A great mood and weight loss can go hand in hand. When you are feeling stress, loneliness, or boredom, the best part of your day can be meal time. You look forward to the distraction and the way eating comforts you. But rather than set unrealistic goals of never, ever, ever eating unhealthy food again, focus on the mood, rather than the food.
Here are five habits to shift your focus and help fill you up emotionally:
- Make one change at the grocery store: Each week add a new fruit of vegetable staple to your refrigerator. Buy a bag of fresh baby spinach and mix it in with your regular greens for salads or add it to your lunchtime sandwich. Cut up an apple with a little almond butter or peanut butter for your afternoon snack instead of grabbing a sugar snack. Each week vow to completely finish eating the new item. Healthy foods feed the brain and the body – your emotional state will improve automatically.
- Lead with a smile: As simple as this may sound, make full eye contact with and smile at everyone you interact with throughout the day. You may find it strange at first because we all go about our business of shopping, traveling, and working focused on the task and not the individual. At first you may think this is an exercise to reinforce positive feelings in yourself, but don’t forget what you are sharing with another individual – personal connection. Make someone else’s day a little brighter – share your pearly whites and smile with your eyes.
- Learn to say No. Whether you are feeling over-committed or always the “fixer” there are times you need to walk away and not participate. You don’t have to go to every social event just to have something to do. You shouldn’t feel like you have to agree to take on extra work in your career or personal life just so you don’t rock the boat or you need to be liked. You also don’t have to be the “great listener” every time one of your friends brings her daily drama to your doorstep. It’s not your job to fix everything and everyone. Start setting those boundaries, inch by inch.
- Download and release: Just as having a to-do list reduces the stress associated with remembering and accomplishing everything, so does keeping a journal help you release emotions rumbling around inside you. When you write in a journal don’t make it an overwhelming task. Commit to 10 minutes each morning setting a great intention for the day. At the end of the day, if you have feelings simmering inside and you usually turn to television or a substance (food, alcohol, sleep aid) to relax and unwind, download in your journal for 10 minutes. You will be amazed at how this one habit can wipe the slate clean for the next day.
- Engage in random acts of kindness: Pay the toll for the car behind you. Give a small grocery store gift card to a family in need. Shovel the walkway of your elderly neighbor. Take down the holiday lights for the single mother down the street. Small gestures are a great way to improve your mood and theirs.
Focus on creating habits of joy and food will no longer be the only good part of your day.
Love and blessings,
Colette Baron-Reid
Intuitive Counselor
Love these, Colette. I remember a nutritionist once telling me that we tend to eat the same 10 or so foods over and over again. So, every week I would go and find something new.. (not in a bag or a box) to try. It was about “adding” not taking away..and it was fun.
Shifting the energies via coming into our hearts.. going into kindness and appreciation is quick and powerful and fills us up..
I know you could write full chapters on each of these ideas alone, each one is so powerful in its own right…if we focused on even one, it would ripple beautifully I know.
Great list.. sharing with my friends.
Love to you,
Lisa
Well Lisa you and I will be chatting about all this! variety is good.. and as we know if we do what we did we will get what we got!
These are some great tips! I cannot wait to get your new book about weight loss!
I think it might be the thing to finally lose weight and maintain it happily.
Blessings,
Kim
You are the first person to mention television as an escapist/relaxation tool. I just bought your new book and along with committing to work with that, I have also been trying to turn the tv off too! I find it really numbs and zaps my energy. I used to go to sleep with it on every night and now I listen to soothing music instead for a short time. I sleep much better now and get so much more done at home as soon as I turn it off. I am looking forward to reading your new book in my newly peaceful home! Thank you 🙂
Weight “loss”? ….the subconscious mind will go looking for that “lost”weight.Wish we could find a more effective phrasefor this issue 😉
this is true to a degree.. we talk about weight release throughout the program but people don;t know how to respond to that yet when searching for articles books etc. My speciality is subconscious reprogramming. Thanx for bringing that up – my coaches are called Weight Release Energetix coaches for that very reason.
Thanks Colette!! I am following your tweets, blogs and all related to this!!
Hi, I just got your new book and am so excited to read it. Do you have a facebook group for those of us doing it to be a support to one another? I just started to become aware that when I start to lose weight part of me, ego Im sure, says oh no, you dont want to be at your optimum weight, like theres some strange fear attached to it and I dont understand why Id be afraid to get the weight off, for good.
come join us on Fb book club just search the book title plus we have a free class called Jumpstart when you purchase the book, and there will be classes for sale as well.. tons of tools for your success!
Am fully immersed in the book (“Weight Loss For People Who Feel Too Much” for anyone just coming in…) Loving the quantum science pieces as you’re tying them in.. and also the focus on reducing the drama/habits around stirring up focus on things that we like to “share” around what we are feeling/suffering over.. And as an intuitive (and psychotherapist).. practitioners can make this worse for our empathic clients.. so helpful, Colette. xox
Hi! I just found your post and I find it useful. I love your tips specially the no. 2. A smile can make your day and others day too.
I just downloaded the Kindle version of your book Weight Loss For People Who Feel Too Much. I have already referred this wonderful approach to my clients who desire to lose weight, once and for all! Here’s to success in the coming year to all ready to make serious changes.
happy you find it helpful