Lose it for Life(style)

Core Fundamentals

• Develop a personal, intimate, daily relationship with God
• Connect daily with a Lose it for Life buddy
• Exercise 30-60 minutes per day, 5 days per week
• Attend a Lose it for Life group every week (or OA, WW, or CR)
• Do written exercises every week

The Basics

• Monitor my progress regularly
• Have goals
• Work on one thing at a time
• Plan
• Learn to love my body
• Be patient
• Stay in the present
• Stay away from negative people, places, and things
• Accept reality
• Make wise food choices
• Develop a healthy self-esteem
• Work on my relationships
• Monitor my motivation
• Face my problems
• Learn to tolerate discomfort
• Balance
• Develop community and connection
• De-stress my life
• Manage stress well
• Feel and deal with my emotions
• Get healing for old wounds
• Get a life
• Surrender to the process
• Eat regularly
• Eat protein throughout the day
• Eat whole foods
• Eat breakfast
• Journal
• Take my thoughts captive
• Get help
• Don't multi-task while eating
• Strive for progress, not perfection
• Learn to differentiate between physical hunger and other hungers
• Discover the root of my attachment to food
• Accept responsibility for the cause of and solution to this problem
• Invest time, money, and effort

Other things I may need to work on

Do strength training 2-3 x/ week
Drink 60 oz of water per day
Stay away from high calorie drinks
Find exercise that fits my personality
Find exercise that fits my body type
Get exercise equipment that will keep me safe from injury
Get exercise equipment that helps me stay motivated
Get a favorite water bottle
Exercise gradually, at my current fitness level, age, etc
Exercise at a time that works with my schedule
Stop watching so much TV
Go to bed earlier
Figure out what things need axed from my schedule
Get an exercise buddy
Incorporate physical activity into regular activities
Work on my social skills
Find ways to distract myself from food impulses
Face my fears
Develop hobbies and interests and creativity
Face my anger
Risk rejection
Give up food as my best friend
Grow on purpose
Give up obsessing about food/weight/body
Accept the reality of the impact my weight has on my health
Accept the reality of the impact my weight has on my life
Focus on the choice that is in front of me now
Have sufficient quiet time
Focus on what I can do, not on what I can't do
Seek for and apply God's wisdom
Admit my character defects and mistakes
Ask God to open my eyes to the truth about me
Ask God to open my eyes to the truth about Him
Learn to delay immediate gratification
Recognize the long-term consequences of each choice
Get plenty of rest
Control portions
Be alert to attacks from the enemy
Know the Word and apply it to my life
Have a goal for my target weight range
Have a goal for the pace of my weight loss
Give up the need to be invisible
Stop using weight as an excuse to not live
Give up my excuses
Stop self-sabotaging
Stay away from people who sabotage me
Rid my house of trigger foods
Eat only at the kitchen table
Stop eating in the car
Stop using my weight as a way to punish someone
Learn to be OK with a normal body size
Learn to deal with my sexual impulses
Learn to deal with others' sexual advances
Put in effort
Accept the reality that there will be occasional rough patches
Know the reasons why I eat, other than hunger
Have realistic expectations
Choose lower glycemic foods
Choose higher fiber foods
Stay away from refined flour and sugar
Exercise aerobically 30-60 minutes/day, 3-5x/week
Be willing to do whatever it takes
Accept that there are no simple solutions to complex problems
Shape my motivation around health, freedom, and pleasing God
Accept God's grace
Stop defining myself by what I weigh
Learn to listen to my body
Accept responsibility for my own behavior and choices
Mange my emotions, instead of them managing me
Make new, healthy connections with people
Get up after I fall
Let slips be isolated incidents, not a predictor of the future
Accept my body for what it is today
Learn to like myself
Become aware of my true needs
Seek to get my true needs met in healthy, God-honoring ways
Avoid quick-fix temptations
Want healing more than I want food
Explore the root reasons for my attachment to food
Make gradual lifestyle changes
Experience pain
Acknowledge my need for help
Seek help until I find what I need
Be open, honest, and vulnerable with God
Be open, honest, and vulnerable with trusted others
Forgive myself
Forgive others
Receive and accept forgiveness from God
Receive and accept forgiveness from others
Transform my struggle, loss, and pain into a purposeful mission
Accept my powerlessness and lack of control
Periodically measure my progress
Admit and accept my weakness
Be open to receiving God's power
Be honest with myself
Believe that all things work together for good for those that love God
Face my problems
Grieve my losses
Believe that God's plans for me are good
Record what I eat
Stop grazing
Stop overeating at a sitting
Learn to interrupt binges
Tolerate bad feelings
Get happy now, instead of waiting until you're thin
Focus on deep connections with several others
Live in the present
Get rid of the "if only"s
Stop losing weight for other people
Accept my true value
Move my expectations closer to reality
Learn moderation
Fill the emptiness with something besides food
Stop overly-restricting myself
Stop viewing certain foods as "bad"
Stop depending on others to tell me what to eat
Stop rebelling
View my body as sacred
Experience God's grace
Plan my meals ahead of time
Stop eating in front of the TV
Take the time to eat
Avoid eating 2-3 hours before bed
Increase my Basal Metabolic Rate
Discover the impact my medications have on my weight
Learn better time management skills
Study nutrition
See a nutritionist or dietitian
See a counselor or therapist
Learn to maintain weight during stressful periods
Learn my cycles... daily, weekly, monthly, annual
Look at my whole body in the mirror
Read affirmation statements
Get a physical
Discover my BMI
Increase vegetables
Increase fruit
Drastically reduce high-density calorie foods
Decrease caffeine
Decrease alcohol
Increase dairy/calcium
Choose low fat or no fat
Avoid fried foods
Learn my metabolic or blood type
Buy and cook up plenty of healthy food to have on hand
Increase my lifestyle from sedentary to active to very active
Determine the number of calories I need to lose weight, and to maintain weight
Count calories
Count points
Discover my food allergies
Put boundaries around chocolate
Make immediate corrections for overeating in my next meal
Do short-term fasts
Eat before events
Eat before grocery shopping
Avoid certain aisles of the grocery store
Avoid certain restaurants or fast food places
Limit the variety of food displayed
Limit eating during cooking
Create an enjoyable, stress-free eating environment
Sit down while eating
Use smaller plates and bowls
Put away leftovers
Limit or eliminate binge foods
Have a plan for eating out
Plan how to handle special events
Change my attitude about exercising
Exercise in short bouts throughout the day
Re-prioritize my time
Develop routines
Find healthy ways to deal with boredom
Stop eating when I am physically full
Stop cleaning my plate
Throw away food
Stop beating myself up
Stop eating in secret/hiding
Slow down when I eat
Be honest about how much I eat
Confess my sins and shortcomings to God and others
Praise God more
Take medication
Find my security in God
Refuse to believe I am a mistake
Believe that God is for me
Stop comparing myself to others
Be OK with happiness
Stop putting off unpleasant tasks
Express my feeling to God and trusted others
Determine the needs behind my feelings
Journal my thoughts and feelings
Keep a prayer journal
Listen for the Lord to speak
Identify the lies I believe
Get surgery for my heart
Stop talking negatively to myself and about myself
Never give up hope
Put a rubber band on my wrist to snap when I think negative
Keep a dysfunctional thought record
Stop obsessing about "What if"
Stop catastrophizing
Accept uncertainty and ambiguity
Use visualization and meditation
Stop thinking so much
Believe that God will do what he says he will do
Do the Word, don't just hear it
Turn off food commercials
Learn relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing
Stay away from goodies at work
Stand near the healthy food at parties
Concentrate on one change at a time
Accept that good health takes commitment and investment
Learn to say no
Get out of one-way relationships
Learn to be more assertive
Become more interested in others
Practice doing things that are uncomfortable
Refuse to play the victim role
Enlist the help of my family
Spend more time planning
Have a relapse recognition plan
Have a relapse prevention plan
Recognize complacency when it happens
Beware of rationalizations and compromises
Stop thinking that reaching your ideal weight is the end of the journey
Recognize when I start to isolate
Live in the moment
Practice spiritual disciplines-prayer, worship, confession, Bible study, giving, fasting, submission, service, forgiving
Stop eating with dangerous people
Take vitamins and supplements
Eat organic
Develop an emergency plan
Keep non-binge, healthy foods handy
Develop a week-end plan
Make phone calls
Love myself
Stand up more
Develop a pleasing appearance
Write down what I eat
Write down what I am going to eat
Do 12-step work
Set up rewards for small victories
Define when I will eat
Not get too hungry
Not get too angry
Not get too lonely
Not get too tired
Increase my faith
Believe God
Change my image of God
Be real and authentic
Reshuffle my friendships
Give and receive grace
Develop relationships a small step at a time
Turn my life over to God
Cry more
Cry more in front of others
Master my body
Embrace my humanness
Stop trying to change other people
Take baby steps
Start over every day
Look for and cherish my victories every day
Recognize and deal with any rebellion in my heart
Get a sponsor
Get a mentor
Get a personal trainer
Join a gym