Today’s my favorite day

“What day is it?’ asked Pooh.

“It’s today,” squeaked Piglet.

“My favorite day,” said Pooh.

Natalie’s teenage daughter – beautiful, smart, friendly – “broke down” the other day, this time because she didn’t have a boyfriend. It was one of many times during the week her daughter would take the tragic outlook on a life circumstance.

Ever the patient mother, Natalie usually comforts her daughter with sympathy. This time, while her daughter was getting ready for school, Natalie stood outside the bathroom and read her the Pooh quote, which Dr. Wyatt had shared with us the week before.

Her daughter predictably rolled her eyes but, “at least she listened to me,” Natalie laughed. She has since printed it off and posted it around her house as a reminder to think positively.

“I believe so strongly in positive thinking…with it, you really can do everything you want,” Natalie said.

Maybe some of you are rolling your eyes right now, just like Natalie’s daughter. Maybe it sounds overly simplistic.

In the past, I always got frustrated when I was in a bad place and people said, “Just think positive!” It felt patronizing, like they weren’t listening, like any problem, no matter how complex, would go away if I just turned that frown upside down.

But that is not what Drs. Wyatt and Hill are talking about. Many people fail to change because of their state of mind. Almost anyone free from disability can exercise right now and make a choice to eat this over that right now; the issue is almost never the basic ability to do the task at hand. Instead, it’s the myriad of mental roadblocks.

“I’m too tired.”
“I don’t have the right shoes.”

“I can’t tolerate the way people look at me at the gym.”

“It will suck so bad if I can’t have that cookie right now.”

“I can’t find time to exercise.”

“I’m not a morning person.”

Anyone who has failed to change has said a variation of one of those negative phrases, probably hundreds of times – myself included. Just as Natalie said, if you embrace the challenge with a positive attitude, you can almost always make things go your way.

So instead of “I’m too tired” you say “I will be less tired after I work out.” Or instead of “It will suck so bad if I can’t have that cookie right now” you say “I will feel so proud of myself for not eating that cookie right now.”

The docs’ goal is to train us to realistically see the challenges in front of us but turn them in a way that makes them work for us instead of against us (what they call the Colorado Mindset).

As I mentioned earlier, this diet isn’t really about trimming our waistlines or building a six-pack. The fat itself is probably not what makes most people unhappy – it is what the fat symbolizes: lack of self-esteem, lack of strength, unhappiness, perpetual pessimism, self hatred, etc.

For those of you looking to see if we will succeed after these 16 weeks and beyond, spend less time looking at the scale and more time noticing our sunnier dispositions.

(You can already bet your money on Natalie’s success).