Weight Loss Success Despite No to Workout (or Desire to!)

Some days on my weight loss success journey are harder than others. And sometimes the idea of working out exhausts me. When that happens, I ask myself a question before moving on.

Could this "exhaustion" be mental or emotional rather than physical? If I wasn't exhausted before the idea of a workout then the answer is almost always "YES!"

Rather than appealing to my intellect with all kinds of facts about how exercise will actually energize me, or if I want to be healthy I have to move my body (all true), I fight fire with fire--I go for an emotional response.

No, I don't yell or cry, cajole or beg, but I apply my '1 jumping jack approach.' Somedays, it is literally,

"OK, so just do 1 and if you are still exhausted you can quit"

...and somedays I repeat "and 1 more...and 1 more...and 1 more" until I have completed a good healthy workout!

This morning part of me wanted to do my 15 minute routine, but another part of me clearly did not. 3 minutes in and that part was ready to quit. So I told myself "1 more set, then if you really want to stop, you can." Suddenly, I was at 10 minutes, so I said, "awesome! 2/3 of the way there, you can do 5 more minutes!" And I did. :-)

This journey to health and permanent weight loss success is not a straight line. Sometimes we have to learn how to maneuver our hearts and minds, as well as our bodies, along the path.

Vegan Equals Healthy Weight Loss Success?

With movies like Food, Inc and Ellen and Oprah both featuring shows on veganism, many people come to believe that being a vegan is inherently more healthy and will lead to weight loss success. While going vegan, or vegan-ish as Oprah has said she is moving, is certainly one option, it is not the only option and may not be the best choice for you.

The most important thing to understand is the definition of "vegan." Veganism is a form of vegetarianism, but one with a more narrow focus. Interestingly, the precise definition varies depending on the source, but most seem to define vegan as a person who chooses not to use animal products in their lives. This is the most strict sense of vegan and includes foods you eat as well as items made from animal hides and furs and things that are testing on animals (typically done as part of "safety" testing.) Therefore the strictest vegans would not use leather, not in the seats of their cars nor in their shoes, belts and bags.

However you can also be a "dietary vegan" and decide that it is okay to wear wool even though it comes from sheep.

Going from a typical American diet to a vegan diet and lifestyle requires a huge shift in mindset as well as taking time to educate yourself on nutrition, learning how to buy and cook differently. That is not a bad thing...just something that does take time and retraining.

If you are looking to lose weight successfully then this could be a great time to try going vegan since you will be changing habits anyway. For some people it is too much and it is better to take things in smaller steps.

That is what I suggest for most people. Start by learning more about nutrition. Choose one day a week to have no animal products in your diet (or try vegetarian meals instead of vegan.)

Do NOT just go out and buy a bunch of food products at the store just because they are labeled "vegan" and assume that you will lose weight. Did you notice that while a lot of pounds were lost on the Harpo challenge (Oprah's studio where almost 400 staffers pledged to go vegan for a week) some people actually GAINED weight?

This is possible because going vegan does not mean healthy. It just means no animal products. So this may be "healthier" it does not mean that it is inherently the best choice if you are wanting to drop pounds.

One of the reasons many people lose weight on a vegan diet is because of the emphasis on plant-based diet.More vegetables, complex carbohydrates, protein in the form of beans and legumes. Eating this way can be more filling and lower calorie per mouthful than eating an animal based diet. Because you are eating things that make you feel more full while the caloric density is lower you are eating fewer calories. Without making any other changes in your lifestyle then chances are really good you will lose weight. Which is good, because this plant-based diet requires a mindset shift and as I mentioned earlier, more work on educating yourself.

So why didn't everyone lose weight?

Not everyone lost weight because there are lots of high calorie vegan foods out there as well. If all you do is substitute your current diet with vegan versions of the same food you are probably not going to lose weight. There is vegan frozen dessert that substitutes for ice cream, for example, that is loaded with sugar and fats just like the original. There are vegan chips, which are prepared using vegetable oil but are not lower in calories. Also, if you go for the prepared meat-substitutes you have to read the labels to see what they are putting in them and how much you get per serving. I picked up one package at the store that was 7 ounces and that is 2 servings. While a 3.5 ounce serving of meat is also appropriate, if you are accustomed to eating a 16 ounce sirloin and you want to switch it for vegan alternatives you may not lose weight (but you will definitely lighten your wallet!)

There are still people who want to become a vegan--that's an awesome goal and one that I support if that is where you heart is telling you to go.

However, the key to weight loss success is to make a radical shift in your mindset not your diet! Decide to focus on your health. Decide that you CAN lose weight and that you DESERVE TO. The same mindset shift has to take place for you to lose weight and keep it off whether you are a vegan or a meat eater.

Then make small changes to your current lifestyle. Make changes that you can and will keep. Then when those changes are incorporated into your life you can make more.

Will this get you to drop 10 pounds in a week? Probably not. But it will allow you to successfully lose weight over time until you reach a weight that is healthy for you. It will also allow you to live your life and not feel like you are a slave to counting calories (vegan or otherwise.) And then you will look back in amazement at the changes in your body and find it hard to believe that you accomplished so much so easily.

The Biggest Loser Phenomenon

This is the first season I have seen the very first episode of the Biggest Loser...I've decided to watch an entire season...(thank goodness for Tivo!)...so I can see if there are nuggets that I can use...what works for me and what doesn't.

My first reaction was that it certainly is "good television" in that they edit it and score it to amp the viewer up and keep you watching.

I still have trouble with the whole competitive nature of the show. Is voting someone off every week necessary? I think it is more for the angst that the contestants go through and the fact that you get to like them and don't want to see them voted off (or you don't like them and DO want to see them voted off)...that is all part of the television drama off it. Especially last week when not only was their a traditional vote, but 2 other teams were "eliminated" before they even got to unpack their bags.

I used to be a competitive swimmer...I know I have a competitive streak in me. But, as much as I like to believe that I really was only competing against myself, I remember how demoralizing it could be to lose when you worked hard. It lead to my beating myself up a lot...about not being fast enough, talented enough, good enough.

I wonder if the Biggest Loser was more like swim meets if it would be as successful. After all, we ended up having rivalries like other sports...and you got to face off against your rivals time after time.

Quite a different situation with Biggest Loser where if you don't win you are sent home.

What do you think? Does the threat of being sent home inspire the participant to work harder? Isn't the prize of health (and potentially a lot of money, prestige, improved appearance, a wardrobe etc) enough to get them to work hard?

I believe the threat of being sent home is strictly for the television factor and has little to do with motivating the participants...and can potentially be detrimental to them. If the goal is truly to inspire us, the audience, to be healthier wouldn't it be better for us to see as many examples of success as possible?

What do you think? What do you like about The Biggest Loser? What don't you like? Would you want to be on the show? Why or why not? Are you inspired into action by it? Or are you sitting there on the couch watching it while eating ice cream (or your snack of choice) thinking you can only get healthy if you are ON the show?

Are You Trying To Lose More Weight?

One of my readers asked me an interesting question..."Are you trying to lose more weight or are you happy being healthy?", and as it would happen I was discussing this with a friend earlier today...isn't it grand how things work?...but that's a topic for another blog!

So here is the long answer...as I am prone to do.

I am very happy with being healthy. That was, and is, my number 1 goal. I feel better, am able to do pretty much everything I want to do, I am off all medications...hard to ask for more than that!

I am not trying to lose weight...I am just doing what it takes to be healthy. In small increments. It does not consume my life...or my day.

In response to that, my body will seek whatever is the best level for it. Which may be to stay where I am, but for now I do appear to be continuing to decrease my fat and increase my muscle at a gradual rate.

Do I want to drop even more fat? (I think is the bottom line question)...yes, maybe, sometimes, no...hunh???

Most of the time I am pretty happy where I am. I can buy clothes in "normal" stores. I can eat whatever I want, etc, etc, etc...all that good stuff.

That being said, I would be less than honest if I didn't admit that from time to time I look in the mirror and think..."hmmm, another 10 pounds would be good," "wow, that knee is looking fat today," or "geeze louise, I wish my upper arms didn't flap around in the breeze so much."

I pretty much recognize that those days it really has nothing to do with my weight...it is the old emotional baggage that was behind why I put on weight in the first place.

So on those days, I choose (usually) to be gentle with myself, nourish my body with good and healthy food, move my body around and do something that will nurture my spirit too.

What I will NOT do is panic, beat myself up, or go on a massively restrictive diet or engage in a punishing exercise routine. I know from experience that those methods do not work for me.

Do I ever fantasize about having 6 pack abs? Sure! I also dream about what it would be like to have size 6B feet or to look like Christie Brinkley. Ain't gonna happen!

While I can't actually ever have B width feet or look like a super model, I could have the abs...if I really wanted them. For me the trade off in time and energy and limitations that it would take to get 6 pack abs just isn't worth it. I have lots of other things I want to do with my life that are MUCH more important. So, I put it into perspective and ask myself, "What do I really want?" 6 pack abs doesn't even make my top 100.

So that's the question I would have you ask yourself--what do YOU really want? If you really want 6 pack abs--then go for it! Find the right coach (that would not be me!) and pursue that goal with a passion. If on the other hand, you want to be healthy and finally be a weight that allows you to live your life, have the energy to do what you want to do, feel good while you are doing it and not have to be a slave to diets or a prisoner to food any longer...then stick with me, kid and Refuse To Diet!

Weight Loss Insights from a New Perspective: Up on the Roof

I was up on the roof the other day...we had a minor leak that I figured I could handle. Believe me, getting up on the roof is much easier now that I have 120 fewer pounds to hoist up there! And I am a lot less concerned about falling through!

Oh, I digress! The point was really that this experience gave me a couple of insights.

Insight #1

Just about anything can remind me of food!

Possibly this is partly because I am always looking for things I can blog about...but I also know that I have always had a strong visual connection with food.

Some people have thoughts triggered by smells or sounds, but my biggest trigger is sight.

That is why even now where I can have food in the house I find I feel more tempted if I SEE the food. So I put things on higher shelves or deeper back in the freezer, so they are “out of sight out of mind.”

Anyway, even the tar that I put on the roof reminded me of food! As I applied it I thought it was like frosting a cake...and I also noted the consistency was more like brownie batter.

What was great about this insight was the realization that I noticed the observation but was not consumed by it. I was detached from it and therefore I did not start craving either cake or brownies.

Insight #2

More is not always better.

I found in applying the tar that I could really ladle it on thick. But when I did that it tended to ooze out to places I didn’t want.

What worked better was several thinner applications and taking some time to allow each layer to settle.

In the end, the total amount of tar used was maybe the same...but the end result was much better.

I find this is true for eating as well. When I choose to eat large quantities at one time, I feel uncomfortable, bloated...and fat literally oozes in places where I don’t want it—on my body!

If I eat smaller amounts more frequently, the total amount may be the same, but by giving my body and mind time to let it settle I process it better. The end result is that I feel and look better.

Like the roof that does its job of keep things dry when I apply several thin coats of tar, my body does its job of keeping me energized when I feed it several smaller meals throughout the day.

Feel Your Inner Health

To expand on the previous thought...reading on in A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle,

“Although body-identification is one of the most basic forms of ego, the good news is that it is also the one that you can most easily go beyond. This is done not by trying to convince yourself that you are not your body, but by shifting your attention from the external form of your body and from thoughts about your body—beautiful, ugly, strong, weak, too fat, too thin—to the feeling of aliveness inside it. No matter what your body’s appearance is on the outer level, beyond the outer form it is an intensely alive energy field.”

“When you are in touch with the inner body, you are not identified with your body any more, nor are you identified with your mind...you are no longer identified with form but moving away from form-identification toward formlessness, which we may alls call Being. It is your essence identity. Body awareness not only anchors you in the present moment, it is a doorway out of the prison that is the ego. It also strengthens the immune system and the body’s ability to heal itself.”

So to heal the condition of overweight we must lose the identification with that form. I thought for a long time it was important to label myself as fat, as obese. And in a sense it was...because I needed to become conscious aware of the fact and not fool myself. Now it may seem like it is obvious when we gain excess weight...but it is amazingly easy and common for us to ignore the signs. We think our clothes have shrunk. We avoid full-length mirrors and being photographed.

It can be a critical step in self-awareness to acknowledge where you are in order to enable you to change, claiming our “fatness” is not necessary...we need to let go of the label and feel our inner health, the potential inside that we have for our health...in order to achieve our health we have to feel it and accept it.

Love Your Body Don’t Identify with It

I know that some people will think that if you don’t “identify with your body” that you don’t care about or for it. That is not the point...the point is that your body just is a part of you. You are not your body any more than you are your profession or your address.

“To refrain from identifying with the body doesn’t mean that you neglect, despise, or no longer care for it...You can also improve the body’s condition through right nutrition and exercise. If you don’t equate the body with who you are, when beauty fades, vigor diminishes, or the body becomes incapacitated, this will not affect your sense of worth or identity in any way...It is not just people with good or near-perfect bodies who are likely to equate it with who they are. You can just as easily identify with a “problematic” body and make the body’s imperfection, illness or disability into your reality.”

Eckhart Tolle, A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose

How many of us have grown to identify ourselves as fat or obese...or as someone who doesn’t exercise...someone who cannot succeed at their health goals?

We deserve to love our inner selves enough to get past the labels, beyond the body identification.

I had to be aware that I had a fat body in order to be able to make a change...as long as I was hiding from that or making excuses about it I was stuck. Then I had to stop referring to myself as fat to stop identifying with that label in order to manifest the change.

Consumerism, Bulimia and Anorexia

Eckhart Tolle writes in A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,

“In some cases the psychological need for more or the feeling of not enough that is so characteristic of the ego becomes transferred to the physical level and so turns into insatiable hunger. The sufferers of bulimia will often make themselves vomit so they can continue eating. Their mind is hungry, not their body. This eating disorder would become healed if the sufferers, instead of being identified with their mind, could get in touch with their body and so feel the true needs of the body rather than the pseudo needs of the egoic mind.”

He continues and talks about our struggles with body image thus

“she ‘sees’ is the mental concept of her body, which says ‘I am fat’ or ‘I will become fat.’ At the root of this condition lies identification with the mind. As people have become more and more mind-identified which is the intensification of egoic dysfunction, there has also been a dramatic increase in the incidence of anorexia in recent decades. If the sufferer could look at her body without the interfering judgments of her mind or even recognize those judgments for what they are instead of believing in them--or better still, if she could feel her body from within—this would initiate her healing.

The body is “after all no more than a physical form that shares the destiny of all forms—impermanence and ultimately decay.”

Stuff, Stuffed and Over Stuffed

It seems to be natural for humans to want more...more stuff, better stuff.

Eckhart Tolle writes in A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,

“The unchecked striving for more, for endless growth, is a dysfunction and a disease. It is the same dysfunction the cancerous cell manifest, whose only goal is to multiply itself, unaware that it is bringing about its own destruction by destroying the organism of which it is a part.”

I see this in humanity in general...our consumerism, greed, desire for more land, more poser, more control, is destroying our planet. If that is left unchecked well will destroy our planet and thereby destroy ourselves. In the end our lust for more leads to having nothing...to being nothing.

While I can’t control the global events, I can apply that to myself and to food.

By unconsciously feeding our bodies more and more, by trying to feel full, filled, “fulfilled” we add excess fat to our bodies. If that is left unchecked then that excess fat will destroy our bodies just as our global excess can destroy the world.

By focusing on our personal changes, by no longer needing to overstuff our bodies we gain health and control. I believe that this will also translate to our needing less “stuff” because a lot of the emotions behind this consumerism are the same. So in a very real sense, by focusing on our health we can positively affect the health of the entire planet!

Fat is an Illusion Not Who You Are

Don’t let illusion control your life. Become aware of who you are not and you will become more aware of who you really are.

Eckhart Tolle writes in A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,

“The recognition of illusion is also its ending. Its survival depends on your mistaking it for reality. In the seeing of who you are not, the reality of who you are emerges by itself.”

When I apply this to our health, our physical bodies I realize that when we stop labeling ourselves and recognize that the fat that surrounds us is NOT US...if we realize the fat is not our true reality then we open the possibility of our true being-ness, our true self to emerge from that illusory shell.

Losing and Finding the Same 20 Pounds

Our minds have this tremendous ability to create, and recreate, things over and over. That’s why when we lose weight through dieting we tend to gain it back. Over our lifetimes we lose and gain “the same 20 pounds” over and over.

Eckhart Tolle writes in A New Earth, Awakening to Your Life’s Purpose,

“If the structures of the human mind remain unchanged, we will always end up re-creating fundamentally the same world, the same evils, the same dysfunction.”

How true is that for us? Don’t we tend to recreate the same bodies?

If we do not change our minds first, how we feel at our core then we will continue to recreate the circumstances that got us fat in the first place!

Instead of thinking of “losing” weight let’s think about gaining health. After all, when you lose something you generally want to find it again, don’t you? I’d rather drop that excess weight off the bridge never to be seen again!

Swamped, Stressed and Successful

Just a quick post--I am super busy right now...lots of business stuff going on and my almost 80 year old mother is visiting. Whew. Between it all I am swamped and stressed.

I am also proud to say that I am being successful! In lots of ways, but in particular I'm thinking about my weight loss / health routine.

In the not-so-distant past I would have easily turned this situation into a feeding frenzy. Let's have more caffeine and sugar to deal with the lack of sleep. Let's have sugar to ease the stress. Let's eat more, more, more to feel less, less, less!

I'm being able to keep in much better touch with my emotions and what my body really wants which is fantastic! So while before I would have packed on the pounds during times like this I am maintaining my weight and actually continuing to drop pounds!

Hurray! Success emotionally & physically is possible! And it isn't even hard! I LOVE IT!

Weight Loss Without Dieting Tip: Don't Eat and Drive

Another tip for losing weight with out going on a diet is to avoid eating while you drive.

Because you are focusing on your driving...at least I hope you are...eating while you drive is at best a semi-conscious event.

Not only are you less aware of what you're eating--so you'll be inclined to eat more and enjoy it less--the options you typically have for car food are limited...and tend to be high fat and/or sugar.

Instead of eating behind the wheel, stop the car to eat. Be aware of every bite. Choose foods that you really want to nourish your body with--instead of selecting foods base on "can I eat it and not make a mess of my clothes?"

Give yourself those few extra minutes to be able to eat in a more relaxed and conscious way and you will naturally find yourself eating less, being less stressed and losing weight.

Another reason people tend to eat and drive is out of boredom! This is especially on long trips, whether it is a lengthy commute to work or a road trip.

Rather than eating to keep yourself preoccupied, use this time to expand your mind instead of your hips--listen to a book "on tape", practice your affirmations (but don't try to meditate while you drive!) or just sing and do things that bring joy to your body. Any of these activities will help your overall health and help you to lose weight--without being on a diet!

That's the road I'm choosing to motor down!

Sitting on My A** Paid Off

Sometimes you just have to rest.

I'm not good at sitting around doing nothing. I never have been. I tend to get "antsy".

Not that that helped me to be fit and healthy! It just helped me to be tired and anxious!

Now that I'm listening to my body I am finding that I have (a little) less trouble in the R&R department!

I still like to keep busy, but I have come to appreciate moments of quiet...and I don't just mean meditation. Somehow I can still "count" meditation as "doing something"!

This weekend I found myself suddenly exhausted. All I wanted to do was sit in the shade on my deck and close my eyes. If I'd had a bed out there I would have sprawled out and fallen asleep.

At first I was tempted to force myself to work...go back to my old ways...but then I remembered that my body knows what is best for it. So rather than having a cup of coffee or forcing myself to slog through another task just to get it checked off the list I decided to actually listen to my body.

I went out to my deck and I sat there. Eyes closed, I enjoyed the breeze and the sounds. It was fantastic! I might have even dozed off for a few moments...I'm not really sure!

And you know what? I was rejuvenated after just a little while out there. I didn't need to sleep the rest of the day...I didn't have to ingest copious amounts of caffeine or sugar to get myself through...I did what my body told me to do--I rested. And I felt fantastic the rest of the day and weekend--I had energy to play and get things done that had been on my "to do list" for a long time! And I did it in a healthy way and didn't create feelings of guilt over not eating right or not getting everything done that I said I would.

So this is one time where sitting on my a**, er, behind, paid big dividends!

If you are like me, and your to do list is always bigger than any human could possibly get through, then you deserve to really listen to your body...and sometimes that includes closing your eyes and sitting on your...behind!

Selfish is the New Generous

Often we get wrapped up in doing things for other people. It may be our kids, our family, our community, our employers...and we forget to do things for ourselves.

All of this taking care of others without taking care of ourselves can lead to our being overweight.

It is really important if we want to be our healthiest possible selves that we remember we have to take care of ourselves. I know that we have been taught to put the needs of others before our own...but has that gotten us where we want to be?

Let's think about it from a slightly different angle...rather than thinking we are being selfish by putting our needs first, what if we are actually being GENEROUS by doing so?

When we put ourselves first we are empowering ourselves...we are accepting responsibility for our lives, our feelings, our actions and our results. This is a HUGE gift that we offer the world! No longer are we victims of anyone or anything else.

Now, when we have this attitude it will rub off on the people around us--our kids, our co-workers, our neighbors. By living an example of empowered lives we help empower others. We show them that it is okay...in fact that it is critical to live an empowered life and we therefore give them permission to do the same.

When we take care of ourselves we have more energy to give back to others...so in reality we are helping our employers and our families and so on by helping ourselves first.

I like to remember the message that I hear each and every time I fly...in the event that oxygen masks are required, put your own mask on first BEFORE you assists others--including your small children or elderly relatives.

After all, if we pass out from lack of oxygen--or exhaustion--THEN who will be there to help our loved ones?

Take care of yourself...you will begin to lose weight...and you will be helping others at the same time!

To Lose Weight Stop Setting Weight Loss Goals

I realize that this goes against just about everything you have ever heard about accomplishing anything. I mean, "everyone" says you have to have goals, right?

Those same people say that goals have to be measurable. In other words, some sort of number.

What I have discovered is that when we set goals around our weight--for most of us--we are actually setting ourselves up for failure!

Why? Because we are focusing on the number on the scale...or a waist measurement...or a dress size...whatever that measurable goal is. If that is our focus we stop paying attention to how we are feeling, why we are eating in the first place.

The other part about setting goals is you are supposed to have a specific time to achieve that goal. My goals always seemed reasonable...like I'm going to lose 10 pounds over 2 months...well, mine were usually more like I'm going to lose 100 pounds over the next year!

I would end up starving myself for a couple of days before I was supposed to weigh in for my goal...then go crazy eating after. This is not healthy behavior--I knew it, but did it anyway--because I wanted to reach my weekly or monthly goal. I just couldn't seem to keep a healthy pattern of eating going all the time, so I started binging. Ultimately I just gave up and felt worse about myself with every failure.

Weight loss goals are really just a way of trying to diet! You are going to limit yourself or work out more...or both...to try to reach that goal. And hey--if that works for you, then go for it!

But if you are like me...someone who set (and broke) the same goal over and over and over and over...then maybe it is time to rethink the whole weight loss goal idea. At least in terms of a measurable number.


I think the best weight loss goal is one of achieving better health. I know that is vague...but it is realistic and it is attainable. What this goal does for me is it gives me the freedom to eat consistently and to be forgiving of myself.

Now I am able to focus on why I am wanting food, getting in touch with what is going on "behind the scenes"...inside my mind. By working on that, I am able to change that programming.

The ironic thing is...once I stopped setting number goals and focused on having a goal of health, my weight started to drop immediately! And even better it has continued to drop...so that I have now lost 120lbs and I haven't binged in years!

I can truly say that stopping setting weight loss goals has brought me to my biggest goal: better health--both mental and physical!

Health Food Doesn't Mean Green Light

Just because it is sold in a "health food store", or is sold as a healthy food, doesn't mean that you should eat it all the time.

Generally speaking, I try to eat as few processed and packaged foods as possible. I find that my body deals with them better. Packaged foods have stuff in them we just don't need...sometimes even the ones sold in health food stores.

It may not be that the ingredients are not healthy, but we might be better off eating only small quantities of them.

I found that it used to be really easy for me to get in the habit of eating something because it came from the health food store, or all the ingredients were natural...and I would eat it like it had zero calories!

When buying ANY packaged or processed foods it is a good idea to read the labels. Even though I don't believe in forbidden foods, I believe just as much in conscious eating. That means you have to know what you are eating!

If you read the labels on some of the "protein" bars that are available they are closer to a candy bar than not! Some of them have such a high sugar content that it can be enough to trigger a carbohydrate craving in me!

So if you are going for health, be aware or what you are eating. You can eat whatever you want...I just want to eat healthy...and realistically.

See Yourself As You Want to Be

I'm currently reading a book written in 1954 titled "TNT The Power Within You"...it has a lot of the same teachings that I have gotten from Louise Hay, Abraham-Hicks, Bob Proctor and other fantastic teachers of the Law of Attraction.

I love the language that the author, Claude Bristol uses...he was a psychologist and former newspaperman...a very observant guy...and he teaches how we can use the power of our minds, of the subconscious to achieve anything we want.

I have been using these principles...and that is how I have lost 120lbs, so I know they work...I'd like to share some of his words with you.

See yourself as you want to be!

Look in the mirror. Size yourself up. Are you the man or woman you want to be? If not, gie yourself the suggestions that can help make you what you desire. See a mental picture of how you would like to appear to others....Superimpose this mental picture upon the actual image of yourself before you. See the changes you must bring about in yourself, as though they had already occurred! Repeat this visualization day after day,night after night.

If others criticize you or don't believe you are capable of doing what you want to do...don't accept their suggestions!...Maintain your belief in yourself! If you lose this, you lose everything. All success, big or small starts with faith in self and faith in the creative power within. You must have it, and you must retain it--to go from where you are to where you want to be!

Say to yourself: "Each day I am going to improve and eventually I will remove the faults I discover in myself. Each day I am going to attain greater control of my mind and emotions. Each day I am going to overcome more of my fears and worries and other destructive thoughts. Each day I am develping greater health, happiness and prosperity. Each day I am going to find finer opportunities for serving others an the doing of worthwhile things. Each day...!"

See yourself as you want to be...look in the mirror and picture yourself in the body you desire, with the health that you deserve to have...the happiness and health shining from your eyes. See yourself and feel it in your heart. Know that this works...because I have done it! And you can to!

Are You Exercising Your Won't Power?

Frequently we hear that successful weight loss (or anything else for that matter) is about using "Will Power"...I'm not sure will power is the phrase I would use...but what I do know is that often when we struggle it is because we are using "Won't Power"!!!

It can be easy to slip into the negative...but if you find the only thing you are consistently exercising is your Won't Power then you will have guaranteed results--and they Won't be the ones you SAY you want.

What do I mean by Won't Power? That is when you say to yourself things like

I can't lose weight
It is easy for them, but not for me
I am a fat slob
That doesn't work
I tried it before without success

Remember, only you can change your thinking...and you can only hold one thought at a time. Do you want the thought to be negative? Or would you rather be holding onto the positive thought? The choice is entirely yours!

You have got to believe that it IS possible...that you CAN do it...that you DO deserve a healthy life. That is the true Will Power! With this attitude...practiced daily...often...you WILL succeed!

"Change your thinking and you will change your life"...Don't go back and forth...make a decision to move forward in health and do it! That doesn't mean you have to be perfect...it just means you make the steps as best you can every day and keep moving forward!

Stop exercising your Won't Power...instead put positive thoughts and actions to work for you! I know you can do it. I have faith in you. Repeat after me: I Can! I Will! I am Doing It!

Picture Yourself Thin

Most of us have had lots of practice picturing ourselves as being fat.

Whether or not these pictures were accurate when we first developed them...these images have been burned into our subconscious.

Until we destroy these images...these "negatives"...we are doomed to live up to them.

I remember, even as a young child, believing I was fat. I didn't like having my picture taken because I thought I was so fat and ugly--I recall more than once saying taking my picture would "break the camera".

Now there aren't many pictures of me...people gave up fighting me about taking my picture. But the pictures that I do find, I find something quite curious. In fact, in all objectivity, I was not fat. I was not SKINNY...but I was not fat. I was a very healthy looking person...and I was not ugly, either.

But the power of my thinking and the images I held in my mind was so strong that I grew into being an extremely fat adult...fat enough that I would be ugly to most people. And if someone found me attractive I just got fatter to, subconsciously, "prove" how ugly I really was.

One of the key steps I had to take to successfully lose weight--and keep it off--was to change those mental pictures of myself.

What are the pictures you are holding on to? Are they accurate? Do you want to keep that picture in your brain's photo album? Or would you like to create a new set of images that you can enjoy...for the rest of your life...starting today?

Claude Bristol wrote in TNT The Power Within You

The pictures you hold of yourself in mind today have only to do with your past. If you don't take charge and create new pictures of yourself, you will only repeat tomorrow what you have done today and yesterday.

He wrote this in 1954 and it was true long before then and will remain true forever.

You have the power...in fact, you are the only one who has the power...to change those pictures in your mind.

Develop a new set of prints, get rid of the old ones, and live into your new pictures!