Taylor Swift: "I Refuse To Diet"

Thank you Taylor Swift for being a great role model for so many people.

I know I'm not exactly your target audience, so I'm sure you will forgive me when I say that I first heard of you from the Oprah Show...I was very impressed with you during that show...how articulate you were, how you spoke to your young fans, how giving and caring you were...and your obvious talent!

Now I have read that you declared "I refuse to diet"...this is the mindset that I used to lose 125lbs. By allowing ourselves to eat our favorite foods, we can more fully enjoy our lives (after all, eating is a big part of life)...we don't feel deprived...we are looking at long-term health, not a short-term diet with it's short-term results.

"I eat healthily, but I refuse to use the term 'diet'...if I want a cheeseburger, it's going to happen."~Taylor Swift

By declaring that you are happy with how you look and that you are focusing on eating and exercising for your health, you are setting a great example for all of us...young and (*ahem*) not-so-young! I find it especially refreshing since we tend to think of people in the entertainment industry as really being concerned with their appearance.

"For me, working out is not so I can get skinny. It's so that I can keep up my endurance so I'm not panting on stage. Heavy breathing is the worst when you're in concert." ~Taylor Swift

This is such an important point that so many of us overlook. Okay, for most of us it isn't about our endurance on stage...but it is about our endurance in whatever we do...may be it is keeping up with our active children (or someone else's), getting from our office to another part of the company for meetings, carrying groceries, working in the garden, taking a walk in a park, playing frisbee with our dog... . We want to be sure we can do what we want to do in order to be the people we want to be. And to be able to do those things without 'panting'...

Rather than looking at exercise as drugery, a dreaded task that we have to do in order to achieve a certain weight or size, let's change our mindset, as Taylor has done. Choose to look at exercise as a way to help us be the best we can be so we can do what we want to do more easily. It doesn't take hours and hours of exercise to achieve this. I do a 15 minute routine every day. That gives me the basics...it helps me muscles, my breathing and my flexibility.

• Eat in a healthy way.
• Allow yourself your favorite foods.
• Exercise so you can do what you want to do.
• Focus on your health, not your size.

This is a great formula for weight loss success...it takes a shift in your mindset...you have to decide for yourself that you, too, refuse to diet...but when you do that you are on your way to a lifetime of health and weight loss success--and you certainly deserve it!