It's not the end of the world (that's December!)

23^rd July 2012

Never ask someone why they love you – the fact they do is good enough.  Love shouldn’t be rationalised or analysed – it just is. xx

That weekend flew by didn’t it, although I was working Friday and Saturday morning so I suppose it hasn’t been a full weekend.  I’ve spent my weekend at home because of mom, she’s already poorly but being board out your brains because you’re on your own and can’t do anything would make it even worse, so I’ve been sitting in the living room with her and we’ve watched a lot of rubbish tv, actually it’s been on but we haven’t really been watching it!

I read mostly and played daft games on my phone, although I’m liking ‘matching with friends’, I’m easily pleased what can I say!

Had a lovely dinner yesterday, minced beef and onions, wedges and veggies for 10pp, used tinned minced beef and added a couple of oxo’s for flavour.  Had a salad for my tea, and I will put my hand up to weighing myself a couple of glasses of whiskey as we had some JD leftover from Friday night.

Today’s a busy day I’m driving my nephew to Manchester airport this afternoon so he can go visit his dad, all very last minute!  So I need to get organised this morning and leave mom everything she needs.

I read an interesting article yesterday about goals and a book called The Antidote, which I might get a some date in the future (my reading list is quite long at the moment so it’ll have to wait!)  Anyways on of the things it suggested which I quite liked was “Focus on the worst-case scenario” the Ancient Greek and Roman Stoics called this strategy ‘the premeditation of evils’.  Normally we try to hope for the best, but by doing so, we inadvertently reinforce the belief that it would be disastrous if things didn’t turn out as we’re hoping.  Instead, next time you’re fretting about something, try imagining, in detail, exactly how bad things could go.  This replaces bottomless anxiety with a more finite kind and heightens your gratitude and appreciation – and another key source of happiness – when things do turn out well.

I know this approach changed my life seven years ago, I was unhappy in my job but earned so much money I felt trapped, I believed that if I left I wouldn’t be able to pay my bills nor take care of my mom, so fear kept me in that role.  On a personal development weekend away in the July I told people there how much I loved doing two meetings a week with Weight Watchers and how much I’d love to do it full time but that I knew it would never pay me what I was earning in my current job.  The chap leading the weekend made me go down the worst case scenario road of what would happen if I resigned and couldn’t earn enough money.  It seemed really silly at the time because I was answering with comments like, “I’d be jobless, penniless, homeless” and we laughed especially as when we got to the homeless bit I realised that either my family, friends or the government would help me out!  That lightbulb moment gave me the courage to walk into work on the Monday and resign not knowing my future!  All I had for sure were two Weight Watcher meetings that didn’t earn me much if I’m honest, now 7 years on, I’m a full time leader with 13 meetings and I wake up on a Monday looking forward to my working week!

Yes the reality is rarely as bad as your imagination of it!  We did have a few months of living on the bread line but that helped my waistline if I’m honest because we couldn’t afford to eat ;-)

If you’ve not had the best ‘diet’ week and you’re dreading the scales this week, use this exercise, what’s the worst that can happen – a weight gain!  Does that gain have to be a permanent thing, can you get it off again, could you pull your week back a little know.  Move forward from the worst case scenario and smile realising it’s not the end of the world (that’s in December according to my mate Katie! But we really don't want to have that conversation again!)

Oooo the suns shining again, that motivates me to move more because I love being outside in the sunshine, especially if there’s the opportunity for a bit of suntan topping up! 

Keep it real this week, don’t expect too much from yourself, and realise that the worst that can happen very rarely does and when it does – you cope!