Reflections on the Biggest Loser premier episode

I'm watching the premier episode online. Didn't know I'd need a box of kleenex handy.

So many thoughts went through my mind as I watched. The one thought which kept coming back to my mind is what a sin it is to hurt yourself. Everyone has their ups and downs in life but the only problem food solves is physical hunger. Too much of it, whether it's healthy or unhealthy is no good.

It affects you in so many ways - carrying too many pounds for your body. You don't have to be morbidly obese to be unhealthy. No one threatens your life and makes you overeat. It's not life and death situation that makes one fat. Why hurt yourself? Why do it one meal at a time?

I'm watching - I'm not even through the first hour and I'm so upset because I can see myself in some of these people. I don't know if I can watch this anymore because I have a hard enough time remembering what I was doing to myself.

There's no reason to wait to make a change. You don't need the biggest loser or a trainer or $a 250k prize and endorsements to get started. It won't keep you there, anyway. Everything you need is right inside you. You've got to pull it out and keep it in front of you.

Stop hurting yourself with food, cause that's what it is. Just stop.

Harnessing the power of your vision

Remember when you were a kid and you wanted something you saw, say, at the store?

There's a single-mindedness that took over: you had to have that thing. Let's say you're a teenager and it's a pair of jeans that you have to have.

Well, back in my day my parents took care of my needs and indulged some of my wants but I always was willing to do something in order to get the things I wanted. Look dad, I washed the car, will you get me those shoes I saw now??? I was a good one for that!

Well, I remember back when Guess was a fairly new brand (to me, anyway) and I just had to have these jeans. I'd visit them in the store. Hope they'd go on sale. Save my money. Plot ways to make more money. Visit the jeans. Shop around in case they were somewhere else for less money. You get the picture.

I had this vision of me and those jeans together. I wasn't going to stop until I had those jeans. And yes, I did get those jeans!

When's the last time I applied that kind of single-mindedness to my journey to lose these 50 pounds?

It's been a minute. I've not lost focus but I'll be the first to admit I've allowed other things to distract me. I did it, no one else. Because when you really want something, you find a way to make it happen. It's just that simple.

Just a moment ago, I put a reminder on the calendar in my phone to write in my vision book every day. I want to remember why I want what I want and that I'm not stopping until I get there. I need to bond with my book more, put more of my thoughts into it. I need to obsess about this on a regular basis. Make behaviors that progress me toward my goals automatic. Because I just HAVE to reach my goals, failure is NOT an option. Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades, it's not good enough for me. I have to reach my goals!

More me time is in order - more time with my vision for me.

I have the POWER to CHOOSE!

• I choose how I react - or not! No one can make me feel any way I don't want to feel!

• I choose what I eat - or don't! Food has no power - I HAVE the POWER to CHOOSE!

• I choose my workouts - for better or worse! My progress, or lack thereof, is my own responsibility!!

No one can make me do anything, or not do anything. Feel a way I don't want to feel! The choices I make are mine. I can choose to pursue my goals or I can choose to do nothing. The CHOICE is MINE!!!

I have the POWER!!! No one else! I can choose my attitude and everything else it's up to me!!!

If it is to be, it is up to me.
~ William Johnson

Keep your goals front and center

Wow.

I feel like my own crash test dummy. So I start my notebook, my inspiration/motivation/jot-it-all down notebook. I love my notebook. I really do. I didn't get to crack the thing open on Sunday or Monday, though. Busy weekend. I hit the ground running on both days and didn't stop until I went to bed. Oh, so busy.

I didn't track every meal. I didn't make enough steps toward my September goal. Every day won't be like the last two - thank goodness for that. But it bites hard when I let other people's priorities become my own, and my own goals get the crappy end of the stick.

Today was sure as shoot better than yesterday. Tomorrow will sure enough be better than today!

How do you stay motivated?

Once upon a time when I had more time, I would re-read fitness magazines. Read articles about people who had succeeded in reaching their weight loss/fitness goals and just read about working out and ideas for an interesting, healthy diet.

Well, I don't have the same time to sit and read the way I did back in the day. I got the idea oh, so very many moons ago, to start a notebook of the things that excited and motivated me. To jot down my meals and my workouts (if I needed to) and just to have a book full of positive stuff. I got this idea at least a decade ago but first I didn't really need the book, and later I just didn't do it.

Until now. I always knew I just wanted a simple composition book. You know, the ones you used in elementary school. I'd have plenty of room to write big and neat and no worries about pages falling out. I could staple articles (folded in half) to the back side of pages and paste in pictures if I wanted.

I love my notebook. I already had a couple at home (3 kids in elementary school - always have school supplies @ the house, LOL) so I picked out a red marble notebook on Monday and started using it. I started by putting my weight in there, my measurements (haven't taken those in a while, not cool!) and a list of my goals for the month.

I wrote down my meals as I ate them (to be added to my tracker when I'm done here) and the articles I'd printed from Sparks that were floating around my backpack.

Did I say I love my notebook?

All I need to do is look in there and remember what the 'point' is this month, what I want to accomplish and I can see at a glance, without having to be at my computer, what's going on. And I carry my book with me everywhere.

I love my notebook. I'm looking forward to filling it up with all my good works!

What do you do to keep yourself motivated when you're out and about? I've thought about (just this minute thought of it) adding tasks to my phone to pop up a couple of times a day which will simply be reminders to keep me on point like, make nutritious food choices, watch the fat! Stuff like that. A reminder in mid-afternoon to be sure to finish any workout that may not have been finished in the morning.

I want to succeed and I'm going to do whatever I have to do (short of drugs, I'm not suicidal) to make it happen. How hard can it be to remind myself to take care of myself and live a long, healthy, productive and happy life? It's worth this little bit of effort, right?

The Secrets of Positive People

You can complain because roses have thorns. Or you can rejoice that thorns have roses.

~ Ziggy


The secrets of positive people

Positive people tend to have many similar characteristics, such as respecting everyone's contribution to a project and knowing during hard times that things will get better. They have the power to make that change happen, an understanding that their attitudes can directly affect outcomes, and a commitment to increasing positive thoughts and diminishing negative ones. Are you putting effort towards becoming a more positive person?
Avoid complaining when things are turning sour, realize that the negatives and the positives in life will level out, and take responsibility for your life and actions. You are the only person responsible for your attitude--and your life.



Your goals, minus your doubts, equal your reality. ~ Ralph Marston


Are you a positive person? I am! These days, I'm not just positive about everyone else's ability to make their dreams become their goals and their goals a reality. I'm positive I will do it, too!

Stay positive, in the face of adversity, in spite of negativity and naysayers. Prove everybody wrong and do it with a smile and say hey, I told you I could do this all along!

Yay, me!!!

IS exercise crucial to weight loss???

I'm on Twitter and I follow a variety of people, two of them being Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels of The Biggest Loser fame.

Bob tweeted the following this morning:

BobHarperAnthem: I'm upset with the front page of Time Magazine. Exercise is crucial to weight loss and more importantly, A HEALTHY HEART!!!

Here's a link if your interested:

twitter.com/BobHarperAnthem

Well, at first glance I was like, sure, you need exercise. But then, on second thought, do you really, REALLY need it?

Time Magazine's cover: tinyurl.com/m86y9f

Well, here's my answer and I'm no professional and feel free to take aim at me. I say you don't need exercise to lose weight. Losing weight is a numbers game and if all you're after is weight loss, you can accomplish this by reducing your calories. Diet is about 80% of the weight loss equation, isn't it?

Now, I'm a literal person. While you don't need exercise to lose weight, you sure as shoot need it to have a healthy heart.

I tried to think of this as Bob Harper might be seeing it. He's a major member of the cast on a hugely popular weight-loss reality show. The major focus of the show is the workouts in the gym and what the trainers put the contestants through. So the skeptic in me says of course he'll say exercise is crucial, otherwise that show looks pretty hypocritical and it'll be pretty boring show based on food.

But then, he knows more about the weight loss game than me, it's his expertise and exercise IS crucial to a healthy heart so I'd be po'd @ Time for putting the idea out there that people don't need to exercise to lose weight because the exercise is beneficial whether you want/need to lose weight or not.

I haven't read the article and I may or may not read it if I even remember after I type this blog. One thing's for certain. Exercise, aerobic exercise, is crucial for a healthy heart (and other things, I know that for sure)!

Don't be lazy, move your buttttttt!!!!!!!