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.  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 :-)

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) 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 5&1, 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 four 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 :-)

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 do, I give myself about a minute to get the knot out before turning the chain over to my patient husband (who also spent 40 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 just over five 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 :-)

Almost Missed It!

A very important anniversary for me almost slipped by unnoticed . . . it was just over five years ago, June 24, 2007, that I began a journey that eventually allowed me to lose 126 pounds.

My very first day on Take Shape for Life/Medifast's 5&1 was the very first time I wrote a blog.  I had no idea where this journey would lead and I honestly wasn't sure I would be successful, but I had a glimmer of hope and decided to journal my experience.  Here's what I wrote that very first day on plan:

Today is the first day of the rest of my new, healthy life.  My first shipment came a few days ago, but I waited until today to start because I was out of town (in Chicago) Friday thru last night to celebrate my brother's 50th birthday.  Now that the celebration is over, I am more than ready to start.

My first meal was the Dutch chocolate shake.  I mixed it up last night (used my Magic Bullet for the first time), refrigerated it overnight and re-blended it this morning with 3 ice cubes.  I found this suggestion on the Medifast message board and thought it was worth trying, and it was a great suggestion!  The shake was pretty good and, at least temporarily, filled me up.  I'm anxious to try the other foods and figure out what I do and don't like so that my next shipment will be tailored to my taste.

I've been on so many weight loss programs over the past 20 years, which is how long I've been struggling with a major weight problem.  Weight Watchers, Atkins, Fit for Life, Herbalife, Weigh Down, Slimfast, South Beach -- all worked for a while, but the weight has always come back, plus some.  Last year I lost almost 40 pounds on South Beach and really, REALLY thought I had finally "gotten it."  I was thrilled to buy clothes two sizes smaller last summer and, convinced that I'd never see "that" weight again, I gave away all of my larger sizes.  It was devastating to have to go out this spring and purchase clothes in that larger size again, and I reached a turning point.

When I found myself trolling the internet for information on gastric bypass surgery (which my insurance doesn't cover), I realized that I had reached the point of desperation . . . then I came across the Medifast website.  I remember hearing about Medifast years ago, when it was strictly a liquid diet and available only through a physician.  I remember hearing (don't know if was true or not) that Medifast was very expensive.  For those reasons, I never seriously considered it.  This time, however, the testimonials and the fact that the program includes a variety of food options caught my attention.  With the full support of my husband, I placed my order.

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.

I reached my goal in just under 11 months and have been maintaining a healthy weight for over four years.  This program has changed my life in more ways than I can possibly describe and I am eternally thankful that God led me to the right program at just the right time.

For those of you who are just starting, you may be skeptical, not quite believing that this will work for you.  Hang on to that sliver of hope that prompted you to give this a try - you don't have to believe it will work - it just works! 

No matter where you are on your journey, reaching the rest of your thin and healthier life happens one meal, one day, and one choice at a time.  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 a while back 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 :-)

It All Adds Up!

Do you ever get tired of staying on plan?  I know I did!  Does it ever feel pointless to open up yet another Medifast meal?  Especially for those who have a lot of weight to lose, like I did, getting to goal will require months and months of opening a Medifast meal five times a day, weighing our lean protein, measuring out our veggies.  There may be times when it becomes boring, or at least not very much fun anymore, and you may wonder if it's worth it.

I remember reading a story about a freshman named Mike at the University of Illinois who, in 1987, found a unique way to finance his education.  He convinced a popular columnist at one of the Chicago newspapers to ask his readers to "send in a penny for Mike."  Mike just asked for a penny because he reasoned that a penny doesn't mean anything to anyone.  He guessed that every reader would find loose pennies in their house, under couch cushions, in their car - forgotten and not valued.

To everyone's surprise, people began sending in their pennies, and in less than a month the fund was up to 2.3 million cents, with donations coming in from all over the United States as well as Mexico, Canada and the Bahamas.  Mike eventually ended up with $28,000 - those pennies added up!

The little things we do today, each Medifast meal in and of itself may seem of little value - but put together, day after day, it adds up!  It's hard for us to have the big picture sometimes when we face what feels like the monotony of yet another day on plan, but there IS a big picture - and it's you at goal :-).

And you'll get there, one day, one meal and one choice at a time.  Choose wisely :-)

The Key to Success

When we first start on Take Shape for Life's 5&1 program, most of us 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!"





This is what Take Shape for Life's Habits of Health materials (Dr. A's Habits of Health and Living a Longer, Healthier Life) are all about.  Our Habits of Health materials teach us how to change both our mindset/orientation AND how to incorporate new, healthy habits.  These materials, combined with the support of a free health coach and powered by Medifast meal replacements, provide the foundation for truly living a longer, healthier life.

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 :-)

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 almost five 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 :-)

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

It's been almost five years since I opened my first Medifast meal packet and began my journey and over four years since I reached my goal.  So how has my life changed after losing 126 pounds four 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 four years later I'm still at a healthy BMI and in my size 6 jeans - a major victory AND relief).  I've had to go back on 5&1 on occasion when my weight has blipped up, but I'm thankful that I have this tool in my back pocket to help me rein things in quickly and safely as needed.  My long-term goal remains to consistently choose wisely so I DON'T ever need to do a 5&1 blitz.  Until I get there, I try hard to make wise choices and do so most of the time, tapping into the wonders of being in fat burning when necessary :-).

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 60 a month from today, 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 :-)

Getting What We Want

"To get what you've never got, you've got to do what you've never done." 

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 :-)

Being Excited . . . Even When We're Not

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 - most exciting of all!!   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 this 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 :-).

Prisoner or Pioneer?

"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.  We aren't on 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 today and continue moving towards a healthier, longer life?  If so, focus on what you want and then choose wisely :-)

Saying "NO" is Really Saying "YES!"

I received two very different, and very interesting, e-mails from friends a while back.  Both friends were on the 5&1 program and both had 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 were 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.  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, 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. 

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 :-)

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's 5&1 program, 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.

This program 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 :-)

Strengthening a New Muscle

Part of getting - and staying - healthy is building and strengthening our muscles.  At first, strength training leaves us with sore and aching muscles as we make them do things and stretch in ways they haven't stretched in a long time.  In time, that soreness is no longer an issue following a workout because we've gotten stronger and strengthened our muscles.

When I was on 5&1, 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 :-)

Just Call Me "Rutter"

One of the reasons I post a blog almost every day is because I know how wonderful and freeing it is to reach goal and I want to help others experience that same joy.  By sharing from my own experience and what I learned along the way, my hope is to smooth the path for those who are still on their own journey.

Although I'm not a sailor, I have many friends who enjoy sailing and boating and I'm always appreciative for the opportunities to spend time on the water with them.  I'm fascinated by the way they are able to navigate over open water, knowing where they are and - important to me! - how to get back to where we launched.

I was intrigued to read about navigation during the era of great sea explorations in the 15th and 16th centuries, when sailing ships traveled over hazardous oceans and navigated dangerous coastlines.  According to the article I read, "pilots used various navigation techniques - including a book called a "rutter" (not the "rudder," the ship's steering device).  This was a log of events kept by earlier voyagers who chronicled their encounters with previously unknown and difficult waters.  By reading the sailing details in a rutter, captains could avoid hazards and make it through difficult waters."

A rutter . . . in a way, I guess that's what I am, and what other health coaches, are.  Having navigated the waters of 5&1, Transition and Maintenance, we do our best to point out the danger zones so that you can have smooth sailing.  One of the things we continue to do is urge people to stay on plan and not cheat.  This advice sometimes generates discussion, but we repeat that encouragement over and over again because, base on our own experience and what we've observed, we know that staying on plan is the only 100% guaranteed way to avoid shipwreck on this program.  Staying on plan will keep you in the deep waters and away from the rocks and other things that could potentially sink your weight loss ship. 

I have talked to far too many people who have gone off plan for one reason or another and ended up struggling mightily to get back on and stay on.  The decision to go off plan has resulted in far too many people taking two or three times longer to reach their goal, and sadly some never reach their goal. 

With Memorial Day weekend over and summer officially kicked off, some of you will find this time of year easy to stay on plan and others will be continually challenged due to cookouts, vacations, graduation open houses, weddings . . . Every time of year brings its own set of challenges and every season holds a myriad of reasons to go off plan, if that's what you decide to do.  What will ultimately make the difference between reaching your goal and potentially not doing so are the choices you will make. 

I encourage you to open your "rutter log" and learn from those who have already navigated these waters.  We've reached the other side and are here to help you safely cross as well.  Of course, the choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)