Allow yourself room for setbacks!

Allow yourself room for setbacks! One setback is only one setback — it's not the end of the world, nor is it the end of your journey toward a better you. You don't have to give up. Just get back on the bandwagon and keep going.

Understand that there are no mistakes. The things you used to think of as mistakes are now just learning experiences, so don't waste time worrying about stumbling blocks. You'll encounter small failures — everyone does. But you'll achieve successes, too. Just remember, every pound you gain can be lost.

Faith in yourself and your hard work is what will keep you striving for the best. Now, just keep pushing yourself! Don't waste time beating yourself up — tomorrow is another day in your weight-loss journey.

Jillian Michaels

Eat Or Feel

I love reading motivational posts, or blogs. Often others can put my thoughts or feelings into words far better, or should I say, far more eloquently that I can. Brooke Castillo is one of those people. Her blog is amazing, and I highly recommend her book.

This is the choice we have in front of us. Anytime a negative feeling comes up we have the choice to go the kitchen or visit ourselves. So many times we tell our own selves to "talk to the hand." We ignore our need to feel. We ignore what the feeling represents or what it is trying to tell us. We choose not to listen. We walk away from ourselves and into the kitchen for crackers, oreos, or left over mac and cheese.

Imagine how we must feel when we do this to ourselves. Imagine what it must feel like to be ignored and "shut up" with food. Imagine what it is like to be burdened with excess weight and unfelt emotions. But you don't have to imagine this scenario do you? You don't have to imagine what this feels like, because you know. You are familiar with self neglect if you are overfed.

It really is a choice. You can choose to feel an emotion from beginning to end. You can choose to write about it in your journal in detail. You can choose to let a vibration go through your body. That is what a feeling is-a vibration in your physical body that you try to dull with lots of food.

So next time you feel the urge to eat, sit on your couch and feel. When you think you can't stand it for one more second-keep sitting and keep feeling. Don't fight the feeling with your willpower, allow it with your heart. Repeat until the feeling is gone. Notice the thought that caused the feeling.

If you continue this process you will find yourself and hear yourself. You will give yourself the attention you are seeking. You will be in your body without distraction-awake for each moment. Connected.

Meet yourself. You're waiting.

No Looking Back

When desirous of a life change, or any kind of a change, it's wiser to start from a place like: "I am who I am today, where I am today, because this was my choice and it has served me well. However, it no longer serves me, my choices have changed, and I give thanks for the amazing changes that now sweep through my amazing life."

Rather than, "I don't know how I got here. I hate this. I must be sabotaging my own progress. I just won't accept things as they are any more. I'm desperate for a change. By this time next year my life will totally rock!"

OK?? You don't even have to remember the choices that led you to the day, but by understanding you made them, the kingdom, the power, and the glory knowingly become yours.

Retrain Your Brain

Changing your attitude means changing your "self-talk" or internal monologue. Self-talk is the chattering conversation you have with yourself all day long, whether you are aware of it or not. It's the voice in your head that says, "I'm too fat" or "I'm not good enough!" I don't need to go on, do I? You know what I'm talking about — these are the kind of thoughts that hold us back! Guess what? This is the kind of useless negativity that's keeping you from being the best that you can be. It's time to turn it around once and for all. You need to retrain yourself to think positively!

Imagine what would happen if you changed the dialogue so that it sounded more like this: "I can lose weight and be healthy, exercise to the best of my ability, and get stronger and better at it every time I do it." Your self-talk can mean the difference between happiness and despair, and success and failure. If you start making your self-talk more positive and affirming — and less defeatist and self-depreciating — your whole life will change for the better.

by Jillian Michaels

Thoughts from the Universe

First, as a child, it seems like the entire world is there for you and you rush to drink from its every cup, sometimes wondering to yourself how anything could ever be more fun.

Then, as you grow older, if you're observant, you realize much of what you enjoy was made possible by the contributions, work, and labor of those who came before you, and you're taken aback, disappointed even , because with maturity you can now see cracks in the façades, imperfections in the details, and 10,000 ways it could have all been done better.

At which point, folks typically choose one of two paths: Spend a lifetime lamenting how far from perfect things are. Or, to one degree or another, roll up their sleeves and pitch in.

And should they choose the latter with gusto, they will come to know, to the core of their sacred being, that the differences they might make in the world cannot be made by another. And then they will discover the answer to their often-wondered childhood question.... That the most fun one can have in time and space comes from making such a difference, and that the joy derived from serving is 10,000 times that of being served.

At your service -
The Universe

PS This doesn't mean life becomes all work and no play. It just means work becomes play, no matter what you do, and play becomes ecstasy.

What Is Your Mindset?

Your mindset is the sum total of your beliefs, values, identity, expectations, attitudes, habits, decisions, opinions and thought patterns... about yourself, others and how life works. It's the filter through which you interpret what you see and experience. Your mindset shapes your life and draws to you results that are an exact reflection of it. What you believe will happen, happens.

Thoughts are powerful magnets. Whatever our mindset tells us, that's what we attract, whether or not we're even aware of what our mindset is! For example, if you have the belief that "Life is very hard and I have to struggle just to stay even," you don't have to be aware of that belief in order to experience struggle. If fact, if you want to see what your mindset really is, you have only to look at your life and your results. The Bible tells us, "According to your beliefs it shall be done unto you."

When we don't examine our mindset and question whether it supports us or limit us, we are operating "on automatic." We are no longer choosing our beliefs and mindset, but they nevertheless cause us to live a certain way. We create our own mindset, but at some point, our mindset creates us. If we don't question a belief that "life is hard," for instance, we are going to keep struggling without even knowing why.

What is your mindset? Whatever you "think" about must come about. How may you be limiting your results?

James Ray

Exercise

The following was posted by Brooke Castillo today. It speaks truths to me about my relationship with exercise.

How are you treating your exercise?

For some reason, I don't like to talk about exercise to my clients or in seminars. Maybe it is the revulsion in their faces, maybe it is the eye rolls, or maybe it is because I know they don't want to do it and I have my sales job cut out for me. Bottom line is that exercise is required and exercise is distasteful to many many people.

I think maybe the reason is that we mis-use exercise. Some of us use exercise the way others use people. We use it to get what we want. We use it to lose weight fast. We use it to punish ourselves. We use as proof that we are incapable of losing weight. If exercise were a friend of ours, or a person we knew, we could describe the way we treat it as downright rude.

We rarely ever spend time with it and when we do we complain the whole time. We get angry at it for not giving us what we want-namely pounds lost the minute we are finished. We say we are going to show up to see it and we don't. We make excuses as to why we can't spend time with it. We tell it that it is important and valuable and that we are committed and then we let it down time after time.

Think of exercise as the person in your life that is only there to help you. Exercise wants to give you health and vigor. Exercise is the person that wants to tell you the truth about where you are physically. Exercise is honorable, consistent, and true. Exercise is the loyal friend who is worth your time. It may not be exciting each time you spend time with it, but each time you do-you feel yourself getting stronger and stronger.

Sometimes I consider keeping people in my life by who I am when I am with them. If exercise were a person that I hung out with, I would know this is a person I want to keep in my life. Whenever I spend time with it I feel proud, capable, strong, and committed. I give myself the gift of exercise-not because of what I can take from it-but because I am a better person with it in my life. Weight loss or not.

Give yourself the gift of exercise. It is a relationship worth nurturing.

For more great motivational posts - see Why Can't I Lose Weight?

3500 Calories To Lose A Pound

I was reading this intriguing article by Tom Venuto, Burn the Fat earlier. Maybe research is finally onto something here. Is it as easy as we previously thought - just create a calorie deficit of 3500, and you'll lose a pound of fat? Sounds great doesn't it. I've always wondered some things though: Like, does it make a difference what the calories you eat are made up of in terms of whether or not you lose FAT or LEAN BODY MASS (aka muscle)? And, does your body easily give up it's hard earned stores of fat? Something tells me it is not that simple. And the above article might shed some light on why it is not as simple as we were taught.

The summary written by Tom Venuto from the article published in the International Journal of Obesity is as follows:

* Calories required to lose a pound and fine-tuning your caloric deficit

* 3500 calories to lose a pound has always been the rule of thumb. However, this 3500 calories figure goes back to research which assumed that all the weight lost would be adipose tissue (which would be ideal, of course). But as we all know (unfortunately), lean body mass is lost along with body fat, which would indicate that the 3500 calorie figure could be an oversimplification.

* The amount of lean body mass lost is based on initial body fat level and size of the calorie deficit. Lean people tend to lose more lean body mass and retain more fat.

Fat people tend to lose more body fat and retain more lean tissue (revealing why obese people can tolerate extremely low calorie diets better than already lean people)

* Very aggressive low calorie diets tend to erode lean body mass to a greater degree than more conservative diets.

* Whether the weight loss is lean or fat gives you the real answer of what is the required energy deficit per unit of weight loss

* The metabolizable energy in fat is different than the metabolizable eneregy in muscle tissue. A pound of muscle is not 3500 calories. A pound of muscle yields about 600 calories.

* If you lose lean body mass then you lose more weight than if you lose fat

* If you create a 3500 calorie deficit in one week and you lose 100% body fat, you will lose one pound. But if you create a 3500 calorie weekly deficit and as a result of that deficit, lose 100% muscle, you would lose almost 6 pounds of body weight! (of course, if you mangage to lose 100% muscle, you will be forced to wear the Dieter’s Dunce cap)

* If you have a high initial body fat percentage, then you are going to lose more fat relative to lean, so you will need a larger deficit to lose the same amount of weight as compared to a lean person!

* Creating a calorie deficit once at the beginning of a diet and maintaining that same caloric intake for the duration of the diet and after major weight loss fails to account for how your body decreases energy expenditure with reduced body weight

* Weight loss typically slows down over time for a prescribed constant diet a the “plateau”). This is either due to the decreased metabolism mentioned above, or a relaxing of the diet compliance, or both (most people just can’t hack aggressive calorie reductions for long)

* Progressive resistance training and or high protein diets can modify the proportion of weight lost from body fat vs lean tissue (which is why weight training and sufficient protein while on calorie restricted diets are absolute musts!)

Tom goes on to add:

If you have very high body fat to begin with, the typical rule of thumb on calorie deficits may underestimate the deficit required to lose a pound. It may also be too conservative and you can also probably use a moderate to aggressive deficit more safely without as much worry about muscle loss, metabolic slowdown, etc. If you are extremely lean, like a bodybuilder trying to get even leaner for competition, you would want to be very cautious using aggressive calorie deficits. You’d be better off keeping the deficit conservative and starting your diet/cutting phase earlier to allow for a slow, but safe rate of fat loss, with maximum retention of muscle tissue. The long and short of it is that its not quite so simple as 3,500 calories being the deficit to lose a pound. Like lots of other things in nutrition that vary from person to person, the ideal amount of calories to cut “depends”…

Read the entire article at: http://www.burnthefatblog.com/archives/2007/09/3500_calories_to_lose_a_pound.php

Refuse Bitterness

“Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice” (Ephesians 4:31 NIV).

Bitterness is an extremely destructive force. It seeps into the depths of your heart when you choose not to forgive someone. When you harbor unforgiveness, it closes the door to God’s working in your life. The Bible even tells us that if we choose not to forgive others, God cannot even hear our prayers. Thank God that He has empowered us to forgive and release bitterness! You have the choice to get rid of bitterness so you can live in freedom! You may have been through unfair situations, but it’s not over until God says it’s over. God always has the final say, and He is a God of justice. God sees every wrong that’s ever been done to you. He sees every unfair situation. If you will stay in faith and keep your hopes up, He will make your wrongs right. He’ll bring justice into your life. Your attitude should be, “It may have been unfair. They may have done me wrong. But I refuse to get bitter. I know my time is coming.” As you choose forgiveness and keep your thoughts focused on the Word of God, you will walk in complete freedom in every area of your life!

Heavenly Father, today I refuse bitterness. I refuse to allow the past to keep me stuck. Right now I forgive those who have hurt me. I pray blessing on them, that they would come to know Your Truth. Father, thank You for setting my heart free today. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Angels On Earth

"If you want others to be happy, practice compassion.
If you want to be happy, practice compassion."
-Dalai Lama

At a fundraising dinner for a school that serves learning- disabled children, the father of one of the school's students delivered a speech that would never be forgotten by all who attended. After extolling the school and its dedicated staff, he offered a question. "Everything God does is done with perfection. Yet, my son, Shay, cannot learn things as other children do. He cannot understand things as other children do. Where is God's plan reflected in my son?" The audience was stilled by the query.

The father continued. "I believe," the father answered, "that when God brings a child like Shay into the world, an opportunity to realize the Divine Plan presents itself. And it comes in the way people treat that child."

Then, he told the following story: Shay and I walked past a park where some boys Shay knew were playing baseball. Shay asked, "Do you think they will let me play?" Shay's father knew that most boys would not want him on their team. But the father understood that if his son were allowed to play it would give him a much-needed sense of belonging. Shay's father approached one of the boys on the field and asked if Shay could play. The boy looked around for guidance from his teammates. Getting none, he took matters into his own hands and said, "We are losing by six runs, and the game is in the eighth inning. I guess he can be on our team and we'll try to put him up to bat in the ninth inning." In the bottom of the eighth inning, Shay's team scored a few runs but was still behind by three.

At the top of the ninth inning, Shay put on a glove and played in the outfield. Although no hits came his way, he was obviously ecstatic just to be on the field, grinning from ear to ear as his father waved to him from the stands. In the bottom of the ninth inning, Shay's team scored again. Now, with two outs and the bases loaded, the potential winning run was on base. Shay was scheduled to be the next at-bat. Would the team actually let Shay bat at this juncture and give away their chance to win the game?

Surprisingly, Shay was given the bat. Everyone knew that a hit was all but impossible because Shay didn't even know how to hold the bat properly, much less connect with the ball. However, as Shay stepped up to the plate, the pitcher moved a few steps to lob the ball in softly so Shay could at least be able to make contact. The first pitch came and Shay swung clumsily and missed. The pitcher again took a few steps forward to toss the ball softly toward Shay. As the pitch came in, Shay swung at the ball and hit a slow ground ball to the pitcher. The pitcher picked up the soft grounder and could easily have thrown the ball to the first baseman. Shay would have been out and that would have ended the game.

Instead, the pitcher took the ball and threw it on a high arc to right field, far beyond reach of the first baseman. Everyone started yelling, "Shay, run to first. Run to first." Never in his life had Shay ever made it to first base. He scampered down the baseline, wide-eyed and startled. Everyone yelled, "Run to second, run to second!" By the time Shay was rounding first base, the right fielder had the ball. He could have thrown the ball to the second baseman for a tag. But the right fielder understood what the pitcher's intentions had been, so he threw the ball high and far over the third baseman's head.

Shay ran toward second base as the runners ahead of him deliriously circled the bases towards home. As Shay reached second base, the opposing shortstop ran to him, turned him in the direction of third base, and shouted, "Run to third!" As Shay rounded third, the boys from BOTH teams were screaming, "Shay! Run home!" Shay ran home, stepped on home plate and was cheered as the hero, for hitting a "grand slam" and winning the game for his team.

"That day," said the father softly with tears now rolling down his face, "the boys from both teams helped bring a piece of the Divine Plan into this world."

And now, a footnote to the story. We all have thousands of opportunities a day to help realize God's plan. So many seemingly trivial interactions between two people present us with a choice: Do we pass along a spark of the Divine? Or do we pass up that opportunity, and leave the world a bit colder in the process?

Wasn't that incredible? The first time I read it, I missed something important. I don't want you to miss it. Shay had played baseball a number of times. Before that day, no one had gone out of their way to help him. He had never made it to first base before. Shay may never completely be able to appreciate what happened that day, even though it was probably the thrill of his life. The biggest thing that happened was that over 20 other kids got to experience what helping someone else can do for them. They got to feel the excitement that you can feel by putting yourself second, instead of first. The world was made better just then... from the ripple effect it had on them, and now that this story is getting out.

And I too feel privileged to be able to share this story with you so that you can get closer to what may be the meaning of life. I think it's to help ease the burden of it for others...and feel that joy.

by Mike Brescia