Last week in  part 1 I shared the first part of my plan to lose 100 pounds.  I started by talking about what it looks like to build a weight loss why, how to find you personal weight loss why and how to find love in you that doesn’t depend on your weight loss. 

I want to refresh your memory of the story that led to all this, where I was before–ya know why?

I was right where you are now… feeling like there was no way I was actually gonna hit my goal.  But I did and so can you! I just did it VERY differently than the typical diet.  

I did it differently because all those other systems didn’t work at all for me.

How it ALL Started

Before I ever made a plan to lose 100 pounds, I remember laying in bed with my chest touching my neck, unable to breath, my heart racing and a ringing in my ear.  I felt like I was going to die…

I lay there thinking I wasn’t going to get to see my amazing children grow up, and how was hubby going to support them without me?

The knot in my stomach, just made sleeping even harder… I would stare at the TV and try to sleep. The next morning I could barely get out of bed… my hubby was my built in alarm clock.  He would have to shake me awake, just so I could barely start another day.

I lived this way for several years… It wasn’t getting better, and then my Dad passed… Everything in my world changed.  Ya see he was my safety net, I knew if something happened to me he would make sure they were taken care of.

This is when I made a plan to lose 100 pounds.

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Make a Plan to Lose 100 Pounds Stage 2: 

Make small changes

In my past big changes caused quick failure… So I had to make a different plan to lose 100 pounds!

You can make really small micro changes. They don’t feel as huge and you can hold on to them longer, they become a part of who you are.

In my week long habit challenge we talk about choosing a goal that has nothing to do with the number on the scale, but supports your goal of losing weight

Some of the small changes I see are:

• Drink X oz of water
• Walk X min an every hour
• Eat X amount of servings of vegetables per day

One thing each of these changes have in common is the little “X” where X represents an exact number.

This gives you something to track and a goal to reach for that has nothing to do with the number on the scale.  But it supports your goal to be healthy, and to lose weight.

How does this Plan to Lose 100 Pounds work?

Well usually when we “diet” we are focused on cutting calories to the extreme, and we want to lose weight as quickly as possible.  

This leads to extremes and then we can’t maintain this pace for 100 lb weight loss and watch out kitchen cabinets here we come… Time to Eat Like We’ve never eaten before… or at least since the last time we did a diet.

Now, when you focus on adding water or vegetables or walking what are you doing?  

If your drinking water keeps then you feel fuller and you consume fewer calories.

Vegetables have way fewer calories.  If you eat a ton of those you will feel fuller, then your eating less calories and this will give you small steady results.

And if your walking more then, then your burning extra calories.  

So these small changes to your diet and lifestyle will give you steady results.

If these become habits, instead of your diet guess what happens…

Instead of gaining 10 lbs a year, you lose 10, 20, 30…100 lbs

The power in this is stacking these habits, and others like them.  As you achieve  success of completing the habit, then you get a glimmer of hope and belief that you can do it.  

And the more habits you stack, the more weight you lose without actually dieting.  😉

Make a Plan to Lose 100 Pounds Stage 3:

Learn to change the story in your head

​One of the hardest parts of this whole thing is changing the story in your head!

It’s hard to believe, it’s hard to know that you can do this.  After so many tries it becomes this ephemeral wish and dream and it feels like you will NEVER touch that point and stay there….

I had to change this story, I had to find belief that it could be a permanent change and that my life could be different.

I know you’re thinking your different, but your not.  You are the same. Food is how you deal with life, and using food has gotten you to this point of despair.

But I promise you it doesn’t have to be this way.  It is completely possible to change the story in your head… and learn to fight back and raise that inner child.

But how?

The first step is awareness…

We all have automatic thoughts… 

• I’m not a runner (still have this one, lol)
• healthy sucks
• you can’t eat what you want
• I can’t stick to a diet
• I don’t have the willpower
• It’s hubby’s fault because he can eat anything
• by not eating that donut I’m being left out of the fun
• I’ve done so well I deserve a treat….

I could go on but I think you get the point. I could fill 20 pages with all the automatic thoughts I had when I started. Each one of these little thoughts comes with an emotion that has a physical feeling attached to it.

For me that physical feeling is nausea.  

And then you have that little voice in you head that says, just one more… It’s not really automatic it’s like this little child that throws temper tantrums when she doesn’t get what she wants.

So to win this battle, and yes it’s an internal battle… in some cases to the death we must first become aware of our automatic thoughts and change them.  And second, we must figure out how to raise that inner child.

It sounds odd but this is all work inside your head.  😉 Let’s look at each of these internal battles…

Automatic thoughts In a Plan to Lose 100 Pounds:

To change your automatic thoughts you must be aware of what they are… they maybe something negative or positive.  I had A LOT of negative ones I had to reverse.

Journalling is the best way I found to become aware of these thoughts.  Once you know what they are you can formulate your new response. Then when you get that feeling, and thought appears, you say out loud your replacement thought.

Journal Options for Automatic Thoughts

See what I did here… I identified my thoughts, and the feelings associated with it.  Then I came up with a positive replacement.  

As I worked with these I only did one at a time, and yes these are actual automatic thoughts I had and the thoughts I replaced them with.  😉

Awareness is key here.  As you read this, hopefully you identified with a few, so you can start your awareness journey.  

But we have one more area to explore… that inner child and how to raise that inner child.

Inner Child Growth

Your inner child is the part of you that focuses on “can’t”, and I want it NOW.  It’s your impatience and inability to see past the now… 

I know this sounds harsh… but look at a toddler that has been told no to something they want right now.  How do they respond? I have 3 children and I was a firm believer in telling them no, I can tell you there were LOTS of temper tantrums on the floor of Walmart because they didn’t get what they want right now…

So when you want the muffin instead of the healthy breakfast… what goes through your mind?  How do you feel? What choice do you make? I can tell you I just faced this at the hotel breakfast bar…

They had these amazing looking cranberry walnut muffins.  Once upon a time this was my favorite! But ya know what? It’s filled with white sugar and flower and preservative and it would make my body ache once I ate it.  After traveling for the week, I really needed a better choice.

So I looked at the options available, and accounted for my bodies needs and made the best choice available… Now this was not always the case.  But I am proud of my ability to do this now.

So how do you choose what’s best for your journey, instead of what your inner child wants?

To make a plan to lose 100 lbs, it really all starts with awareness.  This is being aware of how your feeling both before and after you make the choice.  When you first start, you inner child makes most of the choices automatically. I call this a habit.

But as you progress on your plan to lose 100 lbs, and learn what you “need” to do to be successful, most people try to change “All the Stuff” their inner child is demanding.  And this becomes uber overwhelming! Keep the changes small and manageable–One at a time!

When I started this journey, that muffin would have won along with the other pastries in the continental breakfast.  

So how did I get to the point of being able to make the better choice?

I learned how to educate my inner child, and taught that inner child just like I did my 3 children.

When I made bad choices I paid attention to how my body felt.  I took stock of the consequences of my actions and I mentally prepared myself for the next time I had a choice to make.

I then experimented.  I tried making better choices and taking stock of how I felt.  I felt sooo much better! This motivated me to make better and better choices.  

When my inner child threw fits, I listened and explained to myself… slowly my inner child learned that the better choices got her what she wanted.

But I had to be prepared to say no even when she really wanted the pastry.

To be honest, it does get easier.  Why? Because changing small things over time becomes your new habit.  But trying to change too many things at once leaves you starting and stopping over and over.

Let’s Close This Out…

When I started my journey for the third time, I was no longer looking for a quick fix.  I wanted change that would last. My plan to lose 100 pounds, the third time was to make it permanent even if that meant a little slower. In the end it took me 18 months to lose 120 lbs.  Keeping it off for 5 years has been the bonus that keeps on giving.

I started with figuring out a “Why” that would keep me going (and this does change over time), loving myself, making small changes and addressing both automatic thoughts and raising my inner child.

Each of these elements required time and effort because I also had to learn about nutrition, and figure out fitness for the first time in my life.  But the time it took didn’t make it hard, it was actually somewhat easier as I learned new ways to live.

Everything that I did here plus some more is included in my 100 Pound Weight Loss Framework Coaching program.  I am so excited that this program is going through it’s first beta round now.