Winning The Battle Against Negative Self-Talk

This weight loss journey compared to the other has been very challenging. I often gauge my level of success and motivation from what I see on the scale. If I don’t see the number change on the scale, I get very discouraged.  I could be seeing changes everywhere else, but if that number on the scale doesn’t move, all the other wins don’t matter. I don’t know about you, but when discouragement settles in, so does negative self-talk.

Self-talk is defined as the dialogue between oneself. Self talk is that inner voice that tells you what it is you want or need to hear. My inner voice can be very negative. My inner voice can be the difference between me making a good choice, versus making a bad choice. Pastor, Steven Furtick, of Elevation Church is preaching a series on “Moodswingers”. The first topic on the series is called “The Great Emoti Con”, the message was about having control over your emotions. He brought up scripture that I felt resonates not only for my life, but also my weight loss journey. Matthew 15:11 NIV “It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”  He states “you sabotage yourself by what you speak.” I bout jumped out of my chair when he said that, because that negative self-talk doesn’t just stay within. When I begin to speak those negative thoughts out my mouth, I begin to believe those negative thoughts. I begin to believe all the hard work that I’m putting in is a waste of my time. I believe that I’m never going to reach my goals. These are the things I begin to tell myself, and then I turn around and sabotage myself. I start making poor choices when it comes to my diet, and I begin to skip my workouts. I stop going after my goals because of the negative self-talk that I begin to speak.

What I have begun to do is start working on myself, and learning how to change my negative self –talk into positive self-talk. Going through this change has not been easy, but I still continue to work at it every day. There are a few things that I began to incorporate in my life to help me work on changing my negative self-talk. About a year ago, I enlisted help from a therapist, because I was just fed up with the negativity and I could not figure out how to change me. My therapist gave me a task of keeping a thought record. A thought record is a tool that helps you to recognize and understand negative thinking. A thought record also helps you to develop healthier thinking and incorporate it into your daily life. When I completed a thought record for the first time, it really opened my eyes to how negative I am in every aspect of my life. It also allowed me to come up with a solution, a more positive way of thinking. If this is an area of your life that you need to work on, start keep a thought record.

 In addition to the thought record, I began to read self-help books to help me improve on my negative self-talk. One book that I read that really blessed me was” The Battlefield of the Mind: Winning the Battle in Your Mind” by Joyce Meyers. All of our thought takes place in the mind, so our mind is the battlefield. In this journey to a new me, I wrestled with a lot in my mind. It could be something as simple as making a decision to eat something that I know that I shouldn’t eat. It’s like the angel and devil on your shoulder type of thing. The angel is my positive inner voice telling me “you shouldn’t eat that it’s not going help you get any closer to your goal”. The devil, my negative inner voice, is telling me “you’re   doing all this hard work and you’re not getting any closer to your goal, go ahead and eat it.” The back and forward between the angel and the devil turns into a battle in your mind.  Joyce Meyers shows us how to win these battles in our mind. This book will indeed show how to lead a more positive life by changing the way you think. In your life if you struggle with negativity, depression, worry, and fear, please get this book.  I pray it will bless your life as much as it has blessed mine.

                I never realized how important positive self-talk is until now. I have to start encouraging myself whenever I begin to feel like I’m failing. I have to stop being so judgmental, and understand that this weight loss thing is a journey. I’m going to have times when I fall, but the key is not to stay down.  I pray that God will continue to help me win the battle against my mind. I pray that I remain positive even when I don’t feel like it.

If you struggle with negative self-talk what are some ways that help you to develop

positive self-talk?

Motivation Versus Consistency

It has been a little over 2 years since I've written in my blog, and I'm no closer now to my weight loss goal than I was 2 years ago. There are a few factors that play into why I can't reach my weight loss goals. At one point I felt like my Jenny Craig client were my motivation, and now that I no longer work with the company I have nothing or no one to keep me motivated or accountable. So needless to say the 20lb I lost on the program I gained them back. Consistency is something I've always struggled with. That could be why I haven't posted anything in a very long time. The factors that I believe has played a factor in why I can't lose this weight is my lack of motivation and lack of consistency.

At this stage in my life I want to enjoy the women that I am, and don't want to have to worry about  being overweight. If I could close my eyes and wakeup tomorrow and be this sexy lean machine I would be so happy, but life doesn't come easy to no one. Hard work, dedication, and consistency is going to get me to reach my goals.

One may ask "Victoria what are your goal when it pertains to your weight loss?", and I would say to be this healthy and a sexy lean muscle machine. Over these last few day I've played with the thought of getting so fit that I could one day compete in a female bodybuilder's competition. On one hand my inner self is saying "hell no you will never be able to get fit enough to ever compete in a female bodybuilder's competition." On the other hand my inner self is saying "girl you can do it!" So me listening to my other hand I started to research what takes to go from fat to a bodybuilder, and from my search I pulled up success stories of females with the same goals as I have. These females goals wasn't one day to become a bodybuilder or to compete, but their goal was just to be healthy, lose weight and get in shape. One things that they all had it common was that they got so fed up with being teased about being fat, being mistreated for being fat, and not loving themselves because they were fat that they had to make a change.

When I was growing up I never struggle with my weight I was this skinny string bean until I got to the 6th grade, and the I started to put on weight. I remember when my mother and grandmother took me school shopping and I wore a size 9/10 pants in the 6th grade. I think that was the first time I've ever felt bad about myself. I never really focused much on my weight, but it was always in the back of my mind. I would get teased by the kids at my school, but it was never because weight. They would tease about my big forehead and call me names like five head. I think being teased for that took away the focus off of my weight. The things that these female bodybuilders have motivating them I don't have those same things motivating me, because I personally didn't have those problem growing. Each person going on a weight loss journey there not going to have the same things motivating them to lose weight, but there motivation has to be strong enough to conquer all the  temptation that may come their way. When I again start to come up a strong motivator the only thing I can think of is that I'm tried of starting over.

For the last 2 year I've seriously been trying to lose weight and get in shape. I've started with doing the Jenny Craig program which was a success when I stuck to the plan. Then I started to change my eating habits and exercise and that allowed me to maintain for a very long time. After that point I gave up and stopped watching what I eat but was still exercising. Then I just stopped doing everything no healthy eating or exercise. I've always had the desire to want to lose weight so every Monday was a new week and I would do great with my eating and exercise for a good two days, and then it was back to the bad habits. At this point I didn't know what I could do to get back on track. I knew that I could eat healthy on my own and exercise so the only other thing I thought about was that I was lacking support. That's when I decided to join Weight Watchers. That program was great I was 8 weeks in and had lost 11 pounds, but the weight loss stopped. When the weight loss stop so did my motivation. Needless to say  I quit Weight Watcher and now I'm here presently trying to figure things out.

Update!!!

So the family and I went to circuss on Sunday, and had so much fun. Remember the last blog I posted saying that I had a plan to stay on track while at the circus. Well that plan went down the drain and out the toilet. We go into the circus were they had the concession stand at, and we smell funnel cakes. Now you can get funnel cake at about to places the circus and the carnival. I had my mindset on not eating anything outside the plan. I brought my very tasty Jenny Craig White Cheddar Popcorn and was going to enjoy that while watch the circus. My fiance wanted a funnel cake so bad and I told him no because he was also suppose to be on a diet; and when he wants something he has to have it. So he goes and get a funnel cake and bring me one back along with some nachos. So of course I eat it and let me tell you it was so good and I enjoyed it. I felt so bad after I eat it because it was suppose be a new start back on the program. I didn't dwell on it I got back on track and I've been on track every since. I don't know how much weight I've lost so far, but I will weight in on Sunday morning and will update you guys.

Comment and let me know what you want be to blog about thanks....

GET BACK ON THE WAGON GIRL.....

I think yesterday for me was my moment were my body was like " Victoria I can't take all this junk that you are putting in my." I mean from the time I got off of work I was just eating up a storm, anything from leftover Korean BBQ to a Slurpee from 7-eleven. After I was finish consuming all the food that I wanted for the day I felt so terrible. I felt fat, bloated, and disappointed in myself. So I had to reason with myself and say " Victoria you need to get back on the wagon." So I woke up this morning with my made up and there is no turning back.

Day 1

I felt like so far today I've been follow the Jenny Craig plan to the letter. I was able to get in my fruits, yogurt, and anytime bar, and my entrees; but the day is not over yet. We're taking my baby girl Sania to the circus today and that present a challenge in itself, but I have a plan. While we are at the circus I'm going to bring my delicious Jenny Craig White Cheddar Popcorn and some apple slices. Then after we get home from the circus I'm going to have my Jenny Craig Chicken fajitas which i love so much.  Now I'm very confident right now at the moment that I'm going to follow through with my plan. Tune in tomorrow to see if I was able to stick to the plan or was I just to cocky.

Introducing my beautiful baby girl sania!!!

A Royal Day!

I woke up this morning to a beautiful sight on my television it was The Royal Wedding. While I was watching this historic event it made me think about what my wedding day will be like. I know it won't be any comparison to The Royal Wedding, but it will be my special day that I've been waiting all my life for. By my wedding day next year I want to be at my goal weight of 150, and looking the best I've every looked in my whole life. Now you may ask yourself "How will she be able to do that?" Well I plan to get back on track with my plan of living a more healthier lifestyle, and being a role model for my client. This time around I want to become committed to the weight loss process, and do once and for all. Now I will let you guys know that this will not be easy. It going to take a lot of discipline on my part. I will update my followers everyday on how well I'm doing. Hopefully this will keep me on track; wish me luck guys....

New Journey

I just woke up from my nap and I had this dream about me starting my own weight loss blog. I have been juggling this idea in my head for a while. I currently work has a program consultant at Jenny Craig, and basically my job is to help people stay motivated and encourage my clients to achieve their weight loss goals. When I scored this job at Jenny Craig I was the most happiest women in the world, because it not only gave me access to be able to try the program out but allows me to help people with the same struggles I was dealing with. It worked that way for awhile when I first started the program two-weeks before Thanksgiving I lost 19lb on the program, but to no fault but my own I lost focus and gained 7lb back. I feel so guilty going to work because how can I sit in my clients face and talk to them about the right and wrong things to do pertaining to their weight loss when  not applying myself. So right now I stuck in the rut of trying to get back on track to lose the last 40lb and it my daily struggle. I'm hoping maybe this blog will help me stay on track, and to reach out to others that share my struggle.