Day 3: Trade Your Judge’s Robe For A Lab Coat | 30-Day Weight Loss-athon
Welcome to Day 3 of the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon! Today we make a very important mindset shift – one that can support or sabotage you as you fight the fat.
I suggest you read through the steps first, then take 10 minutes to complete them.
We only have 10 minutes, so you need to move fast, act quickly and stop over-thinking. Just throw yourself in. Ready?
What You Need:
- Pen
- Paper
- An open mind.
Step 1
A number of the tasks in the 30-Day Weight Loss-athon ask you to change the way you think. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise – the reasons most people fail at losing weight tend to be psychological.
In this task the mindset shift is an especially challenging one. I’m asking you to stop judging and start observing what you do.
| Instead of judging… | Observe… |
| I’m such a fat cow for eating all that dessert | Having that tiny lunch really backfired – I ate twice as much dessert |
| I’m so lazy for not going to the gym today | Trying to fit exercise in after work doesn’t work for me. I’m more successful when I exercise in the morning. |
| What a pig! | Huh. I really ate a lot of junk today. I wonder why. |
Now I’m not asking you to stop judging in order to discover self-love, re-parent your inner child or heal the emotional wounds of your past. I want you to stop judging because it’s difficult to observe what’s going on when you’re busy self-flagellating.
To notice and learn, you need to step away from the whip.
I want you to observe what’s going on because you are highly individual. The particular combination of diet, exercise and mindset that will work for you, getting you to a fabulous weight and keeping you there, is one that can’t be formulated in advance. No book, system or program will have it ready-made for you. We have to discover it.
Which means we have to try things, observe the effect, do more when something works, try something else when it doesn’t.
So the challenge here is to take off your judge’s robes and put on your scientist’s coat. Visualize that if it helps.
Switching from judge to observer will take practice, and you may need to re-visit today’s task occasionally to remind yourself to notice, observe, question.
Step 2
For the rest of today’s time, get a notebook and list a few of the weight-related things you say to yourself that are judgmental. Don’t dwell on this, just get it down.
For each judgement, write down an observation instead. Just extract the information and ignore everything else – that stuff is what starts binge cycles.
See the examples above to help you.
Step 3
Decide that you are going to be a scientist for the rest of this month.
If you want to put those judge’s robes back on after the 30 days are over, then go for it.
But seriously, the lab coat is so much more flattering.
Check in!
And you’re done! Turn off the Bunsen burner before you leave. 🙂
Be sure to leave your comment below to check in and stay accountable. If you’re reading this by email or in a reader then please click here to leave your comment.
See you tomorrow…
I’m a day late getting to this comment but the task was completed yesterday. However, what I wrote yesterday wasn’t something I didn’t already know. I was born a positive person, but a negative self thinker. 🙁
Pouring down rain to day, so I didn’t get a walk in after work. Maybe I’ll try weights and go for a bit of strength training. this being non judgmental is going to take a real conscious effort. It’s actually lots easier to call myself names than to annalyze what’s going on emotionally, but I know it’s not healthier. Thanks for the reminder.
I don’t judge. I give myself permission for an occasional splurge. Although my observation tells me that my splurges have become the norm instead of the exception. I also observe that it is a challenge for me to plan, shop for, and prepare my healthier meals. I will work to overcome my challenges to reap the positive benefits.
A few days behind checking in but the task was handled the day it was assigned. Positive thoughts = Positive results.
So excited about this! Through out the day today was able to ward off any negative thought as they even starting to form in my mind. Fidning my real true motivation of wanted to be accepted and self-confidence and not just losing weight has made me so encouraged! Took the kids to the park this afternoon and walked the track for about 30 minutes, played and had so much fun!
My biggest challenge is that I love spending time with my husband. It’s difficult for me to go workout when I’d rather hang out with him. Today I’ve convinced him to go to the gym with me. I know this won’t always be the case, so I need to force myself to get up before he gets up in the morning so I can get my workout in and spend all the time I want with him in the evenings after we both get home from work. There, I think I’ve identified and solved my biggest obstacle! 🙂
Great exercise. I just jotted down some notes to start, and I want to share them:
– That moment when you want to wear/buy some clothes ans feel “inconvenient”.
– The “body need” excuse when u wish to eat some dessert though u r not really hungry… and sometimes don’t really want it.
– Avoiding social events to not be looked as “the fat #$%!” in the room!
– In our culture, as the “arranged marriages” are still on, girls are judged by their weight (even their mom’s weight as the ultimate inherited feature!”.. It’s something to ponder about considering how much importance we/our families put on others’ opinions.
Just a few ^^.
This exercise has been hard for me…I don’t think that I am really judgmental of myself…I make bad choices especially if I am having a bad day (I reach for comfort food) or “justify” having a soda or dessert or something else because I have just rocked an hour cardio/weight class and have the calories to “spend”. I think that I will have to ponder this one and observe all week for any judgments I might make….
In the past (when I gained my weight) I was eating late at night due to being so tired but still having heaps to do. I ate to stay awake! I don’t do that so much now but I still don’t have a decent sleep schedule. Good reminder to analyse how I’m doing things.
For me, taking off the judge’s robe means I have to make time to plan. I have to identify what’s not working and try something else. I have to schedule me time, but even more importantly, plan meal times. As Elsa so clearly stated below, I too plan to “do my best not to eat until I am sitting down and making a healthy eating decision.” Not planning on busy days means I’m grabbing whatever is quick to eat which is exactly what I did today. Tomorrow will be full of healthier choices.
I was thinking really hard on this one and I can’t seem to find a comment that I judge myself:(. Got good news today though:) I went for my evaluation at the gym and in the last month, I have lost 5 pounds and lost 2 1/4 inches of fat again. This brings my total from November 10, 2011 to today a lost of 12.76 pounds total and 5 3/4 inches of fat lost. My trainer was really happy about the results and said that considering I have changed my eating habits and my exercises routine, he doesn’t expect me to gain the pounds again:) Praise the Lord!
I tend to beat myself up when it comes to food! I exercise quite a bit and don’t feel bad when I know my body needs a break but it’s when I’ve done well with food for a week and I blow it the next day that I tend to judge myself. So, instead of saying, “Man, I just blew all of that work I’ve done for the past week.” I will say, “Maybe I’m being too restrictive with my diet and can allow myself one treat a day so that I don’t over-indulge all at once”.
I am finding this one particularly difficult because when it comes to food I’m kind of unconscious. I just do, any motivations for binging are buried deep. I’m very good at just allowing myself even though I know that it will keep me trapped in this body that I hate.
Could I have a purple lab coat please? White just *isn’t* my colour!
I had a good think about this, as most of the time I just accept things as the way they are. But then when I thought about it a bit more, I realised that I don’t come up with the observations either (e.g. “eating lunch so late in the afternoon makes me feel really tired and crabby & then I reach for the chocolate to perk me up”).
I tend not to think at all…and therein lies the problem. Shovelling the food in without thought (not being present, or thinking about the consequences) has got me to the state I’m in now.
So providing I can have a purple lab coat, then I’m in!
I like this kind of advice it is useful and practical and helps you reach the ultimate goal and to get focused. this journey will take work and being an obserevr will help to get you there.
Why is it it when we are upset with ourselves judgements come so easily, but when given this assignment – I had a hard time thinking of three or four. For today, I think it is because I am highly motivated and trying to play catch up. I have completed Day1, Day2, and Day3. I started journaling yesterday before I got that “get organized wizard” email – that I actually read…a first in quite a while.I had already started to read The 17 Day Diet, but I don’t want to just diet again – I want to keep on track permanently. Before I begin a food commitment, I am starting a mindset commitment and I won’t start sabotaging myself by beginning food restrictions three days before Easter. Off to read Day 4 and Day 5, but I won’t do them until tomorrow and I’ll post then. 😉
Nice tip and soo true. It is what we learn from the experiences that will help us, not dwelling in our mistakes. I will try to take it into account this month and see if it becomes a (new positive) habit.
Now I am back in the land of internet after camping I can confirm that this objective has been started, however I’m going to leave some blank pages in my diary to continue to jot down anything else I find that I am being judgemental about.
The hardest thing for me is finding time to exercise without getting interrupted by the baby crying or one of the little ones wanting something or playing taxi driver for the older kids. It’s easy to take them all for a walk but I don’t work up a sweat, because I’m walking at a three year old’s pace (not very fast and easily distracted). I need to cut a block of 30-60 minutes for just me time in order to work out. I also need to cut back on my comfort coffee, whenever I’m feeling run down, which is MOST of the time, I drink 200 calories in a cup.
I’m a pretty positive person but I put so much pressure on myself in other areas of my life I don’t have time to eat properly or exercise. I work 60+ hours a week and struggle to find the time to prepare and fit things into my already over the top scheduled. On the rare times I now have to cook I find myself cooking for others to make them happy and I eat things that I know arnt right for me. I’m an emotional eater who knows *a lot* about food and has the skills to prep it, but I have no time and already feel defeated, I really struggle with will power.