Displaying items by tag: Make It Fun

Last week, I went to a birthday party and I had a really good time. There were lots of people, some I knew and some I didn’t know. The conversations were lively, fun, and positive. Food and drink were abundant, the music was familiar, and we all were happy to celebrate the person who was having the birthday. I had fun in the moment, and I want to keep that feeling going!

Some of the things I do to bring that party feeling into the present include, playing the same music so it triggers my memories, keeping in touch with the people who were at the party, and sharing pictures or looking at pictures other people have shared of the party.

Oh please! Really? (I can see your eyes rolling at me.) Dieting, exercise, weight management – fun? Am I out of my mind?

Yes! Yes! Yes! I’m out of my mind! I’m purposely changing my mind about how hard it is to lose/gain weight. I’m changing my mind about any negative feelings I have about exercise. I’m out of my former mind and into a new one!

That’s the great thing about being human and about having a mind – we get to change it. We get to choose what to think. We get to choose our attitude. We get to choose how to approach our life, our day, our projects, and our bodies.

In the last blog, we spent some time thinking about how to make our weight journey fun. We looked at changing our attitude toward the changes we want to make and we compared the process to getting ready to take a vacation. I mentioned we would want to make plans for the actual journey, to make it more enjoyable, and we compared it to taking games, music, and videos along on a car trip or on an airplane. Let’s look at what that kind of planning actually looks like when we’re talking about the journey to our weight goals.

What comes to mind when you think about vacation? Do you brainstorm all the ways you can have fun? Do you think of the places you can go that would fill you with a good feeling and would be a joy-filled experience? Do you plan activities that are fun, enjoyable, guaranteed to make you laugh and relax? Just the thought of vacation implies time out from worries, stress, and the concerns of our everyday life. So, how do we take a lesson from thinking about vacations and make the thought of losing or gaining weight bring up feelings of joy, fun, and eager anticipation?

I’m all about celebrating every single skill we learn, every single change we make, every single little ‘aha’ moment or thought on this journey. And we can take ourselves lightly while we do it.

From a friend, “You don’t look good. You look sick!” (I was at goal weight.)

From a health food store clerk, “You might want to try this product along with those sunflower seeds. It’s a fat blocker.” (I was overweight)

The underlying basis of The Main Meal Weight Management Support is to help us find our joy. Everything we do, every change we make, every habit we continue, and every new habit we form is done to move us further on our journey to self-esteem, happiness, loving our bodies, and embracing our beautiful selves.

As early as I can remember, someone in my family was always making up names for things or making a play on someone’s name to make it funny. For example, my dad used to refer to my high school Home Economics teacher as Sister Mary Sewing Machine.