My Journey With Weight Loss – Making What You Hear Positive

Today was another training day and something strange happened. Normally during my first few intervals of training my head is doing everything it can to convince me to stop. Once I hit the fifth interval I am repeating positive mantras in my head to try and just get to the end. That didn’t happen today. Instead I went through those first 2 intervals and thought, that felt pretty good. When I hit the fifth interval I was thinking you got this! Once finished I realized that this is getting easier, I am getting stronger and building endurance. Apparently that circuit breaker that I used actually worked. After I was done my long cool down walk I said words I never expected, that was a good run.

I have written before about my many supporters. These people are the first to send me positive comments as I have posted on social media about reaching goals, pictures that I have posted along this journey and just in general encouraging me to keep going. Ok, a few of them have offered advice (such as it is all about portion control or you just have to watch your calories). I don’t take issue with the advice, I just kind of ignore it as I have my own plan that I stick to and it continues to work for me. All of these comments just boost my self esteem and mean a lot to me.

Then there are the detractors. I don’t know why people who like to gossip think their target (and I use the term target as nasty gossip is really a form of bullying) won’t eventually hear what they are saying, it inevitably comes out. I hear about how I will never keep the weight off or that I have been starving myself to death (hmm, 3 good meals a day means I am starving?). Personally I am thinking of starting a rumour that I had gastric bypass surgery just for the fun of it.

But what do you do when you start hearing the negative comments? To me as my mental health has strengthened it has been simple, let this be the white noise drowned out by the incredible support for others. Moreover, I turn those comments around and think positive thoughts instead such as wanting to thank those detractors for just making me more determined to be successful. You can take the negative comments and let them get to you or give you an excuse to quite, I refuse to do this. I have also gotten to the point where the positive comments drown out the negative. For example, still going in my head was when a neighbour said to me the other day ‘girl, you have got to stop losing weight, you look fantastic’. For comments like that I turn up the volume and put that song on repeat.

The bottom line is it is your choice how you filter the negative. For me turning the negative into positive helps me focus on that fact that my mental and physical health is the end goal, not what people are saying. I refuse to wear the weight of those comments and trust me, that keeps me feeling light.