Last Updated on March 15, 2022 by Latrice
Memorial Day weekend is winding down as I write this and I have to say I am pretty proud of myself.
I stuck to my food list! No snacking, no sweets, and no nibbling on junk foods.
This Memorial Day weekend I went to a two-day concert, visited with my brother, and went out to eat for my mom’s Birthday.
All triggers which have sent me into binges in the past.
Not this Memorial Day weekend!
The big difference has been doing the work to mentally prepare for these triggers. Something I have never given serious work before.
Because I mentally prepared myself, I made sure to cook food ahead of time, I had the mentality to painlessly ignore cravings and manage them properly, and I made it through the weekend without any regrets.
Truly a huge accomplishment!
If you’re on a weight loss journey and, or a health journey and find it hard to stick to your routine and food list, this advice might work for you as well.
Get honest about your triggers and RESPECT THEM
As I have learned through LOTS of error, triggers are NOTHING to play with!
Triggers in this context are events, people, occasions, things, places, or feelings that lead you to binge eating, cheating on your diet, and disregarding your promises to yourself.
Triggers can cause you to forget it all and then regret it all later.
It’s an ugly cycle I grew all too tired of.
Then I learned about triggers and how important it is to identify them and RESPECT them enough to prepare myself to deal with them in a healthy and sustainable way.
What I did to start being honest about my triggers was identify them first. This took me experiencing them and then taking mental notes each time I fell victim to them.
Patience with yourself is required for this process. Being angry and frustrated with yourself usually removes the opportunity to be analytical and strategic. As I have realized in my own weight loss and overall health journey.
Showing myself love and patience, instead of beating myself up, lead to me realizing there was work I could do on my end to better prepare.
Once I identified what triggered me, and got honest that I was triggered, I started respecting them by preparing for them.
I prepared for my triggers by thinking of what self-talk better served me and also by preparing food ahead of time as to not be caught in a compromising situation.
To find good self-talk, I started realizing what I was telling myself that made my triggers so powerful. Then I started formulating ideas and self-talk that strengthened me over my triggers.
This past weekend, positive self-talk was probably one of the most powerful tools against my triggers.
Be mentally prepared and do the work BEFORE the holiday, vacation, event, etc.
Prior to this Memorial Day weekend, I had been sitting with myself for 15 minutes a day to think about how healthy I am and am becoming. No action, just peer thoughts and good feelings.
I spoke about my healthy eating habits as I would want them to be – sticking to my healthy habits, feeling good in my body, having my body feel fantastic all weekend. And I made sure to speak as if they were already my habits.
Outside of those 15 minutes, I gave thanks for being healthy, in control, prepared, and for feeling awesome anytime I started thinking about the subject.
The most distinctive evidence of this method working was the inner conversation I had with myself when I felt myself getting a craving outside of my eating schedule.
Instead of telling myself I could give into the craving because it was a holiday, I reminded myself of my goal to strengthen my will by riding the craving. And it worked! I finally successfully rode the cravings.
Try this out by speaking to yourself about how you’d want your healthy habits to be. Make sure to not hold yourself to how you used to act. That can be limiting.
If you find this exercise hard to get started with, start by simply telling yourself “I am healthy.”
Starting out with “I am healthy” is what helped me find the other thoughts that helped me build a self-image of health and wellness.
And make sure to prepare ahead of time by making this a daily practice. Trying to do this during a trigger makes it less effective because the healthier thoughts (protection and prep) simply isn’t there or aren’t strong enough.
Used subliminal messages
Some people get freaked out by subliminal messages. I love them and consider them to be ultimate cheat codes and life hacks. And I do make sure to “protect” myself by using subliminal message creators with great reviews.
From my experience, using subliminal messages is like doing lots of work in much less time with much less effort. Much. Less. Effort.
Since using subliminal messages, things I’ve been working to change and improve upon for months and even years, have started improving and changing in a matter of days and weeks.
It’s like magic.
There are plenty of subliminal messages on YouTube. My favorite on YouTube is Mind Audio Central.
Pick subliminal messages for healthy eating, weight loss, healthy living, and control of cravings to get started. Create a playlist and give them a listen.
I also like to use an app called Subliminals Work. It’s a subscription app where you pay monthly for access to their library of subliminal messages. They seem to keep it pretty updated with new content regularly.
Here are the health related subliminal messages I’ve been using through this app: Healthy Lifestyle, Diet Willpower, Weight Loss, Self Discipline, and Boost Self Confidence.
I like the app more than YouTube because the affirmations are listed and I’ve actually noticed results much sooner. In a matter of days.
Some tips I’ve found helpful for getting the most out of subliminal messages:
- Believe they work – I’ve read in a few articles that using them while believing they don’t work will cause them to not work.
- The more you listen, the sooner you’ll see results
- Listening while sleep helps a lot
- Make a playlist to listen to while doing any activities except driving
- Try boosters and blockage removers for that extra support – my subliminal playlist on YouTube starts with Super Fast Subliminals Results | Affirmation and is followed by Remove Subconscious Blockages | Blockage
Conclusion
Finally experiencing a sugar-free, healthy eating holiday weekend was a goal of mine I’d been working towards for some time.
What finally made me successful was identifying and working through my triggers, getting mentally prepared before the triggers through daily 15-minute thought exercises, and using subliminal messages consistently.
Paying attention to and working on self-image has made a huge difference in my weight loss and health goals. Perhaps it was the missing component in your journey as well.
Hope these work out for you. And if you’ve done some similar work on your health and wellness journey, please share. I’d love to hear about it.
Weight Loss Transformation Resources
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Weight Loss Transformation Journal + Workbook
