I’m excited because today is the first time that I am talking about vision in the way that I will be talking about it, and I think it is a huge game changer!

I have been working with the girls in my 6 week program about the action of embracing pain - or leaning into negative feelings. One of the ways that this builds into your vision is by what we define as a pain.

When we think about the life style of the healthy, we tend to think about the pre-prepped meals, and the chicken breasts and broccoli. We often experience the fear of missing out, or the longing for what we think we will be giving up.

While I don’t believe in giving up foods, restricting ourselves, or denying ourselves delicious foods that are a part of life, I do believe that a cornerstone of the healthy life IS a healthy, nutritious diet.

A way that we can tell whether or not our current diet is serving us, is to ask, “is this giving me the result I want.” If the answer is “No,” then giving up the cookies during the week, or replacing the burrito with chicken and broccoli, is probably going to be useful.

Now that is why we would make this type of change, and it is easy to see how that could be uncomfortable. Just the simple act of creating change is uncomfortable. So how does this bleed into our vision?

I would like to offer, that if you are afraid of the foods you will be missing out on, and that eating chicken and broccoli will be boring (which is just a thought and completely untrue), then what you may be truly struggling with is the feeling that many of us try to avoid and numb ourselves to: boredom.

I find this to be such a powerful “ah-ha” thought, but if the most exciting part of your day is what you eat, then the problem is not the food!

Now there will be people, and maybe you are one of them, who think, “But my life is busy and stressful and full! I’m not bored! I just want to relax and enjoy the burrito!” I would like to offer you the fault in this thinking: There is a big difference in being stressed out and overwhelmed, and being excited and having FUN.

This is where the vision comes in.

Just imagine… If you can close your eyes! This is your life! This is the start to a new lifestyle! You are not aiming for effortless and healthy weight loss where you are bored and just binging Netflix snacking on tons of junk food, because that lifestyle is what has created your current reality. You have an opportunity to discover what an active, healthy and FUN lifestyle could look like!

Imagine the lifestyle where what you are doing is FUN. It’s a Thursday night and you have your “ME” time, away from the kids, and you join a yoga class and make a new girl friend, who also has 2 kids and a husband! Or its Wednesday night and you take your kids with you to meet other moms for a run. Or you go out rock climbing, hiking, to play a sport, running, or to clean up a park, with nice, like minded, and possibly funny adults! You make time for you, AND its FUN!

Now when you get home on Wednesday night and you have to grab your chicken and veggies, you are doing it to fuel the life you want to live! You’re not obsessing over what food you didn’t eat. You’re not turning to food for your life. Not meeting friends for drinks to commiserate over terrible husbands, or to meet for dinner and argue about who gained more weight over the holiday. And if you are going out with active friends for a bite, its the exception, not the rule.

What I want you to take away from this, is that the vision is so much more than JUST picturing yourself with a thin, fit body. It is building your new life! Your dream life! What fun is looking good in your clothes if the only people who will see it, are your kids?

A great way to start this practice is to ask yourself, “if you are not going to obsess over food, then what will you replace the eating with?”