Chrissie Webber works as a writer, business coach and motivation/ leadership trainer and is Managing Director of Life-Shapers Ltd, an online weight-loss motivation company. With over 20 years experience in the field of business and people development she has an expertise in the area of motivation for permanent weight loss.
Following a lifetime of weight issues - at her heaviest, over 21 stone and a massive size 30 – she has personal experience of diets and their devastating effect on size and psyche. With a background in nursing, psychology and business coaching, coupled with a lifetime of dieting, she developed and successfully used a series of models and tools that enhance weight loss motivation. Now over 5 dress sizes smaller and having sustained her weight loss for several years, Chrissie continues her passionate drive to change the mindsets of people away from a ‘Scarcity’ dieting mindset – where food is demonised as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – to an ‘Abundance’ mindset where mind, body and spirit work hand in hand with food and nature.
Phew! I have just completed an hours exercise without going to the gym. Actually my gym doesn't open on a Saturday at present, so this morning I decided to Active8 myself and get my daily exercise in a different way - picking up plums!
Yes, I am serious. My decking was covered in plums from the trees next door that overhang my garden. Every year I curse the deluge of fruit that carpets the area. This year was different, as it became part of my daily activity practice. So out I went and surveyed the mess. As my heart sank at the thought of all that work, I began to think about something the author Byron Katie talks about - being joyful and grateful for the work we need to do.
Katie (as she prefers to be known) who wrote 'Loving What Is' explains that everyone and everything comes into our lives to help us to learn. So, as I began to pick up the messy, splattered fruit I began to feel the enjoyment of the stretching and bending exercise I was getting. Then, I remembered something else that she had taught me at her recent seminar. To be grateful to the tree for doing its job and carpeting the floor so that I would get more exercise!
If you were thinking 'why on earth would you think like that?' Well, consider for a moment how stressful it is to be angry at something you cannot change. It is how it is, and so it is futile getting angry, upset or frustrated about it! How much better, to let the situation offer you something in return like exercise or a learning experience.
This sort of situation brings with it a double-edged advantage that motivates and keeps me on track. The tree doing its job and dropping its plums gave me...
1. The opportunity of getting a good hour bending and stretching exercise.
2. The opportunity to be grateful to the tree; let go of my usual negativity and stress about having to do the job and therefore, reduce my need to comfort eat.
Give it a go next time you are getting angry and frustrated at something. Try considering that they are doing a job to help you learn how to be more accepting of 'What is' and so keep your stress at bay.
