Dream a Little Dream With Me

I heard a lot of memorable quotes last week at the Take Shape for Life convention I attended, but one that stood out was "dreams give us the power to change to become the person we need to be to achieve the dream." The speaker went on to say that sometimes what's even more important than achieving our dream are the changes that take place in us along the way.

As children, most of us dreamed a lot - that is the nature of children. Children dream of what they will be when they grow up, they dream about their next birthday or the next vacation. And when they dream, they dream BIG - most children put no limits on their dreams, and for a while it seems that anything is possible. You can see it shining in their eyes!

Then children turn into adults - us! Sadly, many if not most of us stop dreaming, assigning dreams to the stuff of childhood, or perhaps our mind's escape on a rare night of good sleep. When we are awake, we are immersed in the reality of the here and now, and we don't have time for dreams. Maybe we don't even believe in dreaming any more.

One of the things that happens on Take Shape for Life/Medifast's 5&1 program is that grownups start to dream again! I've seen it happen over and over again, and I experienced it myself. As we watch the pounds begin to melt off, we dare to dream of a different kind of life - a life that is not encumbered by extra weight, a life where we are finally comfortable in our own skin and able to do the things we want to do.

Making those kind of dreams a reality takes hard work, and we will definitely change in the process - change is inevitable! When we dream big - and my dream of losing 126 pounds was a BIG dream! - we begin to put into action the steps needed to achieve the dream. The dream becomes our WHY, and when our dream and our why is big enough, we're motivated to make the secondary choices necessary to achieve that dream.

What's amazing is that as we move towards that dream and see it becoming a reality, we find an inner strength that we didn't know we had. We develop discipline and resolve, and we learn to delay immediate gratification because our eyes are fixed on a greater goal and we aren't going to let anything get in our way.

Some of you know exactly what I'm saying, while others of you may be afraid to allow yourselves to dream. Go for it! Spend some time dreaming about how you want to feel and what you want to look like when you reach your goal. Dream about what will be different in your life. What will you be able to do?

As I allowed myself to finally dream about reaching my goal, and as I moved towards making that dream a reality, a lot changed in my life. I had to learn (even at the ripe old age of 55!) to delay gratification, to say "no" to something I wanted (food) because there was something I wanted even more - being healthy. I learned it was OK to ask for what I wanted and needed in a restaurant and not be apologetic for making a special request. I learned that I could have a wonderful time at a party just talking to people, that I didn't need to have a plate of food in my hand to have a good time. I also learned to depend on my Lord in an entirely new way, and to look to Him for the comfort and solace I needed instead of turning to food. For me, that was the most transforming thing of all!

I dreamed about being at a healthy weight, but I could not have possibly dreamed about all of the wonderful things that have happened since then. Seeing my family members and friends lose weight and get healthy, having my story and pictures run in the newspaper and in ads in national magazines, leaving my job to work full time helping others lose weight and get healthy - none of this was even on my radar! God has blessed beyond my wildest dreams, and I'm learning to dream bigger dreams these days!

How about you? Do you have some dreams that you're pursuing right now? If not, can you dare to start dreaming again? If you're dreaming about losing weight and reaching your goal, the good news is that your dream can and will become a reality - IF you stay committed to staying on plan, one meal and one day at a time :-)