Patience

So today is a "rest" day on the schedule.  My plan was to just walk.  Here's what came up for me today... I want to put in lots of miles for "Team Dylan" and, physically, I can walk forever (well, a long distance!) but... I find that I'm not patient when it comes to walking for many miles.  (I was thinking of putting in 7-8 miles today.) I just want to hurry up and finish because I have so many other things to do.  I haven't started my Christmas shopping. I need to work on my books and develop a marketing plan.  I need to complete the three certificates I am working toward.  I want to offer some classes and need to plan those.  The list goes on and on... So at first I was thinking that I just really need to work on walking faster so that I can finish quickly but then it occurred to me that the real issue is learning to be patient.  Learning to slow down and just enjoy the journey.  Learning to focus on one thing at a time.  Learning to be kind and gentle with myself. Does any of that sound like you?

In today's society, we are all "stressed out" and trying to do 20 things at once while thinking about our endless to-do list.  The thing that we lose sight of, is that we will always have things to do. Once we complete what we already had on our list then something else will come up to take its place. That's what life is all about. We need to learn to enjoy it and not try and finish our to do list because what's left when we have nothing to do? Really, do you want to have absolutely nothing to do?  Personally, I want to be around for a long time and have a lot to keep me busy.  We also have to remember that we choose our to-do list!!  It may not always seem like it when we have work to do to pay the bills but, we do have a choice.  Always.  We choose what jobs we take.  We choose how much money we need to make to support our choice of a lifestyle.  We choose whether or not to have children and then how we want to raise them and what we want to do with them.  No one else makes those choices for us - they may influence us but it's our choice to let them.  So I think, I really need to learn to be patient and just enjoy what I'm choosing to do.

The holidays are often extremely difficult and stressful for people and sometimes that is because they feel "obligated" to do things that they don't really want to do.  I have grown to have tons of respect for everyone who has learned to fill "obligations" in a way that still honors their own needs.  Life is meant to be enjoyed.  I am a huge proponent for being kind to others and being of service to others but I have come to realize that when we don't honor ourselves, the gesture is empty and we really are doing a disservice to everyone.  That was really hard for me to recognize since I've always been one to put others' needs before my own.  Many moms do that but I started when I was about 2!!  Literally.  When I was 5 my nickname at home was "Grandma" because I was trying to take of everyone else.  That's not a bad thing but I lost sight of my own needs and that is what causes a lot of stress.

Anyway, back to the importance of patience.  Many people who have weight to lose also give up based on a lack of patience.  I know I just want to be my desired weight but guess what, it took 40 years to get to this weight and it's not going to go away overnight! We need to enjoy the journey. We need to have fun. We need to accept what is. In short, we need to have patience. And with that,  I'm going to walk for 8 miles and let it take however long it takes.

Simple Steps To Overcome Holiday Challenges

I have always found it so ironic that the times of the year that "should be" the happiest often bring the most stress.  The fact is the holidays can be very stressful for many of us. Because of the additional stress and also the abundance of delicious (yet unhealthy) food, people tend to overeat. There are lots of ways to ensure this doesn't happen.

1.Meditate.
It's important for us to ground ourselves to be in the right state of mind before we are in stressful situations. I recommend meditating every day of the year but especially around holidays. Being stressed out often tends to have us overeat or make poor food choices.

2. Get plenty of sleep.
We need eight hours of sleep a night. When we don't get enough sleep, it negatively affects our mood, our metabolism, our memory, our energy, and our immune system.  It is common for us to eat in order to try to get more energy. When we do that, we often overeat or make poor food choices. (Do you see a trend starting here?)

3. Get plenty of exercise.
Exercise is important because of the obvious fact that we just need to move our bodies. It also helps us to eat less and make better food choices because we know how hard we worked to burn some calories :-) Exercise is also a great stress reliever as long as it's done at a cardiovascular rate. If you're exercising too hard, it is sometimes counterproductive and produces cortisol, the stress hormone, and that leads to holding weight on and feeling stressed.

4. Bring a healthy dish to parties.
This guarantees that you will have something delicious to eat and it helps other people have a healthy choices well.

5. Remember to be grateful.
When we are feeling stressed, it is easy to lose sight (or at least not focus on) all the things we have to be grateful for.  (Ironic at Thanksgiving but totally part of human nature.)

6. Be gentle with yourself.
Why are we so hard on ourselves? Remember that you always do the best you can in every situation. That doesn't mean that you can't do better next time. That also doesn't mean that you wouldn't do something different if you could do it again. But at that moment, you did the best you can could. We are all changing and we're all growing and improving AND we need to love ourselves exactly as we are!! :-)

Enjoy the holidays because you deserve the best!! Do what makes you happy!!