I forgot to say... I am working on a possitive affermation statement that I will be reciting to myself several times a day... I will type it and hang it on my refridgerator, the bottom of mycomputer, in my bedroom, on the bathroom mirror etc...

Here's what I've come up with so far.

I Cheryl have the power to control my health, I am able to lose weight, and I can be patient about my progress. I have been successful in changing my behaviors.

What do you all think?

That sounds good! Maybe I will print it and use it myself. Probably need to change the name. LOL

hey Cheryl!

The only suggestion I have is to make these statements more "active"..........

"I successfully make choices that improve my health. I am losing weight. I am patient."

....If you just say that you are "able" to lose weight....then you are stating your abilities, not your activity. See the difference? It's best to keep them to no more than 2-3 suggestions at a time. Stay with this affirmation for several weeks now.

Mine is very simple (so that this old brain can remember it easily): "I make healthy food choices. I enjoy exercise." And I listen to my tape at night before sleeping. Hey, last night I dreamed I had a tummy like Brittany Spears! Something must be working!

See, Carianne, what good it does to post what we are grateful for here... I didn't even think to be grateful for a paid off car.

I am thankful for the rain too but everyone here in Oregon thinks I'm nuts. I keep telling them that I could still be in Wyoming where it's snows and the wind blows 365 days a year... my nightmare.

I am so grateful that I found this thread. I read it almost every day to get new ideas to keep myself positive in my journey. This is what I've come up with so far. Prayer, exercise, and positive readings and affirmations go hand in hand for me.

My affirmation is:

I make healthy food choices. I love to exercise. I am enjoying this journey to a healthy, fit body.

Any suggestions would be appreciated, also does anyone have a problem "seeing" themselves with a fitter body. Everytime I try to visualize someone else pops into my head. How do I combat this?

OK... how about this for a word change....

I'm leaving the last sentence alone...because it's something I've already prooved to myself I could do... and it makes me feel good to say I did it.

Her goes.

I have the power to control my health, I am losing weight and I am being patient about my progress. I have been successful in changing my eating behaviors....

I plan on sticking with this until after Thanksgiving, when I should get my go ahead from my surgeon to move on with exercise. I will be going to the base gym... and one of the docs I work with has a guy (maybe a gal) who wants to help me get started. She told him/her about my struggles and how I have lost some already with out exercise. I keep mentioning it to my husband every day so I can get him geared up to go with me. We both get off work at 2:30 and we can get to the gym before the rest of the people on base get off work.... anyway... what I was trying to say is that I'll add a possitive statement about exercise too the existing one.

Cheryl

Hi Everyone...
am really greateful for finding my way back here. I have been having a rough time of things the past week or so. I have lost my drive for everything. Teaching, socializing, everything. I don't want to be bothered. I think I am so overwhelmed that I am shutting down. I have been classified as a depressive in the past and I am on antidepressants (although since low carbing i have been slowly decreasing my dose and the response has been great!). I almost feel like I am going into one of those depressions from the past, but I dont know why.
I need to bring the positives back in my life and I need your help. I took a "mental health day" to take care of myself today and that is what I am going to do.
I am going totry to start with what I am grateful for even though I feel so crappy.

1. My boyfriend who has become very supportive and loves me for who I am
2. Fall weather, my favorite time of the year
3. Having a job I usually love
4. Being able to support myself, even though things are tight sometimes
5. My family who is always there when I need them
6. My friends who understand my crazy life and still stand by me
7. My new kitten who I absolutely ADORE
8. Having my LC friends and this support I know I can turn to and not be judged
(Getting hard now...)
9. My weight loss and finding LC, which I always thought was BAD
10. My Goddaughter and "nephew" who I can enjoy and still give back when they get feisy!

Any words of advice would be welcome. Thank you.
~Michelle

Michelle... great list. Having been depressed and on anti-depressants in the past, I understand. I don't ever want to get back to that dark, dark place that I was. A counselor suggested that I create a happy list.... things that I love to do. Actually he suggested it for all the time, not just when I am down. I look at it and remember that I LOVE bowling and haven't been in awhile or that my toe nails need painting and get out my bath salts for a full-fledged pedicure. Lacking energy?? Go to a salon for a pedicure. They range from $15-30 and are totally worth it.

The other very wise thing he told me is that as adults we are taught that it's bad to cry. It's weak. So we don't. We hold it in and it manifest in other ways. Stress, illness, zits, depression, fights with loved ones. Sometimes it's good to have a mini-pity-party and get it out of your system. I, personally, start picking little irritation fights with my husband. And when I do this I know it's time to take a solo pity party and leave that poor man alone. If I can't cry, I will take a nap or do something off of my happy list instead. It's become routine.

You said you love fall. Perhaps just a slow walk to collect leaves to send to a loved one or distant friend in a card.

Shelly...

WOW. I can't tell you how much your post hit home. And that is a good thing. I was told at one time about the "happy list" I had forgotten all about it! I am going to do that today. I am going ot make a "Happy Jar" and pick one out when I need a pick me up! What a great idea.

I usually don't have trouble crying. Especially when TOM is around! LOL But lately I dont think I have, that I can remember. And I have a rash on my chin that I dont know what it is, and a cold sore that just popped out under my nose. Hmmmm....

OK...I think I am almost ready to get back in the game here.

I AM MAKING TIME FOR ME
I KNOW I DONT HAVE TO BE SUPERWOMAN
I AM A HEATHY EATER
I EXERCISE REGULARLY
I AM NOT PERFECT AND THAT IS PERFECTLY FINE

OK I will start with that, opinions and recommendations welcome. Thank you so much Shelly...you can't imagine how much better I felt after reading your post. Really.

~Michelle

Michelle,
i am sending you a big HUG!!!!!!!!!

thanks for sharing from your heart. i too know what you are saying and Shelly gave some great tips. i know that with the time change, and the days getting shorter lends itself to depression easily. light deprivation is a big factor.

i have decided to hit a tanning salon once a week for some artificial SUN!!!!!!! and today i recommitted to some daily exercise.

hang in there, i am pulling for ya!
kimberly

Hi,
Well I really want to loose weight, and do everything possible to do this, ie:LC, exercise. But I haven't gotten to my goal weight, and my boyfriend always tells me it is because I'm so negative. I am a very negative person, and tend to give up on things, especially myself. I honestly try to over come this feelings, but the past and the tapes playing over and over again in my head, won't let me. How do I erase the tape? I was once told that the only thing standing in between my dreams and me ...is me. I have been feeling really horrible these days, but after reading the thread, I feel so much better. I think that when ever I feel 'negative', I'll come see you guys. So I guess you'll be seeing alot of you.

does anyone have any suggestions for me...I really can't do the affirmations. Because I feel like I'm just talking nonence, because I don't believe what I'm trying to affirm. I guess I just have to keep re-affirming myself until I believe.

Hope to hear from someone soon

I highly recommend www.healthjourneys.com as a source for guided imagery tapes. They have a large selection, many having to do with very serious health issues, but some just for "general well-being". Piggy , I would recommend this as a very good place to start for you....along with some reading material about this subject of "positive thinking". Simply educating yourself about the importance of correcting your thoughts can be a very powerful tool to help shape your entire future.

Give me a little time and I'll come back with a reading list that might help...

The visualization GURU of our time is the author, Shakti Gawain and her book Creative Visualization was a national bestseller. I buy all my books on half.com because they're just too cheap to resist. Here's a link for this particular book: Creative Visualization

Here's another link, The Power of Positive Thinking by Norman Vincent Peale. I've never read it myself, but it was a humongous bestseller also...probably a bit more "mainstream" than Gawain's book.

If you want to get really deep in the matter, there's an entire branch of metaphysics/spirituality that deals with the idea that we create our reality with our thoughts.... that we are co-creators of our universal experience....a gift, so to speak, given to us by God. Now, if you want references on that subject, LOL, I can give you a list as long as your arm! But the idea is that the Universe is made up of nothing but energy.....and the underlying physical principle is that negative attracts negative and positive attracts positive. So that, you see, having negative thought only attracts negative experiences....until you learn that it is only by thinking at a higher energy frequency (positve = Love) will positive experiences manifest themselves.

You create your reality.

You create it with the energy of your thoughts.

If your thoughts are negative, that is the level at which your reality will resonate....and vice versa.

Does that help?

Teri, that is right up my way of thinking. That really rings true.

Sandy, I'll never forget the day I began reading my first book on this subject. I sat it total wonder as I read the pages, even at times shedding tears of joy that I had finally found something that made sense to me. What a wonderful day that was!!! I've read another 100 books since then and found a church and thousands of other people who support these beliefs as well..... but up to that point I was really, really "lost".

........so I understand what you're saying.


I learned a lesson at tennis last night.... my coach was teaching us beginners about serving. I kept joking around and telling him, "Oh, you only THINK you've seen sucky tennis....wait 'til you see me serve!" And after about 10 REALLY BAD serves I started to get a few over and in.... Dave said, "I thought you said you couldn't serve?? You can serve! You're doing fine!" I realized that I had been negative!! ... even in my joking.... and I said, "You're right, I CAN serve!!" (I can serve I can serve I can serve I can serve.....) And you guessed it! I started making 4 out of 5!!