Celebrate Your Successes

For many of us today is the last day of work for the year. It’s time for some much needed time off. But before you switch completely into holiday mode there’s one more important thing you need to do. Take inventory of everything that you have achieved this year!

Where were you this time last year?

Sometimes we can get a little stuck because we haven’t reached our perfect goal weight, or dress size, or haven’t stuck to the plan perfectly. It can be easy to lose sight of how much all the tiny little changes that you have made during the year have added up.

Think about what your life was like this time last year. Have you exercised more? Eaten healthier for at least some meals? Worked on a more positive mindset? Drank more water? Had less sugary foods? Eaten more fruit? Celebrate these small steps.

Where could you have been today.

If you hadn’t decided to make changes and get healthier last year, where would you have been now? Perhaps your unhealthy habits would have snowballed, you could have gained more weight, or developed health problems. Even something as simple as the affect of unhealthy lifestyle choices on your mood could have put you in a position where you were worse off than you are today.

If you haven’t quite gotten to your ideal goal weight yet, it can help put things into perspective when you consider how much your situation could have been worse if you hadn’t made the efforts that you did this year.

What have you learned?

Think about the knowledge base you have today that you didn’t have last year. Have you learned to cook healthier meals? Gotten better at reading nutrition labels? Do you know what a burpee is now when you didn’t this time last year? All of these examples highlight positive changes you have made in building your skillset for being able to lose weight.

Let’s not forget how valuable it is to learn what DOESN’T work for you. What exercises just aren’t right for your body. That a really restrictive diet just isn’t sustainable for you long term. That you actually hate quinoa. That you really didn’t feel any different after taking those super expensive supplements.

If you think that you’ve had a rough year, switch your thinking- it’s been a great year because you’ve been able to rule out a lot of things that don’t work for you, getting you one step closer to finding out what does. So congrats! And bring on 2018.