WILLPOWER doesn’t keep a rider on the horse…at least not on this horse I’m currently riding..
Willpower does NOT work…A controversial statement for some people…yet an interesting concept…
As determined and stubborn as I am… there is a reason that I keep tripping up…yes, I didn’t achieve my goal of staying on track with my program…using that mulish streak I have kept searching for the key…
Praying…reading…praying…searching…digging…I have always felt that there is an answer to our questions if we are persistent in our seeking…”Seek and ye shall find”…showing life that we are not being swayed…
“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” – Confucius
Shedding a Little Light
The last two weeks have revealed two sources that “spoke” to me…one was in an audiobook and the other in an Instagram account…
Finding out that willpower is a finite resource that becomes exhausted with use explains the reason most of us don’t make it past the second week of resolve to eradicate any addiction that all human creatures struggle with…whether it be being addicted to social media, current belief systems, personal comfort zones, and our excuses…behaviors that may contradict our goals.
So why would we even need “willpower” if our goals were… mountain top… flag planting …and life changing
In reading Alan Carr’s book Lose Weight Now…it echoed the statement that losing weight and keeping it off is not about “willpower”…it is more about changing the mentality (belief systems) …he says that it is 99% the mental beliefs that we hold…this from a man who chain smoker for 30+ years…smoking over a 100 cigarettes a day to 0 without any side effects
The nugget of wisdom that hit me in the middle of my forehead (after reading two of his books) was that we have a belief system that I hold tightly too…that I get some benefit from the very thing that is destroying my life…quite literally…statistically taking 3 years of precious life…and increasing life debilitating diseases such as diabetes, cancer, etc….
So why is that knowledge not impetus enough…so why cannot I not resist that one chip or candy that becomes a whole bag…why do I feel that I can’t “give up” the immediate short lived insulin rush of pleasure…
“You want to lose weight because it’s making you miserable, but you’re afraid that life will be miserable if you do.”
Alan Carr’s Easy Way for Women to Lose Weight
hmmmm…the thought of not having another chip or piece of chocolate does feel like the ultimate sacrifice…giving up my friend, comforter, therapist and everyone and everything in between…
“Why is the human species the only species on the planet that suffers with weight problems…”
The one particular “ah ha” moment was when I was listening to the book and he speaks about how we think beef is an optimum protein source and yet in a different country…a cow is considered sacred and dog is the protein of choice…does make one lose their appetite…and notice how it’s (impersonal) beef ..not the (personal) cow…but any how…
It’s changing my mindset that I’m not giving up anything…but feeling bad about myself…tired…unhealthy…does this mean that all is going to be perfect smooth sailing from here…probably not…the “human” factor is still there…but I feel so much freer…a door has opened and there is light sneaking through the cracks …a new surge of ability to conquer…to change
I still have to do the work toward my goal of feeling and being healthy…can’t give a definite number…I don’t want to kneel again to shrine of American beauty numbers…(130 pounds is where I was at 20)…a healthy weight…but at 66 it is now about being my healthiest…
Second lesson relearned…going back to what did work for me. When I first arrived in my Shangri La here in South Africa…I was 50 pounds more blessed than I am today…
Losing 50 pounds…well…at least halfway there…I get so absolutely discouraged about the journey…when I think about it, I cry…it is such an emotional issue and I try not to let it affect my joy and happiness…but that’s not the truth…every day it feels like a failure…ok…pity party over…so much gratefulness for a healthy body…even if it is fluffier than I want (for the moment)..
I lost fifty pounds by tracking…eating low carb (none of the “white stuff”…and walking as close to 10,000 steps per day…which brings me to my second boost of encouragement this week…an Instagram account of a woman who lost almost 200 pounds by doing simple changes consistently… three things…Being calorie deficient every day…tracking food intake…and walking an hour every day…
I can do that!!!!…worked for me the first 50… July 17, 2021 I was at 199.5 (OMG…Onederland)…so why did I stop the program?
Good question to ask myself…I was tired…scary Covid was in full swing…and in September, my love was diagnosed with colon cancer…handling it alone in a foreign country (looking back on it…I did awesome by not gaining it all back) …
And the mental shift of not thinking that sugar and refined carbs were my cozy friends had not happened yet…
It’s been one hell of a ride the last year…fallen off quite a few times…but the road is hopefully a little smoother for a time and I can stay in the saddle and giddy up!!!
Much laughter, happiness and magic in your day❣ Lots of love❣
Thanks always for your letting me share….catch up later….Y’all come back now, hear?
Threads of Thought 