Waving My Magic Wand

I am the weight loss fairy and I am waving my magic wand, sprinkling fairy dust all around.  If you are blessed enough to catch the breeze of my wand or have a few bits of dust land on you - poof!  You will be at your goal!  Anybody interested?

Wouldn't it be GREAT if it was that simple?  How I wish I could wave a magic wand or sprinkle dust around and know that everyone touched would immediately be at their goal. 

Of course, it's not that easy, is it?  It's almost that simple, however.  Eat 5 Medifast meals a day and fix a lean and green (or order one at a restaurant).  Not much thinking required, and the program really DOES work like magic . . . it's just that the magic on this program takes a bit longer :-)

So are you ready to change your life today?  Even in the absence of a weight loss fairy, you CAN make all of your dreams come true, if you decide that's what you want to do.  Best of all, unlike magic that has an annoying way of disappearing, the changes you'll make on this program can last a lifetime.

The changes begin with the choices you'll make today, so choose wisely :-)

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I am leaving today for Chicago and will be flying to Salt Lake City tomorrow morning for a leadership conference at Sundance, Utah.  I'll be back on October 18 and will get to blogging when I get home.  In the meantime, you know what to do . . . keep making those wise choices!

Mood or Mindset?

                     
I've got a question for you today:  are your responses based on your mind-set or on your mood?

Up until I started on Take Shape for Life, my weight loss efforts were pretty much dictated by my mood.  When I was feeling motivated, I tried to lose weight.  When I didn't feel like it, I'd tell myself that it wasn't going to be a "good diet day" and I gave myself permission to eat whatever I wanted.  Needless to say, a mood-driven weight loss program got me absolutely no where!

It wasn't until I embraced a mind-set of getting healthy that I finally began my final weight loss journey.  Having the right tools - this program! - certainly made the difference, but what was also different this time was that I had a different mind-set.

When I started on this program, I wasn't trying to lose weight for a specific event, and I didn't set a date to reach my goal.  This time, my goal was to get healthy and stay healthy, and I didn't care how long it took (but naturally I hoped it would be fast!).  Once I embraced a mind-set of getting healthy, it was amazing to see the difference in my resolve.  

If you're in the habit of responding out of your mood, this journey is going to be a long and rocky one, because there will be times when I can guarantee that you won't be in the mood to stay on plan.  There are days when this isn't fun at all, and unless you have a mind-set that is fixed on getting to a healthy weight and continuing your pursuit of health, you're likely to succumb to the myriad of temptations that surround you.

Part of moving from mood to mind-set is taking the time to identify what it is that you really want.  If you want to be at a healthy weight, write it down.  Picture in your mind what your life will look like when you reach your goal - what kind of clothes will you wear?  How will you feel?  What will you be able to do?  If you can get a picture in your mind of what you want, that can help you keep moving forward on those days when this isn't fun.  Instead of moving away from what you don't want (being overweight, on medication, etc.), think about what you want to create in your life.  That's much more fun and will be a big step forward in giving you the mind-set you need to get to your goal.

The choice is yours - mood or mind-set?  Choose wisely :-)

Do You REALLY Want To?

                            
Do you want to get to a healthy weight?  Do you want to stay at a healthy weight for the rest of your life?

This seems like an obvious question, doesn't it?  And I hate it when people ask obvious questions (makes me wonder if they think I'm stupid or something . . . ).  But I'm asking this question today because I think it's an important question to ask.

One book I really like is, "At His Feet" by Chris Tiegreen.  One of the devotional readings in this book is based on the story of Jesus healing a man who had been an invalid for 38 years.  When Jesus approached the man, He asked the man, "Do you want to get well?"  Interestingly, the man didn't respond, "Well, of course!"  Instead, he offered an excuse (the entire story can be found in John 5:1-15 if you want to read the entire account).

The writer of the devotion noted that as much as we think we want to change, we're comfortable with the status quo.  The man may have been tired of being an invalid, but he also may have feared the changes in his life that being healed would bring.  So Jesus asked what seems to be an obvious question, "Do you want to get well?"

Our problem is that all too often we want change, but we don't want TO change.  At least that's true for me :-).  I want to keep doing what I've always done, but get better results!  Unfortunately, that happens to be the definition of insanity (doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results . . . ).

We know we SHOULD lose weight, and perhaps we even want to lose weight, sort of.  But things come up that are more important to us that getting to a healthy weight and we cheat.  Or perhaps losing weight makes people begin to notice us, and that makes us uncomfortable, so we start sabotaging ourselves.  Status quo can be a pretty comfortable and safe place to be sometimes, even if we know it's not healthy in the long run.

So the question needs to be asked, and I ask it respectfully:  Do you want to get to a healthy weight and stay there?  If you do, you are on the right program to get you there.  You have a lot of wonderful tools to help you each step of the way and there is an amazing amount of support available.  The program is a proven program - the only variable is you.  If you work the program, it works!  If you don't work the program, it doesn't work.

As I've shared before, for me the food part of this program was the easy part.  The really, really hard part was the head and the heart part, because I had to change in pretty fundamental ways how I thought and felt about food.  I had to end a long relationship with food, and that was not an easy task.  What made this time different than all of the other bazillion times I'd tried in the past was that this time I finally, really wanted to change.

I hope your answer to my question today is a resounding "YES!!!"  But be honest with yourself, and if it's not, spend some time figuring out why.  If you figure out what's holding you back and then take steps to deal with it, you'll eventually be able to answer "YES!", too.  And when you do, you'll reach your goal and stay there!  And you'll reach your goal one day, one meal, and one choice at a time . . . choose wisely :-)

Dispelling Another Myth

                          
There is a common misconception that somehow the individuals who stay on plan and reach their goal are stronger or more self-disciplined than everybody else.  Every time I hear that, I just have to smile, because I know how much I struggled, and still struggle, to have discipline in my life.  When individuals decide that they just don't have the discipline that others have and attribute the lack of discipline to the reason they aren't staying on plan, they've really set themselves up for failure. 

If you're telling yourself that you just aren't disciplined, that you aren't as strong as someone else, you've given yourself permission to fail, and you probably will.  If you are waiting for some day in the future when you will somehow get the discipline you need to stay on program, you'll be waiting a long, long time.

A quote I really like says, "Discipline is making the choice between what you want now and what you want most!"  Discipline isn't a matter of being stronger, it's a matter of deciding what it is that you want.

There are always things competing for our attention and if we aren't focused on what we want, we will grab whatever is closest, opting for immediate gratification.  The problem with that strategy is that there is often a difference between what we want now, in this instant, and what we want most.  If we are choosing what we want in this instant, that choice may be pushing us farther away from what we want most.

So what DO you want most today?  Fix your eyes on it, then choose wisely :-)

Yet Another Reason to Get Healthy - NOW!

Each of us had our own reason for making the decision to lose weight and get healthy.  For some, it was realizing that a favorite pair of jeans would no longer zip.  For others, it was a sobering doctor's office visit.  Or perhaps it was not being able to fit on a ride at an amusement park . . . the moment that motivated us to finally get started is as individual as we are. 

Once we've started, the challenge shifts to STAYING motivated.  Anyone who's been on any weight loss program knows what I'm talking about :-).  That's why it's so important to shift our focus from the problem we want to fix and looking ahead to what we want to create.  (In Chapter 3 of his fabulous book, "Dr. A's Habits of Health," Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen discusses this in depth.)

In addition to getting into a fun, small size and getting healthy, would you be motivated by knowing that getting healthy is the best thing you can do for your finances?

In her latest book, “Money Rules,” personal finance coach Jean Chatzky writes, “ The big­gest threat to your financial se­curity is your health. Medical debt is the leading cause of per­sonal bankruptcy in the U.S.”

In “How To Retire The Cheapskate Way” (due out in December), Jeff Yeager says the single most-important piece of financial advice you’ll ever hear is, “If you aren’t healthy, work to get healthier. And if you are healthy, work to stay that way.”

Did you get that? The biggest risk to your finances and future retirement is not stock market volatility, but health care costs.

We can either invest a little bit of time and money now to get healthy and learn the habits of health needed to stay healthy, or we can spend all of our time and money later trying to manage disease.  The choice is ours . . . choose wisely :-)

How to Finish Strong

 How is your weight loss journey progressing?  Are you making steady progress?  Perhaps you're struggling to get on plan and stay on plan, questioning whether this is the right program for you and wondering if the success that others have had will somehow elude you.  If this last sentence describes where you are right now, take heart.

It doesn't matter where you are or how the program has gone thus far.  What does matter is how you finish.  One quote I like says "The measure of a person is not how well they start, but how well they finish."  You haven't finished yet, unless you've decided to quit.

Struggling isn't any fun and in the midst of the struggle we can sometimes wonder if the end result will be worth the effort.  We are geared to want and expect fast results, immediate gratification, so when the positive feedback we're looking for isn't immediately forthcoming, it's tempting to throw in the towel. 

I'm encouraging you today to keep going.  You don't have to believe that this program works, but if you continue to work the program, you WILL reach your goal.  If you embrace this as a lifestyle change, you WILL be able to maintain a healthy weight.  Even if you're struggling, even if you are getting back on plan for the umpteenth time, you aren't finished yet!

When we're struggling, it's easy to believe that the outcome will ultimately be failure, but that's not true.  I've seen too many people who've had several "practice" attempts on this program before things finally clicked for them and they made it to goal.

Success on this program is directly tied to the daily choices we make.  Even if we don't feel like making those choices, and even if we don't believe those choices will ultimately make any difference, if we make them anyway, we will finish well.  You may have gotten off to a rocky start, or you may have started strong and now find yourself struggling, but where you are or have been doesn't determine the finish.  The choices you make today will.  Choose wisely :-)

Getting What We Expect

According to author John Maxwell, "sooner or later we get just what we expect."  In his book, "Failing Forward," Maxwell follows that statement by wondering if the reader views this statement as optimistic or pessimistic, stating that our attitude determines our outlook.   If we're an optimist, we expect things to turn out OK and they usually do.  If we're a pessimist, we expect things to fall apart and assume that if anything bad can happen, it will. 

So what does this have to do with losing weight and getting healthy?  Simply this:  do we expect to be successful or do we expect to ultimately fail?  That may sound like a foolish question, but I think it's worth asking.  In your heart of hearts, being totally honest with yourself, do you expect to reach your goal?  Do you envision yourself at a healthy weight, looking and feeling wonderful?  Or are you convinced, deep down, that this program will work for everyone BUT you?

Now the good news is that you don't have to believe the program works, because it works whether you believe it or not :-).  If you stay on plan and make the daily choice to follow the protocols of this program, you WILL lose weight and you WILL reach your goal.  That's a fact.

The challenge is that if we don't believe deep down that the program will work, if we don't believe that we'll ever really reach goal, the expectation of eventual failure can wreak havoc with our determination to stay on plan.  If the vision of ourselves reaching goal is clouded or perhaps missing entirely, we will be more vulnerable to the temptations that surround us.

Our attitude can not only impact our outcome in the long run, but it also affects our outlook in the the mean time.  If we're optimistic that we will reach out goal, then we are much more likely to take in stride the maddening fluctuations that we see on the scale.  We know we're in this for the long haul and we're optimistic that we'll eventually get there.  If we're pessimistic, those scale fluctuations may rattle us and we will allow them to reinforce our belief that we won't reach our goal.

But what happens if we're not optimistic by nature?  Whether it's through nature or nurture, some of us just naturally see the glass as half-empty.  Maxwell says that we can cultivate optimism in our lives by learning the secret of contentment.  Contentment doesn't mean that we've settled for where we're at, but Maxwell says it comes from choosing a positive attitude that:
   - expects the best in everything, not the worst
   - remains upbeat, even when we get beat up
   -  sees solutions in every problem, not problems in every solution
   - believes we can do it, even when others think we've failed
   - holds on to hope

Hmmm . . . it sounds like we can choose our attitude, perhaps even choose to be optimistic.  If that's true (and I believe it is, as does John Maxwell in his book), and if our attitude really does impact the outcome - if sooner or later we really do get just what we expect - then we have some choices to make today.  These choices go far beyond which Medifast meals we're going to eat or what we're going to have for our lean and green.  We also get to choose the attitude we're going to carry with us through this day. 

Have a great day, and choose wisely :-)