Know Your Signs!

Know Your Signs!

No, I'm not talking your astrological sign or anything exotic like that.  I'm talking about recognizing how you are feeling and what your body is telling you.

I'm talking about recognizing your feelings, how your body is feeling, how you think about yourself.  You know the hardcore stuff.

These are what will make the difference for you, when you chose to lose weight.

For example, without acknowledging it, I started to become depressed for a short while last year, and I plateaued  on my weight loss.  I would fluctuate a few pounds, but I was not losing the weight on the whole.

Additionally, because of the situation, I was distracted and lost significant focus on my weight loss goal, resulting in my plateau lasting for more than several weeks.

Up to this time, I was losing almost 1 pound a week.

I had to refocus, on both my weight loss, and on what I was eating.  Now, like a lot of other people in the world, when you get depressed, you change what you are eating, what you are drinking, how much you sleep, and yes I believe how you breathe.  This is what happened to me.

I started overeating some, my attitude tanked, my breathing was off, I was not drinking as much water, and was drinking more sodas, etc...

This was mentally very challenging, I had to concentrate on resolving each of these problems.  When I did, my body started losing weight again!  It did take effort on my part, and time.

So for this post...the signs I need you to know are:

Attitude
  - depression or happiness
  - commitment
Physical
  - Belly breathing or chest breathing
  - Water at least as much as (or more then) other fluids or less then.  You can tell by the color of your urine. dark yellow not enough water, light yellow to clear, enough water.
  - Hunger signals, are you overly hungry, pleasantly hungry, comfortable, full or stuffed (like a turkey on turkey day).
  - and of course on average, is your weight decreasing on average or has it plateaued.
  - Lastly, how tired you are, is a direct sign of how much sleep you get and / or how depressed you are.  You need to ensure that you get enough sleep through out the day.  Your body needs it to complete its normal processes, such as getting rid of waste and repairing itself.

So going forward, learn you signs, if you need to, write them down, along with your goal.

Until the next post

Dan W