That rollercoaster called life.....

After a lovely week of happiness, I had some news that threw me for a loop and has left me considering how I handle challenges these days. I used to eat lots and lots of food, that was my modus operandi, so what do I do now that I have the band and most assuredly can’t?!?!?

Well, my first step was to let myself crumble – I gave myself permission to lie on the couch and have a good old cry. It really helped to acknowledge that I am human and it is okay to feel sad, angry, disappointed and not to eat those feelings away – though I confess, I did have some chocolate.

Since that day, I have gradually picked myself back up. I made sure that I continued going to my Bikram Yoga classes. Boy, those classes are ridiculously tough and certainly one of the benefits that I’ve found is that it releases emotions. It certainly did a couple of days after the news when I hit some rough spots in the session and the emotions came bubbling out.

After that, I have had some great chats with some trusted confidante’s as well as my coach. This allowed me to work through the issues and start to plan for what I could do in the future. I started to gain back my hope and optimism.

So, whilst the past week has been an emotional roller coaster, I woke up yesterday feeling that I was moving past it. Instead of eating away my emotions, I have a new strategy for challenges:

1. Allow myself to feel whatever emotions have come up as a result of the challenge
2. Keep up the physical exercise
3. Speak to trusted friends, family and coaches to be sounding boards and to start looking to the future

One quote that seems to keep jumping out at me that I have found enormous comfort in this week is ‘this too shall pass’ – it is a great quote for getting through a tough exercise session, an emotional outbreak or getting through the Melbourne heatwave (I keep thinking that in a few short months I will be rugged up in my winter woollies at the footy with days on end 40+ temperatures a distant memory)!!

So the questions for you this week are:

· How do you comfort yourself when you are challenged?
· What is your strategy for moving past challenging situations?
· Who are your trusted people to help you move from despair to hope?

Thanks for reading and have a wonderfully cool and hopeful week!

Cheers,

Jodie
www.lapbandforthemind.com

That lovely commodity - happiness!

That lovely commodity – happiness!

For me, the nicest part of having the band and doing the work of Lap Band for the Mind, is the turnaround that I have created in how I treat myself. I had always been my harshest critic and was always on some ridiculously restrictive eating plan (no salt, no sugar, no bread, no fat and of course, no taste) which made me end up eating the same things over and over again and doing punishing routines at the gym – sometimes I would be trying to do 2 hours a day plus ride my bike and walk at lunch time (rain or shine).

Whilst this may sound like I was really disciplined – what I have realised since is that the main motivation I had came from a want to ‘punish’ myself and not to support and nurture myself with healthy eating and exercise. This made life not particularly pleasant, especially as after a while of this punishing routine of exercise and restrictive eating could not last so the pendulum would swing completely back the other way and I would then go to absolutely no exercise and eating everything in sight (and the guilt – don’t get me started!).

The band and the Lap Band for the Mind work that I have done has put me into a place where I now choose to eat healthy food that is delicious. I don’t have anything on a ‘banned’ food list, I just eat small portions of the highest quality food I can find and I give myself the gift of Bikram yoga as my exercise along with walking – I specifically call it a gift to myself (though sometimes the yoga can be tough!!) and now whilst I am to get a certain amount of exercise done per week, I don’t beat myself up if I haven’t reached my huge expectations. Overall, I am a tremendously happier person as a result.

Usually each week, I like to do 4-5 sessions of yoga for the week. This week, I was going to do my fourth session on Sunday but woke up feeling completely exhausted – in that moment, I listened to my own needs and decided to have a real Sunday day of rest. This meant that I only did 3 sessions of yoga, which in the past would have ended in me beating myself up mercilessly, though this time I felt really good about the 3 sessions that I did in the week as well as the gift that I gave to myself of listening to what would support and nurture me – I smile a lot more these days, I can tell you that!

So, the greatest gift that the band has given me along with the wonderful work that Jen and I have done with Lap Band for the Mind, is really my own happiness.

So, the questions for this week are:

· What can you do to support and nurture yourself this week?
· How can you make yourself happy?

Til next time – have a happy week!

Cheers,

Jodie
www.lapbandforthemind.com

Overwhelmed, impatient, angry - what's a girl to do?

I don't know about you but there are times when I despair that I am ever going to get to my healthy weight range again. I look at the numbers that I have done so far on my program and then work out how many weeks at that pace it would take me to get to my goal. I usually am aiming for a particular event that I want to look good for or something like that and when I have worked out the numbers I will get very angry and impatient that I am not going to get to my goal ‘in time’ – many, many times in the past, this has been the point when I will give up the program – wow, is that crazy or what?

I had one of those times over the weekend, I was looking at the numbers and then thinking about how long it would take me to get to my goal and bam – I am overwhelmed, impatient and angry. Then I remember, there is nothing more certain in life that if you look at the big picture too long, you will get overwhelmed. So the answer to doing overwhelm is to break down the goal in to more bite size chunks. Focus on the small chunks and look at the next step in front of you only and you will find that the feeling of overwhelm dissipates nicely.

The feelings of impatience and anger didn’t go so easily – I had to put a bit more thought into it and my thinking went like this: Does it matter how long it takes? What is the alternative? Are you doing this for health? The great thing about weight loss surgery is that there really is no ‘giving up’ on the journey because I could never go back to my pre-surgery way of having a binge at this point, it is just not physically possible for me. However, it is really important to move your thinking there as well – this is where we all need a Lap Band for the Mind as well as for our stomachs!!

It is interesting the different strategies that we have to ‘get through’ the journey of losing weight. How about realising that the time that it takes to lose our excess weight is a critically important time in which to change our thinking and our strategies!! Here are some questions to ask yourself:

What is your strategy for getting impatient or angry on the journey?
What are some questions to ask yourself to move out of that strategy?
How can you use the weight loss journey to improve how you manage yourself?

Cheers,

Jodie

www.lapbandforthemind.com

2009 - It's going to be a great year!

Hi, Jodie here - I am one of the partners of the company, Lap Band for the Mind. I have had Lap Band surgery in 2008 and this is my journey - I hope that you come along for the ride!

So, this time of year has always been about thinking about what program that I am going to go on to lose weight for the year. I have usually indulged over the Christmas / New Year period and my waist line (though being the classic pear shape, it is more like my hip line) has expanded significantly. I usually would be getting out a spreadsheet, calculating how many weeks it would take for me to get into my healthy weight range, reading my many, many diet plan books, considering what eating plan would give me the best results and looking at what punishing exercise routine would see me reduce my size in the least amount of time.

This New Year is a little bit different though, this year I have already lost almost 20kg's of my excess weight and I am well on my way to achieving my healthy weight range! Does that mean that I have abandoned my normal ritual of looking at my weight and seeing what I can do to lose weight? Well, yes - though now I am looking at how I can be healthier. For me, weight loss surgery has taken away the desperation from this time of year. I lost weight over the Christmas and New Year period and I can't even remember the last time that happened - I am really happy about that! I have started to do Bikram Yoga which has been tough but really fun and I am focussed on choosing healthier foods.

Focussing on health is an interesting prospect for those with weight issues as most of us also have issues with putting value on ourselves and our health. Over the years I have put more value on looking good rather than being the healthiest I can possibly be. After having the Lap Band placed, my friend Jen and I started focussing on the mind issues associated with weight. As a result of this, I realised that I needed to put my health as a priority and this has resulted in my resolutions this year.

A couple of things for you to think about:

Do you value your health above looking good?
What simple actions can you take today today to show that value your health?
What commitments can you make to yourself about your health this year?

They say that the quality of your life is determined by the quality of the questions that you ask yourself. What questions can you ask yourself each day to improve the quality of your life?

Until next time!

Cheers,

Jodie
www.lapbandforthemind.com