Decisions - Led to success

  "Life starts outside your comfort zone "

Decisions - Led to success

-Make up your mind. As obvious and original it may sound and most of us now it`s easier to say then do, but yes it is just about that, to make up your mind, and is the start point of everything you want to accomplish. 

I finally took the decision to change my life to the better after a deep insight about the power of our thoughts, which is another story. It happened to be around the time for Christmas when I decided to start my new path after the new year celebration. 

It is the next significant decision in taking action. It`s not enough to take a decision you need to decide when, you need to decide how and you need to decide when you will reach your goal. Simply make a plan, and that together with my insight about the power of our thoughts made all the difference from my other attempts for change and led to success!

Another success factor was and always is the fact that you need to start from where you are have the right expectations that are grounded in the reality, as I said in my post about miracles and I repeat it again because it Is a big failure issue for many, an Achilles heel. We sett to high expectations of what we are able to reach and go out to hard in our beginner enthusiasm! 

How did I? I was overweight and needed to loose at least 44lb (20kg) to start with and then, as I thought at the time, 22lb (10kg) more.  Because of my weight, which was a result of sickness to begin with, and knowing my limitations, at the time it was difficult to me even to take shorter walks the best wellness choice was to start with my behaviour and relation to food before anything else and that was what I devoted the first month of my journey to better health. I started from where I was and made a plan which was suitable to my situation in order to succeed! 

What did I? I educated my self and that begun long before. I have been interested in better ways to live for many reasons, important one was of course disease. That interest include good healthy food, positive attitude which I am lucky enough to be born with (I happen to have a bright mind and heart) and cognitive behavioural therapy. Not that all this is necessary to loose weight but helps on the way to understand underlying causes.

Practically done! What I started with that first month was very simple but a considerable point for success. I cut down the portions dramatically, replaced eating white bread, which was an obsession, with crisp and dark bread and I cut on carbohydrates and added more protein. What i did was simple because I did`t change my food, instead I used modifications that I was familiar to and also enjoyed in my diet otherwise but not daily, for sample the bread I used to eat dark and crisp occasionally.

Became aware! Next I became aware of what I ate. I had to, it was so much less than before so my bites was like their size in gold, smiling right now, and so tasty, there you have a cheep flavor enhancer. The challenge here was to be satisfied with what I had on my plate and convince my tummy that it was enough. Anyone who tried that know exactly what I`m talking about, don`t you, I know you do! 

How to fool yourself! Yes I know you smile or maybe laugh reading this, and that is a pleasure if you do, but it is what you have to do in the beginning, you have to fool yourself in order to correct a wrong perception. You need to teach your brain to accept the portion sizes you are suppose to eat and not the sizes you do eat. In other words it is about; How to change your perception!

How to change your perception! I used two methods; one is to use a small plate, instead of the usual one, which also was bigger then normal. Have you noticed how the plates have become bigger and bigger in size, it is as if all conspire to make you eat more. And be committed not to stack on high, it`s not the kind of fooling I am talking about.
The second method is to persuade and convince yourself that it is enough on the plate and the way to success with that when your eyes and tummy want more is to use what I call the carrot method. The carrot method is a motivational approach which refers to reward the achievements. 

The carrot. To be able to sustain the reduced meals, I scheduled a meal plan for every three hours and that was a kind of reward system to support me on the way. The next meal was reachable and the hunger that appear at the beginning manageable. At the end of the month I reached my goal in the first step, that was to loose about 9lb (4,5kg) and be able to start train. I achieved my first goal and got my reward, my carrot, and guess what it was, I bought my first gym card and I was in heaven!

Lets talk about it. Do you have questions or experiences?