Labor Day is over, summer vacations are behind us and the kids are back in school. Some of you are breathing a sigh of relief today because even though you might have had a great summer, you're happy to be back into a routine. Others might be experiencing different emotions, as you've enjoyed having less structure for the past 2-3 months. Regardless of how you're viewing today, most of us have now moved from a "lazy, hazy days of summer" routine to "back to normal." Now what?
The day after Labor Day often feels like January 2 - a good time to get started, or restarted. Some people found that their best intentions to lose weight got sidelined over the summer between vacations and all those BBQs and have recommitted to going back on plan today. If that's you, welcome back!
It can be hard to get restarted again. Eating five Medifast meals and a lean and green is easy, but getting back into the right mindset can be an issue. If you've been off plan, it's tempting to spend time and energy playing the "should have, could have" mind game, especially if you aren't happy with what the scale is saying today. I would encourage you to not waste a second on regrets, because that will keep you looking back. It's time to look forward!
Where do you want to be by the holidays? How do you want to feel? What do you want to look like in all of the photos that will be taken on Christmas Day?
I'm not talking about "event dieting" - losing weight for the holidays, because I am not a proponent of that. This program is about getting you to a healthy weight and teaching you how to stay there, not about losing weight for one event or the other. That said, the holidays are 3-1/2 months away, and by making the choice today to stay on plan, you will be in a very different place by the time they get here. You might be at your goal, but even if you aren't there yet, you will have made significant progress by then.
Think past the holidays. What do you ultimately want? What will goal look like for you? Today is a good day to think about that, a good day to dream.
As you settle back into your normal routine again, today is a good day to begin to establish new, healthier habits that will become part of your routine. Establishing those new habits begins with the choices you make today. Choose wisely :-)
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Monday, September 6, 2010
Happy Labor Day!
Happy Labor Day! I hope you're having a great day and enjoying this last summer holiday.
We're having some friends over for a cookout today. Chicken breasts are marinating, ready to throw on the grill this afternoon, and we'll have fresh vegetables, a salad, and fresh fruit for dessert. This is quite a change from the cookouts we used to have!
That's not to say that we haven't had cookouts with more traditional fare since we've reached goal, because we have. We just decided to not do that today. We've had a busy summer with a fair amount of traveling and when we've been home, several get-togethers with family and friends have included some of my husband's homemade ice cream, so we have certainly indulged on occasion. However, we really watch what we eat most of the time and decided to keep it simple today.
Part of what's different this side of goal is that we have the freedom to eat, or not eat, whatever we want. Getting together with friends is no longer all about the food, and a holiday cookout doesn't mandate a table loaded with high-fat, high calorie food. We can have a great time over light, healthy food, and we will do just that today.
Whatever your plans are on this Labor Day, I hope you have a great day and that you choose wisely :-)
We're having some friends over for a cookout today. Chicken breasts are marinating, ready to throw on the grill this afternoon, and we'll have fresh vegetables, a salad, and fresh fruit for dessert. This is quite a change from the cookouts we used to have!
That's not to say that we haven't had cookouts with more traditional fare since we've reached goal, because we have. We just decided to not do that today. We've had a busy summer with a fair amount of traveling and when we've been home, several get-togethers with family and friends have included some of my husband's homemade ice cream, so we have certainly indulged on occasion. However, we really watch what we eat most of the time and decided to keep it simple today.
Part of what's different this side of goal is that we have the freedom to eat, or not eat, whatever we want. Getting together with friends is no longer all about the food, and a holiday cookout doesn't mandate a table loaded with high-fat, high calorie food. We can have a great time over light, healthy food, and we will do just that today.
Whatever your plans are on this Labor Day, I hope you have a great day and that you choose wisely :-)
Sunday, September 5, 2010
The Power of Choices
Every blog I've written for quite some time has addressed, in one way or another, the opportunity we have every day to make choices that move us in one direction or another. I emphasize choices because I don't want any of us to ever lose sight of the fact that we don't have to be victims of our circumstances, and to also encourage you to be an active participant in making your future what you want it to be. We always have a choice.
So many of us have felt stuck for a long time, maybe trapped is even a better description. For me, I felt trapped inside a body that I hated. I hated how I looked and I hated how I felt. I hated the size I was in and resented the fact that designers seemed to think that plus-size women liked to dress in awful colors and patterns. For a long time I felt helpless to change my situation, but I kept trying - and failing. This seemingly endless cycle of trying and failing further fueled my despair and my belief that I couldn't change. It was a difficult situation to be in - hating where I was yet feeling powerless to change. I blamed my failure on being weak and undisciplined and I beat myself up mentally and emotionally on a regular basis.
When I was seriously considering weight loss surgery, and contemplating taking out a second mortgage to pay for it, I realized that I had somehow turned a corner in my thinking. I had reached a level of desperation with my weight that I hadn't experienced before, and that's when I was finally ready - finally - to change. Finally ready to admit that I couldn't do this on my own. Before mortgaging our home and our future, I decided to give Take Shape for Life/Medifast a try.
So my first choice on my journey was to order a month's worth of product. That first month was amazing for me because I not only saw weight beginning to melt and saw my blood sugar return to normal, but I also did something I'd never done before - I followed the plan as written and didn't cheat. Every day that I was on plan empowered me and propelled me forward to the next day. I'd heard that it takes 21 days to make a new habit or break an old habit, so I made the choice to stay on plan for 21 days to see if it really would be possible to break old habits and begin to establish new ones.
I had no idea that those choices would set in motion a series of other choices that would finally bring me to my goal, and that the new habits that grew from those choices would keep me in my goal range more than two years later. The choices we get not only have their own set of consequences, but they beget other choices.
Do you want your future to include a healthier you? Choose to be an active participant in creating that future, because it's there if you want it. As always, choose wisely :-)
So many of us have felt stuck for a long time, maybe trapped is even a better description. For me, I felt trapped inside a body that I hated. I hated how I looked and I hated how I felt. I hated the size I was in and resented the fact that designers seemed to think that plus-size women liked to dress in awful colors and patterns. For a long time I felt helpless to change my situation, but I kept trying - and failing. This seemingly endless cycle of trying and failing further fueled my despair and my belief that I couldn't change. It was a difficult situation to be in - hating where I was yet feeling powerless to change. I blamed my failure on being weak and undisciplined and I beat myself up mentally and emotionally on a regular basis.
When I was seriously considering weight loss surgery, and contemplating taking out a second mortgage to pay for it, I realized that I had somehow turned a corner in my thinking. I had reached a level of desperation with my weight that I hadn't experienced before, and that's when I was finally ready - finally - to change. Finally ready to admit that I couldn't do this on my own. Before mortgaging our home and our future, I decided to give Take Shape for Life/Medifast a try.
So my first choice on my journey was to order a month's worth of product. That first month was amazing for me because I not only saw weight beginning to melt and saw my blood sugar return to normal, but I also did something I'd never done before - I followed the plan as written and didn't cheat. Every day that I was on plan empowered me and propelled me forward to the next day. I'd heard that it takes 21 days to make a new habit or break an old habit, so I made the choice to stay on plan for 21 days to see if it really would be possible to break old habits and begin to establish new ones.
I had no idea that those choices would set in motion a series of other choices that would finally bring me to my goal, and that the new habits that grew from those choices would keep me in my goal range more than two years later. The choices we get not only have their own set of consequences, but they beget other choices.
Do you want your future to include a healthier you? Choose to be an active participant in creating that future, because it's there if you want it. As always, choose wisely :-)
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Doing What We Want
Can you believe it's Labor Day weekend? The temperature has dropped 30 degrees from just a couple of days ago (it's only in the mid-50's), and with a stiff wind thrown in, I'll have to dig out a sweater and maybe even a jacket before I head to the farmer's market this morning. It's chilly enough and windy enough to make me want to stay home, but I won't because there are some things at the farmer's market that I want to pick up today.
We face competing choices on a daily basis. Some may be as relatively inconsequential as my choices to stay inside and stay warm versus getting blown around a bit at the market. Other choices may have more consequence. For many of these choices, neither one is really good or bad - it's not "bad" if I stay home this morning and it's not "good" if I leave the house. It's really a matter of me deciding what's most important to me this morning and then doing what I want to do. Sometimes, like this morning, doing what I really want to do is less comfortable than the alternative (staying home would be more comfortable), but if I'm motivated enough (and I am), I won't talk myself out of it (and I HAVE done that on occasion!).
I heard a speaker say that we move in the direction of our own self interest. In other words, we tend to end up doing what we want to do. If we haven't clarified in our minds what it is that we want, we will go for whatever is in front of us that provides immediate gratification. If, however, we know what we want and we are focused on it, we will do what we need to do to get it. In other words, we will make the secondary choices required to support our primary choice.
The choice to stay on plan or not today is not really a "good choice" or a "bad choice" - it's simply a choice you have to make. The choice is not inconsequential - you simply have to decide what it is that you want today. Decide, then choose wisely :-)
We face competing choices on a daily basis. Some may be as relatively inconsequential as my choices to stay inside and stay warm versus getting blown around a bit at the market. Other choices may have more consequence. For many of these choices, neither one is really good or bad - it's not "bad" if I stay home this morning and it's not "good" if I leave the house. It's really a matter of me deciding what's most important to me this morning and then doing what I want to do. Sometimes, like this morning, doing what I really want to do is less comfortable than the alternative (staying home would be more comfortable), but if I'm motivated enough (and I am), I won't talk myself out of it (and I HAVE done that on occasion!).
I heard a speaker say that we move in the direction of our own self interest. In other words, we tend to end up doing what we want to do. If we haven't clarified in our minds what it is that we want, we will go for whatever is in front of us that provides immediate gratification. If, however, we know what we want and we are focused on it, we will do what we need to do to get it. In other words, we will make the secondary choices required to support our primary choice.
The choice to stay on plan or not today is not really a "good choice" or a "bad choice" - it's simply a choice you have to make. The choice is not inconsequential - you simply have to decide what it is that you want today. Decide, then choose wisely :-)
Friday, September 3, 2010
Three Years Later
Every now and then, I enjoy re-reading some of my earliest blogs, the ones written when I was just starting on this program. Reading them again reminds me of where I was and I remember again the joys and the challenges of being on 5&1. This morning I read a blog that I wrote almost exactly three years ago, 11 weeks into what would become my new life.
I'm so glad I made the choice that day to stay on plan and not give up because of the scale. It's not easy to do the right thing when we aren't seeing an immediate reward, so the fact that I made that choice was evidence of God's grace and strength at work in my life. I had a couple of other weeks when I didn't lose a thing, and several one-pound weeks, but over time I DID lose 120 pounds (two days short of 11 months). I DID lose 6 more pounds in Transition. And, most important, over two years later, I'm still maintaining.
It's a daily choice, and each choice adds up over time. Choose wisely :-)
Well, it finally happened this morning. I've been on Take Shape for Life/Medifast long enough now (today starts my 11th week) to know that sooner or later, it happens to everyone. This morning was the dreaded "I stayed on plan all week and didn't lose any weight" weigh in. Ugh!
My first thought was, "You have GOT to be kidding!" So I stepped off and stepped back on, but there was no change. Then I decided I'd wait an hour or so to see if I'd weigh less then (no rationale to this, of course, just a desperate woman looking for a quick solution). Nope! I very grudgingly recorded my weight, very sad that I wouldn't get to write down a loss this week. I'm fighting a cold right now and feeling significantly less than 100%, so the general yuck feeling only added to my mood.
Then I realized I had a choice. I could either view the glass as half-empty (no weight loss) OR I could begin to review the successes I HAVE had, including purchasing - and wearing - a smaller size this week, and choose to see the glass as half-full. I chose half-full!
I also did what others have also suggested we do on a no-weight-loss week, I got out the measuring tape. The glass is now OVER half full :-) In the past two weeks, even though I've only lost 3 pounds, I've lost another 1.25" from my bust, 1.5" from my hips, .25" from my upper arms, .75" from my knees and .25" from my calves. So even though the scale wasn't very encouraging this morning, I AM shrinking! I've lost 29 pounds and over 14 inches since starting this program two months ago!!
The choice is always mine, whether to focus on the negatives and failures, or whether I'm going to look for and celebrate the positive things that are happening. If I choose to focus on the negative, I know that I will lose motivation and get discouraged, and I am committed to not allowing that to happen.
I knew when I started this journey that it would be a marathon, not a sprint. Seeing the scale move down every week made me feel like I was in a sprint, but this morning was a reminder that it is indeed a marathon. I will have encouraging weigh ins and discouraging ones, but I cannot allow my commitment to losing weight and getting healthy to rest on the feedback of my digital scale.
That said, here's hoping that the scale is kinder to me NEXT week!
I'm so glad I made the choice that day to stay on plan and not give up because of the scale. It's not easy to do the right thing when we aren't seeing an immediate reward, so the fact that I made that choice was evidence of God's grace and strength at work in my life. I had a couple of other weeks when I didn't lose a thing, and several one-pound weeks, but over time I DID lose 120 pounds (two days short of 11 months). I DID lose 6 more pounds in Transition. And, most important, over two years later, I'm still maintaining.
It's a daily choice, and each choice adds up over time. Choose wisely :-)
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Rethinking Success . . . and Failure
"I've missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed." ~ Michael Jordan
We aren't geared to think of failing our way to success, are we? When we think of successful people, we erroneously often believe that these people are somehow just born successful. We assume that they are somehow different than we are, that they are just blessed or lucky or whatever. The reality is that most successful people weren't born that way, and most had their fair share of failure, including Michael Jordan. What made them eventually successful was that they kept on trying, and failing, and never allowed their failure to define them.
Here's another example: When Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up by now. Perplexed, Edison replied, "Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp." And shortly after that, and over 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb.
Perseverance, and a vision of what is possible, even if it is not yet in our grasp, is what keeps us going when things are disappointing. We only truly fail when we give up and stop trying. Until that point, every failure is an opportunity to learn and grow.
Perhaps you've failed on every other weight loss program you've been on. Perhaps you're back on this program again for the second, third, or fourth time. It doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that you're here now and maybe, just maybe, this is your time. I believe it is, because I know this plan works, and I know that if you make the decision to just follow the program one meal at a time, you WILL reach your goal. Even if you've tried and failed a million times, this time can be different, if you make the choice. Choose wisely :-)
We aren't geared to think of failing our way to success, are we? When we think of successful people, we erroneously often believe that these people are somehow just born successful. We assume that they are somehow different than we are, that they are just blessed or lucky or whatever. The reality is that most successful people weren't born that way, and most had their fair share of failure, including Michael Jordan. What made them eventually successful was that they kept on trying, and failing, and never allowed their failure to define them.
Here's another example: When Thomas Edison was interviewed by a young reporter who boldly asked Mr. Edison if he felt like a failure and if he thought he should just give up by now. Perplexed, Edison replied, "Young man, why would I feel like a failure? And why would I ever give up? I now know definitively over 9,000 ways that an electric light bulb will not work. Success is almost in my grasp." And shortly after that, and over 10,000 attempts, Edison invented the light bulb.
Perseverance, and a vision of what is possible, even if it is not yet in our grasp, is what keeps us going when things are disappointing. We only truly fail when we give up and stop trying. Until that point, every failure is an opportunity to learn and grow.
Perhaps you've failed on every other weight loss program you've been on. Perhaps you're back on this program again for the second, third, or fourth time. It doesn't matter. What DOES matter is that you're here now and maybe, just maybe, this is your time. I believe it is, because I know this plan works, and I know that if you make the decision to just follow the program one meal at a time, you WILL reach your goal. Even if you've tried and failed a million times, this time can be different, if you make the choice. Choose wisely :-)
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
About Those Resolutions , . .
Welcome to September! I am in disbelief that it's September, even as I type the word!
September is a great time to take stock of where we're at. Remember those New Year's resolutions we made last January? How are you doing? Do you even remember most of them?
I'm guessing that one of the resolutions you made was to lose weight and get healthy, right? For the over 20 years that I spent being obese, losing weight was ALWAYS on my list of New Year's resolutions. No surprise that each September inevitably found me no closer to my goal than I was when I made that resolution. That all changed, of course, when I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast in June of 2007. 2009 was the first year in over two decades that didn't include "losing weight" as one of my resolutions (I reached my goal in May of 2008).
If you're continuing to make steady progress towards your goal, keep up the great work! Even if you aren't where you wanted to be, look at how far you've come and celebrate that. You're on track to end 2010 strong, so pat yourself on the back and keep your eyes on the prize.
If you've been struggling, especially over the summer, now is a perfect time to get back on plan and back on track. There are four months left in this year, plenty of time to make real progress towards (or maybe even to reach!) your goal.
Time is going to pass, whether you're on plan or not. The question is, where do you want to be four months from today when we ring in 2011? Getting where you want to be starts with the choices you'll make today. Choose wisely :-)
September is a great time to take stock of where we're at. Remember those New Year's resolutions we made last January? How are you doing? Do you even remember most of them?
I'm guessing that one of the resolutions you made was to lose weight and get healthy, right? For the over 20 years that I spent being obese, losing weight was ALWAYS on my list of New Year's resolutions. No surprise that each September inevitably found me no closer to my goal than I was when I made that resolution. That all changed, of course, when I started on Take Shape for Life/Medifast in June of 2007. 2009 was the first year in over two decades that didn't include "losing weight" as one of my resolutions (I reached my goal in May of 2008).
If you're continuing to make steady progress towards your goal, keep up the great work! Even if you aren't where you wanted to be, look at how far you've come and celebrate that. You're on track to end 2010 strong, so pat yourself on the back and keep your eyes on the prize.
If you've been struggling, especially over the summer, now is a perfect time to get back on plan and back on track. There are four months left in this year, plenty of time to make real progress towards (or maybe even to reach!) your goal.
Time is going to pass, whether you're on plan or not. The question is, where do you want to be four months from today when we ring in 2011? Getting where you want to be starts with the choices you'll make today. Choose wisely :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
