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