Starting - and Maintaining - a Bonfire

Where does your motivation come from?  Do you look for other people to get you motivated and keep you motivated, or does your motivation come from somewhere deep inside of you?  I read a quote from Steven Covey that addresses this question:    "Motivation is a fire from within.  If someone else tried to light that fire under you, chances are it will burn very briefly."

I think we've all had the experience of someone else trying to light a fire under us - whether it was our boss or our mother :-).  It was pretty hard to keep that fire going, wasn't it?  The same is true when we try to light a fire under someone else (one of the reasons being a mother is so challenging!).

If this quote is true, then it's also reasonable to conclude that we can't look  to someone else to provide motivation for us.  It doesn't matter if it's someone else trying to light a fire under us or if we're looking to someone else to do it for us, external motivation doesn't last.  This is particularly true when it comes to making long-term changes in our lives.

For long-term, permanent weight management, we have to find the motivation from within.  Doing this because our spouse, our friends, or even our doctor wants us to lose weight ultimately won't work.  We have to WANT to get to a healthy weight and we have to make the fundamental choice to get healthy.

The motivation we need to be successful isn't a "let's go get 'em" type of feeling, because that doesn't last, either.  The motivation we need isn't a burst of inspiration that sustains itself over time, because inspiration definitely comes and goes.  The motivation we need is born out a decision that we make to get to a healthy weight.  It's a decision, not a feeling.  Because it's a decision, it will carry us through those days when we don't feel like doing this - and there are definitely those "don't feel like it" days.  Once we make the fundamental choice to get healthy, once we create in our mind a vision for what living at a healthy weight will look like for us, we will continue to make the secondary choices we need to keep us moving forward.  That doesn't mean that we will never mess up - some will choose to stay on plan 100% of the time and some won't  - but we know where we're going and we'll keep putting one foot in front of the other, one meal at a time.

When that kind of motivation burns within us, it's a fire that cannot be doused and it will burn hot and bright.  Even on days when we don't feel like doing this, there is a deep satisfaction that comes from doing it anyway because that choice moves us a day closer to our goal.  There were days when I was sick of staying on plan, but I went to bed those nights thankful that I'd made the choice to do it anyway.

Motivation from within will get the fire started and the choices you make will keep the fire burning.  Choose wisely :-)

Deciding What I Love

What do you REALLY love, and what are you willing to give up for it?  This is a question I'm asking myself right now - I'm posting this so you can ask yourself the same question.

Sweets are my downfall.  If it has sugar in it, there is a 99.9% chance that I'll like it.  If it has both sugar AND a high fat content, that percentage goes up.  What I have learned since reaching my goal over 5.5 years ago is that although many things and many habits have changed, I still have a sugar addiction.  It is very difficult, bordering on impossible, for me to eat sweets in moderation.  Once I start, it's as if my brain completely disengages.  This time of year becomes very challenging for me because the stuff of my addiction is everywhere (except my house!).

Some people report that once they lose the weight and reach their goal, sweets and other fattening things don't ever tempt them.  Some say that those things don't even taste good to them anymore.  Sigh  . . . I wish I could say that, but the truth is that I still have a set of fully-developed fat-girl taste buds - everything still sounds and tastes as good to me as it ever did.  I was raised with a lot of fried food and my taste buds still think that frying only improves the taste of anything.

When it comes to eating, I have cut myself a bit too much slack lately - been a little less mindful of both the kind of food I've eaten as well as the quantity.  I still eat six small meals a day and 2-3 of them are usually Medifast meals, but some of those other meals have included things that aren't in my long-term best interest.  When this happens, I notice pretty quickly that I feel more sluggish and that I start to crave more of the stuff.

Because I am committed to staying at a healthy weight AND being healthy (having once been Type 2 diabetic, I am well-aware of the dangers of regaining my weight), I have to ask myself once again the same important question:  what do I REALLY love?   

It comes down to what's most important to me.  We all have to make primary choices, then make secondary choices to support our primary choice, even if we don't necessarily like the secondary choice.  For example, if someone makes the decision to become a concert pianist (primary choice), they will make secondary choices (practice 4 hours a day, not engage in some sports to avoid possible injury to their hands, etc.) to support that primary choice.  We don't always LIKE the secondary choices, but we do them because they support our primary choice.

When it all boils down, my primary choice is to be thin and healthy, so I am making some secondary choices that support that.  I will exercise, whether I feel like it or not; I will make healthy choices in what I eat, whether I feel like it or not; I will continue to eat 5-6 small meals a day (2-3 of them Medifast meals), whether I feel like it or not.

For me, it's important to stay focused on what I'm gaining, not on what I'm giving up.  I kept that focus while I lost my weight, and it's important for me to keep that same focus now.  If I focus on feeling deprived, that has the potential to lead to failure.  However, if I stay focused on what I'm gaining - and there is SO much to gain by making healthy choices - then I will embrace those healthy choices and celebrate the victories.

All of this has very little to do with willpower and a lot to do with deciding what is REALLY important to me at this point in my life.  I LOVE the life I have, and I'm so thankful to God for leading me to Take Shape for Life.  This program has changed my life - literally gave me back my life.  I am making the choice to maintain my weight loss and my health for the rest of my life!

For you and for me, it's a choice we have to make every day.  Choose wisely :-)

It's a Wonderful Life

Last night one of the movie theaters in our town (an old, one-screen theater) had a free showing of "It's a Wonderful Life."  This is one of my favorite Christmas movies, I watch it every year, and it was fun to see it on the big screen. Even though I've seen it countless times, "It's a Wonderful Life" still makes my cry at the end as George Bailey realizes how rich his life really is.  For those of you who are familiar with the movie, you know that George didn't realize how blessed his life was until he had the opportunity to see what life would have been like if he'd never been born.

After watching the movie, I did a little imagining of my own, only instead of imagining what life would be like if I'd never been born, I got to wondering what my life would look like today if I hadn't found Take Shape for Life and lost 126 pounds.  I certainly couldn't have imagined 6-1/2 years ago that my life would have changed as much as it has, and I got to imagining for a few minutes what it would look like if I was still 260 pounds.

It's wasn't a happy picture.  For one, I know that if I was still 260 pounds (or more), I would now be a full-blown diabetic on medication.  I was diabetic when I started on 5&1, but not yet on medication.  However, my numbers were on the rise and I knew that at my next doctor's visit she would insist that I go on one drug or another.  I was already on medication for cholesterol and gastric reflux, and with my blood pressure on the rise, I imagine I would also be on medication for that by now.  Because my weight was going up, I may have been edging close to 300 pounds by now.  My energy would be low and I'd feel sluggish most of the time.  I remember hating how I looked and felt, and I imagine that another 6-1/2 years of morbid obesity would have wreaked further havoc on my emotions and my self-esteem.  The picture in my mind is pretty sad.

Had I not lost weight and become a full-time health coach, I would also still be at my job at the hospital, putting in lots of hours and most likely dealing with the challenges hospitals are facing as they try to balance their budget (i.e., small or no salary increase, or even reduction in hours or pay).  My work day priorities and my pay would still be determined by someone else and I wouldn't have the flexibility I do now to focus on the things that matter the most to me.  

Had I not found Take Shape for Life and lost my weight, my life would also be far less rich in friendships, as I have met so many wonderful people from all over the country through Take Shape for Life trainings and events.

The "what if I hadn't lost weight" imagining didn't last very long - thankfully!  It wasn't a very happy mind escape, but it WAS very sobering and humbling.  I certainly had no idea that anything positive would happen when I started on the plan.  Honestly, I thought the only thing I would really lose was close to $300 :-).  I had no idea that I would not only lose the weight I needed to lose (and continue to keep it off), but that I'd also enjoy so many wonderful new things.

As I think about all that has happened, the word that comes to mind is "joy."  My life has so much more joy these days, and I'm so thankful to God for all He has done in my life, including leading me to this program when He did.  As I watched "It's a Wonderful Life," all I could think of is, it sure is!

As I imagined my life still obese, I realized that the difference today began with a choice to go on plan.  Each day that I reinforced that original choice by staying on plan moved me one day closer to the life and health that I have today. 

The choices you make today will either move you towards the life you want to live or will keep you in a place you don't want to be.  Choose wisely :-)

Choosing to Believe

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Filling the Gaps

Part of my weight loss journey six years ago was addressing the things that led to the overeating that resulted in my weight ballooning to 268 pounds.  I understood that I didn't get to that weight just because I enjoyed a good meal or because I'm a great cook - I was a self-confessed emotional eater.  As I've shared before, an unexpected outcome of going on Take Shape for Life/Medifast was my coming to grips with turning to food and other things as a coping mechanism for dealing with stress, anger, boredom, etc.

This is a time of year when those of us who are recovering emotional eaters can be especially challenged.  The holidays tend to be emotional times anyway - good and bad - as they not only bring back memories from past holidays, but the busyness of the season creates its own level of stress.  When our emotions are running on high and then a lot of holiday food shows up, it can be hard to stay on plan.

A couple of years ago, I did a personal study of Beth Moore's "Breaking Free" Bible study.  Her study is focused on helping women truly break free from the things that keep us trapped in unhealthy behavior.  After completing the lessons for each week, I download the video lesson she teaches.  One on the video lessons especially impacted me, as it was a powerful illustration of my own attempts to fill the gaps in my life.

Beth shared the story of Jesus talking with a Samaritan woman at a well, a woman who had tried to fill the gaps in her life with relationships (she'd been married 5 times and was living with a man).  Jesus recognized that she was thirsty for more than the water in the well and He offered her living water so that she would never thirst again (He, of course, was referring to Himself as the Living Water).  Beth took a large glass container and began to put all kinds of things in the container - a couple of small dolls to represent relationships, chocolate, money, jewelry, etc. - different things that people use to fill the holes in our lives.  She filled the container full, stuffing in as many things as she could, but it was clear there were still gaps in the container.  Beth explained that we could never put enough stuff into our lives to fill every gap, and she said that we all have gaps that we want to fill.

Beth then took a container of water and poured it into the container and I watched as the water filled every empty spot - every gap was filled.  For me, this was a powerful reminder that only God can fill the gaps in my heart.  For years, even though I knew stuff, including food, couldn't fill the gaps, I still tried.  I couldn't eat enough, couldn't shop enough, to fill the gaps.  I want to point out that my life was good - a solid, happy marriage, healthy kids, a good job, nice home, wonderful friends and family - but there were still emotional gaps, the kind that we all have.  When I was under stress or upset about something or even bored, those gaps became gaping holes.  No amount of chocolate or anything else could fill those holes.

Part of my weight loss journey was learning to turn in an entirely new way to the Lord, and He filled every gap in my heart.  When that happened, food was able to take its rightful place in my life as a source of nourishment for my body, not my heart.  Watching Beth pour water into that container was a powerful visual for me and a good reminder once again during this time of year to not reach for food when the pressure of the season weighs me down.

We all have gaps in our lives and we choose how we're going to try and fill those gaps.  Choose wisely :-)

Enjoying Food or Enjoying Life?

For many of us prior to starting on 5&1, enjoying food was one of the major pleasures in our lives.  Going on this program was hard because it meant giving up a major source of pleasure.  My social life revolved around food - every time we got together with someone, it was to eat.  There was good conversation and a lot of fun, but all of that took place over a meal or dessert or a variety of snacks.  

What I realized after starting on this program was that while I had been enjoying food - lots of food, I wasn't enjoying a lot of other things.  I didn't enjoy physical activity because pain in my knee and my back made even walking difficult at times.  I didn't enjoy shopping for clothes because I hated the size I was in and, out of embarrassment, never shopped for clothes with my friends.  I felt fatigued much of the time and was happiest when I was sitting someplace, particularly at a table with food in front of me.  I didn't enjoy going to a beach and would never attend a pool party . . . the list of things I didn't/wouldn't/couldn't do was pretty long.

What was true for me then is still true for some people I know.  They won't even try this program because they claim that they just enjoy food too much to give it up.  What's sad is knowing that for some of them, their enjoyment of food and their resulting obesity is preventing them from enjoying so many other things - they're enjoying food, but not really fully enjoying life.

As I started this program and began to really embrace it, an amazing thing happened.  While I wasn't enjoying food in the same old way (from a culinary perspective, eating five Medifast meals and a lean & green doesn't placate the pleasure centers in the brain like all of those high-sugar/high-fat and calorie-laden meals), I WAS enjoying other things.  My knee and back started feeling better pretty quickly and I started to enjoy taking walks.  My energy level went WAY up and I didn't feel like crawling into bed when I got home from work.  We still got together with friends, but I found out that I could have a great time with them and NOT eat the same old food - a lean & green at a restaurant or having my own Medifast meal while they snacked on something else didn't impact my ability to have fun at all.

As I continued to lose weight, I realized that I was getting a whole new life for myself - one that wasn't defined by obesity or dependent on food to have a good time. 

Six years ago, I stayed on plan through the holidays and lost 18 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's.  My memories of that holiday season aren't about the food I did or didn't eat - they are of time spent with family and friends.  My enjoyment of the holiday season wasn't diminished in any way because I didn't eat this or that because my focus was on enjoying time with the people that I loved.

Since reaching my goal on May 22, 2008, I've been able to enjoy a wide variety of food again, but the lessons learned while on 5&1 have remained.  Enjoying life is about so much more than what's on my plate.

Today are you choosing to enjoy life, or are you choosing to enjoy food?  Choose wisely :-)

Watching Out for Slick Spots

Some things are as predictable as, well, snow in Michigan in the winter.  One of the things that is absolutely predictable with the first snow of the winter is an absolute rash of fender benders.  Thankfully, most of these are just that - fender benders - with no serious injuries.  Once everyone readjusts to driving on snowy (and sometimes icy) roads, things settle down pretty quickly.  What amazes me is that it snows absolutely every winter, and anyone who has lived in Michigan for any length of time and driven in winter has developed the winter driving skill set they need to navigate the roads safely - at least that's the theory.  In practice, however, it appears that some people need to relearn how to drive every single winter, and the rest of us try our best to avoid getting hit by one of them. 

Why is it that we so quickly forget what we think we've learned?  I am almost certain that by the time the snow melts for the last time every spring, most Michigan drivers are expert at dealing with winter roads.  Then the weather turns warm, the roads become dry once again and many drivers get lax and are seemingly caught unaware when the snow inevitably falls the next winter.  

The same is often true for those of us on 5&1.  We think we've "got it" this time, and we do really well for a while.  Then things come up and some find themselves off plan and quickly out of the 5&1 routine.  When that happens, there can be a series of "5&1 fender benders" before these individuals are back on the road again.  

Staying on plan, like winter driving, requires lots of repetition and attention.  The more we do it, the more comfortable we are and the easier it gets.  We can't afford to take our eyes off the road because there may be unexpected "slick spots", but if we hit a spot and start to skid, we know exactly what to do to bring things under control so we don't end up in a ditch.  And landing in a ditch is no fun at all!

With Christmas looming, there are a lot of food "slick spots" waiting to put your 5&1 vehicle into a spinout, so my encouragement to you today is to keep your hands on the wheel, your eyes on the road, and keep doing what you're doing (staying on plan!).  Every time you choose to stay on plan, you are becoming a more "expert driver" and will be better able to navigate past potential pitfalls.  Every time you choose to stay on plan, you are one day closer to your destination - your goal weight.  

Today, as every day, the choice is yours.  Choose wisely :-)

It's the Most Wonderful, and Challenging, Time of the Year

Since we are now into December and the holiday season, I thought I'd share with you a blog I wrote in early December six years ago.  I was just over five months into my weight loss journey, and I approached the holidays with a lot of trepidation.  Here's what I wrote:

It's only December 4, but this is going to be one tough month!  December is always challenging, but in years past I always dealt with stress be eating more chocolate or Christmas cookies, and one stress I never dealt with was trying to AVOID all of the holiday goodies.  But this is definitely a different year for me - time to gird my (shrinking) loins!

There is food all around me, and almost NONE of it is on plan.  We hosted a Christmas party for our small group Bible study on Sunday night and I stuck with the shrimp cocktail (no cocktail sauce) and some raw veggies (both were part of my L&G for the day).  Then I walked into work on Monday morning to find a large box of Godiva chocolates sitting my my desk (that was quickly taken to the kitchen and OUT of my sight!).  Then a large package of gourmet popcorn was delivered to our office, and additional food gifts will continue to come for the next two weeks.  Our office is holding a holiday luncheon for physician office billers on Thursday and we're catering in a full Italian meal - two different kinds of pasta, homemade breads, and truffles and cannoli for dessert - certainly nothing for me to eat!  And the list just goes on and on, day in and day out for the next couple of weeks.  I have a lot of holiday events to attend and/or host, and it will be a literal minefield for me to walk through every single time.

But what's true for me is probably true for many of you, too.  I'm not complaining, just taking stock of all of the potential dangers and carefully planning my strategy to ensure that I don't end up thrown off plan.  Part of the planning is making sure that I eat my Medifast meals on time and don't allow myself to get overly hungry.  Part of the planning is making sure I have an emergency stash of Medifast food at my desk and in my purse so that I never have an excuse to stray.

Then there's the mental and emotional preparation!  Here's what I'm telling myself right now:

• That non-plan food will not get me where I want to go, and it may result in me getting seriously off-track
• Everything I need nutritionally is provided through my 5/1, so there is absolutely no need for me to go off plan (and "just because I feel like it" doesn't count!)
• I already know how all of this food will taste because I've had it before, so I don't need to taste it
• These types of food will be around next year, and next year I will be able to have a small (as in VERY small) taste of the things I'm most wanting
• By refusing to give in now, I am strengthening my "no thank you" muscles;  this will help me to maintain my weight loss later
• I don't want to spend one more day than necessary being overweight, and that piece of chocolate/cookie/etc. could cause me to spend another day overweight
• I haven't been out of the fat-burning state since I first got into it in late June and I do NOT want to go through that misery again just to have that chocolate/cookie/etc.
• If I get out of the fat-burning state, in addition to the misery that will accompany getting back in, it will take me approximately 3 days to get back in.  That's 15 meals and $30 (@ $2/MF meal).  Is that chocolate/cookie/etc. worth $30 to me?

Yes, I'm talking to myself a lot right now!  But I am committed to losing weight and don't want anything to get in my way.  It's not easy, but having made the decision to stay on plan, it really IS simple.  If the food isn't on plan, I don't eat it!  Who's with me?

Besides, the Reason for the Season isn't food, anyway, right?

That was my mindset six years ago, and with God's help, that's what helped me lose 18 pounds between Thanksgiving and New Year's.  Then, as now, it always comes down to a choice that we have to make.   I have no regrets for the choice I made six years ago :-).  If you want to get through the holidays without regrets, choose wisely!

Food Won't Fix It

The food part of this program is the easy part.  In fact, it couldn't be easier!  The hard part of this program is the head and heart part - learning to redefine our relationship with food and learning to not view food as anything more than nutrition for our bodies (nutrition we can enjoy, of course!).

For those of us who were or are emotional eaters, learning how to establish a healthy and proper relationship with food is hard work.  Some of us spent decades of our lives enmeshed in a very unhealthy, love/hate relationship with food.  We ran to it whenever there was a blip on our emotional radar, somehow expecting that food would fix the problem or at least make us feel better.  The problem was that we never ended up feeling better.  My own experience was that even while I was doing my emotional eating thing, I kept mentally telling myself that I shouldn't be doing this and reminding myself that I was cheating on whatever diet I was currently on.  Of course, those thoughts didn't keep me from eating the food, but they did make me feel guilty while I was eating it.  Once the last bite was swallowed, the comfort I had been seeking was replaced by more guilt and self-recrimination, sending me deeper into whatever funk had prompted the eating to begin with.  The problem that I'd tried to salve with food was still there, of course, and I'd added a nice layer of guilt and regret on top of it.

Can anybody relate to this?  Honestly ask yourself:  when did food ever fix the problem?  Food can help to bury the feelings for a moment or two, but the problem never was solved with a fork.  Never.

Learning to deal with problems and the emotions that accompany them in a healthy way is such an important thing to learn if we want to not only reach a healthy weight but also maintain a healthy weight for the long term.

For me, part of this process was really learning to turn to my Heavenly Father in a new and deeper way.  I made a commitment to stay on plan and not cheat, so when the stuff of life bubbled up (as it always does), I realized I couldn't resort to old habits and run for the nearest chocolate.  Out of desperation I cried out to the Lord and asked for His strength to get me through the moment, and as I did that, I found Him to be faithful to provide what I needed in that moment.  Every time I turned to the Lord and made the choice to draw on His strength, there was enough strength to get me through that particular moment.

As I continued to do that, I realized that food never did truly comfort me, that it really wouldn't - and couldn't - fix anything in my life.  And that realization finally set me free from years of emotional eating.

This holiday season evokes lots of memories and emotions.  Some of them are good, but other emotions are difficult.  We may feel a lot of stress as we try to get through a long list of things to be done.  This is the time of year when some people give in to the emotion of the moment and toss aside their good intentions to eat healthy and stay on plan.  But food won't fix it.  Eating stuff that will get in the way of goal won't make us feel better.  We'll end up feeling sluggish, guilty, and frustrated.  And eating more to deal with THOSE feelings will only make us feel even worse!

Choosing to walk away from emotional eating isn't easy, especially during this time of year.  But making the choice to do so is incredibly freeing.  The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)

Avoiding Obstacles

I don't know about you, but the calendar seems to go into hyper-speed between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Once the leftover Thanksgiving turkey is put in the refrigerator and the Christmas decorations come out, the days start to fly.  

Between the decorating, shopping, family get-togethers and holiday parties, the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas can feel like one obstacle after another for those of us who are either on our weight loss journey or focused on staying the course in Maintenance.

A while back I read a quote that said, "The only time when our obstacles matter is when we take our eyes off the goal."  That's a good quote to keep in mind - or post by our computer or wherever we'll see it - as we launch into this holiday season.

Keeping our eyes on the goal is key throughout this journey, but it's critical during the holiday season when we are surrounded by distractions that threaten to get us off course.  If we're focused on what's really important to us - getting to and maintaining a healthy weight - then the potential obstacles won't matter.  We will be aware of them and have a strategy in place to make sure that we leap over them.

Think about Olympic runners in track and field.  They encounter hurdle after hurdle, but their eyes remain fixed on their goal and they sail over the hurdles.  If a runner becomes fixated on the next hurdle, it not only slows their pace but that hurdle could be the one that causes them to trip and fall.

Where do you want to be on January 1?  Focusing on that as a short-term goal can help you get through these next weeks unscathed.  More importantly, how are you going to look and feel when you're at  your goal?  That's where you're heading - don't let anything get in your way!  You will be faced with lots of choices over the next few weeks, and those choices will either bring you closer to your goal or result in a step or two back.  Choose wisely :-)

Waiting for Perfect

If you've read my blogs for very long at all, you've probably noticed that I enjoy good, thought-provoking quotes.  There is often a lot of truth wrapped up in a pithy sentence or two.  That is certainly true for this quote:  

"Don't wait until everything is just right.  It will never be perfect.  There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions.  So what!  Get started now.  With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful.  ~ Mark Victor Hansen

I am the kind of person who likes to get her ducks in a row, get everything "just so" before I take the first step.  There have been a number of things in my life over the past 4-5 years that have moved me outside of my comfort zone as I've been forced to learn as I go instead of getting everything right first.  I've realized that waiting until optimal conditions, with everything in place and all obstacles cleared away, usually means that I keep waiting . . . and waiting . . . Life has a way of being messy and less-than-perfect, and just as soon as one obstacle is eliminated, two more pop up.

That was certainly true of my past weight loss efforts.  I wanted the calendar clear, with nothing on the horizon that would involve food and tempt me to go off plan.  Things had to be good at work - no stress, and there certainly couldn't be any issues at home.  When all of these things were properly aligned, I could focus on losing weight.  However, the minute life happened - good or bad - the diet was once again off.  And trying to lose weight around the holidays?  Forget it!  Talk about a less-than-ideal time to lose weight!

I was very much in a mindset of wanting to wait for the perfect time to start another program just prior to placing my first Medifast order.  I started this program on June 24, 2007, just when the summer fresh fruits were beginning to appear at our local farmer's market.  I really like fruit, so the thought of not eating fruit for an entire summer was troubling and I seriously considered waiting until fall to begin the program.  But then I thought about the honey crisp apples, my favorites, that made their appearance in the fall.  Fall wouldn't be a good time to start, either!  But then after fall, I knew the holidays would be here and who in their right mind starts a weight loss program during the holidays?

So, in mid-June of 2007, as I tried to figure out when I should place my order and get started, I realized that the next "convenient" time to start the program wouldn't be until January 2, 2008 - more than six months away.  I realized that I absolutely could not go that much longer at the weight I was at (260), and I feared that if I waited six more months, my weight would be much higher.  

Was it the ideal time for me to start?  That's hard to say.  All I know was that it was the right time to start.  I started the program two weeks before my birthday and one month before our two-week vacation at a lake cottage we rented. I started this program at the beginning of a summer filled with cookouts and get-togethers with family and friends.  It wasn't ideal and there were certainly obstacles to address, but it was the right time for me - and I couldn't have imagined how much my life would change in the process.

Some of you are just getting started on this program and the holidays are staring you in the face.  This isn't an ideal time for you to start, either, but it's the right time because you're ready to change your life.  Good for you for not waiting until things are perfect . . . you won't regret the choices you're making!  Think about how much better you're going to feel on January 2 when you're 10 or 20 pounds lighter than you are today :-).

You've made a great choice in beginning this program, and each choice you make today, tomorrow and the day after that will bring you closer to a healthier future.  Choose wisely :-)

How to Avoid Getting Sidetracked

Ready or not, Thanksgiving is here and the holiday season is about to shift into full swing.  In my almost-six years of health coaching, I’ve sadly seen the same thing over and over again: some individuals do really well right up until now, then crash and burn when the holidays arrive. Some of them recover and go on to reach their goal and some continue to flounder even to today.

Often what trips people up are other people. They have a plan in place to deal with the holiday meal and show up with a solid plan and lots of resolve. Then the pressure begins from, of all things, family members. They hear, “It’s a holiday, for goodness sake.  Live a little!” “You’ve been doing really well, so you deserve to take a break and reward yourself.” “Just this once won’t hurt!” “But this is Mom’s/Grandma’s/Aunt Lucy’s (you pick!) prize-winning dessert that she only makes once a year. You can’t hurt her feelings by not eating it!”  You get the idea – there is no end to the things people will sometimes say in an effort to get someone off track.

What’s interesting is this: most of the time, the people who are trying to get us off-track aren’t on track for their own health!  I saw a post on Facebook a couple of days ago that said, “Don’t get sidetracked by people who are not on track!” This is GREAT advice and something to keep in mind as we head into Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow and then the holiday parties and meals in December.

Think about it! When is the last time that someone who was at a healthy weight and living a healthy lifestyle encouraged you to eat unhealthy things? Most people who are living a healthy lifestyle at a healthy weight are VERY supportive of anyone who is focused on the same thing.

When someone who isn’t at a healthy weight urges you to go off plan “just this once,” remember that this very thinking is probably keeping them in their own unhealthy state.  Nothing irritates an unhealthy person more than seeing someone resist the very temptations they are giving in to. Misery loves company.

Keeping this in mind tomorrow (and beyond) will hopefully help you to choose wisely J.  Have a wonderful – and healthy – Thanksgiving!