Let It Go…

How can one week be so easy to stay on program and then next week be so hard?! Everyone is struggling this week because we are in a time of transition. Spring is ending and summer is beginning. School is ending and camps are starting. Schedules are replaced with lunch and dinner dates. Vacations are starting – long weekends in the Catskills – Hamptons – Islands… All fun things but hard to stay on program when you don’t know whether you are coming or going. When you find yourself in this pattern you need to just continue on your path. Stay mindful and continue to make the very best choices that are available. Even if they are not as good as you would like, they will be better then if you are not mindful. Stay positive and remember why you are there and who you are with. It’s celebrations and happy times and hopeful times. It’s about love, laughter, health and a little down time to rest the brain. But it’s not about treating everyday like a Cheat Day.

IF YOU FIND that you let yourself make bad or hasty decisions in the last couple of days or weeks – you need to let it go and just move on. Don’t waste energy or time on things you did wrong or how good you did and then ruined it. Focus on the here and now. It doesn’t matter if it was two minutes ago or two days ago. Don’t waste your energy on things you can’t change — you need to put that energy on the here and now and on the things you want for today and tomorrow.

LET IT GO… and move on to better choices and stay on your path. Maintaining is better than gaining. If you are not in a position to be perfect, then be mindful. Your healthy program will keep you on path and when you fall off you get right back on and it will always take you back to the place that you want to be. It will take you to where you are happy and feel good, but in order to do that you need to let the past be the past and the future be the future. You can’t change yesterday but you can change this moment right now.

DON’T WASTE TIME… One thing I notice that we all take for granted is the time that we have and what we do with it. We focus so much on where we are going and what we are eating that we forget to focus on what we are celebrating and why we are there. We spend time on what we did wrong instead of what we can change to make it right… It’s what I call wasteful energy. You must keep your energy positive and keep moving on to a better place. Every minute that you worry or waste on what you should have or could have can be put into the energy of what you are doing right now. Let all the wasteful negative energy go and focus on the positive and happy energy of today and tomorrow. Make sure that you are making the memories of today better so when you look back tomorrow you have less regrets than today. It’s all about being mindful on what you are doing right now.  And in order to do that you have to let go of whatever you did wrong yesterday.

We all know how short life is… We all know that there are so many out there that have “real” problems that many of us could never ever imagine or want to imagine. We sometimes forget how lucky we are to be able to send our children to beautiful camps, and how lucky we are to vacation and take long weekends in beautiful places. It’s easy to forget and take for granted the simple things like how lucky we are to be healthy to enjoy these moments. When I tell you to stay mindful it’s not always about food. It’s about life.  The idea is to stop focusing on food as your main attraction and start focusing on life as your main attraction.

You need to focus on the happiness you want to bring to yourself and your family today.  If eating clean and staying on program makes you happy then you need to do it the best you can. When things are out of your control with lunches and dinner plans, you order the best you can and move on. Don’t treat the days like Cheat Days because they are busy days because that will just make you miserable. It is very possible to just be in the moment and enjoy what is going on around you – and order egg whites, chicken or a fish meal and be okay with it. It’s very easy to have snacks on hand so when you are at prom pictures or grad parties you have something you can go to and keep yourself on program.   It doesn’t have to be exciting and it doesn’t have to be the best meal of your life. It has to be food that you eat and you deal with because today and right now it’s about you staying on program the best you can and enjoying the company around the table and at the party.

There will always be weeks like this and you don’t want to confuse the happiness that is going on around you with you being miserable because you didn’t choose the right foods or because you woke up a little bloated. Change the day immediately and move on to whatever better choices you can make today. We know we have easy weeks and hard weeks, and an easier on program weigh loss week will be around the corner – but for now some weeks will just be like this and you have to look at them for what they are – busy happy weeks that you are doing the best to stay mindful and make the best choices you can so you can enjoy and maintain.