Spring is here and temperatures are warming up. Finally! That means sun, fun, and well…fewer clothes. It won’t be long before it’ll be time to put away long sleeves and jackets and get out the sleeveless tops and shorts. That may sound exciting to some of you but not if you’re unhappy with the way your body looks and have been strategically hiding those extra pounds under long pants, big shirts, and loose jackets!
If this describes you, what do you do? Well, one option may be to move to a colder climate. 🙂
Or, you could start a drastic diet, give up everything you love to eat, and spend long hours sweating at the gym. In a sense, you would be punishing yourself for the extra pounds you’ve gained and whipping yourself into shape. You may be trying to psyche yourself up for it right now. But first you should probably finish the ice cream, because it’s going to be a very long time before you can eat anything even remotely good.
How appealing does that sound? Not!
It takes a lot of mental energy to get motivated for drastic change like that and it may work for some people, but it sounds like torture to me! What if you just eased in instead? It would be like waking up naturally in the morning and stretching lazily, as opposed to getting jolted out of a good dream by an obnoxious, loud alarm. I know what I’d choose!
The process of losing weight doesn’t have to be painful. And if it is painful you probably aren’t going to stick with it very long anyway. If you ease into eating healthfully with some changes that are doable, it will take all of the stress out and you’re much more likely to stay the course. It needs to be a choice you’re making rather than something you feel forced to do. And it’s all about changing how you think about the whole process. It’s your body and you’re the only one who’s in control of it. You get to decide.
Join me next time and we’ll look at some small changes you can begin to make.
