CHANGING MINDSET & FINDING BALANCE
Hi friends! Coach Lisa here, again! Today I'm sharing the third and final piece of my Retrain Your Brain series. In case you missed it, click HERE to read part one: It's All Connected. Then, you can click HERE to read last week's article/part two: Change the Record that's on Repeat. Today, I'm sharing one last anecdotal piece of advice regarding the mental side of weight loss.
If we can simply balance somewhere between desire and discipline- success is guaranteed!
So remember I was talking about using coloring to change my phone avoidance? Well I had a conference call with my boss yesterday and it always makes me nervous - like I am going to the principals office. I knew it would be 60-90min and that is FOREVER for someone who doesn't like the phone. He is always so nice and there is no realistic reason to feel this way - but anxiety doesn't listen to reason.
To work on this, I have been using a process called counter conditioning to change how my brain, and thereby my anxiety, sees phone calls. You pair something intrinsically rewarding (coloring) with the experience you don't like (being on the phone) so that the experience becomes positive instead of negative. It is one of the key techniques I use with my dog training clients as well. So I made sure to get myself set up with a coloring page and markers...between that call, some clients, and a call to keep my cousin company while she drove. I finished a page.
My first completed page in over 6yrs. Issues with my hands have made it difficult to hold a pencil in the first place and the tremors make for drunken monkey - outside the lines - coloring which I hated. There are a few things I would change but given that it is done, and my call anxiety was EXTREMELY lessened - this is very much an answer for me. What does this have to do with weight loss? I wrote about it before here:
Remember: It's All Connected!
But the basic answer is this - whatever aspect of this journey you don't like - the planning, the cooking, the exercise - you need to find something rewarding that you can counter it with to make it worthwhile. What don't you like? What can you replace it with or reward yourself with for doing it?