Be Mindful

Mindfulness is the ability to acknowledge your thoughts and actions without judgement in an effort to improve. It’s a powerful tool to have in your toolbox in all areas of life.

Mindfulness is a component of spirituality that includes prayer and meditation, but mindfulness can also be used in a more “technical” way too.

When it comes to living a happy, healthy I’mperfect Life, we use mindfulness to address all of the challenges we face. Whether we’re working to change our relationship with food, trying to find our motivation to exercise, improve self-love, friendships, marriages, or any other challenge life throws at us, mindfulness works.

Being able to look at any challenge objectively allows us to identify what’s causing the situation so we can fix it, rather than simply focusing on how it makes us feel because if you only focus on the emotion, you’ll never be able to change it.

This tool can, and should, be used in order to make the most of all 12 Rules for Living a Happy, Healthy I’mperfect Life.

For the purposes of weight loss, being mindful allows us to follow Rule #2 (Enjoy Your Food), even better by being present when we eat.

Mindfulness allows us to identify why we’re eating when we eat for reasons that don’t include hunger, such as: stress, exhaustion, comfort, rejection, habit, a distraction, avoidance…the list goes on.

Like I said, mindfulness can include prayer, meditation, and just tuning in, but it can also be achieved through journaling.

Journaling my process throughout my 164lbs weight loss is what kept me going through all of the ups and downs and even now, 5 years later, up 30lbs, and a mom of two boys 21 months apart, I still journal my process.

Journaling may seem tedious, but this is a valuable tool that will help now and in the future. The ups and downs, the gains, losses, and forward movement and the setbacks.

When you’re struggling with a good or bad habit, mindfulness will allow you to find a solution. Write down the habit that’s got you feeling stuck, identify why you feel that way and then write down all of the potential solutions you might suggest to a friend if she was struggling with the same challenge.

Example: You’re trying to workout in the mornings but just can’t make it happen. Why? Oversleeping, spending too much time on your phone, getting sucked into the TV news, get comfy on the couch, can’t find your running shoes?

Look at the why to identify what’s stopping you and create a solution.

Set an alarm. Don’t pick up your phone until after you’ve worked out. Don’t turn on the TV. Don’t sit on the couch. Keep your running shoes by the door, or your bed.

Being mindful of those ah-ha moments and journaling about them will give you something to come back to, to remind yourself of the mindset shift you’ve created and help you feel more in control when you are struggling.

If you start at 300lbs, get down to 250lbs and have a two month stall (not uncommon at all!) being able to look back and see that at 300lbs it took you 40 minutes to walk a mile and now it only takes you 27, is motivation to keep moving forward!

Knowledge is power, and the more data you have the more knowledge you have, meaning the more info you have to work with.

I encourage you to journal it all.

Tracking your food is a fantastic way to practice mindfulness when it comes to eating.  It will also help you learn about your food and provide an opportunity to see patterns, as well as areas that might need improvement such as: potential habits, triggers, and more.

Tracking calories isn’t about pass or fail. It’s about collecting data so you can trouble shoot if needed…and you will need to at some point, if weight loss is your goal, I can promise you that! Plateaus happen, and they suck!

However, we’re not looking to make this harder on you. It is possible to lose/maintain your weight without ever tracking a single calorie, point, or macro nutrient. For some people this kind of structure is very helpful, for others, it becomes a source of stress. Be honest with yourself and do what’s right for you.

Being mindful about the foods you eat is most important. Stay present and recognize why you’re eating…hungry, stressed, bored, lonely, procrastinating, or punishing yourself? There are so many reasons why we eat that have nothing to do with food.

Journaling these feelings/triggers is the best way to acknowledge what/why (without judgement) and allow yourself to find new solutions that work.

Journaling your fitness progress is an incredible motivator when the scale isn’t doing what you want it to do. It’s easy to get caught up in that one number without realizing the improvements to our overall health.

Mindfulness will help you achieve a sense of peace and control in your life that will allow you to make real progress…even when that progress doesn’t look like progress.

Being mindful of your progress will help you make more progress. So practice rule #11 and be mindful of your thoughts, feelings, actions and progress. 

Do it. You won’t regret it!

Follow all the rules for living a happy, healthy, I’mperfect Life lifestyle: The Rules