Restart day 2 2009

Success or Not? You decide.
I've finally got my stuff together. Thanks for gently prodding me along the way. I haven't gotten our most recent order, but we still have a couple weeks of food and I'm on day 3. Hubby is doing it too. Down 7 pounds. My goal is to lose 100 lbs by next summer. It's ambitious. But so am I. Hence, GOALBYSUMMER. My ultimate goal is losing 145-150 lbs, putting me at 117-122. I was 122 when I got married, and it is a nice GORGEOUS weight for me. Hopefully I'll be AT goal on my 41st birthday, and run a Marathon shortly thereafter. I'll be 40 on October 30th, so I think that is realistic.

No matter, it will come off as fast as it will come off, and I intend on being 100%. I even conquered my nemesis, the Cream of Tomato soup today. I put 1/2 clove garlic, a few TBSP of fresh cilantro, a tsp of fresh jalapeno pepper, a dash of mexican cumin and mexican oregano, a splash of lime juice (1/2 tsp) and some salt and pepper. I blended it in the healthmate blender and warmed it in the microwave. It was like drinking a taco. I LOVED it. It was my meal two.

Now the question: What has changed? Why will it work for me again this time when I have failed so many times in the last year to successfully and permanently re-start a program that I already know works?

Well, it was a little video by Tony Robbins. You'd have to see it to fully appreciate what impact it had on me, so here's the link.

http://www.moneymastersseries.com/squeeze.php

You have to enter your e-mail address, but it is just so he knows you aren't a spammer.

The take-away that I got from it is that there are two methods by which successful people become successful. Both of them involve coming to the mindset that you are CERTAIN you will succeed and not fail.

Two things can drive us to this certainty: The first is a motivation that comes from their back being up against a wall, and them seeing no other option BUT to succeed. For me, that was when I tripped in my husband's parking lot in July of 06, and dropped my son on the pavement. My back was up against the wall. When that happened I was determined to succeed if it killed me.

The second way to instill certainty is to condition yourself for success. I have heard this in the past, but never knew really what it meant, it was all gobbledygook to me. But basically, it is also reinforced by the Beck Diet Solution which I am listening to.

Most people think that POTENTIAL is what you start with, which leads to ACTION, which leads to RESULTS, which leads to FAITH IN YOURSELF, CERTAINTY THAT IT WILL WORK. But in actuality, you must START with the FAITH and the CERTAINTY that you WILL succeed, which when combined with the POTENTIAL (and tools), which leads to the ACTION (utilizing the tools) which leads to RESULTS because you know it will work, which REINFORCES the certainty and faith in yourself.

In chart form, this is what most people believe is the route:

POTENTIAL leads to ACTION leads to RESULTS leads to FAITH (that it will work and you will succeed)

But in actuality, it looks like this:
FAITH determines POTENTIAL leads to ACTION leads to RESULTS which then continues to reinforce your FAITH.

Upward spiral, not downward spiral.

That is the route I am going.

One would think it would be easy to be certain that Medifast works, especially since it worked so well with me the first time around. But the very fact that I gained all the weight back undermined my certainty in MYSELF and erroded the confidence needed to realize my potential again. So, a few days or a week in of my restarts, since my skepticism of my ability to do it again was RICH with uncertainty, I would allow myself to sabatoge my plan. This would reinforce my failure. Which minimized my potential. Which shut off my action, which ended my positive results. Which reinforced my sense of uncertainty (failure), etc etc.

In that my back is not up against a wall in a medical or life threatening RIGHT NOW way, I must go this second route of reaffirming my certainty that I will do this again. I have to start from there. I have to start from imagining and remembering me in the 120's. I have to go in my goal closet, look at the clothes, and be CERTAIN that it is only a matter of time before I am wearing them again.

So, that is what I am doing. I am CERTAIN this time that I will once again see the 120's. There is NO DOUBT in my mind that this will happen.

And ultimately, this is the big bugaboo of the age old question "is it OK to cheat every once in awhile?"

NO. Because cheating erodes the certainty that I will succeed. It deviates from the formula of success and that variable alone is enough to throw anyone (especially me) off his/her game. It erodes that, which minimizes my potential (ie...i "could" have lost more, quicker, but I cheated X amount of times....) which erodes the action..makes it a half-baked attempt, and I don't have to tell you what a half-baked attempt does in terms of results. Zip zero nada results. Attitude change from certainty to fear and failure. Bingo. Downward spiral is launched.

That is my two cents worth, as inspired by Tony Robbins.

I'm on Day 3.



Posted Tuesday, Aug 25, 2009 3:10 PM by goalbysummer | 4 Comments [Edit Post]