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Hi everyone, welcome to the Love to Live Healthy show. I’m Josephine Fitzpatrick. Today’s episode is Feeling Overwhelmed. It’s summer and we are all feeling overwhelmed right now.
00:43
Life can often feel like a series of challenges, so you’re not alone if you feel stretched, thin and exhausted. You know, between work, family, social schedules, let’s not forget taking care of your mental and physical health, which, for an overwhelmed person, will always take a backseat when we have busy schedules. And you know, when we feel this overwhelmed, that’s when that little voice, that little anxiety whispers in your ear. You’re dropping the ball, you’re letting people down, you’re just not good enough, you’re not strong enough to get through this. But you are strong enough and good enough. But sometimes It helps just to know that overwhelmed feeling is only temporary. I tell you all the time you’re so much stronger than life’s challenges, even if it seems impossible at the moment. I can’t tell you how often I will have a client come into my office that is just overwhelmed in their life and they don’t connect it with why they can’t stay on program. They will say things like what is wrong with me? Why can’t I do this? And I have to tell them. You have to just continue to take it, one day at a time when you feel overwhelmed in your life. It’s going to affect you trying to take care of yourself. It always does. You know our lives are full of responsibilities, right, like I said before, work-related, family commitments, social obligations. And then you put summer on top of it, when we expect to get so much done and we’re not getting it done because we’re busy doing everything else. You know we get drained. It’s like having the browser tabs open on your computer. Eventually it’s going to crash or your batteries run out and you can’t find your charger. Everything in that moment of time just feels so hard.
02:18
To give you a great example I have a client who is doing amazing on program. She was doing amazing for the longest time and then she had some really hard challenges go on in her life. It just completely threw her off. She just couldn’t get back mentally on program and with the school year ending and kids going to camp, and she had social vacations planned, to her It all felt like a waste of time to even try. But to me, I know her better, which, honestly, a lot of times I know my clients better than they know themselves and they don’t realize that and it’s because I’m looking at them from a completely different mindset. I know they can do it even when they don’t think they can. So every week she would come in and she started feeling like coming in week after week was even more frustrating. You know all the challenges she went through was so difficult. She kept thinking Is it really even worth coming in? She was maintaining or gaining a pound here and there and it was so frustrating for her she just couldn’t bring herself to be a hundred percent back on program.
03:12
But let me point out one thing that I was very happy about she knew she wasn’t being a hundred percent and I can’t tell you how important that is. When someone is trying to move forward, you have to be honest with yourself. You know that’s what living in your truth is. It’s like AA. You have to admit you’re not doing the right things in order to stop doing them. You have to admit you’re not doing the right things in order to move forward. So for me, I was so proud of her for coming in and admitting I’m not 100%. I know why I’m maintaining or gaining, but of course that doesn’t make it better, doesn’t make it feel better. It doesn’t make it less frustrating just because she knew she wasn’t being a hundred percent. It still felt just as frustrating. For me it meant that she was being honest with herself and eventually, because she was being honest with herself, it would work.
04:00
She would get back to that mindset and, sure enough, after a couple of weeks she kept coming in and all of a sudden she lost. And then she lost again, and then she lost again and she was back. She was back mentally. She had control back. And you know it was so uplifting and important, because when she was coming in every week when she wasn’t 100% and wasn’t losing she was contemplating stop coming and she would say should I keep coming and I was like you have to because if you don’t what is the alternative? The alternative is you gain every week and you never get to your low again. So it was really a great feeling when she started seeing and losing every week and now, two weeks ago, she was at her new low. I mean, that’s amazing. She never felt better. It was more than just the weight loss it was feeling so accomplished she did it.
04:47
The point is when she was coming in even when it was frustrating It kept her mindful, knowing she was coming in kept her in control even when she wasn’t 100%. That’s a big part of it. Like she didn’t go crazy, she didn’t go off the rails. She knew, okay, I gained a pound, but it would have been five if she wasn’t coming. So being mindful is really important when you know you don’t have that 100% control yet, and I can’t tell you how many times this happens with clients, because we will not always be in that mindset to do it. We will not always be in the mindset to be 100%, but if we keep working at it, I promise you it will all click, it will all happen, and I have so many clients to prove that it does happen.
05:21
So keep moving forward, because we have to remember we live in such a hard world today. Okay, it doesn’t help at all that the modern world constantly bombards us with images of successful people. You know, through social media, tv ads, even peer comparisons. You know it’s sometimes so unrealistic, the standards, and it can lead you to a sense of inadequacy and the feeling that we’re not doing enough, which that’s what pushes us into the state of being overwhelmed to begin with. So the bottom line or lesson that I’m trying to get across to you today is no matter how overwhelmed you feel when it comes to losing weight or taking care of your health, the best thing you can do is keep doing things to move you forward, especially this time of year, when you’re feeling extra challenged.
06:05
I want you to try practicing some of these helpful tips. One, breathe when you feel overwhelmed. Breathe and think before you grab so many times we grab for something to take our thoughts away from the present, or we grab because we were just mindlessly eating. Either way, breathe and ask yourself what am I doing right now? Do I really want this? Am I even hungry for it? Or am I trying to distract my thoughts from where they presently are? Always be honest with yourself. Only you can control your results, because you are the only one who will be honest with the answers. Two, write your food down for the day, Good or bad. Write it down so you know what keeps triggering you when you go off. Maybe it’s the time of day, maybe it’s when you’re tired, maybe it’s when you’re bored or stressed. Write it down so you can reflect back to what it is, and you can get out of that concept of all or nothing. It’s going to be life-changing for you If you go off for one thing get right back on, don’t waste the whole day.
07:11
Someone said to me yesterday I was having a really stressful morning at work and I ended up having a bagel. What should I do for the rest of the day? I said continue on with your day, have the rest of your meals, have your snack and move on. What’s done is done. You can’t change that. But don’t make it worse by having the whole day off. Just get right back on program. Finish the day strong, because it will make the next day so much easier and it really did. She got right back on, she finished the day strong and the next day was even so much easier for her mentally to continue.
07:40
Another good one is to seek a change of scenery. Sometimes just changing your surrounding, even if it’s just moving to a different room, can really provide a fresh perspective. Go for a walk, take a step out in your backyard, feel the ground, go play tag, go do laundry, do something that is different from where you are currently struggling. Just change your scenery when you’re feeling overwhelmed. It really will make a difference. Five, and my favorite always practice gratitude for what you do have right now. I can’t tell you how the attitude of gratitude is one of the best things you can do with helping yourself when you feel overwhelmed. It brings us back to a sense of I have so much and although I may not be where I want to be, I’m in a good place and will work hard to get to where I want to be. We have to remember this is all an ongoing process of growth, understanding and consistent effort by you for yourself. It’s not easy, but it’s worth it. For your mental and physical health it’s so worth it, I promise you.
08:39
By using these tips in your life, you will find yourself better equipped to handle the feelings of being overwhelmed, and you will develop a healthier mindset in which you can approach life’s challenges. I say it all the time life is hard, but it’s also fun, loving, happy, exciting. Embrace it all. Keep moving forward. It’s the very best thing you can do and it’s the most important thing that will help you get to where you want to be. I hope this helps. I’m wishing everyone a very happy, healthy week full of love. Hugs from me to all of you.
~Love to Live Healthy with Josephine Fitzpatrick
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