I lost 7 pounds in the last 25 days.

And no, I’m not here to sell you BeachBody or talk you into the Keto diet.

As I’ve shared before in this newsletter, my biggest goal this year is to reclaim the thoughts in my head. In late 2019, I came across the work of Brooke Castillo—the teachings that our thoughts create our results. (I shared my little obsession with you a few weeks ago in this post: You Are Only One Thought Away From a Better Life.)

Ever since then, my favourite hobby has been digging up hidden thoughts in my mind. (And if you read last week’s newsletter, you’ll remember my metaphor of digging up potatoes from the ground to symbolize the thoughts in our head. We can either leave them buried below the surface or choose to roll up our sleeves and start digging.)

Needless to say, I’ve been digging.

Digging is hard work, mind you. The hammock looks so comfortable to lie in, the bowl of ripe strawberries is calling my name to take a break, and the fresh pop of a sparkling rosé makes me want to drop my shovel.

But I’ve become fascinated with digging up those potatoes.

In January, I threw myself into entrepreneurship and have, since day 1, kept a pen and paper beside my laptop to jot down the negative thoughts popping into my brain during work hours.

I don’t trust myself with this…

What’s the point of even starting this…

The moment a negative thought pops up, I can now slap it away with a new thought that actually serves me. I must say, I’ve been crushing it here lately!

In May, after writing out my birthday goals, I decided it was time to really dedicate my thought work practice to other areas of my life as well. To uncover what subconscious narrative loops are running through my mind when it comes to my relationships, my social life, my character, my health and fitness, and my spiritual life.

After my birthday, I pretty much had vanilla icing coming out of my pores… which made it a wonderfully obvious next area to focus on.

And you know what the biggest limiting thought I uncovered was? That “food is the only joy we have in lockdown”. This past year has definitely moved me into a treat yo self mindset. Takeout on Saturday nights because it was our way to #supportlocal and, truthfully, something to look forward to in the bleakness of a stay-at-home order.

Miguel and I decided on a friendly competition for the remainder of May to focus on eating nourishing foods only. No takeout, no processed sweets, no carbs (and for me, no wine). It was our way to reclaim back our power over our diets. A simple plan of eating as much nourishing foods as we want, and to pay attention to why our “treat” cravings were coming up. When you realize you’re simply opening the pantry out of boredom or stress, the hunger seems to slip away…

Not to mention, my rebellious spirit fired up at the thought that a pathetic thought like boredom could have such a tight grip over my eating habits.

So that’s the story of me losing 7 pounds in 25 days. Nothing more than an exploration into why certain cravings were coming up. Those 7 pounds represent, quite literally, the weight of the limiting thoughts I was carrying around.

Our brains are hardwired for growth, but our brains are also hardwired for comfort. Here’s a wild truth: we show up differently in each area of our life. We can be confident in our professional life, but show up insecure in our relationships. We can be the authority in one area of our lives and a passive bystander in the others.

If I know I’m successful in my professional life, then I will happily continue directing my energy there. If, in comparison, my personal life isn’t as strong, then I might choose to avoid it—making my life more and more lopsided towards the areas that have the least “potatoes” to dig up.

It’s not about trying to crush it in each area of our life, it’s about continuously re-assessing if we’re still in alignment in each area. If the things we’re doing now are still bringing us as much joy as when we started doing them five years ago.

In this new month of June, I’m tackling relationships. Our environment gives us superpowers and I’m ready to become more intentional with where, and with whom, I share my energy. Frankly, I got sick of myself complaining that I don’t belong anywhere (read last week’s newsletter if you missed that – hah!). I had a running thought that I needed “one group” to belong to. That I had to carefully and strategically choose the one defining group that was filled with “my people”. But as a multi-passionate? As someone who craves variety? It’s no surprise that this thought paralyzed me and stopped me from building any community. It really is as simple as flipping the script on what I was telling myself: instead of avoiding being someone who belongs everywhere out of fear of belonging nowhere, I should strive to belong nowhere because it will lead me to belong everywhere.

If you need any proof that our thoughts create our results, here’s one: five days after adopting this new thought, a friend and I spontaneously launched a Shopify Alumni group that grew to 130+ members in 48 hours! Hello, community! The energy of the ambitious professionals in this group has already filled my “get shit done” tank, which I had been missing.

When you realize that a single thought is ruling a particular result in your life, you really do start to feel limitless.

And if we start approaching our lives with a work-in-progress mindset, what happens is our shame of not having a “perfect life” slips away.

I’m not here to perform, I’m here to live.

And not just survive living, but really thrive living.

In every area.

Which area of your life are you currently focused on?