It’s great to see all the “why’s” that people have posted.  Health is a high focus and feeling good is part of it and wanting to look our best is in there, too, either for ourselves, our spouse, or our partner down the road….

Great!

So, there’s a couple of things going on…

The background noise shows up in every bite of food we eat (”Should I eat this? Is this on my ‘program’? Oh no, I ruined it.”) We have mental conversations of whether a food is a ‘bad’ food or a ‘good’ food and we try desperately to fall in love with cottage cheese and fruit because we’ve been so overexposed to methods and mindsets about eating and food. If you don’t believe me, look at the covers of magazines the next time you check out at the grocery store and see how many articles are about food and weight loss.

Then, there are our actions - the steps we take toward the desired result.  It’s not rocket science - eat less, move more.  That’s actually, believe it or not, the easiest part of this ‘game’.

And finally, the big ol’ undertow that pulls us in and we can’t even see it, is the unworthiness and unloving that we have — when we believe that we’re unworthy on any level, we end up sabotaging our efforts because of the false belief system that is driving us.

This is the monster to see and to slay.

Imagine you’re on a ride at Disneyland.  You get in the little car, sit on the drivers side, you put your hands on the wheel and you start spinning like crazy.  You can make screeching noises, or ‘vrooom’-ing noises and lean your body one way or the other and you know what?  Not one lick of difference because you’re on this track that is taking you on the very same ride to the same destination — every. single. time.

And to get ON the same ride every time and expect it to take you somewhere different is looney-tunes.

So, in our conversation, there will be ‘aha’ moments of discovery to see where our belief system is doing us in and driving us towards undesired results.

For me, it happened when I was counseling a young adult who was bulimic and abusing alcohol.  She was trying to convince me that she loved herself.  I just looked at her and asked, “If I were to pour alcohol down my 6-year old’s throat or if I were to feed him a delicious meal and then stick my finger down his throat to force him to throw up — would that be screaming ‘love’ to you?

The obvious answer was ‘no’.

“So, how is that loving to you?”

See, love shows up in actions.  But just like when we were in math class growing up, sometimes, to check our math, we work the equation backwards.

In our case, regarding weight, we are going to do the math backwards: Look at your actions. Do they cry out ‘love?’

For me, I am seeing a couple of areas right off the bat: My calendar and my sleep.

Huh?  What does that have to do with weight?

Well, because my unloving belief system (which hides in the shadows of my life) is showing itself in those other areas: Having more to do than my life is designed to handle, going to bed later and sleeping less than my body needs right now.

If I ran my kids ragged and denied them sleep that would be negligent and harmful. That would affect their emotions, their attention and focus, they’re joy in life and it could eventually compromise their immune system and leave them susceptible to sickness and disease.

That’s what I’ve been doing to me.

To be able to see it is the first, greatest power.

So, today, we’re going to do a couple of things to help us to see:

1. Do backwards math and take a look at your life actions: Are they reflecting a loving balance? Make a list of the things that if you were to do those to the children in your life, would it be seen as unloving?

2. Take a mental note of your conversations with yourself: Are you talking to yourself in ways that call yourself ‘good’ or bad’, ’stupid’, or ‘wrong’? Are you calling foods ‘good’ or ‘bad’? Can you see the vast amount of judgmental conversations that you have going on about you and food?

3. Take an action step that flies in the face of the unloving.

For me, Rocky’s taking the car today so that I’m “grounded” from running all over doing errands all over town. I’m also taking on drinking three bottles of water today and not eating past 7, and I’m going to continue reading, “The Four Agreements” as a way to savor wisdom and take it in.

That sounds like a lot but that’s for me, today.  You can do whatever fits for you.  There are no rules about this.  Your biggest gift today would be to notice something that’s operating in your life that’s been keeping you on this track of weight issues and landing you in the same place of dissatisfied and frustrated.

This is what we’re taking on today – 

Who’s in with me?