Whether your goals are to loose weight or to improve your health by making an effort to add exercise and activity into your life – you have to learn to be your own best friend if you want to succeed.

We are so hard on ourselves; no wonder we set ourselves up for failure. If you consistently had a friend or a loved one telling you “Your pants don’t fit, why did you eat that? You idiot, look at that jiggle hanging from your arms!” – you would hate that person. But we do it to ourselves every day for some strange reason! We look in the mirror on a daily basis and say such horrible things to ourselves, that we would never DARE say out-loud to anyone.

Loosing weight is hard work. Getting to the gym is not easy to do. You have to place markers in-front of you that will help you reach your goals instead of filling your mind with barriers. You just can’t be mean to yourself. It’s abusive. This is hard enough without the a-hole(YOU) in the corner being your own boo-ing section. You have to talk to yourself in your head the way you would your best-est, because quite frankly you are your own best friend. You will have a much easier time succeeding if you’re actually on your own team! If you’re not supporting yourself, then how are you expected to pull through during tough times ?

1. Look in the mirror every morning and FORCE yourself to say one nice thing about yourself. This is tougher then it seems!
2. When you get dressed, make sure it’s something you feel good in. Don’t put on the gross sweat pants you’ve had forever, take time to make yourself feel pretty.
3. When you do something great like pass on the bread basket or make it to the gym, MAKE SURE to pat yourself on the back.
4. When you do overindulge (because let’s face it, this is life and we are all human) don’t scream at yourself. Don’t feel guilty. Would you yell at your best friend for having two cupcakes ? Would you call her up and spend HOURS on the phone with here going over and over the ‘offense’ ? NO. So don’t do it to yourself. One of life’s little pleasures is food. If you do overindulge, enjoy it. Never, I mean never, eat with guilt. You have to enjoy what you decided to eat. Eating is a conscious decision. It’s not a punishment to have a slice of cake, it’s a treat, so “treat” it as such. Don’t beat yourself up.
5. If you’re having trouble making healthy choices or getting to the gym and being your own best friend is just not cutting it at the time- CALL IN THE SUPPORT UNITS. Call your ‘real’ best friend! I’m sure she’ll help motivate you to make the right decisions or help you get to the gym (if only for 10 or 20 minutes).