We're Going Deep in The Action Stage!

We are in the action stage of change.  The action stage requires work and a strong desire to permanently move away from what was to what is and what is to come. In the action stage it is so important to ask ourselves “Who Am I?” "What do I believe about myself?" "Who do I believe I AM?”  Glenda helped us get to the bottom of those very important questions this 7th week of the Spring Team Challenge! Here's what Glenda had to share with us.

"Today at THW we worked further on the action stage of change. We discussed how essential it is that we re-parent ourselves, if necessary, to redeem basic foundational principles that we are created and intended to embrace in order to live a full and abundant life.

We were born into the world with the ability and intentionality to express feelings, needs, desires, longings, and hopes. If the messages we received from our childhood experiences, either verbally or non-verbally, didn’t validate those truths, quite possibly the messages we received were:

“Be Happy” (don’t express feelings)
“Doing What Others Need” (it’s not ok to have/express needs)
“Make Our Parents Proud” (you need to desire what your parents desire)
“Longings Are Wrong” (it’s not ok to have longings)
“Don’t Dare to Hope” (it’s not ok to hope)

The messages we receive become the foundation of our belief system. Our beliefs dictate our thoughts, our thoughts dictate our feelings, and our feelings dictate our actions. Therefore, when we receive those kinds of messages, they become our belief system. If we receive those messages, we learn to focus on others and not on ourselves.

Some of the actions that come from believing the lies are:

Being Overresponsible For Others
Controlling Others
Being Rigid
Having Difficulty with Yes/No to the Right Things in Order to Have Balance
Having Difficulty Making Decisions
Taking Care of Others
Avoiding Conflict
Not Talking About our Problems/Struggles
Needing Other People’s Approval
Trying to Be Good/Perfect
Having Unrealistic Expectations of Ourselves
Feeling Anxious When Other People Express Feelings
Not Giving Ourselves Permission to Play/Relax/Have Fun

ALL of the above actions are living in extremes and outside of our back pack.

“If” we don’t challenge those unhealthy messages/lies, we often come to believe that it is selfish to take care of ourselves. “If” we believe that we are underserving or unworthy of self-care/love or “if” we believe that we don’t measure up to other people/certain standards, we are very unlikely to embrace the entire Healthy Weigh program.

   

If we believe that our value comes from what we do vs. who we are, it is unrealistic to think that we would spend time or energy or money to do the weekly homework which includes huge tools to change our beliefs and change our thinking about ourselves. If we don’t challenge unhealthy messages and we are so busy taking care of everyone around us instead of ourselves, we will just be white knuckling the “diet” and our weight loss will be temporary at best.

At THW, we want you to redeem who you were intended/created to be.  We want you to be able to re-parent yourself if necessary to reclaim the truths about being able to express your feelings, needs, desires, longings, and hopes.

Doing so will allow you to be self-controlled, responsible for yourself and take ownership of your life (live in your own back pack in every area of your life). It will allow you to give yourself permission to focus on self-care, because you will believe that you are “enough”, and you are valuable because you exist, not because of what you do. Believing the truth about yourself will lead to the actions that bring about permanent weight loss. Believing the truth will allow you to focus on self-care and personal responsibility instead of constantly given or serving those around you."

Thank you Glenda for sharing your wisdom with us! It was a powerful day at The Healthy Weigh.

Our Winners for the week:
Noon: Team "Dump Your Rump" Karen and Vicki with a 1.85% of weight loss!
6 PM: Team "Losin' It" Beulah and Kyla with a 2.51% of weight loss! 
Just so happens the the top 6 teams of the week were all females!!!  GIRL POWER! :-)

Oh...and our Heart winner of the week with a 3.77% of weight loss was a girl too!  Jeannie Culp!  Congratulations!

Your Challenge for the week:

• Make a list of "I Am" statements
• Download week # 4 Coping Skills Feeling Your Way Through Life" and do the homework provided.

We are coming into week #8 of this Team Challenge!  Give it all you've got both in your healthy eating AND in your attention to your homework!  You'll be so glad you did! 

Always encouraging you,
Letha