How starting a habit of expressing gratitude can take you from unhappy with your body to astounded by your body
Most of the mamas I talk with start their weight loss journey because they aren’t happy with their bodies. In fact, not loving my body after having 3 babies is what got me started on my own journey! I understand being frustrated by your body, but I’ve also found that being unhappy with your body doesn’t help you lose weight. If you want to see effective, long-term results from your weight loss journey, then you have to learn to be grateful for where your body is now.
I know it sounds weird that gratitude could be the key to weight loss, but being grateful actually has a physical response in our bodies! People who practice gratitude regularly have had improved sleep, decreased risk of disease and it has even helped boost immunity! If those are the results of something that literally costs you nothing, why wouldn’t you give it a shot?
Here’s what gratitude does for your mental and physical health and how it affects your weight loss results.
Humans tend to focus on what we lack vs what we have
The human species is somehow wired to look for the negative rather than the positive. It takes a concentrated effort to flip that natural instinct, but it’s absolutely possible to do! (Did you notice how I talked about what was hard first, instead of what was possible! That’s just another example of my point!)
When we’re pursuing a goal, like weight loss, we tend to keep focusing on what we don’t have.
We haven’t lost enough weight.
We don’t get to eat cookies and ice cream every night.
We have to exercise.
It’s all negative. Humans are also very ego-driven and our brain is designed to look for evidence to back our thoughts up. As we’re thinking all those negative thoughts, our minds reinforce them by emphasizing the hard things around us.
We see someone else celebrate a weight-loss win that we wish we had hit. See, we’re a loser because we can’t hit that goal.
A co-worker brings donuts into the office and everyone asks you if you want one, you either “have to” say no or you give in and you’re a complete failure.
We struggle and grumble through each and every workout proving that we’re not meant to be fit.
It’s so easy to get stuck in that pattern of negativity!
The best way to shift that pattern is by changing the thoughts you’re telling yourself! We can do that by pointing out the positive things that are happening to us instead of the negative!
This is one of the reasons I tell my clients to celebrate every single win. Because what you celebrate you replicate! You lost one pound? Celebrate it!
By expressing gratitude for that pound lost, you’ll get a little dopamine hit. You’ll feel happy and proud and then you’ll want more of that feeling. So you’ll repeat the actions it took to lose that first pound to lose the next pound.
That’s how we use gratitude to reach our goals. Bit by bit we reinforce the behavior we want to have by appreciating the steps we took to get there!
Gratitude can help you find the good now, not just when you hit your goal
One of the biggest problems mamas face when they’re on a weight loss journey is that they don’t appreciate where they’re at. They are hyper-focused on where they want to go and they are often frustrated with where they’re at.
This is the time that you absolutely need to be practicing gratitude.
Successful and goal-oriented people have the biggest gaps between where they are and where they want to be. To bridge that gap, instead of letting it swallow you, you have to learn to find the good in where you’re at right now.
You may be carrying around 20 extra pounds after having babies, but guess what, your body brought you babies! Be grateful for that!
You may have overeaten at a family BBQ, but you had the opportunity to spend time with people you love! Be grateful for that!
You may not be able to run a mile, but you can get up and walk around the block. Be grateful for that!
Shifting your focus to the positive is going to be the best tool to overcome obstacles when you’re reaching for a goal.
If you can’t appreciate yourself and the life you have now, losing 10, 20, 50 pounds isn’t going to make a difference! You’re still going to view your life and yourself through the same lens. In order to appreciate where you’re going, you have to be grateful for where you’re at right now.
Start your own gratitude practice
Now that you understand just how important a gratitude practice is to your mental and physical health, let’s get one started!
Practicing gratitude is a very simple habit to build! You don’t need anything fancy to do it. You don’t need to go out and buy anything. There are the two things you need:
Time: set aside time to practice gratitude
Record: A way to record or express what you’re grateful for.
Time
It’s easy to say you’ll practice gratitude throughout your day or when you think about it, but let’s be honest mama, if that was true you’d already be doing a gratitude practice!
You have to be intentional about your gratitude practice. To do that, you need to set aside time to reflect and express gratitude for what you have.
You can do this any time during the day, but I like to recommend doing it either first thing in the morning or last thing before you go to bed. If you want to be extra, you can even do both!
Beginning and ending our day with gratitude sets us up for success! When we start the day in gratitude, it becomes easier to see the good throughout the rest of the day. And when we end the day in gratitude it can lower stress, increase a feeling of accomplishment, and it can even improve your sleep!
Record
When you’re first starting a gratitude practice it can take some time to come up with something to be grateful for each day. So start with a 10-15 minute practice. Take time to reflect on your day and recognize what you have to be grateful for.
Don’t settle for the basics, “My husband, my kids, my house.” Yes, those are all amazing things to be grateful for, but dive deeper! What did your husband do that you can be grateful for? Did you have an experience with your kids that you’re grateful for?
Next, determine how you’re going to record or express your gratitude. My biggest tip is to write out what you’re grateful for. When we take what’s in our minds and write it out in the physical world it makes a huge difference!
Here are a few ways to record your gratitude.
Keep a gratitude journal
Write thank you cards to people who have had an impact on you.
Draft a note on your phone with a gratitude list
Designate a space in your planner to write down what you’re grateful for each day.
Gratitude is a powerful tool. I want to challenge you to make it a daily habit in your life. I don’t expect you to be perfect in this challenge. You might miss a day. You might only write down one thing instead of five - or whatever your number is. But, just like nutrition, it’s important to get right back on track as soon as you can. Any effort in this practice will create results.
If you’re ready to implement mindset and nutrition work together and start living your healthiest life, then let’s talk! You might just be a good fit for my Macros Made Easy Program!
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