Celebrate Your Success

In April I had the pleasure of offering a private weight loss seminar to a lovely group of nurses in Hackensack, New Jersey. They were there because one of their fellow nurses had lost 40 lbs. and kept it off for one year after attending my weight loss seminar at Hoboken University Medical Center. I was checking in with one of the ladies, named Sue, yesterday to see how she was doing.

Her response was, "I am doing ok.  I have kept off the initial 10 pounds that I dropped and I am definitely making better choices.  But, I find myself not listening as diligently as I had in the beginning."

The tone of Sue's response felt flat. I could hear her disappointment in herself. It saddened me to realize that she was not experiencing the possible joy in her incredible feat. Only ten pounds in two months? And feeling stable with that?! That is a fantastic accomplishment! How often do you and I, like Sue, negate or make small our achievements and instead focus on what we haven't yet done? No wonder it's hard for us to feel happy and positive. We're constantly convincing ourselves that whatever we are doing isn't good enough. One of the secrets to success is focusing on our successes! It's absolutely necessary, otherwise the subcosncious mind thinks, "OK, I'm a failure, or I'm not good enough, so I'll just do things that perpetuate that self-image."

Taking off 10 lbs. in two months and keeping it off is a wonderful accomplishment. I advised Sue to, "focus on how much better your clothes feel (and don't rush to get a tighter size that eliminates that good feeling).
Feel how proud you can be of yourself to know that you are still making healthier choices, even if you haven't had a chance to listen to the cd recently."

The more you encourage yourself, the more you'll find yourself doing all the right behaviors, including listening to your hypnosis cd. If you were climbing a mountain that takes 8 hours to climb, would you berate yourself because at 11am you were no where near the peak? Of course, not! Permanent weight loss is a process, like climbing a mountain. Look back at where you were one year ago and acknowledge yourself for every shift you've made, even if those changes are only in your mind and subtle behaviors. Celebrate your success - yes, you are good enough, you are worth it!
-Rena Greenberg