Self Sabotage & How to beat it!

We all have goals right?

Our minds are wonderful things! They allow us to plan and process, to dream and to remember. With every bit of good sometimes there is bad bringing anxiety, negativity and pain. I suppose we could call that the circle of our life.

Have you ever stopped to wonder how much of the cycle you can control? The concept of being incontrol of your own thoughts to some seems ludicrous but to me, it’s a thing!

It’s a ‘thing’  I may not always get right and it’s a ‘thing’ I may not in every occasion be a master of, but at some point, on some days, I own it!

Presence is the key!

Or space, I’m not really sure which one comes first (a bit like the chicken and the egg). At that moment when it’s needed we have to be present to force a millisecond of space to think. In that extremely short space is the opportunity to pause and reflect. The reflection is your power to now react or respond. Where ever you go from this point, you can consciously make that decision and then ultimately live with the consequences, good or bad!

So what are we talking about here?  We hear the term self sabotage a lot and my thinking is it means different things to different people. Using me for example, there are certain aspects of my life that I’m a control freak. This over thinking can at times have negative affects on my energy, my mood which guess what affects my lifestyle in a big way!

How the 30 Day Plan helped me.

During the first 10 days of the plan I realised how much these moments affected my eating. Habitual eating as I now call it. One day after a difficult work situation along came this onset of hunger and I found myself walking to the biscuit draw! What was this?? I wasn’t hungry, why did I want the biscuit? I know now why, because it was habit and for those first mouthfuls of rich tea biscuits made by work problem fade away. However, lurking round the corner after those mouthfuls was of course…… the voice in my head. Why did you just do that? and it had a point. Why did I go for the biscuits, why did I break plan, why did I feel like my body needed that because the reality is it didn’t. Instead the biscuit eating incident set my over thinking mind into overdrive.

The self sabotage had begun.

For the rest of that day I treated myself like a bit of a failure. I’ve committed so much to the 30 Day Plan, why did I steer off course. Now, I know a lot of people will be thinking, Vicky its a few biscuits, it’s not a big deal. However, to me, it really was. I signed up to the plan because I wanted to feel better about myself. I loved my post three children body for growing my babies but I hated how it squished into size 12-14 jeans. I signed up to the plan because I had low body self esteem. Having a baby in lockdown hadn’t helped because I’d also got so used to not going out anywhere, so when the UK began to open up, the social fear was real.

So knowing how much this plan was there to help me out of this low self esteem really awoke me to my self sabotaging habits. As a person I’m not a creature of habit, I love change anything to keep life fresh. So when this cycle appeared,

Stress> Hunger>Biscuits>Negative Self Talk>Low Mood>Low Energy> Pass me the wine!!

It had to be broken immediately. Cause and affect, I was not going to be responsible for lowering myself, I had the power to stop this, so how was I going to do it?

I became present..

In every moment this cycle appeared before I ‘reacted’ and grabbed the biscuits ‘I responded’ and went for a handful of berries or a glass of water. The instant self gratification was incredible. That good over evil feeling, that I’d acknowledged the moment and the stronger me had won.

Eventually after 30 days had passed I noticed other patterns which included wine, weetabix and jam on toast cravings. However, the risk of giving into these cravings became lesser and eventually a week will pass without any.

My coach for the 30 Day plan was the creator of LYS Estelle, who is also a lifelong friend. Having her guidance reassured me but also rewarded me each week when I would send her my progress pics. Estelle empowered me, she knew how badly I wanted those size 8 jeans, she knew she couldn’t do it for me, I had to do it for me!

So if you are considering the 30 Day Plan or maybe you’re already on it, my advice to you is to be empowered. We are all superheros in our own right and we do have the power to define how we feel about ourselves. You can change your eating habits, you can change your relationship with food. If I can do it, honestly anyone can and the LYS 30 Day Plan is here to help!

Vicky LYS 

Vicky is the Gen Manager of LYS who completed the 30 Day Challenge in April 2021. Vicky lost 12lbs and 4 inches. Vicky went on to complete the plan for another 30 days and at time of writing had lost 1st 2lb.

If you would like to sign up to the 30 Day Plan click the link below, all LYS active members receive a huge discount by entering the code EXILYS30

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