Overnight Success

It never fails when I am on a diet, I wake up and it is like Christmas morning, I head to the bathroom and step on the scale. If the number is lower, I feel a rush of good feelings to be able to continue on my quest another day. If the scale goes up, and I am feeling really motivated, I will make a resolution to try that much harder the next day.

If you want to wake up tomorrow morning healthier and thinner than you are at this very moment -- you can -- and in fact -- only you can.

No one else can do this for you.

Each day, you get to make a million different decisions (whether you want to or not). Each day is a gift and you get to think about what you like, what you don't like, what you love, what you enjoy, when you want to, what you want to -- it is just one non stop blur or action (or non-action) throughout the day. You choose if you want to turn on the TV, what show you want to watch. You choose if you feel well enough to go to work, where you work and what you do there.

You choose what you eat and drink.

Having fed two children, I know that even from the youngest age we make decisions about what to eat. A child that isn't hungry will turn their head away or refuse to eat. Children in high chairs usually end up with more food on the floor than in their mouths if it isn't something they like or are hungry for.

You eat what you want to eat, when you want to eat it -- and you drink what you want to drink, when you want to drink it. You may not realize you are making these choices, but you are -- and with that knowledge you begin to have the power to make better choices.



Before
If you look in the mirror and don't like what you see, you can look imagine you are looking at your before picture.

After
Then with loving eyes, you can see all the things that you like that will be there when you are slimmer. Your smile, the way you crinkle your eyes when you smile. Smile and you instantly look better.

Now
Look in the mirror, and see yourself as you are now, and know that that is changing before your eyes. Know that the best part of you is already there. Not hidden away, but there right on the surface. It shows it's face to the world through your emotions. Showing people pictures of smiling vs. non-smiling people -- the smiling people always look better to me, no matter which one was thinner. It isn't about being thin as much as it is about being healthy and happy. That is my wish for you.
Jennifer

You Are at Your Goal Weight

If you don't weigh exactly what you say your goal weight is -- let me offer this point of view.

You are at your goal weight. You currently weigh exactly what you want to. If that is out of alignment with the number you would like to see on the scale, then that means that your goal needs some strengthening. What you weigh now, is exactly what you wanted to weigh.

Every bite of food and every step you took is what led you to where you are now.

This isn't bad news -- it means you can achieve what you want. If you aren't happy with where you are -- then together we can start moving in a new slimmer direction.

How I am going go be thinner next week

I am going to become my best friend. I am going to grab the magic remote control, and learn how to harness the amazing power of my brain to achieve my goals.

1st - I am going to define my dream goal. I am going to raise the bar on what it is I want. The clearer I make this picture, the sooner I will be able to achieve my goal.
2nd - I am going to make my best plan
3rd - I am going to try my best to follow my plan
4th - I am going to fail.

Yes, no matter how brilliant my plan is, no matter how well defined my goal, something is going to happen to get in my way. That is inevitable. That is why I'm not already where I want to be.

But that is ok -- because I have another chance to redefine my goal and revise my plan.

Simple Truth
If my success outnumber my failures, I will reach my goal.
The more my success outweighs my failures, the faster I will reach my goal.

Why I want to be thin -- now

Being healthy, strong, fit, increasing my longevity and endurance are among a few of the reasons I wanted to be thin. I wanted to be able to set a good example for my daughter in particular. I wanted to be able to shop at regular clothing stores. I wanted to be a small / medium and not a large / XL.
I went from wearing a size 22 to a size 6, and this past week, when they didn't have the dress I wanted in my size, I actually did get into an extra small without ripping the seams.

What are some reasons you want to weigh less than you weigh now?

What price would you put on being able to go to the store and just buy it now? If you could go to the "I'm instantly thin" store, buy a pill go to the loo and then walk out of the stall at your goal weight -- what would that be worth?

If instead of being able to pop the magic pill, you just had to do less of things that aren't good for you and more of things that are good for you -- why wouldn't you do that? Well, there are a million reasons, and most of mine contained sugar, salt and fat.

Why I'm not thin -- yet

First, let me say -- as you read this post -- if this isn't your story -- if there are things you totally can't relate to, that is a good thing.

I am giving specifics here, because sometimes it is easier for people to know what is wrong, what they don't agree with, what isn't true than what is. Use the voices you hear in your head that tell you your truths and write them down if you can. I think it is helpful for you to think about what reasons you tell yourself you aren't thin.

Well, I didn't know it at the time -- at the time I weighed 254 lbs I thought I wasn't thin because I had a slow metabolism. I thought, it's no fair, I watch what I eat -- I exercise, and yet -- for some mysterious reason I am not thin. I would eat exactly what my thin friends would eat -- and they'd stay thin and I'd stay heavy. I would get a caesar salad, without croutons, and dressing on the side. I'd leave the butter off my bread -- but I was making so many decadent choices every day, I was really just keeping myself from gaining more and more weight more rapidly. The more I weighed, the more energy it took to walk a few blocks. It is like pushing a rock up hill, only the rock keeps getting heavier and heavier, and the hill just keeps growing. Eventually you realize you are never going to get to the top of the hill, so you try to make peace with yourself.

Ultimately, I wasn't thin because I was eating more calories than I was burning over the course of a week, and at my best I was maintaining the weight and at my worst when I was making the least good choices, I was gaining weight.

But why I wasn't thin, was directly connected to what I was eating / drinking, and what I was doing.

I was spending several hours every evening either hanging out with friends drinking cocktails and beer, or sitting at home doing the same watching T.V.

My farthest daily walk was about three blocks -- from the parking space to the restaurant where I'd get lunch and from my house to the bar / liquor store. Pretty much every where I went was by car, and so reading magazine articles that instructed me to park further away really didn't help me estimate how long a long walk is. If you are walking a few blocks, that isn't a long walk. It's not that parking further away from the store is a bad idea -- but if you are wondering why you aren't thin, and you feel like you do everything you read in magazines and books and none of it works, then I think you may be helped by this truth. If you are walking less than a mile, you aren't walking very far.

Better Choices, Better Results

I think to be successful at weight loss you need to have a clear goal, and the ability to make better choices than you have recently been making.

I think that you can make choices to help you reach your goal -- and I would like to offer my love and support to you as you continue on your journey.

It is easier to slide down a hill than it is to climb up it.

If you have been struggling with losing weight, then I would like to hand you a magic pill that will help you lose weight easily and effortlessly. Then we can all go eat cake and ice cream and go play at the playground.

Maybe someday we will be able to alter our bodies to be able to eat whatever we want in any quantity and lose weight -- but would that make us healthy, powerful, and in control? I won't argue that it would come in handy to have some magic -- but the effort involved in losing weight is really 99% in the mind -- and that is a battle I know everyone can win.

I don't know who you are, how much you weigh, what you eat, how food makes you feel, or what you would like to weigh.

If you are drawn to a blog on weight loss, then I can imagine you want to lose weight and that you would like to have someone help you. I think you probably are aware of what you eat -- I think you could easily list your favorite foods, and I think you may know what challenges you face when you try to lose weight.

So what is stopping you?
Post a comment, or send me an email at thinnerdesire@blogspot.com and I will write a post to try to answer your specific challenge.

Make a Major Stride to Achieving Your Goal

In the next minute you can make major strides toward achieving your goal.

Over the next day, you can begin living as if your dream has come true, over the next week you can start to see results of your actions as they lead you toward your goal, and if your goal is big enough, then the enthusiasm you have to start needs to be cared for and kindled like a fire.

Here is your chance to dream big.

Where do you want to be a year from now?

Make this image as clear as you can.

What are you doing? How do you feel? What are you wearing? How much do you weigh? Where do you live? Are you happy?

If you could make one choice that would change your future for the better and set you on a new course, then this is the moment you start moving in a new direction.

The most important step you can take is to figure out what it is you want. Then, live your life as if you already had it.

You can begin to work toward your goal -- no matter how big it is, and if you really want it, then you will have it. If I am wrong, what do you have to lose? You probably already have a dream, it's time to dust it off, polish it off and maybe make it even more unimaginably wonderful than you dared to dream.

This is a simple but powerful truth. We can have whatever it is that we want, in fact -- we already do. Where you are right now is a result of every choice you have made over the hours, weeks, months, decades of your life. Of course, sometimes things happen that you would never wish for in a million years, and if any of those things have happened to you, I am truly sorry. But if you are not happy with where you are there is usually something you can do about it -- and that is where I want you to focus, on what is in your ability to control. The best news in the world is, you can choose something different.

How long it takes to achieve your goal is inextricably connected to how clear your goal is, and how focused you are on reaching it.

In just three months you can make major changes to your weight. Those days will pass whether or not you do anything different than you are doing now. But if you are beginning to crave results then you hold the keys to your kingdom.

If you are reaching for a goal that is very big -- like saving a million dollars, or losing 100 pounds, then you will need to plot a course toward your goal that is easy and fun to follow. If along the way, you decide that you'd rather make other choices, it would be good to acknowledge that means you have set a new goal. Of the two big goals listed above, one is a million times easier and that is losing weight.

Losing weight is easy, because it requires that you do less, not more.

Now, I know that losing weight is hard, very hard, nearly impossible -- and it can be depending on how you approach it. I subscribed to the notion that it was hard for 20 years and got no where, the scale went up, the scale went down, and then landed up higher. By giving up on dieting and approaching losing weight as gaining health and happiness, a little more of each every day, the scale has gone down, and stayed down for the past 6 years. I want everyone to have the freedom I have found.

Lose Weight - and Eat Pizza

I remember eating whole large pizzas and still feeling hungry. Pizza is a lovely combination of flavors that is practically magical in it's ability to leave you wanting more. The fact that I can eat several slices and spend the whole time thinking, just one more piece, one more, ok, last piece... and so little time thinking about what I am actually tasting is simply fascinating. I don't know why my brain works that way -- but the more I want to restrict what I am eating, the more I tend to look down on my plate and wonder where the rest of it went while I wasn't paying attention.

Instead of thinking of a pizza as dinner, I think you'd be happier and healthier if you tweaked your plan. Make a big vegetable side dish that is filled with all your favorite veggies, and have a nice lean piece of chicken breast and then have one small slice of pizza. Eat the piece of pizza slowly, just trying to taste every bite of it -- enjoy it. Imagine you are writing a sonnet about it. How would you describe it. The more you enjoy the food, the more you should show yourself and it the respect of savoring it.

I also recommend thinking about what your favorite part is. For me, I love the crust and the tomato sauce. I can skip the cheese and still enjoy my favorite part. Other people may love the cheese and don't like the crust. How you approach including your favorite food is a really personal thing. It is unique to you.

Maybe you love pizza just as is is loaded with cheese and lots of pepperoni. If that is you, then reduce the amount of times you eat it over the course of the month. Do you eat pizza every day (like I used to), if so then reduce by 50% and only eat it every other day. And replace it with a better choice.

If you don't know what a better choice is, and you feel overwhelmed at having to think about that, then there are a multitude of ways you can approach this.

For now, think about defining your goal and thinking about how to sustain the changes on a daily basis over the rest of your life. You don't want to be your goal weight for only one day, so likewise, you can't aim for it thinking the things that you are doing to get there will only need to be done until you cross the finish line.

Make Sure Your Favorite Foods are Part of Your Daily Routine

If you have the right tools, it is a simple thing to start a fire. To keep the fire burning over the course of many hours, days, weeks and years takes planning and focus.

Weight loss is like that. The decision to lose weight is as simple as striking a match. First, you have to have the match and something to strike it against. Your desire to change is the match and you don't need to go find one, you have it within you now the thing to strike it against is your action. Your intention to eat a little less and move a little more. To keep the fire burning you need to have something to burn. To keep losing weight, you need to make better choices, every day.

If weight loss were that simple, then why aren't we all skinny? Because, deep down, no matter how much we swear that is what we want most -- it isn't. We make other choices, usually sugary salty buttery sweeter choices moment by moment. And when push comes to shove, sometimes sitting on the couch just seems so much more pleasant than getting up and going for a walk.

These series of choices that we make are really minor choices. I mean we aren't overweight because we ate one chocolate truffle. But that one truffle, coupled with all the other sugary, salty, buttery treats is exactly why we are overweight.

No weight loss book on the planet can tell you exactly what to eat to lose weight and will magically work for everyone. Everyone ends up writing their own book. All of us have different foods that we are currently eating, and there are foods that we love that we can't live without, and other foods we'd rather not eat if given any possible alternative.

To be able to sustain weight loss over a long period of time, unless you really want to be miserable, I think the very best thing you can do is come up with your list of favorite foods and make sure they are part of your daily routine. Now if you keep eating exactly as you are now -- you aren't going to lose weight, so you will need to start treating these delicious favorites as the garnish instead of the entree.

Re-newed Drive

I have heard that "sticking with it" is the hardest part of losing weight.

I have given up on finding something that works and thinking of it in terms of "forever". While I firmly believe making changes that are healthier and thinking of this as a lifestyle change instead of a "diet" is what will work over the long haul -- sometimes we need to switch things up a bit. The trick is to know that is going to happen, and be prepared to look for the next big thing.

Recently I had been on a big oatmeal kick. I was eating oatmeal for breakfast and the scale was edging a little lower. I was enjoying oats with blueberries, oats with pumpkin seeds, oats with bananas, oats with... until eventually I hit this moment where I could just not imagine eating another bowl of oatmeal. I tried Kashi cereal, but it was no good. I needed a bigger change.

I was thinking about that oft repeated phrase "Eat Your Veggies!" and somehow that combined with something Dr. Furhman said on his Nutritional Excellence audio book that sounded weird. Eat a salad for breakfast...

Together that combined to form a plan for losing another 10 lbs.

I got out my calendar. 2 lbs a week for 5 weeks and I'd be at my goal.
It was a nice plan, do-able.

I started this Sunday on my "Salad for breakfast" kick -- and I started to incorporate eating vegetables as snacks and as part of every meal. Not ground breaking stuff... but the scale did that thing it does when you shake up your system, and I have lost 6 pounds in 4 days. I know this rate will slow down and plateau as my body re-calibrates to my new habit -- but for now I am enjoying this brief moment of encouraging/motivating progress.

So far it is a good plan, because I am in this happy phase where it is new. I had an artichoke with my lunch yesterday, plain, no dressing. I had a salad with avocado and balsamic vinegar. It was delicious. Tonight Eric made a salad dressing from homemade tomato sauce with balsamic vinegar (no oil) that was amazing. We had it over raw cabbage and carrots with cucumbers -- so satisfying, so mouth-watering. Then we had some skinless roasted chicken breast, a side of peas and corn and some beans (made from scratch no sugar, no oil) with onions. It was delicious and guilt free.

By focusing on eating a large variety of vegetables I am eating a lot of food for very little calories. I am making sure to include lean protein and whole grains, but I am watching those serving sizes to see what will happen over the next 5 weeks if I stick to my plan.

Eat Your Veggies! They're delicious!
Jennifer

Wall Sit - Video

For more details on how to do the Wall Sit you can check out Pete Cerqua's cite 90-Second Fitness at www.90-secondfitness.com