Weight loss is hard, in fact it's the hardest thing I've ever done. Here is one of my secrets - it could be altered to help motivate and support your self in your art endeavors too.
Support Your Own Weight
Loss Journey by Writing Fan Club Letter to Your Future-Self in Seven Simple
Silly Steps
Step 1 – Choose –
to become the president of your own fan club – many people in your life will
not give you the best support in your weight loss, make sure you are not one of
them! Be a supportive; cheering and
coaching as needed.
Step 2 – Sign Up
- sign your membership card – not the WW membership card – but somewhere (maybe
your tracker?) write down in ink the following “I,____(your name here)_____ am
the president of the future ____(your name here)____ fan club. I will be honest and positive with myself on
my weight loss journey”.
Step 3 – Pick a Pen
Pal - decide which future-self you want to write to (future self at 10%
goal, or at 16 weeks, on your birthday, at a certain clothes size, future-self who
hits a plateau.) You can write letters to all your future-selves , so don’t
worry about picking the right one, any one is just right!
Step 4 – Positivity
- Fake it til you make it! It’s not easy
to be positive, but you are going to be your own coach, and you need a coach
that encourages you in a positive, honest voice. So before you start writing, visualize your future-self
having achieved that goal, your gut can have doubts (mine did) but use your
mind to overcome that fear.
Step 5 – Realistic/Honest
– seriously, you can lie to anyone else, just not yourself. Your body responds to what you eat and what
you do, it’s incredibly honest. Be
honest about your role in weight loss, your role is to eat the right stuff, in
the right amounts that allows your body lose weight. Be honest and kind to yourself about your
weight loss rate, if your weight is going down its going the right way!
Step 6 –Take pen to
paper…and write in the second person
Dear ___(your name here)___ at
(your selected goal/ or timeline),
- Write down how you would feel at that goal. Imagine yourself at that goal, what is your life like?
- What did future-self have overcome to reach that goal?
- What changes must future-self have made?
- What encouraging words would future-self want to hear or need to hear?
- What obstacles should you warn future-self about?
- What opportunities should future-self look for?
- What reminders does future-self need to hear?
Sign your letter - ____(name here)_____ at ____weight/date
(whatever you want)
Step 7 – Signed,
Sealed and Delivered
- Make sure that you signed your letter, your future-self will want to know who sent it
- Seal in an envelope and write the name of future-self (such as Amy at 25lbs removed!)
- Keep all your letters in a safe place and add to them as you write more letters
- Open them when you achieve your milestones
Here’s a sample (well, it’s my actual letter!)
Dear Amy at 25 lbs removed!
How awesome do you feel? I bet you feel fantastic. And you
will feel even better as you remove more!
Have you signed up for that 5K yet? If not, go for it! What other fun activities should you start
adding into your life?
How many inches have you lost? I bet quite a few. Go take your measures again and record in the
WW etool.
Staying positive is hard work, no doubt about it. I’m sending you all kinds of good vibes that
will help you stay positive and honest with yourself. I’m lucky to have learned
how helpful being honest and positive can be to my weight loss, and you should know
this too. But in case you forgot, I
thought I better bring it up! Also, you
have benefited from so many others; it’s time to give back. I think you should share this letter writing
tool with others on their weight loss journeys, so they can write fan-club
letters to their future-self.
I know that if you think too
much about what you’ve achieved, you’ll slow down progress, so just pay
attention to what you do today. Don’t think about how far you have come or how
far you need to go, just pay attention to today; and tomorrow pay attention to
tomorrow. Chinese philosopher
Laozi
said “A journey of
a thousand miles begins with a single step”, I’ll add to that with “and
continues with each step.” One meal at a
time and you’ll get there.
Remember to look forward! It doesn’t matter how long the journey takes,
if you are going in the right direction you will get there!
Watch your back, remember
the Simon and Garfunkel song “Slip Sliding Away”… the nearer your destination
the more you are slip sliding away.
Remember to pay attention to what you want and what you need to do to
get there. Might also be a good idea to
write a few more letters – I know we wrote one to goal weight and lifetime
achievements, but those were written early in journey, you’ve learned a lot
since then. No reason that a milestone
only gets one letter. Think of what
other milestones would work, and if you can’t think of any 5lb increments
works!
Listen to “Courage Is” by the Strange Familiar. I heard about this song from one of my online
WW friends. Its opening line reminds me
to be positive… “Take all my vicious words and turn them into something good”.
Again, way to go on 25 lbs lost! That is just fantastic! Keep up the good habits!
Love you lots!
Amy at 19lbs removed
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