Hi guys! Welcome to Episode 477 of The Wildly Successful Lifestyle podcast! Im glad you’re here. I hope you are enjoying the podcast, if you are don’t forget to share it with at least one person. And if you haven’t already subscribe and give me a 5 star review. You can do both from the 3 little dots on the top right of the episode if you’re on spotify or Apple Podcasts. OK….
I heard something this week that had an impact on me and I thought you would like it too. It said:
You over think because you don’t write.
You’re anxious because you don’t act.
You procrastinate because you don’t have a plan.
You stress because you don’t train.
You lack clarity because you don’t journal. All your problems have a solution you just need to do it.
Each one of those statements rings true for me. Probably the most impactful is the one that says you’re anxious because you don’t act. When I heard that I thought ooh that’s kind of true. Often we are anxious because we know we need to have a conversation but we make it so scary in our mind that we put it off and put it off. Or we know we need to exercise but we just keep pushing it to the next hour or the next day or the next week. Isn’t that true though? Anxiety usually comes from knowing we need to do something but avoiding it because it’s uncomfortable. We make life so much more difficult than it needs to be by failing to make a plan and failing to take action when we know we should. But it’s never too late to turn over a new leaf.
If you’ve listened a while, you know we lost our little yorkie back in February. We have missed her so much. Our house seems so quiet without a little furbaby running around. Well this last weekend we welcomed two new little fur babies! Sonny Ray and Charlie Ray. Well they aren’t exactly little. They are in fact quite big for their breed. They are King Charles cavaliers who lived on a farm and were loved but extremely overfed by their owner who recently died. The lady at the rescue society told me a few times when she was talking to us about them that they were overfed and I thought ok well how bad can it be? Oh my goodness they are big boys. They are young, one is a year and a half and the other is just over two years. But they look 7 or 8 because they are so overweight. I realized when we got them that little things like going up and down stairs or chasing a ball once wears them out. I’m sure their original mom just loved them so much she couldn’t say no. That’s kind of how I have always been with mine too, but seeing these two and how hard it is for them to get around makes me realize I have to be strong enough to not fall back into old habits of loving them through treats. Instead of loving them so much I can’t say no, I have to love them so much that I DO say no. Giving them treats might make them happy which makes me happy, but in their case that might make me happy but it’s going to cause them big problems. They’re heathy but both need to lose 7-10 maybe 12 lbs. on a little dog that’s a lot. Charlie is 37 lbs. he should really be no more than 25 or 26. So it’s our job as their new mom and dad to set the boundaries around food.
I’m used to giving treats at will and sharing my food bite for bite. That isn’t gonna work here. My husband is much more disciplined in most things especially when it comes to our animals but he’s generally just shook his head at me with our other dogs like “she’s gonna do what she’s gonna do”. But this is different. I recognize the importance of getting them to a healthy weight so they are able to run and play and breathe without effort. Seriously.
I realize I have to be intentional. That’s what it takes when you make a decision to change. You can’t just hope that you’ll change. You have to decide, make a plan and then put that plan into action. Now for us because we are all getting to know each other, we are creating a routine they don’t know any different at our house, so now is the time to do it. So we have researched what they should weigh and what’s the best food for their health, exactly how much of it should they get and then they can’t get a treat just because they’re cute. Treats have to be intentional. And no feeding from our plates which is so hard because of their puppy eyes.
But being intentional by having a plan and sticking to it makes life so much easier. They know what to expect and we know their life will be much better for it.
They are obviously used to much more food and when they look at me I noticed I started creating things in my head like they are starving. They think we are never gonna give them food. Their sad. But then I realized that that’s my mind messing with me trying to get me to not follow my plan. My autopilot mind wanting me to stop being intentional. But I am aware it’s going to do that so I’m prepared and the part of me that’s always observing takes back over and overrules those thoughts.
Now obviously I’m telling you this because it doesn’t just apply to dogs. This applies to everything we do in our life. Having a plan and sticking to it, being intentional about everything we do is crucial. Managing ahead of time the thoughts you know that are gonna come up and overruling them. Overthinking is one of the biggest problems we have as humans. We overthink on everything from what we eat to what we to do to words we say and words that other people say. If you’re overthinking, write down your thoughts, you’ll found some of those thoughts are quite ridiculous. If you’re anxious take massive action, the first step is usually the hardest. Announce what you’re gonna do to someone who will hold you accountable. if you’re procrastinating, lay out a plan so you know exactly what you need to do next. We aren’t just hoping we don’t over feed Sonny and Charlie, we measure out their food and we count out the exact amount of treats they get for the day so we have a plan because we don’t want to run out of treats mid day. It’s such a relief to me to have a plan because it takes the stress and anxiety out of how best to take care of these little guys.
My challenge to you today is to ask yourself..is there an area of my life that I’m leaving to chance? Is there an area in my life that would be better if I had a plan? Could I relieve some of my anxiety by being intentional? Is there an area of my life where my mind is causing me unnecessary problems? If you’re like me, The answer is probably yes.. if so what do you need to do to be intentional? The answer is threaded throughout this episode…. I love you guys, I’ll talk to you in a few days.
