One Shovel at a Time

There was once a little boy with a small shovel, which he was using to try and clear a pathway through deep, new-fallen snow in front of his house.  A man stopped to watch the little boy for a couple of minutes and then asked the boy how on earth he expected to finish such a big task with such a small shovel.  "Little by little, that's how!" was the response, and the boy kept shoveling.

Some of us may feel like we have tackled an enormous task with the smallest of shovels, and it can feel overwhelming sometimes.  I know that the prospect of losing 120 pounds seemed impossible to me, which is one of the reasons I was researching weight loss surgery options when I found an on-line ad about Take Shape for Life/Medifast.  I mistakenly thought that having surgery would be the "easy way" to lose weight, and also the only way.  It was only because the surgery wasn't a covered benefit under my insurance plan that I even decided to give this program a try.

I approached my first day much like the boy with the small shovel.  I faced an enormous challenge and my resources were puny at best.  I couldn't tackle the entire pile in a single shovel, but every Medifast meal that I ate was taking one more small shovelful and tossing it aside.  Each meal on its own seemed pretty insignificant, and each day seemed pretty inconsequential as well, but those meals and those days added up, until that enormous pile was finally gone.

There are days when it gets tiring, and there are days when staying on plan isn't much fun.  I tell people all the time that I did NOT wake up every single morning joyful that I faced another on-plan day :-).  But the thought of not reaching my goal, and my desire to put over two decades of morbid obesity behind me once and for all kept me at it, one Medifast meal at a time.

In the story, I found it interesting that a man stopped to question the boy and tried to raise doubts in the child's mind.  We all have those people in our lives, and some of us even live with them - people who raise questions, who have their doubts about whether or not we will really do it this time, people who have seen us try and fail over the years and fully expect us to fail once again.  There are naysayers everywhere and they can quickly discourage us - if we allow them to.  I think the little boy's attitude is exactly what ours needs to be - he just kept on shoveling!  

When it all boils down, we have to do this for ourselves.  Different people will have different opinions about what we're doing and I can promise you that not everyone will be supportive.  It can be hard to ignore the naysayers and keep on keeping on, but that's exactly how we'll reach our goal!

Choose wisely :-)

Valuable Stepping Stones

My husband has a sign in our office that says, "The lesson is in the struggle, not in the victory."  He has this sign as a reminder that there is value in the struggle, and even in the failures we experience along the way to what is ultimately victory.

We are a success-oriented, success-celebrating society, and most of us have spent our lives viewing failure as something to be avoided at all costs.  That thinking has been difficult for many (or most) of us who have struggled with our weight for years.  It's hard to be a walking example of weight loss failure in a society that rejects failure. 

When we start on Take Shape for Life, we all experience immediate success as we see weight begin to drop, and that early success propels many of us on all the way to our goal.  However, that early success doesn't keep everyone motivated and many find themselves struggling sooner or later.  

I want to encourage all of the strugglers today.  Your struggles, and even your failures, are valuable stepping-stones on the way to ultimate success.  Every struggle and every failure teaches us what doesn't work and gives us the opportunity to fine-tune what we're doing - if we're paying attention along the way :-).  I once heard a speaker say that "the hallmark of achievers is that they have failed their way to success - every failure teaches us what doesn't work."

The key, of course, is to pay attention and use those struggles and failures as opportunities to learn.  We may trip and fall a dozen times, but if we get up again and learn from the experience, we'll be stronger in the end.  The victory will also be that much sweeter - and there WILL eventually be victory.

When we fail - and we all do, one way or another, sooner or later - we are faced with a choice.  We can either beat ourselves up and allow the failure to define us, or we can choose to learn from the failure and use that failure to propel us to future success.  The choice is ours, so choose wisely :-).

The Secret to GUARANTEED Success!!

I am SO excited this morning!  I have a secret to share with you - THE key that will GUARANTEE your success on this program.  It doesn't matter if you're just getting started (if so, welcome!) or if you're a veteran who's been on the program for several months (or longer).  This is it - the key that is guaranteed 100% to get you to your goal.

Are you ready?  Here's the key to your success:

1.  Get started
2.  Don't quit

Yep - it's that simple!  Here's the good news:  since you're reading this, I'm assuming that you've already started.  If that's true, then you're half-way there!  :-)  Getting started is often the hardest part, especially if we've tried and failed before.  Failure tends to breed failure, and if you've failed before (like I did about a zillion times), the very thought of trying again can be overwhelming.  The fear of failing yet again can keep us from even trying, so the very fact that you've started is encouraging.

The second half of the "guaranteed success" equation is to keep going and not quit.  You already know that this plan works.  If you've been on plan for even a week, you've lost weight - possibly more weight than you've ever lost in a single week on any other plan.  All you have to do is keep going :-).

This is such a great time of year to keep going and not quit!  First of all, with everyone just coming off the holidays, a lot of people are focused on eating healthier and losing weight.  There are less temptations now and you are more likely to encounter sympathetic, supportive people.  For everyone who lives in one of the cold weather states, you have several months before shorts and swimsuit weather is here - great motivation!  Getting started and not quitting means you'll be at your goal (or at least a lot closer) by the time warm weather arrives.

I do apologize if the key to success wasn't exactly what you were looking for - I fully understand!  Before starting on Take Shape for Life, I was always on high alert, looking for THE thing that would finally unlock the chains of my own morbid obesity.  Almost every January would find me perusing the diet section of my local bookstore, checking out the latest and greatest plan.  Every year I hoped and prayed that the latest and greatest new plan would be THE key.  When someone I knew lost weight, I'd always ask them how they did it.  When they responded that they changed how they ate and started exercising, I was always disappointed because that answer was so simple - I wanted to hear about something new that would let me eat whatever I wanted, continue to be a couch potato, and still melt the pounds.  

Of course, that "secret" never materialized, and I know now that it never will.  There IS no magic potion, pharmaceutical wonder, or anything else that will bring the results we want without effort on our part.  Sigh!

However, this plan works and it works fast.  All of the hard work has been done for us - we don't have to figure anything out.  No counting calories, carbs or fat grams, no worrying about whether or not we're getting the nutrition we need - it's all been taken care of.  All we have to do once we start is just keep going and not quit.  If we do that, the chances that we'll reach our goal is 100%.

Get started.  Don't quit.  The choice is ours, so choose wisely :-)

How 'Bout Those Resolutions?

We're one week into the new year, so how's it going so far?  I read an article that said, according to research, many people don't have the willpower to make their New Year's resolutions last longer than a week.  A week . . . which means that there are some people whose resolutions are already starting to weaken or have even collapsed.  

I hope that doesn't apply to anybody here!  I do know that successfully losing weight (and maintaining it!) requires a lot more than what is usually found in a New Year's resolution.  Most of my past New Year's resolutions were mostly wishful thinking with very little resolve to be found.  I know that's true because they rarely lasted a full week.  

The research identified the reason for failure as a lack of willpower, but I disagree.  Willpower really has nothing to do with it, because we almost always end up doing the things we really want to do.  We just need to decide what it is that we want and keep what we want in focus. 

When I decided that what I really wanted was to get to a healthy weight, that became my focus and there was a level of resolve that hadn't been there before.  Foods that had formerly been huge temptations suddenly became obstacles to me getting what I really wanted.  The food hadn't changed, of course, but my focus had and I wanted health far more than I wanted the food.  To be honest, I still wanted the food, and sometimes it was really, REALLY hard to walk away from it, but I was able to walk away because there was something else I wanted even more.

I've often heard people say that they can't lose weight because they don't have enough willpower.  Sorry, but that's a cop-out!  The truth is that they just don't want it bad enough, at least not yet.

The good news is that Take Shape for Life is designed to get us what we really want - if we really want to get to a healthy weight - and it will get us there pretty quickly.  We just have to decide if that's what we really want.  Once we decide, we'll make choices that support that decision.  Once again, decide what you want, then choose wisely :-)

Feeding the Dogs

There's no denying it - getting to a healthy weight and maintaining a healthy weight is an ongoing battle.  We are constantly challenged to make wise choices, and the struggle to choose between immediate gratification and what we REALLY want - a healthy body - can be a fierce struggle.  One friend told me that she said she felt like she had an angel sitting on one shoulder and the devil on the other, with each whispering in her ear.  I've had that same feeling and I'm guessing that a lot of you have, too.  We know what we SHOULD do, and perhaps it's what we really WANT to do, but then there's this other voice that says, "just this once won't hurt . . . ".  All of the sudden, the battle is on as two conflicting desires pull us in two different directions.

The battle that wages is about so much more than whether or not we're going to eat something at that particular moment.  The battle that's waging is really the battle between getting healthy and staying overweight/obese.

Take Shape for Life did a lot of wonderful things for me, and I'm continuing to reap so many of the benefits, but it did not cure my obesity.  The plan enabled me to return to a healthy weight and put me on a path towards optimal health, but it did not cure my obesity.  That beast is there, always there, ready, willing and able to rear its ugly head and take over my life if I choose to become mindless about what I eat and do.

Everyday that I make healthy choices is another day that develops the healthy habits I want to keep and develop for the rest of my life.  However, I am aware that the beast is alive - just hungry and underfed at the moment :-).  I'd like to think I could starve it to death, but that's not likely to happen.

I once heard a story about a man who talked about the internal struggle he was having and likened it to a fight between two dogs.  Someone asked him which dog was winning and the man replied, "Whichever one I feed."

Everyday each and every one of us has to face the dog fight yet again.  We're in a battle for our health, and one of the dogs in the fight is named obesity.  This dog may be a little skeletal at the moment because it hasn't been fed in a while, but it's watching in the corner, waiting for an opportune moment.

So every day we plan, and we commit to NOT feeding that dog today!  Every day I realize all over again that I CANNOT do this on my own and ask my Heavenly Father for a fresh measure of His grace and strength.  And every day that I do that - and every day that each of us makes a commitment to making the sometimes hard choices - is another day that moves us a bit closer to a healthier you and me.

Which dog are you going to feed today?  The choice is yours - choose wisely :-)

Choosing to Believe

"If you were to take the most talented athlete in the world and put him or her in a room of liars and verbal abusers for two hours a day, you'd see the athlete's performance sharply decline.  The level of talent remains the same, the training continues, but the ability to win vanishes.  Why?  Because no one can listen to constant discouragement and be encouraged.  No one can have confidence undermined and still be confident.  No one can doubt his or her ability and still use it effectively.  What we believe matters a lot."

This quote has wide application for many areas of our lives, including this weight loss journey.  As I've shared before, the food part of this program is simple - it's the head and heart part that's the challenge.  What we believe about our ability to be successful in losing weight matters.  The kind of feedback and support - or lack of support - from others also matters.

We have to choose who and what we're going to listen to because there will always - ALWAYS - be thoughts and words that discourage.  Our struggles in the past can cause us to doubt our ability to be successful now or in the future.  For some of us, there are people in our lives who are natural-born naysayers and who seem to think it is their calling to say a discouraging word at every opportunity.  If we believe the negative thoughts we have and listen to the negative comments of others, this journey is going to be even more of a challenge.

When I was on 5&1, I had a lot of negative thoughts that ran through my head that caused me to doubt this program would work.  All of my past failure seemed to have a megaphone that shouted "give up, it will never work."  No one could have been more skeptical than I when I started on this program.  Thankfully I didn't have any nay-sayers in my life - my husband was supportive from the very beginning - but I believed a lot of lies about myself and my ability to change.  

My belief about what I could and couldn't do began to change because of two things.  First of all, while I "believed" I couldn't stay on plan for a month or a year, I knew that I could stay on plan for a day, so I took it one day (and sometimes one meal) at a time.  As each day on plan was added to the one before, the days turned into a week, then into a month, and what I believed about what I could and couldn't do began to change.  I realized that I had been believing a lie and I had allowed that lie to keep me stuck in a very unhealthy pattern.

Secondly, I surrounded myself with encouraging people.  The daily support and encouragement I received from others who believed I could do this was amazing!  I also drew a lot of inspiration and encouragement from reading about people who had reached their goal and I spent a lot of time looking at their success photos and reading their stories.  Realizing that others were successfully losing weight helped me believe that I could be successful, too.

Right now you may not believe you can be successful, but do you believe you can stay on plan for a day?  Do you believe that you can make your next meal a Medifast meal?  Start there, and by taking one tiny step at a time, you will not only change what you believe about your ability to lose weight on this program, but you will also change your life.

If you have nay-sayers in your life, find a way to mute their negativity.  You may or may not be able to avoid them, but by surrounding yourself with others who will encourage you, you can begin to get the support you need to continue moving forward.  You have the right to have the support you need!

The choices we make today go far beyond what we're going to put in our mouths.  We also have to choose what we allow to resonate in our hearts and minds, and we have to choose what we're going to believe.  Choose wisely :-)

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013!  I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's, and I also hope that you're ready to make 2013 your healthiest year ever.  It doesn't matter if you're just starting on this program for the first time or if this is your umpteenth go-around.  It also doesn't matter if you blew it royally over the holidays.  The only thing that matters is that you've made a decision NOW to create something wonderful - a healthy, thin YOU, living the life you want to live.

That may sound next to impossible to some of you; it sure sounded impossible to me when I started on this program in June of 2007.  I was desperate to lose weight but, at 5'5" and 260 pounds, I didn't think it was possible to lose the weight I needed to lose.  Two decades of failure with multiple weight loss attempts only reinforced what I believed to be true.  Funny thing, though - what I believed to be true about my inability to lose weight ended up not being true at all!  I not only lost a total of 126 pounds on this program, reaching my goal in May of 2008, but I've been fairly successful in maintaining my weight loss ever since.  I say "fairly successful" because I haven't done maintenance perfectly,  but this program has given me the tools I need to know what to do when the scale blips up.

So how do you shift gears and move forward, even if you don't really believe you can?   It's simple (please note:  I said "simple," not "easy"!).  You shift gears by focusing on what you want.  Have you made the decision to lose weight and get to a healthy weight?  I'm not talking about you wanting to lose weight, because just about everybody wants to lose weight :-).  I'm asking if you've made the decision to lose weight and get healthy.  This isn't a matter of semantics.  Everyone wants to lose weight and would opt to do so in a heartbeat if it could be done quickly and without giving anything up.  However, very few people actually make the fundamental decision to get to a healthy weight, because once you make that decision, things begin to change.

It's not that making the decision to get to a healthy weight somehow waves a wand that magically makes it happen, but once you make the fundamental decision and focus on what you want, you will begin to make the choices necessary to support that decision.  Making the decision also doesn't mean that you won't ever slip up, because some of you will, but if you have your eyes on your goal and keep focused, you'll keep moving forward.

Forget what's happened in the past - you can't change it.  The past can only rule your present and determine your future if you allow it to.  Today, at the beginning of 2013, you can set your course for a different future - IF you know what you want and have made the decision to go for it.  Once you've done that and focused on what you want, all that's left to do is make the choices that will support your decision.   Decide, focus, then choose wisely :-)