Ry somewhere beautiful. No blackberry and just my thoughts to keep me company is a really good way to figure yourself out a little. Sometimes I crack myself up. Sometimes I cry. (People may stare. Let them. :) Mostly I just learn to be comfortable with myself, which I think leads to being comfortable with my body- and accepting it as it is.
-Learn To Love Yourself. You knew it was coming :) But seriously. That guy in the picture up top had to get on a scale on Day 1 in front of a TV camera. It takes dedication, hard work, and COMMITMENT to keep going day after day. If he didn't love and value himself he would have given up and would never look the way he does today. And for the rest of us- we have so much less work to do! It's not only doable- we deserve it because we are WORTH it.
Wow- we are getting DEEP today :) and what's really funny is I originally started writing about Taco Bell (or Tbell as it is known to close friends) and somehow that turned into a Biggest Loser/Motivational love yourself thing! Can we talk about how impressed you all are that I can add pictures these days? I wanted to post a photo of my egg/spinach/bell pepper scramble this morning but my camera was dead. :) All in time. Have a great rest of the week- we're half way there!
XO
Chel
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