Food to Die For

I love food.  There are very few things I don't like.  One of my friends has challenged herself to only say "love" when referring to God or people and talks about "enjoying" food instead of "loving" it.  I think that's a great attitude and I aspire to truly think that way, but when I'm honest with myself, there are a lot of foods that I love to eat.  There have been times when something is so over-the-top delicious that I've said, or I've heard someone else say, "that is to DIE for!"  What we mean, of course, is that the food is beyond-description yummy. 

Because I've described food as "to die for" on numerous occasions in my life, I was interested to see an article posted on the internet a while back with the title "7 Foods to Die For."  Naturally I had to check them out!  The seven foods were an assortment of some of the latest menu offerings at national chain restaurants, including a milkshake that is over 2,000 calories!  The foods listed weren't in the article because they were delicious beyond description "to die for," they were listed because these are the types of foods that are literally killing us.  Another menu option on the list of "to die for" foods was a huge hamburger with all of the fixings nestled between TWO grilled cheese sandwiches (the sandwiches took the place of the bun).  The food industry seems intent on finding new ways to help us put on weight, clog our arteries, and raise our blood pressure and blood sugar, and far too many people are lining up and shelling out money to do just that. 

At a time when more people are obese than at any other time in history - HISTORY!! - and when excess is celebrated in so many circles, those of us on Take Shape for Life/Medifast are truly doing something counter-cultural.  We are lowering calories, temporarily limiting options, and learning the difference between full and satisfied.  We are also learning what it means to make new and better choices by staying focused on what we want - a healthy, thin body.

There are a number of things I would die for - my faith and my family are at the top of that list.   There are also things I'm not willing to die for, and food is at the top of THAT list!  After losing 126 pounds on this program and maintaining my weight loss for over three years (thank you, Jesus!), I know that I am no longer digging my grave with my fork.  I enjoy food, and I may even kind of sort of love it (sometimes), but die for it?  Never!

There are so many food choices out there, and some are literally to die for.  It's up to each of us to decide for ourselves what we'll choose, and the choices we make are based on what we decide is most important to us.  Choose wisely :-)

Choosing An Unobstructed View

Because baseball is almost synonymous with summer and because I grew up in the Chicago area, the following story interested me, especially because I saw applications for our own journey: 

“I love Wrigley Field in Chicago. But like most old ballparks, it has the necessary but aggravating problem of support posts that obscure the view of the game. Unfortunately, I got stuck behind one of those posts at a game once, and, needless to say, it was disappointing. Without a clear view, I became easily distracted.  As I sat distractedly behind the post, I often wondered why everyone was cheering. What had I missed? "

Are you feeling a bit distracted these days?  Do you hear about the excitement and success that others are having on this program and feel like you are missing out on the game?

Sometime we get distracted by the obstacles that are right in front of us, obstacles that threaten to block our ability to see the big picture.  When we start to focus on the obstacle and not on the game, it doesn't take long before we're distracted and then bored - and we may think about leaving the game early because it's not fun any more.

What obstacles are blocking your view of goal right now?  For each of us, the obstacle may be different.  What matters, however, is that the game IS going on, and it's an exciting game and we don't want to miss it! 

Unlike a ball game where we have an assigned seat and if we're stuck behind an obstacle, we're stuck - we can CHANGE SEATS in this game!  The obstacles that threaten to distract us can be eliminated, if we choose to get them out of the way.  It may mean changing our pattern - instead of getting home from work and crashing on the sofa and eating, we may need to keep a pair of walking shoes by the front door so we take a walk the minute we get home.  It may mean changing our route to work so we don't go by the favorite doughnut shop.  It may mean clearing our cabinets of any off-plan food. 

I encourage you today to figure out what the obstacles are that are keeping you from seeing the big picture, then change seats!  Put yourself in a position where you have an unobstructed view of what you want, and don't allow anything to get in the way.  Keep focused on what you want, then choose wisely :-)

Not Feeling Motivated?

When it comes to losing weight or making other positive changes in our lives, we often allow ourselves to be dependent upon our level of motivation.  If we wake up and the sun is shining and we feel motivated, wow, we do so well!  We are focused and on plan and nothing can stop us!  But if it's raining and the dog threw up and we don't feel particularly motivated, then all bets are off. 

Sound familiar?  I just described my old pattern of behavior :-).  I would literally tell myself some mornings that "this isn't going to be a good diet day today."  Maybe I'd awakened with a headache (probably from the late-night snacking I did before going to bed), maybe the kids were running late, maybe I didn't have time to iron the blouse I planned to wear - it didn't take much for me to decide that it wasn't going to be a good diet day.  The funny thing about this is that I actually thought it was OK to do that!  I thought it was OK to give myself permission to not make healthy choices - what WAS I thinking?  My commitment fluctuated from day to day, and sometimes from moment to moment, depending on whether or not I "felt" motivated.

We would never tolerate this kind of wishy-washy thinking in other areas of our lives, so why are we so willing to tolerate it in an area as important as our health?  We obviously don't make a decision every morning about whether or not we're going to show up to work, depending on how motivated we feel!  We get dressed and show up because it's what we have to do.  We've made a commitment to our employer, so we pull ourselves together and just do it.  We take care of our families whether we feel like it or not.  You probably have your own list of things that you do on a regular basis because you have a responsibility, and your motivation level never really enters into the equation.

Today I'm encouraging you to make a commitment to your health and stay on plan, whether you feel like it or not.  Even if you aren't feeling the least bit motivated to stay on plan today, do it anyway :-).  There is something very powerful and very empowering about pushing through and doing the right thing when you don't feel like it.  The really amazing thing is that when we push through and do it whether we feel like it or not, the motivation often shows up - it may be late, but it shows up and we feel a renewed desire to keep making the right choice.

It isn't always easy to make the right choices when we just aren't feeling motivated, but motivated or not, the choices are ours to make.  Choose wisely :-)

Taking the Scenic Route or the Autobahn?

My husband and I do a lot of traveling these days - both because of our business and just for fun (although we love what we do, so all of our travel is really for fun!).  Sometimes we fly due to time constraints or distance, but whenever possible we like to drive because we love road trips.  When we have time, we stay off the interstate and are on the lookout for all of the hidden treasures we miss when we're on cruise control at 70 miles per hour.  We love to stop and take pictures along the way, talk to people, and try fun, local restaurants.  We don't always have time for a leisurely drive, but it's fun when we can.

There are other times, of course, when we are focused on getting where we need to be and set our GPS to get us there as quickly as possible.  The route we take depends on how fast we want/need to get to our destination.

I don't know about you, but once I finally decided (REALLY decided) to lose weight, I wanted to reach my goal as quickly as possible.  I wasn't interested in taking the scenic route - I wanted the autobahn.  I'd done the "count points" program three different times, none of them particularly successfully, and the thought of doing a lot of work and getting maybe a half-pound loss per week for the effort didn't appeal to me at all.

I didn't want a "make it up as I go along" plan, either - I'd done that a zillion times.  You know - the "I'll just eat less, watch my portions and make better choices" plan, completely unstructured and for me, completely unsuccessful.

This last and final time (thank the Lord, it really WAS the last time!) that I decided to lose weight, I wanted a proven system. I wanted something that was fast AND safe, and I wanted something that would not just get me thinner, but also healthier.  Take Shape for Life/Medifast totally met the criteria and then some!

When we're going on a trip and time is of the essence, we study a map and find the shortest route from Point A to Point B, or we plug the destination into our GPS and select the "shortest route" option.  Once we have our route in place, we stick to the route and ignore the signs that advertise attractions ten miles off an exit en route.  It's not that the attractions aren't interesting, but we have a destination to get to and we're focused on getting there as soon as we can.

Those off-plan foods are the attractions ten miles off the exit . . . if we veer off course and take the side-trip, we're going to waste a lot of time and delay getting to our destination.  When it comes to getting to a healthy weight, we need to stay in the express lane with no exits between the time we get on and our goal. 

Are you on the autobahn today or are you taking a leisurely route to get to your goal?  The choices you make determine the route you take.  Choose wisely :-)

Beyond Tomorrow

"If I knew I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself."  ~ George Burns

The late George Burns, who lived just past his 100th birthday, often joked about his age.  While the above quote was said in jest, I think there is much truth in the statement.

Most of us are busy living our lives today, trying to keep up with demanding schedules and busy families.  We spend very little time, if any, thinking about longevity.  You may or may not aspire to reach 100, but what if you do?  What do you want your life to look like when you're in your 80's, 90's or beyond?  That may seems like an irrelevant question to ask right now, particularly if you're younger than 50.  The 80's seem a hundred years away, so why worry about them now?

The answer to that question, of course, is that they will be here sooner than you realize :-).  The choices we're making today will directly impact not only the length of our life, but also the quality of our latter years.  That's good news, because the younger you are, the more you can change the health trajectory of your future!  So many of the diseases that can compromise the quality of our lives, or even shorten them, are directly related to obesity.  By getting to a healthy weight now and incorporating healthy habits, we can move into the latter decades of our lives healthy and with the ability to live life at its fullest.

I would like to someday celebrate my 100th birthday, providing I can do so with a decent measure of both physical and mental health.  I'm making choices today to improve my chances of reaching that milestone.  My life is in God's hands and I don't know the number of my days, but if the Lord allows me to reach 100, I want to celebrate that day as healthy as I can possibly be.

The choices we make today will not only impact us next month and next year, but they will impact our health decades from now.  More than ever, it's important that we choose wisely :-)

Getting - and Staying - Motivated

Motivation, or the lack of motivation, seems to be an ongoing challenge for many people.  They do well for a little while, but then their motivation wanes and they find themselves off plan and struggling to get back on track.

Dr. Andersen, in his fabulous book Dr. A's Habits of Health, writes about motivation in Chapter 3.  He says that most of us try to make changes because we're wanting to solve a problem or trying to get rid of an unwanted situation (being overweight, having health issues related to obesity, etc.).  Dr. Andersen calls this "conflict-driven motivation" and states that is one of the major reasons people yo-yo.

The problem is that once we start to feel better, even if the situation hasn't changed much, we feel less pressured to change.  Once the pressure lessens, the original behavior inevitable returns.  For example, my all-time high weight was 268, and it was at this weight that I was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes.  I suddenly had motivation to change, because I wanted to get rid of an unwanted situation - diabetes.  I went on a weight loss plan (not Take Shape for Life/Medifast) and over the next several months I managed to lose 36 pounds.  I was now 232 pounds - still morbidly obese for my 5'5" small frame, but I felt better and I had dropped a couple of sizes.  Because I lost some weight, my blood sugar stayed within acceptable limits without the need for medication.  Guess what happened next?  I lost focus and gained all of the weight back!

Because my focus was on moving away from my top weight and getting rid of my diabetes, once I had done both, I felt less pressure and ultimately became vulnerable to all of the temptations that surrounded me.  I started congratulating myself (WAY prematurely, by the way) on all of my success, then felt I "deserved" a treat here and there.  Before long, the treats were more "here" than "there" and the pounds piled back on; my blood sugar also started rising again.

Dr. Andersen's suggestion is that we motivate ourselves by focusing on what we want, not on what we don't want.  That may sound simple, and it is, but is fundamentally different than being motivated by what we don't want.  Instead of thinking about wanting to fix our bad health (a problem orientation), he encourages us to focus on creating health (an outcome orientation).

Shortly after starting on Take Shape for Life's 5&1 program, I began to focus on earnest on what I wanted - being thin and healthy - instead of what I was trying to move away from.  I did not post before pictures of me on the refrigerator as a way to motivate me to stay on plan, because I wasn't focusing on where I'd been - only on where I was going.  Since creating health is an on-going journey, reaching my goal was an important point on the journey, but not the end.  That has helped me to stay at a healthy weight for the past three years.

I really encourage each of you to think about what you want - think about and envision where you want to go.  Get a mental picture of what you will look like and what your life will look like when you reach goal, then head in that direction!  Don't spend a lot of time looking back, because it's counter-productive and won't take you in the direction you want to go.  When you drive, you don't focus on the rearview mirror, so don't do that on this journey, either!

Focus on your goal - what it is you want to create in your life - then make the choices necessary to reach your goal.  You'll get there one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

Four Years Ago Today

I'm not wired to remember most dates.  I can't tell you the date my husband proposed to me (but I do remember the day we got married!), I have no clue regarding the date I graduated from high school or college . . . you get the idea :-).  There are a few key dates that are indelibly imprinted on my brain, and today is one of those dates.  In addition to being my youngest daughter's wedding anniversary (11 years for them - congratulations!), this date has another very special meaning to me.

There are days on the calendar that we know up front will be special, and there are other days that only become significant as we look back. Four  years ago today, I had no idea how important this date would be, but it's a significant date because I made the decision three years ago today to open a little white packet and begin my Take Shape for Life/Medifast journey.  It was a simple choice, but that first choice led to a second, and then a third, and before you know it, my whole life changed. I couldn't have been more skeptical as I opened my first packet of oatmeal (is there anybody who DIDN'T have oatmeal as their very first Medifast meal?).  I also had just a smidgen of hope that perhaps this time would finally be different for me.  I'd tried just about every other program out there and failed miserably at each and every one, but part of me remained eternally optimistic that maybe, just maybe, I would somehow, someday find a program that worked.  After seriously considering taking out a second mortgage on our home to pay for weight loss surgery, I thought I'd give this program a try before risking my life and our house.  I'm so thankful I did!

Four years ago today marked the beginning of a very new - and very wonderful - life.  I didn't know it at the time, and I certainly couldn't have imagined that in less than 11 months I would lose 120 pounds.  I couldn't have imagined that in less than a year I would be able to stand in one leg of my size 24W slacks, or that my goal size would be a 6.  I couldn't have imagined that my diabetes would be gone and that I would be off of all medication.  And I certainly couldn't have imagined that I would be maintaining my weight loss more than three years later. 

I wrote my very first blog four years ago today.  Here's how I ended that very first blog on my very first day on the program: 

"And today it begins.  I am hopeful, and I am refusing to listen to the voices in my head that tell me I will fail at this like I've failed at everything else.

God is my refuge and my strength, and I want to honor Him with the way I care for this temple He has given me."

One little choice - to try yet again to get to a healthy weight - and it changed everything.  That's the power of the choices we make.  Choose wisely :-)

Untangling "Nots"

One of the things that I have almost no patience for is untying knots.  When things seem to be hopelessly knotted, my first inclination is to just toss them rather than deal with the frustration of patiently working out the tangle that resulted in a knot.  I have a couple of fine gold chain necklaces that knot very easily, and every time they did, I'd give myself about a minute to get the knot out before turning the chain over to my patient husband (who also spent 38 years as a jeweler). 

What do we do with some of the other knots in our lives, the ones that are spelled "nots" ?  You know, the "have nots", "can nots" "do nots", "will nots", "may nots", "could nots", "would nots", "should nots" and especially the "would nots."  I think most of us have a lot of "nots" that need to be untangled, not with our hands, but with our minds and our attitudes.  So many of these "nots" are nothing more than concepts that can get in the way of us reaching our goal.

Ever thought that I "cannot" stay on plan because (fill in the blank)?  That's a "not" that needs some work!  How about the "this plan might work for others, but it 'will not' work for me" not?  Yep, that one needs some work, too.

When I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast almost four years ago, I had a lot of "nots" to untangle:  a post-menopausal woman "cannot" lose weight; I have no willpower and "will not" be able to do this program; I "could not" ever get into the same sizes I wore in my 20's; I "may not" be able to reverse the diabetes and other health issues I had from over twenty years of obesity.

These "nots" didn't untangle all at once, but slowly but surely, over time, they DID untangle.  These weren't the kind of knots I could hand over in frustration to my patient husband - I had to learn to untangle them myself, one at a time.  There were other "nots", too, that came up later: I "will not" be able to maintain my weight loss, etc.  More untangling needed :-)  It wasn't always easy, but with God's help, they untangled.

Do you have some "nots" that need untangling today?  Don't be discouraged - over time, it WILL happen, one day and one choice at a time.  Hang in there, and choose wisely :-)

Dealing with the Naysayers

One of the things that came as a complete surprise to me when I was losing weight was the number of people who decided it was their calling to counsel me about my weight loss.  For over twenty years I walked this earth as a morbidly obese woman and no one other than my doctor EVER talked to me about my weight.  No one!  No one ever expressed concern about my health or tried to encourage me to not take that extra piece of dessert or that fourth slice of pizza.  Not a single person.  Ever.

So imagine my surprise when I was happily losing weight and feeling better than I had in years and people started pulling me aside to express their concern.  They thought I was losing too fast, that being on less than 1,000 calories a day wasn't healthy, that it wasn't healthy to be using prepackaged products instead of "real" food.  Every person who talked to me had their own list of concerns which they felt duty-bound to share.  The cries of concern became almost deafening as I got within 40 pounds of my goal.  That's right - 40 pounds, a weight that still had me firmly in the overweight category (just under a 30 BMI).  People began telling me that it was time to stop, that I'd lost enough; they expressed concern that I was becoming anorexic and wouldn't know when to stop.  I was about 180 pounds when the concern kicked into high gear, and at 5'5" inches, anorexic was hardly a fitting description!

Many of you have already experienced this same kind of negative feedback.  If you haven't yet, get ready . . . it's coming!  I'm not saying this to frighten you or, heaven forbid, discourage you - I'm sharing this now so that you will be prepared when it happens.

I read an article yesterday that brilliantly addressed how to achieve personal excellence in the face of negativity.  Rather than try to condense and reword this article, I'm going to simply give you a link so you can read it in its entirety.  My blog today presented the problem; the link I'm giving you provides what I think is a terrific solution.  This will involve a bit more reading, but I believe you'll find it worth your time!  Here's the link:  http://themindsetmaven.com/excellence-vs-negativity/?awt_l=84ldk&awt_m=3a4JHWKjsb.WKz_

We can't control the things people say to us, but we can choose how we respond and we can choose whether or not we'll allow the negativity to impact us.  Choose wisely :-)

One More Reason to Do It NOW

As Americans continue to gain weight (2/3 of Americans are now considered to be either overweight or obese), disease follows close behind.  We've all heard about the rise in diabetes and more Americans than ever are on medications for high blood pressure and high cholesterol, but there is another unexpected medical condition that is appearing on the scene, and it's frightening.

According to an article posted on CNN last week, one-third of Americans have non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, which is directly linked to being overweight.  For some individuals, this disease will eventually lead to the need for a liver transplant.  As the liver disease progresses, it can cause brain changes called hepatic encephalopathy due to the liver having a hard time filtering out toxins, which can go to the brain and cause problems such as memory lapses, trouble sleeping at night and lack of coordination.  These symptoms can mimic symptoms seen in Alzheimer's patients.

The CNN article related the story of a man in his 60's whose liver disease was behind his memory lapses and erratic behavior.  This individual had cirrhosis, just like alcoholics get, but in his case, fat, not alcohol, was the culprit.  In case you're thinking that this man must have weighed 300 or 400 pounds to develop this disease, you will probably be as shocked as I was to learn that he was 5' 8" and 185 pounds - overweight, and too much fat in his liver eventually caused it to malfunction.

Because of the growing obesity in this country, Dr. Naim Alkhouri, a hepatologist at the Cleveland Clinic stated "It's overwhelming how many patients we're seeing with this problem."


Dr. William Carey, also a hepatologist at the Cleveland Clinic, added, "This is huge. We didn't even know this disease existed 30 years ago. Now it's the most common liver disease in America."

The article went on to quote Dr. Michael Curry, a hepatologist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston who said that "About a third of the U.S. population has non-alcoholic fatty liver disease."  Curry said most of those people -- about 80% -- will not develop significant liver disease. The other 20% will develop a disease called nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, or NASH. Of those, about 20-30% will go on to develop cirrhosis and end-stage liver disease, where the only real treatment is a liver transplant.

"That's about 6 million people. We won't have the ability to treat all those patients," Curry says. "If we even have a fraction of that number of patients, it will overwhelm liver transplant programs."
The article went on to say that if a patient loses weight, eats better and exercises, he or she can often reverse the disease in its earlier stages. 


That's good news!  And that is exactly what my friend (I blogged about her last week) did in a matter of months.

By taking charge of our health NOW, by following the protocols of this program and getting to a healthy weight as quickly as possible, we can not only change our lives in the short-term, but we can change our long-term health.  This program is about so much more than being thin, feeling good about ourselves and wearing small sizes.  Those are all wonderful things, of course, and all of those things come when we reach goal.  But this program is about getting us healthy so that we can live as long as we possibly can, as healthy as we can possibly be.

That will happen one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

P.S.  If you'd like to read the entire article I referenced today, here's the link: http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/06/16/liver.disease.ep/index.html?hpt=hp_bn1

Happy Father's Day!

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?' The father who, despite having a heart condition, said 'Yes'.  They went on to complete the marathon together, then did other marathons, the father always saying 'Yes' to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.'  To which, his father said 'Yes' .

 
For those who didn't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile (42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island
Father and son went on to complete the race together.   What is amazing about this story is the fact that the son is handicapped – the father pushed, pulled, and carried his son for the entire marathon.

This story makes me weep, not only because of the father’s incredible love and devotion for his son, but also because of the sheer joy on the son’s face as he shared this experience with his father.  Here's a video that tells the story: 

For me, this was also a picture of how I have viewed my own year-long weight loss marathon.  It was a long year focused on losing 126 pounds, and it was a joy to finally cross the finish line.  But I’m not the father in the video who ran, biked and swam the marathon, I am the disabled son.  When I watched the video, my tears flowed as I realized that my Heavenly Father was the one who carried me each step of the way.  On my own, I was no more able to complete this marathon than was the son in the video.  My job was to rest in my Father’s arms and allow Him to carry me.  As I saw the joy on the son’s face, I understood that his part of the marathon was to rest in his father’s arms and be willing to be taken wherever his father wanted to go.  He didn’t fight or argue, and he didn’t insist on doing it on his own, either.  He accepted the fact that he was powerless in his own strength, but by drawing on his father’s strength, he crossed the finish line.

That, simply, is my story.  It wasn’t my strength that brought me to my goal, and it's not my strength that allows me to maintain, it was and is the faithfulness of my Heavenly Father in completing this progress as I allowed myself to be carried in His arms and learned to just enjoy the ride.

On this Father’s Day, I am thankful for my own dad.  Because of his love for me and his godly character, he made it easy for me to view God as a loving Father – thanks, Dad!  I am also thankful for my husband who embraced and loved each of our three as they joined our family – I couldn’t have asked for a better father for our children.  Lastly, I'm thankful for my two wonderful son-in-laws who love my daughters and are such amazing fathers for their own children.

Have a wonderful day, and remember to choose wisely :-)

The Key to Success

When we first start on Take Shape for Life 5&1, most of us (and this was true for me, too) are focused on the food and think that the key to our success is the five Medifast products we eat every day, plus our lean & green.  But the Medifast products aren't the key to our success at all.

Our attitude and how we view this program is the key to whether or not we will ultimately be successful in not only losing the weight, but in keeping it off. 

How do you view the weight loss phase of this program?  Are you constantly looking with longing at off-plan food and counting the days until you can eat it once again?   Do you view eating six small meals a day as a temporary thing you're doing just to lose weight with no thought to continuing this eating pattern long term?  Is every day on 5&1 about deprivation and denial? 

If you answered yes, yes, and yes to these questions, then you are in danger of falling short of reaching your goal, or regaining much or all of your weight once you aren't on 5&1.  I say this because a "yes" to those questions reveals a dieting mindset and the reality is that 85% of dieters regain the weight they've lost, plus more weight, within two years.  I don't share this to discourage you, but to encourage you to embrace a different perspective - one that will not only ensure success for the short term, but will also enable you to be successful for the long term.

One of my friends who recently restarted on 5&1 has embraced a new mindset this time around.  She shared with me that she isn't feeling deprived this time, instead she feels like she is treating herself to something wonderful.  She has more energy and just feels better - physically and mentally.  Another friend remarked that, at age 61, she has never felt better or had more energy and is committed to this new, healthy lifestyle for the rest of her life.  Instead of focusing on the things they aren't eating, these two friends (and others) have recognized that getting to a healthy weight and embracing a new, healthier lifestyle is the real "treat" they are giving themselves.

To ultimately be successful in losing the weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle, we have to move far beyond a "diet" mindset and truly embrace a new way of living and eating.  Not everyone is ready or willing to do so, but the ones who are ready and willing are the ones who will not only celebrate reaching their goal but will also celebrate yearly anniversaries of another year at goal.

So how do we change our mindset?  First, we have to take stock of what brought us to this program to begin with.  We didn't start this program because we felt great and were happy with our weight.  The fact that we started this program is an indication that what we were doing wasn't working for us and probably hadn't been working for us for a long time.  No matter how much we enjoyed the taste of the food we were shoving into our mouths, we were eating the wrong things in the wrong portions.  If we look with longing on what we were doing before and somehow think that we can do that again and get different results, we are kidding ourselves.  We have to be willing to let go of what we did in the past and create a new, healthy future for ourselves.  That doesn't mean that we will never eat this or that again, but we will eat those foods differently than we did before.  We have to be ready and willing to do that.

Secondly, we have to focus on what we want at this point in our lives.  Do we want to be at a healthy weight?  Do we want to have a future that's different from our past?  If so, we have to create and embrace new habits.  More than just new habits, we have to embrace a new mindset that WANTS these new habits.  We have to move beyond "we need to or we should or we have to" to "we WANT to!"

If we are willing to walk away from the unhealthy habits that got us here in the first place and we are willing to embrace new habits and a new mindset, then the Medifast meal replacements will be the wonderful catalysts to help us reach our goal - and beyond.  If we aren't willing to embrace new habits and a new mindset, then the Medifast meal replacements will join the ranks of another diet we've tried along the way.

The choice, of course, is yours.  Choose wisely :-)

Leading Your Crowd

There was an opinion piece in our local newspaper a while back entitled, "Face Reality: America is Obese."  The writer made this statement:  "Human beings in a very fundamental sense behave like flocks of geese or herds of wildebeests.  They do things in droves, and whether you gain or lose weight, or start or stop smoking, depends very much on what the people around you are doing."

There really is strength in numbers, and that strength can either be positive or negative.  For many of us, weekends are times to get together with family member and friends (especially this weekend, since it's Father's Day).  Most of those get-togethers will probably revolve around food, and that's where it gets tricky.  Many people who do great and stay on plan all week find it next to impossible to navigate around all of the food obstacles that come their way each weekend.  If the people we spend time with aren't focused on living healthy themselves, it can be difficult for those of us who are trying to make positive changes.  If the people we spend time with also try to sabotage us, it can be almost impossible.

ALMOST impossible, but not impossible  :-).  If you're able to move your particular crowd towards a healthier lifestyle, that will not only be good for you, but it will be good for them, too.  If you're going out with friends this weekend, suggesting a restaurant with healthy options instead of the usual pizza joint would be a good start, and hopefully your group would be supportive.  Or offer to grill at home, and accompany the grilled meat with a lovely salad and grilled vegetables.

Whether or not you can redirect our family members and friends (and I know some will be next to immovable), it's important that you decide what's really important to you.  As you take charge of your own health, don't feel like you need to apologize for making healthy choices.  This is YOUR health we're talking about, after all :-).  Set yourself up for success, not failure, and don't put yourself into a situation where it might be next to impossible to stay on plan (I won't list some of the potential restaurant landmines, but you all know what they are!).  This is such a short time in your life that's been set aside to get to a healthy weight, so don't let anything or anyone get between you and your goal.  The choice is always yours, so choose wisely :-)

Losing at a Snail's Pace

One thing that we all share in common is a desire to get to our goal weight as quickly as possible.  When I started Take Shape for Life/Medifast almost four years ago, I paid special attention to individuals who lost their weight quickly, because I very much wanted to follow in their footsteps.  By the time I started on this program, I'd been fighting a losing battle with obesity for over 20 years and I was ready to be done with it - as fast as possible.  I tried to set realistic expectations because I was 55 and post-menopausal, so I understood that I probably wouldn't lose as fast as someone younger than I.  But I hoped it would be a short journey from start to finish.  I'm guessing that's what you want, too!

But what happens if your progress is at a snail's pace?   How fast does a snail actually go?   One study clocked a snail at 0.00758 miles per hour - or 40 feet in one hour.  No wonder the phrase "at a snail's pace" means "slow!"  The snail may move at, well, a snail's pace, but you have to admire its perseverance.  One preacher noted that "By perseverance the snail reached the ark." 

Our willingness to persevere is often tested when our progress slows down to a snail's pace.  I had several weeks when I only lost one pound and I had three separate weeks when I didn't lose a thing - even though I stayed 100% on plan.  I won't kid you - it was frustrating and a bit discouraging.  At that point, I had a choice:  I could either keep doing what I had been doing and trust that the scale would eventually catch up, or I could allow my seeming lack of progress to be my undoing. 

Since most of you know that I DID reach my goal, there's no suspense in how this story ended :-).  I realized that I had no control over how fast I lost the weight - I could only control whether or not I chose to stay on plan.  Some weeks my efforts were rewarded with a several pound loss, but other weeks with equal effort brought little or no progress on the scale.  I didn't realize it at the time, but those snail-paced weeks taught me the value of doing what I needed to do regardless of the outcome.  Perseverance made the difference for me and it will make the difference for you, too.  You WILL reach your goal, and ultimately it doesn't matter if you get there quickly or at a snail's pace.  Once you're there, you'll have no regrets that you chose to make the journey.

We can't choose how fast our bodies release the weight, but we can choose to persevere.  The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)

So What Might It Look Like?

I've written a couple of blogs lately about getting what we want, but getting what we want can seem pretty vague and ambiguous for some who have never been at a healthy weight.  Perhaps you can't even imagine what getting to a healthy weight will mean because you've never been at a healthy weight, at least not since you were a small child. 

I have a couple of friends who have never been at a healthy weight and who have each lost 100 pounds or more.  One friend is now at her goal and another still has 90 pounds to go, but they have both experienced remarkable changes in their lives, changes they didn't anticipate and couldn't have imagined.

My friend who is now at her goal is in her late 60's and had pretty much given up on ever being at a healthy weight.  Obesity was all she had ever known and she figured that was all she would ever know.  But when a friend encouraged her to give Take Shape for Life a try, she agreed, not knowing that this journey would bring her to a place she couldn't even imagine.  She lost 133 pounds in just over a year and, at 67, is traveling all over the world and even ran a 5K race (and came in 3rd place in her age category)!  She's ridden a camel in Egypt, climbed the steps of a pyramid, and just walked miles on her first visit to Israel.  She told me that she never would have been able to do these things if she hadn't lost the weight, yet she's done them with ease.  As you can imagine, shopping is a whole new experience for her and she delights in finding sale items in small sizes.  Every time I talk with her, she is bubbling with joy, enthusiasm and thankfulness. 

The other friend I mentioned has lost just about 100 pounds (96 and counting!) and has 90 to go, but the changes in her health and her attitude are remarkable.  This friend had been under the care of a specialist for several years due to elevated liver enzymes as a result of fatty liver disease.  Last August she was sent to a large research hospital for further evaluation and a second opinion and was told that she was probably looking at needing a liver transplant sometime in her future.   Then in October she decided to try Take Shape for Life for a month :-).  Within a few weeks, her liver enzymes returned to normal for the first time in years.  Eight months and almost 100 pounds later, she just saw her specialist again.  Her levels are now in the low normal range and her doctor told her that they really didn't have much to talk about (he was THRILLED!) and he also told her that he didn't need to see her anymore.  Eight months and she's gone from facing a probable liver transplant in her future (she's in her early 50's) to being released from his practice because she is healthy! 

This same friend also won the "Biggest Loser" contest at work and just earned top points in a contest at work that encourages people to incorporate healthy habits into their lives.  She is also wearing dresses again for the first time in a very long time.  Most important of all, she has hope and confidence that she will reach her goal and be buying next summer's wardrobe in her goal size.

I've shared these stories not only because they inspire me and hopefully will inspire you, but to also let you know that if you can't envision what it will look like to lose weight, that's OK.  Neither of these dear women were able to envision what it would look like, either, but they decided to go for it anyway!  They decided to move forward one day, one meal at a time and both have had results beyond anything they could have imagined.

If you can't wrap your imagination around what it will be like when you're at goal and living your life at your ideal weight, keep moving forward anyway!  You'll get there and you won't be disappointed.  There may well be unexpected benefits waiting!  Like my friends, just commit to taking it one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

Doing What We Want

"We will never remain free doing what we think we ought to do.  It's a good way to get started, but we won't sustain on that motivation.  It has to be what our heart desires.  In the end, we always do what we want to do."

That quote is from the fourth DVD lesson in Beth Moore's "Breaking Free" Bible study, and it really resonates with me.  Any change we decide to make, including breaking free from the shackles of overeating, will ultimately happen only if that's what our heart truly desires.

Many of us started on this program, like so many other programs before, because we knew we needed to lose weight.  Perhaps our physician told us to lose weight, and maybe we'd gotten gentle suggestions or even overt pressure from family members and friends.  We knew that's what we needed to do, but the truth is that some of us are on this program right now because we know it's what we "should" do, but getting to a healthy weight isn't our heart's desire.

I say that because some of us allow anything and everything to interfere with staying on plan.  We feel guilty when we go off plan and we get back on (which is a good thing!), vowing to really do it this time.  Then the next thing comes up and we're off plan again.  I'm not discounting all of the things that factor into the decision to go off plan, but I am suggesting that we make the choice to go off plan because, on some level, we're still doing this because we think we should, not because we've determined in our hearts that we're going to do what it takes to get to a healthy weight.

It's really not a matter of being strong.  The people who stay on plan and reach goal aren't stronger or somehow endowed with more willpower than anyone else.  They simply made a decision that what they wanted more than anything else was to get to a healthy weight.  Once they identified this as the desire of their heart, circumstances really didn't matter anymore and they figured out what they needed to do.  In the end, we always do what we want to do.

So what do you want to do today?  Once you know what you want, the choices will be easy.  Figure out what you want, then choose wisely :-)

The Other Side of Goal

So how has my life changed after losing 126 pounds three years ago?  There is a really long list of things that changed, and all of them are good!  I honestly can't think of a single downside to losing (and maintaining) my weight . . . not a single one!

I had a lot of apprehension about losing so much weight, even though I didn't even think I COULD lose it.  I was a mix of skepticism and apprehension, sprinkled with just a touch of hope.  I was apprehensive that I'd ever be able to maintain a weight loss.  I was very apprehensive about how I'd look after losing 126 pounds - would I look old and drawn?  Would I have skin hanging all over?  Would I EVER be able to enjoy food again?

There were times when this apprehension threatened to derail my progress, and I'm thankful that it didn't!  When I found myself feeling anxious about all of the unknowns, I decided to not borrow trouble and just leave everything in God's hands.  I figured I would deal with any issues when and if they came up and not waste time worrying about them in the meantime.

The good news is that none of my fears materialized!

I lost the weight quickly, and the transition and maintenance program has made it relatively easy to stay in my goal range (I haven't maintained perfectly, as most of you know, but three years later I'm still at a healthy BMI and in my size 6 jeans - a major victory AND relief). 

My skin looks really good - not perfect, but really pretty good!  People ask me all the time if I've had plastic surgery, which I have NOT (I have nothing against it, but I can't afford it and, since I'm turning 59 next month, I'm not sure that's how I'd choose to spend my time and my money anyway).  I have a little bit of loose skin on my abdomen, but I'm not a bikini type of person to begin with; I have some loose skin on my upper arms, but my arms fit in a size 2 or 4 jacket, so it's not too bad; and I have loose skin on my upper thighs.  The upper thighs are the most pronounced area of loose skin, so I don't wear skirts above my knee and I wear walking shorts or capris (I'm too old for Daisy Duke shorts anyway!).  My legs fit into size 6 jeans, so the loose skin isn't a problem with clothing sizes.  People tell me I look healthy - and younger than I did before losing the weight :-).

And I DO enjoy food now - and I enjoy it without feeling guilty!  For years I felt guilty much of the time I ate, because I viewed everything as either "good" or "bad" food.  No surprise, the food I liked best was in the "bad" category, and every time I ate it I did so with the feeling that I was cheating (I was always on one diet or another), so the enjoyment was tempered with guilt.  I can't tell you how freeing it is to eat something that USED to be in the "bad" category and simply say, "Wow, that was GOOD!"  There is no longer a "good" or "bad" category of food, because everything can be enjoyed in moderation and in proper portions.  This is amazingly freeing and one of the unexpected joys of reaching my goal.

I just realized that there IS one downside to reaching goal, so I'd better 'fess up!  The post-goal shopping trip can be expensive (but oh, so much fun)!  I needed everything from underwear out - pajamas and nightgowns, bathrobe, swimsuits (I actually had fun shopping for swimsuits, if you can imagine!), business clothes, sports clothes, coats, jackets . . . and then new accessories to go with my new wardrobe! Three years later, shopping is STILL a lot of fun!!  It's wonderful to walk into any store and know that I have lots of choices and can select things that fit not only my body, but my taste.  I spent years settling for whatever I could find to fit my size 24W/3X body, and often what I found wasn't really a good color for me or reflected my taste in clothes.  Yep, having fun shopping and spending money on clothes is the only downside I can think of, but it sure doesn't feel much like a downside :-)

Don't let anything keep you from reaching your goal!  Maybe you haven't seen a healthy weight in a long time, or maybe you've NEVER seen a healthy weight, but don't let fear of the unknown keep you from getting there.  Losing weight doesn't solve every problem in our lives, but it WILL improve your life in ways you can't even imagine.  

You'll get to your goal one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

To Get What You Want

One of my friends who recently restarted on this program told me that she's realized that "To get what you've never got, you've got to do what you've never done."  I love that!

Up until many of us started on Take Shape for Life, we got what we DIDN'T want by doing what we've always done.  Especially for those of us who are emotional eaters, we spent years (perhaps our entire lives) using food as our automatic go-to for any and every emotional thing in our lives.  Happy?   Something to celebrate?  Upset?  Stressed?  Our response was always to put food in our mouths, and not just any food, but usually the wrong kinds of food in large quantities.  (I don't know about you, but when I was running to food to meet my emotional needs, I never once ran to the vegetable crisper and pulled out a bunch of celery . . . )

To get what we've never had, or what we haven't had in a long time, we have to do things we've never done.  If we're recovering emotional eaters, we have to find other, healthier ways to deal with the stuff of life.  If we've been gourmet cooks, we will have to find healthier ways to prepare foods and may need to permanently close the cover on some of our fat/carb/calorie-laden recipes.  If we've always been big eaters, we will have to learn how to eat in proper portions.  If we've been meal-skippers (especially breakfast), we will have to learn how to eat six small meals a day, starting with breakfast within an hour of getting up.  If we've been sedentary, we will have to learn how to move our bodies on a regular basis.

It's always easier to stay where we are, doing what we've always done.  But that doesn't get us where we want to be!  Someone once defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  For us to stop our own dieting insanity and truly get what we've never had, we have to be willing to do things we've never done.  It may feel awkward at first - new things usually are awkward - but the more we begin to embrace new, healthier habits, the more natural they will begin to feel.

Doing what we've never done involves the choices we'll make today.  Choose wisely :-)

Writing a New Chapter

The book "Failing Forward" (author: John Maxwell) includes a piece by Portia Nelson entitled "Autobiography in Five Short Chapters."  I think it's a excellent description of how we can change to move from failure to success:

Chapter 1:  I walk down the street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I fall in.  I am lost.  I am helpless.  It isn't my fault.  It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter 2:  I walk down the street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I pretend I don't see it.  I fall in again.  I can't believe I am in the same place, but it isn't my fault.  It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter 3:  I walk down the same street.  there is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I see it is there.  I still fall in.  It's a habit.  My eyes are open.  I know where I am.  It is my fault.  I get out immediately.
Chapter 4:  I walk down the same street.  There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.  I walk around it.
Chapter 5:  I walk down another street.

Some of us are stuck in Chapters 1 or 2 - we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again and continue to wonder why we're stuck.  We have a tendency to blame others - our husband/boyfriend/ mother/girlfriend/boss made us eat off plan.  We blame circumstances - we were stressed/upset/bored/tired/it was our birthday-anniversary-Friday night.  We believe that if everyone in our lives would just get behind us and quit sabotaging us, we'd be successful.  When things settle down and we aren't so busy at work or so stressed with the kids, then it will be easier to stay on plan.

Change really begins when we move to Chapter 3.  We may have fallen back into the same old hole, but now we are ready to take responsibility and we don't stay in that hole.  Once we realize that we CAN take responsibility, more than that, that we HAVE to take responsibility for our choices, we are then able to take charge and change begins.

Chapter 4 marks the change, as we recognize the hole and are able to avoid it.  There is something very empowering about knowing that we really can avoid the very pit we've fallen into time and time again, and we avoid falling in by choosing to walk around it.  This is where many of us are right now.  The path we're on is familiar, but we're learning to not trip over the same old things and end up in the same old place.

Chapter 5 is hopefully where we're heading - on a new path all together.  As we learn healthy new habits, we find ourselves walking on a new path that will take us places we can't even imagine.  When we do that, we won't fall into the same old holes ever again.  Of course, this is only true if we choose to take a new path.  This program provides the tools we need to navigate a new path.  We just have to choose to use them, then choose to take a new path.

Which chapter represents where you are right now?  If you are stuck in one of the early chapters, are you ready to turn the page?  You can, and it will happen one day and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

When We Grow Up

Last night we attended our 6-year old granddaughter's kindergarten graduation.  The school gym was packed with parents, siblings, grandparents and great-grandparents; it was warm and noisy and even getting there 30 minutes early, the best seats my parents and I could find were in the back of the room.  It was hard to see Kayla from where we were, but she knew we were there and that's what really mattered.

Following a short program where the children sang a series of songs, the children sat down and then stood individually as they were announced.  The teacher who introduced each child stated what that child wanted to be when they grew up, and each announcement was followed by applause.  We heard lots of "fireman, policeman, doctor, nurse, teacher, ballerina" - what you would expect from  kindergartener.  We also heard some unexpected career choices (undoubtedly influenced by what a parent does), including engineer, "heating and cooling guy", architect and accountant.  Our granddaughter?  She said she wants to be a "horse rider."

What struck me as each child was introduced and each career choice was announced is that each child absolutely, 100% believed this is what they're going to do, and they believed they can do it.  Their little eyes were full of hope and belief that they can do anything they want, and the applause that followed each introduction told them that they have the love and support to do it.

We were all there once upon a time - full of hope and filled with the belief that we could be whatever we wanted when we grew up.  Then we grew up, and with the growing up many of us stopped believing that we could become anything we want to be. Years or even decades after leaving childhood behind, some of us stopped dreaming of a better tomorrow and have found ourselves just trying to survive today and settling for far less than we ever thought.

It's time to dream again.  It's time to believe that tomorrow is filled with hope and promise, that we can be whatever we want to be when we grow up!

What I've seen happen over and over again is that as individuals regain control of their weight and their health, they begin to feel empowered to make other changes in their lives.  They find a strength they'd forgotten they had and have a renewed confidence and sense of self-worth.  As individuals realize their dream of getting to their goal weight, they begin to understand that it's possible to fulfill other dreams, too.

It's not that losing weight magically makes other dreams come true.  Rather, the change that happens inside us as we move towards our goal can become the catalyst for other changes.

So what do you want to be when you grow up?  Don't be afraid to dream, then know that the choices you make today can play a part in making that dream a reality.  With that in mind, choose wisely :-)

Being Excited . . . Even When We're Not

Happy Wednesday!  Are you excited about another day to be on plan? 

I'm asking if you're excited because I have learned that our attitude can make all the difference in how we approach our day and the things we have to do.  I remember watching a program several years ago (I can't remember what it was called) where someone spoke in a monotone about all the things they had to do that day.  They then repeated the exact same sequence of events, but each one was punctuated with excitement and an "I get to do this!" attitude - what a difference!  The sequence of events didn't change, but the attitude did.  The second time the person went through the list, the excitement built with each new thing on the list. 

We can either view our day as one filled with obligations or one filled with opportunity.  That is certainly true of facing another day of being on Take Shape for Life's 5&1 program!  Trust me, I did NOT wake up joyful every morning that I got to face 5 Medifast meals for the day, but what a difference it made when I DID get up with a positive attitude about the journey I was on. 

Today is an opportunity to get one step closer to your goal, and that's exciting!  Today is one step further away from where you started, and that's VERY exciting!  Today is another day of honing the skills and the habits that will KEEP you at your goal weight.   Today is one day closer to being able to eat (in moderation, of course) some of the things that you enjoy that aren't on the weight loss portion of this plan - how exciting is that?

Today can be exciting and filled with opportunity IF you focus on where you're heading.  Your goal is straight ahead - can you see it?  Can you visualize yourself at your goal, feeling and looking fabulous?  It doesn't matter if you just started on the plan and have a long way to go, or if you've been on plan for a while and are closing in on your goal - you WILL get there, one day and one meal at a time.  There is no "hope so" about it.  If you are committed to making the choices each day that you need to make, you'll get to your goal.  So be encouraged and excited today, because you're making progress, whether it feels like it or not.

Our attitude, along with whether or not we're on plan today, is our choice.  Choose wisely :-)

It's Worth It

Do you ever have one of those days when you seriously wonder if doing this program is worth it?  You don't know what goal will look like and it can be tempting to think that all of the sacrifice now won't really be worth it in the end. 

I once read a story about a family who was vacationing in the Canadian Rockies on a very blustery day in June.  They went to a tourist site that was billed as a "must see", but the cold wind made them reluctant to go on until they saw a group of people returning from the scenic spot.  The family asked the tourists if the view was worth it.  The tourists' enthusiastic "definitely!" gave the family the incentive they needed to go on.  When they finally reached the spot, they wrote that its beauty rendered them virtually speechless, and they agreed it was well worth the effort to get there.

I will never tell you this is easy (although I will tell you that Take Shape for Life was the easiest program I ever did).  Redefining my relationship with food and learning - really learning - that food is not my source of comfort and entertainment was challenging.  Saying "no" to a lot of food that I enjoyed so I could say "yes" to a healthier me was incredibly difficult sometimes and it was only with God's help and strength that I was able to walk away over and over again.

No matter how hard the struggle may be to reach goal, it's worth it.  The difference physically, mentally, emotionally and even spiritually for me is night and day.  This is why I continue to blog, because I want you to know that it's worth it!  YOU are worth it!!

When staying on plan is the last thing you want to do, just take it one day, one meal, and one choice at a time.  That's how you'll reach your goal.  It's worth the effort and you won't regret your decision to choose wisely :-).

Prisoners or Pioneers?

"Every time you are tempted to react in the same old way, ask yourself if you want to be a prisoner of the past or a pioneer of the future."  I really liked this quote and think it is a great question to ask ourselves.

Our "same old way" reactions are pretty much knee-jerk.  If we don't stop for a second before we react, we will most likely react the way we always do.  For those of us who are emotional eaters, the "same old way" means that under stress, or when we're bored, upset, tired, etc., our instinctive response is to eat.  I spent years caught in that cycle and I know that some of you are still struggling to break free.  That "same old way" reaction has resulted in failed weight loss attempts over and over again.  We want to lose weight and we've started every weight loss plan with the intention that "this is IT, this is the diet that's going to finally work."  We never started a new diet with the expectation that we'd fail, but we DID fail.  Sometimes the diet was the reason, because we were trying some fad thing that clearly wasn't sustainable over time.  Because it was a crash diet and not designed to teach us new, healthier patterns, we'd unwittingly set ourselves up for failure.  Throw in our "same old way" reactions and it's no wonder some of us have been trapped in a miserable cycle for so many years.

But now we're on the right program.  Take Shape for Life isn't a diet - we're on an optimal health program that is designed to get us quickly and safely to a healthy weight and teach us the healthy habits we need to stay there.  This is a program that can help us to leave the "same old way" behind and truly put us on the path to a healthier and longer life.

The problem with being a pioneer is that pioneers are breaking new ground and going places they've never gone before.  This can be scary, because it is venturing into the unknown.  Being a pioneer means developing new skill sets and it means leaving old habits behind.  It means that when we are on the verge of reacting in the same old way, we take a moment to Stop - Challenge (identify what we're feeling and why we're feeling it) - and Choose.  This can take just a minute or two, but doing that can be the key to moving from a prisoner to a pioneer.

Are you ready to be a pioneer this morning and continue moving towards a healthier, longer life?  If so, focus on what you want and then choose wisely :-)

When Saying "No" is Really Saying "YES!"

I received two very different, and very interesting, e-mails from friends this morning.  Both friends are currently on the Take Shape for Life 5&1 program and both have a lot of weight to lose.  They live on opposite ends of the country and don't know each other, but they share a common struggle not only with weight, but with emotional eating.  Both have been on the program before and lost weight (without reaching their goal), went off plan and regained much of the weight they lost, and are now back on with a resolve to reach their goal.

The first friend shared her experience facing down both pizza and cherry cheesecake at a family gathering this weekend.  She planned ahead and made sure that she had on-plan food with her.  While it wasn't easy saying no to what everybody else was eating, she did it and was so excited as she shared with me how victorious she felt.

The other friend also got together with family members this weekend, but her story had a different ending.  She told me that she ended up eating "whatever she wanted" and what she wanted was definitely not on plan.  Her e-mail was one of sadness and a sense of defeat because she had once again let herself down.  Thankfully she is back on plan today and will hopefully continue to move forward.

The contrast between the two e-mails was striking and I couldn't help but notice the difference.  The friend who said "no" to the off-plan foods left the gathering feeling happy and victorious and the friend who said "yes" to those things left her get-together feeling defeated.

When we say "no" to off-plan food, we are really saying "YES!" to what we really want - getting to a healthy weight.  That's why my friend felt so good about the choice she made.  It's not that she didn't want the off-plan food or that it didn't look good to her, but she wanted something more than she wanted the food.  Her reaction as she left the family get-together confirmed that she made the right decision for herself.

No one likes to feel deprived - me included!  So the next time you face down an off-plan temptation, instead of focusing on saying "no" to the food, remind yourself that you are saying "yes" to what you really want.  We can not only choose what to eat or not eat, but we can also choose how we view that choice.  Choose wisely :-)

It's Our Choice

If you could choose optimal health in your life, would you want it?  That seems like such an obvious question at first glance, doesn't it?  I mean, who wouldn't want optimal health?  Given the choice, who wouldn't want to be healthy - or even more than healthy, optimally healthy?

The reality is that we CAN choose optimal health, but some of us won't.  It's not that we can't have it, but that we'll choose to not have it.  We have all we need to create optimal health in our lives right now:  we have the program, Take Shape for Life, we have the product, Medifast, which has a proven track record of over 30 years, and we have the support we need to be successful.  But some of us will choose to get in the way of our own success by allowing our past failures or our own concepts or fears to get in the way.  The only thing standing between us and achieving optimal health is, well, us.

Some of us will choose the path of immediate gratification, succumbing to numerous triggers along the way.  We have good intentions, but vacations, celebrations, parties, stress, a busy schedule, etc. etc. get us off track and we make choices that won't keep us moving in the direction of optimal health.

One of the things I've heard over and over again is that if we want something bad enough, we'll figure out what we need to do to get it.  My question for you today is simple:  What do you really want?  Do you really want optimal health - living as long as you can as healthy as you can?  If so, you have in your hands all of the tools that you need to get it.  There really isn't anything to even figure out, because all of the figuring out has already been done!  All we have to do is commit to eating every 3 hours and we will get to our goal, which is an important milestone on our optimal health journey.  From there, we continue to add other healthy habits that keep us moving in the direction we want to go.  It's pretty simple if we just take it one step at a time.

The good news is that you don't have to commit to doing this for a lifetime - you just have to commit to making healthy choices today.  Can you do that?  If so, maybe you can do that tomorrow, too, and then maybe even the day after that!  But today you don't have to worry about whether you can do this tomorrow or the day after that, you just have to commit to today, one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall

A friend of mine sent me an e-mail with a cartoon of a woman looking in the mirror.  The woman in the cartoon was older and quite overweight, but the reflection in the mirror was of a young, thin, beautiful woman.  The cartoon caption read "I need your help.  I need to find the shop that sells this mirror!"  The cartoon made me laugh and I thanked my friend for passing it on.

While the cartoon may have been humorous, it did get me thinking a bit about how we perceive what we see in the mirror.  Before I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1, I never saw myself as big as I was.  Sure, I knew I was large (I never allowed myself to think or say "fat" or, horror or horrors, "obese" - I was "overweight" or "heavy.'), but candid photos of myself always made me wince.  What was captured in a picture didn't reflect the image I perceived in the mirror and I was convinced that the mirror was real and the picture was "a bad angle" . . .

Because my perception was skewed, I told myself that I wasn't THAT bad.  Sure I was overweight, but I'd look in the mirror and reassure myself that I carried my weight well.  Never mind that I was 260+ pounds packed on my 5'5" frame and bursting out of a 24W/3X, I certainly didn't look obese like some people I saw.  My perception of how I looked contributed to a lack of commitment to losing weight for a long time.  I wasn't happy about my size, but my mirror told me that I still looked "pretty good," and as long as I looked "pretty good" I found excuses to cheat on whatever diet I was on.

For me, it wasn't until my weight began to impact my health that I finally decided to do something.  Being diagnosed with diabetes, high cholesterol, gastric reflux and borderline high blood pressure scared me, and it also worried me that I was out of breath walking up a flight of stairs.  I may have been able to fool my perception of my body as reflected in the mirror, but I couldn't fool the inside of my body and it accurately reflected what was really going on.  As I began to lose weight, the inside of my body responded quickly - blood sugar, cholesterol and blood pressure all returned to normal, which was very exciting! 

What took longer was my perception of what was happening outside.  Looking at myself in the mirror every day, I didn't always see a difference.  My clothes were getting loose and then falling off, but the reflection in the mirror didn't seem to change.  I realized that my perception didn't reflect reality, so I began taking pictures to document my progress.  Sometimes when I absolutely didn't see it in the mirror, I'd pull out pictures of myself from before and compare them to pictures of myself after losing 30, 50, 80 pounds.  When I looked at the pictures, I began to see myself in a more accurate light.  Being able to really "see" my progress helped to keep me motivated and made me anxious for the day when I could finally take an "after" picture.

Take Shape for Life/Medifast changes us, inside and out, physically, emotionally, mentally - perhaps even spiritually.  Not all of the changes are reflected in the mirror, and sometimes what we see in the mirror may not be an accurate reflection of the changes we're experiencing.  It takes time to adjust to all of the changes we experience as we get to a healthy weight - that's one of the reasons this is called a journey.  Even if you aren't feeling like there is a lot of change going on, even if you don't see change reflected in your mirror, the choices you're making will eventually be reflected inside and out.  Choose wisely :-)

For Better or Worse, Through Thick and Thin

Today is my 38th wedding anniversary and I want to wish my sweet husband a very happy anniversary! 

We met in college - I was 18 and he was 19 and we started dating a year later and married a year after that.  When we got married, I was thin and he wasn't ;-), and by the time we celebrated our first anniversary, we'd both put on weight (him more than I) due to my new-found love of cooking.  That began a series of diets that we did together.  I was generally dealing with 10-15 pounds I wanted to drop and he was usually needing to lose 50 or more pounds. We had good intentions, but wow, did we try some crazy things!

When the Atkins diet first came out, my husband thought this was the answer to a meat-lover's prayers.  I remember one day when he ate 12 hot dogs, stuffed with cheese and wrapped in bacon - for LUNCH!  Yep, the carbs were little to none, but the calories and artery-clogging fat grams?  Nobody counted those and it's probably just as well we didn't know!  I didn't eat quite that many, but I think I probably ate 3 or 4 of those "on plan" food items as well.  Needless to say, we didn't lose very much weight and we also didn't feel that great (who could, with all that sodium and lack of nutrition?).

Then there was the "eat all of your calories first thing in the day" diet.  We read an article that claimed if you ate all of your calories at the beginning of the day in one big meal, you'd lose weight.  That sounded like a good idea so we got up one morning before work and made the breakfast to end all breakfasts - eggs, sausage, pancakes and I don't remember what else.  We ate until we were stuffed, convinced we'd eaten enough to easily tide ourselves over until the next morning.  Of course, by late afternoon we were hungry and by dinner time we were starving and ended up eating dinner.  I think that's the only diet we did that only lasted one day.

There were other diets we tried together, too, and some of them worked temporarily.  Since I was usually only fighting 10 pounds, these fad diets usually kept me close to where I wanted to be, but they didn't begin to teach me how to lose weight and keep it off in a healthy way.  I was a stay-home, from-scratch cook for twelve years, starting when we had our oldest daughter, and our food was very healthy, even if the portions weren't.

By the time my weight started piling on and I went from needing to lose 10 pounds to being 126 pounds overweight, my husband had pretty much given up any attempts at losing weight.  I went from one program to another and he ate, and we were both at very unhealthy weights.

Four years ago this month, everything began to change when I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast.  My husband was very supportive, but he watched from the sidelines for over six months, until he finally decided to go on the program himself in January of 2008.  He lost 50 pounds and reached his goal weight in three months and I reached my goal about five weeks later.  We have now celebrated three years of both of us being at a healthy weight for one of the first times in our entire married life!

I thank the Lord for my wonderful husband who have loved me through thick and thin (literally) and who supported me on my 20+ year odyssey to a healthy weight.  He never criticized either my weight or any of the methods I tried to lose weight, and when I finally found something that worked - Take Shape for Life/Medifast - he cheered and encouraged me each step of the way. 

Thanks to both of us getting healthy on this program, I'm looking forward to at least 38 more years with this man.  He reads my blogs every day, so Happy Anniversary, honey!  I love you with all my heart!

For the rest of you reading this, I really care about you, too.  And because I care so much about you, I'll end this blog like I end them all - choose wisely :-)

Strengthening a New Muscle

Welcome to June!  It's hard to believe that this is the sixth month of the year already!  For those of you who've been on the program for a while, I hope that the new, healthier habits you've been developing are becoming more and more established in your life. 

When I was on the 5&1 weight loss phase of Take Shape for Life's optimal health program, I often said that I was getting a lot of practice exercising my "no thank you muscle."  I reasoned that learning to say "no thank you" to things while I was losing weight would strengthen my ability to say "no thank you" once I was in Maintenance.  I understood that some of my old favorites would not, could not, be an ongoing part of a thin and healthy life, so it was important to have a strong "no thank you muscle."

The funny thing about muscles is that they have a tendency to either grow stronger or atrophy, depending on whether or not we use them.  One definition for atrophy is " A wasting or decrease in size of a body organ, tissue, or part owing to disease, injury, or lack of use."  Anyone who has ever broken a bone and worn a cast has seen the effect of immobilizing an extremity for a few weeks.  It's truly a "use it or lose it" scenario when it comes to our muscles.

The same is true for our "no thank you muscle" :-).  The more we practice it now, the stronger it will be and the better it will serve us on the other side of 5&1, which is the rest of our lives.  There are so many reasons why it makes sense to stay on plan, and this is just one of them.  Every time we choose to stay on plan, every time we turn down something that we'd really like to eat, choosing to stay focused on what we REALLY want, we grow a bit stronger.  We learn that we CAN say no (that's something that came as a bit of a surprise to me!), we learn that we really CAN have a good time even though we aren't eating what everyone else is eating.  And as we learn that, we grow stronger.

Are you ready to do a little muscle building today?  The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)