Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Winning Outcomes for the New Year

Last night at Weight Watchers we talked about "Winning Outcomes."  Essentially- goal setting.  The key to what our leader said for me was "When you make your goals, when you make your New Years Resolutions- are you setting yourself up to win or do you, almost as soon as it comes out of your mouth, think Can I REALLY do this?"  She then spent the next bit of time teaching us to reframe the way we approach our goals.  A few examples:

Rather than saying "I am giving up chocolate." (really?  You are GIVING UP chocolate?  How long will THAT last?) why not say, "As long as I stay on plan I can have XXX amount of chocolate a week." ?

Rather than saying "I am tired of being overweight- I am going on a diet."  Why not think "I am going to change the way I eat so that I can shed X number of pounds and more importantly, become more healthy."?

Rather than " I am going to the gym every single day."  How about " I will exercise for 30 minutes on Mondays and Wednesday."

It's all about resetting your mind to something that is achievable, reasonable and fits within your life.  More importantly- it's about looking at it from a positive place rather than "I hate this about myself so I need to change it."

Of course- that means that I have to stop and rethink my resolutions and retrain the brain- but it was a good and timely lesson so I wanted to share it.

I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful New Year's Eve and a bright outlook for 2011.  I will see you then and hopefully by then I will have my goals set for the coming year!

2 comments:

Jblacey said...

Hey! That sounds really positive. I have heard good things about weight watchers new plan- very tasty recipes.

Jules0705 said...

I love the Weight Watchers plan. Heck- I loved the old plan. The biggest piece for me is that it is not a "diet"- they truly want you to make a lifestyle change. They don't push quick weightloss- they remind you that you didn't get to where you are overnight- it won't come off overnight either. They want you to make changes that are both healthy and sustainable and they want you to go at your own pace.

When it comes to exercise they are really adamant that it fit into your life. If you don't like to run- don't plan on running. If you don't like to go to the gym- don't plan on going into the gym. Find the movement that you really enjoy so that you will actually do it regularly.

The best part about the new plan- almost all (with the exception of your potatoes, peas, starchy veggies) of your fruits and veggies are "free". No points for them which means you can fill up on things that are good tasting and good for you. The new approach is no longer calorie based. The nutritionists and PHD's have come to the conclusions that all calories are not equal and so they stress foods that will fill you up and keep you full so that you get through the day with maximum energy.

I don't know that a lot of people would claim my journey as a "win"- but I started WW this time a week before I started daily prednisone. Normally I balloon on prednisone and this time I am slightly down. I have a friend who started her pred course when I did and by Thanksgiving was up over 50lbs. I am not up- so it's a win.