I’ll show you strong!

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Are you strong enough to stick with it?  Do you have what it takes?  Do you have the will power?  Keep going till you puke to show your strength and determination.

What a bunch of crap!  You want to know what real strength is?  It is living life as an overweight child and adult and having the strength to keep going every day and put a smile a your face while people tell you that you have such a pretty face if only you would lose weight.

Sitting down for a meal and someone putting a diet shake in front of you to try while the rest of them eat food and putting a smile on your face and holding back the tears of embarrassment.

People watching you to see what you eat all of the time and feeling judged, but you keep going.

It is going out for a walk and having a bus load of kids drive by and say mean things and still going out the next day and walking anyway knowing you might be laughed at again.

It is having people make jokes at your expense and standing there and taking it day after day year after year and not breaking down.

You know what real strength is?  It is getting out of bed every morning when you are overweight and knowing how harshly the world is judging you because you don’t look like the fake airbrushed models the media and diet industry wants to make us thing we are supposed to look like.

I think sometimes we forget how strong we are because we have been told our entire lives we are weak because we are overweight.

Don’t believe it.  You are not weak.  You are strong!

You can do anything.  You are strong!

Go out and make today a great day!  Know that you deserve to live a Happy and Healthy Life!

 

Your Beliefs and Weight Loss

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Have you ever been on a diet and feeling good.  You followed the plan perfectly.  You ate all of the correct foods and followed all of the exercises as required.

It’s been a week or two and you wake up feeling pretty proud of yourself and your accomplishments.  You feel lighter even!  You wake up peek at yourself in the mirror and think to yourself, Hey, I am looking pretty good today.

Then you step on the scale…..

You see that the scale has barely moved or even stayed the same and all the good feelings you had of your accomplishments and feeling a little lighter and feeling like you are looking good today all vanish that quick.  Gone.

You go back to feeling bad about yourself and think why bother.  You feel like the last week or two has been totally wasted.

We all have thoughts/beliefs in our head that we allow to control us.  We thought we looked great minutes ago and allowed the number on the scale to make all of those good feeling disappear.

Most of us have beliefs that we simply follow and we haven’t questioned how they are affecting us in our life.  I know in the past I would let the number on the scale decide my mood and decide what kind of choices I would make for the day.

If I had a few cookies I thought they were bad foods, so I went ahead and ate crappy food all day and ate until sick to my stomach.  Simply because I had the belief that if I ate a few cookies it was wrong and I had failed.

When I started questioning some of these beliefs I had been holding onto for most of life I realized how much they hurting me and holding me back.  When I started questioning them and changing them into empowering thoughts and beliefs I was able to start making the changes I needed to live a happy and healthy life.

Take time today to think about what beliefs you might be holding to that are holding you back from your goal.

I tell myself every single day that I deserve to live a Happy and Healthy Life.  Every Day.  I believe you deserve to live a Happy and Healthy Life too.  Even if you are not quite at the point of believing it yet, I want you to know I believe it and I believe in you.  Keep telling yourself you you believe in you and you deserve this until you start believing it too.

Make it a Great Day!  Choose Happiness today and be Kind to You.

 

 

Choose your Diet Plan

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A day of choices for all of us…

Plan 1: You can follow a diet plan that is a 90 or 100 day plan with brutal workouts and diet foods and someone telling you to “suck it up” and you can do this if only you had the willpower and motivation to keep pushing yourself.

Oh ya, and you are paying them to tell you that you are a loser if you don’t stick with this plan. Because according to them if you really wanted it bad enough you would be willing to anything, no matter how bad it hurts or how bad it makes you feel to lose weight.

You can’t wait for the challenge to be over because you are tired, sore hungry and missing all of your favorite foods.  Finally the challenge ends and you reached your goal.  Now you go back to your normal lifestyle that you can live with and gain any weight lost back and maybe even a few extra pounds and feel like a failure, get mad at yourself and feel like crap.

Now on to Plan 2:  You decide to focus on your health and add in things that you are willing to stick with forever..  Start adding in a lot positive self-talk.  Love yourself into wanting to make changes you can live with for a lifetime.  Love yourself into wanting to make healthier choices so that you can live the happy and healthy life that you deserve to live.

You add in more activity.  Take more walks, dance around the house, or go to the gym.  Do activity that you enjoy and makes you feel good about yourself. Add in more fruits and veggies and water.You focus on your health and making healthier choices and living a healthier life inside out.

You start enjoying your life right now.  Enjoy your activity, enjoy your food, eat slower and savor your food.

There is no end date to this plan because it is simply your life and you are adding in things that you are willing to stick with forever.

Plan 1 was my diet of choice for over 40 years.  I lost weight so many times and each time I just knew it would be different and this time I would the weight off, but I never did.

My choice today and for the rest of my life is Plan 2.  I am going to love myself and make healthier choices every day and not worry about a number on the scale.  I am going to focus on my health and living the happy and healthy life I deserve.

Which plan are you choosing today?

Have a Happy and Healthy Day – You deserve it!

 

Try Something Different

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Are you willing to try something different?

It took me so long to get to the place where I was willing to give something new a try and lose the dieting mindset.  I kept thinking deep down it was my fault and blaming myself for not being able to lose weight and keep it off.

Then I started asking myself who gains from us feeling like a diet failure and from us feeling ashamed of our bodies?  Who gains from us feeling frustrated and bad about ourselves from all of the confusing rules each diet gives us to follow?

The answer is the diet industry.  They have us all exactly where they want us.  They give us promises of the perfect life when we lose weight.  We are all jumping from diet to diet and sometimes going back to the same ones we have tried in the past with our fingers crossed that it might work this time.

We get so caught up in our skinny thinking.  I have to lose weight. I’ll be happy once I lose weight.  I have to be a size 6.  I have to get skinny.

I understand because I have always said the exact same things to myself.  But as you can see from my before photos that kind of thinking never got me to my goal.

I spent 40+ years wasting so much time and so many $$ on diets, diet pills, diet books and exercise equipment that is all long gone.

When I started on this journey and started questioning things I started getting mad at the diet industry and how they have tricked us all into believing if we were only a little stronger or had a little more willpower we could look like the airbrushed models for their products.

I decided to do things different this time.  This time I was going to do it My Way and ignore everything the diet industry and all of the frustrating rules each diet came up with -
eat carbs, don’t eat carbs, eat meat, don’t eat meat,  fruit has too much sugar, eat nothing but fruit…..

I decided to focus on my health and not a number on the scale or the size of my jeans.  I decided to my goal was to feel better and feel healthier and add in healthier things to my life.

As you can see from my pics an amazing thing started happening when I decided to focus on my health.  The weight started taking care of itself and I started losing weight.  I was being good to myself and my body and taking care of it and in return it was giving back to me.

It gave me a great physical and blood-work with the doctor, my blood pressure is lower, my joints don’t hurt as bad, I can move around easier, I can ride a bike, it gave me a 100+ pound weight loss, it gave me back my life.

Instead of being focused on the scale focus on your health.  Commit to making healthier choices every day.  Keep moving forward each and every day and you see start seeing the lasting results you deserve.

Make today and Happy and Healthy day.  Don’t forget to add in some fruits and veggies today!

 

Healthier Weight Loss

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The goal is not perfection, but persistence.

I already know you are persistent if you are here reading this.  I would imagine most (if not all) of the people that read my blog have tried a few diets in their past to only gain the weight back.

You’re here because you haven’t given up on yourself and you know that you want to be healthier and/or lose weight. Even though you might have some days that you feel like giving up there is still a little voice somewhere inside you that is persistent enough to keep you reading and looking for answers.

You won’t be perfect on this journey or any journey in life, but that isn’t the goal.  We want to reach our goals and to do that we have to be persistent.   We have to wake up every morning and say,
This is going to be a great day and I am going to make healthy choices today.

For some of us that might mean simply adding in 5 minutes of activity every day and some positive self talk.

The problem so many of us have is that we think we have to get up and on our first day of trying to make healthy changes we think we need to cut out all of our favorite foods and drinks and get in a punishing workout that makes our body ache all over for days after.

That just doesn’t seem healthy to me either mentally or physically.  I want healthy weight loss and I want to have some fun and enjoy life while I am getting healthy.

We see these shows like Biggest Loser where people are pushing themselves so hard and losing so much weight and we think, I can do that!  Then we try to push ourselves too hard and deprive ourselves of food and we feel bad about ourselves when we end up quitting.

This just doesn’t work and we know it.  Come on, admit it.  You know that doesn’t work.  You have tried it time and time again.  If it worked none of us would be here right now reading this.

We still keep trying though because we are persistent!  You can use this to start living a healthier life and losing weight.  Be proud that you refuse to give up and you are still looking for a way to make changes to achieve your goals.

All you have to do is start by making small changes that you can stick with forever.  You can get in a few extra minutes of activity today and add in more fruits and veggies. Be aware today and stand up more, or walk around the house/office more.  You will be amazed at how these small things can change your life.

The changes that happened to me over time by just making these small changes was life altering.  The changes didn’t happen over-night like they do on tv, but slowly over time.

Keep being persistent and never give up.  Take it slow and keep moving forward every day and you will see your dreams come true.

I Believe in You!

Can Weight Loss be Fun?

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I believe it is going to be a marvelous Monday!  A perfect day to make healthier choices and add in positive things that are good for me, make me happy and I can stick to forever.

I know a lot of people wake up on Monday and plan to start a new diet.  I did that for over 40 years.

It wasn’t a lot of fun and I didn’t look forward to it and it made me grouchy because I had to give up the things that made me happy, feel better and comforted me.

I remember saying things like, I only had 1000 calories today!  I’m doing great!  I didn’t even want to eat fruit because I worried it would add in too many calories.

I remember wanting a piece of fruit and thinking an apple or banana had more calories than a few leaves of lettuce.  I wouldn’t eat what my body was asking for and instead gave it a few pieces of lettuce to save a few calories.

It never worked. Not 1 single time did I lose weight and keep it off.  Yes, I lost weight, but I never was able to maintain the loss a single time.  I remember thinking no one else understood me and I would be able to lose weight quickly and then worry about making healthier choices. It doesn’t work.  If it did work I wouldn’t be here writing this, you wouldn’t be here reading this and the diet industry wouldn’t be the billion dollar business that it is today.

If you are tired of wasting time time trying to lose weight fast and wasting time and money on the next diet why not give something different a try?

Does it really matter if what I suggest might take a little longer if you are able to lose weight, make healthy changes that you can stick with forever and keep the weight off?  I had to get to the point that fast weight loss was not my goal, but getting healthy from the inside out was what I wanted and knew I deserved. 
I believe you deserve that too.

I believe weight loss can be fun and a great way to learn more about yourself.  Don’t take anything away from yourself today.  Instead add in at least 1 positive thing that you can start doing and something you can continue to add in forever.

Make it fun by finding new healthy fruits and veggies to add into your day.  Find ways to get in activity that make you smile and have fun.  Dance around the house with your hubby or kids.  Go for a bike ride or walk with the dog.  Do what is fun and makes you happy.

The most important thing you can do today is tell yourself that you Believe in You.  Believe that you deserve to live a happy and healthy and tell yourself that often.

Make it a great day!  Add in something positive today and have a Happy and Healthy Day!

 

 

Learning more Each Day

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This journey is about doing things my way and doing things that make me happy.

It’s important I don’t let myself go so long without eating that I get to the point of over-eating or binging.  I keep snacks with me in my handbag and bring water with me when I go out.

I like diet pepsi a lot.  I know, I know it’s going to kill me.  I’m ok with my decision to drink pepsi.

Sometimes I pick foods that would not be considered the most healthy, like frozen meals and and diet soda, but I don’t care because they are foods I enjoy and know I can keep eating drinking them forever (or until they kill me ;)   ) because I happy with what I am eating.

I don’t have to clean my plate and it’s ok to leave some food on my plate.

I’m going to do this my way and that means some days finding the easiest and laziest way to do things.

I like sweet foods and have found that fruits fill that craving for me and make me feel good after I eat them instead of having a bag of cookies and feeling sick to my stomach afterwards.

I’m don’t have to only eat “diet food” or any foods I don’t like.

I can still eat cookies and cheetos, but I don’t eat them directly out of the bag and I am aware of my portion sizes.

I’ve learned that a restaurant serving is enough to feed 3-4 people, so I am aware of my portion sizes when I eat out.

We all have to learn what works for us.  We are all different and there is no one size fits all.  Experiment, try new foods and ways to get in activity. Find foods and activity that you enjoy and bring you happiness.

The goal for me is not a number on the scale I need to maintain, it will be a level of fitness and health that makes me happy living it for life.

Finding what works for you and makes you happy is the answer.  :)

Living for Today

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Do you live for today or spend most of your time in the past or worrying about the future? 

I woke up early and went for a walk.  Early morning walks are so nice.  It is so quiet and it is a peaceful way for me to start my day.  I feel like it gets my mind in a good place to stroll around with puppy and enjoy the morning.

It sure does feel good when I remember to live in the now and enjoy each moment I am in.  Sometimes it is hard to do and I have bring my mind back to enjoying my walk because I starting thinking about either the past or future and when I notice myself doing that I bring myself back to just enjoying the present moment I am in and it feels so good to do that.

I was sitting on the porch yesterday afternoon with the pup napping on my lap and noticed my mind wandering to worrisome things and when I realized what I was doing I started focusing on the pretty day and the nice breeze and how pretty the neighbors trees looked and it actually made me smile.

I’ve always spent so much time focusing on the things I’ve done wrong or what could happen, or how I could have handled things in a better way.  It feels so good to let that kind of thinking go and focus on being happy and enjoying the moment I am in.

When your find mind wandering today bring it back to the moment you are in and enjoy that moment.  One of the best things we can all do to focus on our health is to let go of stories we tell ourselves from the past.  We go over them again and again in our minds and it never makes us feel better.   It’s okay to give yourself permission to let the past go.

Living in the now is so much better than living in the past or worrying about the future.

Give it a try today.  :)

 

I’m not accepting that life any longer.

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I got to a place in my life where I was tired of trying.  Tired of feeling like a failure.  Tired of searching for that next diet.  Tired of life.

I had decided to accept where I was and just stay overweight, unhappy and unhealthy from the inside out.  Even though I decided to accept the way I had decided my life was going to be I was depressed.  It wasn’t an acceptance that brought me any peace or joy.  Instead it felt like the acceptance was me simply giving up on myself and on life.  And I had.

I was in pain most days both physically and mentally.  Diagnosed with fibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis many mornings were very physically painful and involved a few tears.

I remember wanting to just go to bed and sleep until life was over.  I remember my husband being upset (rightly so!) when I told him I didn’t want to hurt myself or anything like that I just didn’t care if I went to sleep and never woke up.

I started realizing I was hurting myself though.  I had decided to accept all of the negative things I had been telling myself over the years;

” You’ll always be fat.  You’ll never lose the weight.  You aren’t good enough.”

With my thinking and my decision to accept things the way they were I was in fact hurting myself.

My thinking about myself was so negative.  When good things happened to me I would be scared that meant something bad was right around the corner to even things out and make sure life didn’t get too good.

I would feel so guilty and think I wasn’t deserving when good things happened to me and think of people I knew who I thought were more deserving or a better person than me and wondered why it didn’t happen to them instead.

My thinking was what had been holding me back all of these years.  The reason I struggled so hard with weight loss and keeping weight off.  The reason I struggled so hard with being kind to myself and wanting to take care of myself.  I never really believed I was worthy or deserving of living a Happy and Healthy Life.

I still have times my mind wants to go in a negative direction.  I try to pay attention to keeping my mind busy with positive thoughts and try to keep it from going to a negative place and letting it make me question myself.

I have to fight the fear of succeeding and know, believe and tell myself often that I deserve to live a healthy and happy life.

Let’s all pledge to believe in ourselves today and believe we all deserve to live a Happy and Healthy Life.

I believe in you!  I believe in me! I believe we will succeed!

 

 

 

How to live a Happy and Healthy Life

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All you need to lose weight and get healthy is inside you right now.  It’s not inside another diet book or diet program.   You may have done like I did for over 40 years and buried a part of you away underneath years of emotions, depression, anxiety, fears, stress, hurts and failures.

I can be to the point of being sick to my stomach, but feel like I can not stop eating.  I get irritated when I hear people say things like, just stop eating and you won’t be fat.  They don’t get it!  It is not a fun experience to be so full you are close to being sick to your stomach, but still feeling powerless to stop.  I would stop if I could!

I think the reason I keep eating at times when I am not hungry and yet still feel such an overwhelming urge to eat to the point of being sick is that piece of me wanting to be fed, but it’s not food it really wants.  What does it want?  I’m not always sure. I’m still working on that and trying to figure it out, so that I can make sure I don’t gain back the weight this time.

What is working is for me is to be really aware of my thoughts and not let them get out of control. I never realized how hard it can be to stay in the moment.  My mind is always wanting to travel to dangerous places.

When I find my mind worrying about things that happened in the the past or worrying about things that might happen in the future I bring it back to now.

For me, the answer to living a happy and healthy life is living and loving my life right now.  Finding the good in each moment and each day and each moment.
Live in the moment today.  Look around you and focus on all of the good things around you.  Be good to you today!