Thought for Thursday

Process: proc-ess; -noun; a systematic series of actions directed to some end; a continuous action, operation, or series of changes taking place in a definite manner.

Right now, at this very moment, you are in the process of (fill in the blank).

The question is: is the process in YOU?

I'm sure you're scratching your head on that one... so let me 'esplain in terms of weight loss.

You, at some point, said, "I'm going to lose this weight!"

You then sought out the tools to help you. From the minute you signed up for SparkPeople/Weight Watchers/FitDay/etc. or you cracked open a book related to weight loss (Atkins, South/North/East/West Beach, Zone, etc.), you started the "process", and all that entails.

Hopefully started using the tools at your disposal: tracking your food intake, adjusting your calorie allotment, eating more fruits & veggies and (ideally) cutting down on the processed food, starting to exercise and tracking your movement, etc.

All these things are designed to help you shed the excess poundage so you can reach a healthy weight.

These are things you can learn to do to make the process work well for you - eat this, not that. Do more of this, less of that.

And when it comes down to it, anyone can go through this process and achieve some measure of success. Heck, many people have reached their goal weights in this process. In fact, many years ago *I* was one of those people. I started the process in January, and by December I was down 60 pounds.

I focused on the exercise and the food and lost weight.

Whee!

Then I immediately gained it back.

Boo!

Thing was, I had a lovely structured environment that was conducive to the process. There were a few interruptions along the way, but overall I was able to plow through and get the weight gone. I was firmly IN the process, mainly because I believed that if I did the steps, and lost the weight, all the worlds problems will be solved.

Yeeeaaahhhh, not so much.

As soon as my environment changed, I was totally and completely lost. Patterns/habits/thoughts that were still there resurfaced and, well... you saw the pictures.

This time around, the process is IN me.

It's something you see in people who /really/ get *it*. Something you see in that magical 3% of the population who achieve _lasting_ weight loss. Something that changes you from focusing on the results, to focusing on creating a healthy future.

The difference, the key, the not so secret secret: It's all mental.

"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them."
Albert Einstein

It's being open to change. It's being open to learning a new way of doing things. It's realizing that maybe, just maybe the habits you've lived with for most of your life might need to be part of your past. It's understanding that it won't happen over night, but you are willing to slowly learn new habits, new thought processes, new coping mechanisms, that will eventually propel you to the body you dream about. It's recognizing that the inevitable bumps in the road aren't fatal, they're opportunities to be creative. It's also coming to terms with the fact that, while it's simple on paper, it's not easy, and being ok with it.

It's a gloriously slow, and fantastically uneventful way of going about it, but once you get it - really get it - it gets IN you... and it's yours for LIFE.

You will wake up one day in 6 months, 8, 12 months and realize, "Holy Macaroni! I've been cooking my own meals, getting my sweat on and reading my goals and affirmations almost every day for the last 4, 6, 8 months! Darnitall, I really like myself! Time to go shopping for new clothes and get the family ready for our hike!"

The thing is, it's universal: Once one process gets IN you, you can see ways to apply it to other areas of your life. You see the value in developing a spending plan, like you developed your eating plan. You start to release the physical clutter that's in your home, the same way you released your mental clutter. You baby step your way to break the habit of smoking, the way you baby step your way to the habit of daily/every other day exercise. You build your business the way you build your muscles - one repetition at a time.

Success is truly a 2-5 year process, and the only thing that is instant is the decision to change.

Now, go forth, and decide to let the process get in you today!

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And now, for a moment of extreme OMGcuteness: