SuzanneJ's Journal, 19 October 2011

I've learned something recently - that I lose most of my weight when I'm not stressed. I never thought of looking for a relationship between weight loss and my stress. I thought stress was only being anxious or upset. I've recently learned that stress can be trying to accomplish something that I don't believe I can do.

I had to sit down and ask myself 'Do I really believe I can reach my goal weight?' I can look back and see many times in my diet that I created a mental barrier. That may be why I was 'stuck' at 150 for 8 months - because I can honestly admit that I never believed I could weigh less than 150.

Just this summer I started to believe that I could weigh less than 150...and I've lost 8lb since starting to believe that in August/September.

It is the behaviors and beliefs that we feed that survive and grow strong.

There is an indian story. 'A Chief told a boy a story of a dark wolf and a white wolf. The white wolf was success and happiness. The dark wolf was anger and self destruction. The boys were always fighting. The boy listened to the story and asked the Chief and asked 'Which wolf wins.' The chief said 'The one you feed.'

This story is so true and relevant to weight loss. What beliefs do we feed? Do we feed the belief that we 'can't' - or that we can? Do we feed our 'down feelings' or do we feed our motivations?

Even when we do feed the 'good' - do we feed it right. One person I knew was trying to lose weight and couldn't. She had posted pictures of what she wanted to look like. Most of the pictures were of teen models. There was no way she could reach this goal and her 'mind' knew it. Her motivation was there but her 'body' wasn't prepared to jump on the bandwagon and participate. Instead of creating motivation she created stress ... which made dieting more difficult.

I've recently looked around my life to see what parts were making my life and weight loss more difficult.

141.8 lb Lost so far: 53.2 lb.    Still to go: 0 lb.    Diet followed reasonably well.