I'm in control of this...

During one of my Weight Watcher classes, I met this young girl that is a new member. Her first week she joined, she came back and had a weight gain. How frustrating is that?! Her second week, she lost one pound. Equally frustating! This young girl stood at my scale and cried. She had faced a lot over the week (loss of job and other stresses) so no wonder she was having "scale crisis" I searched my mind and heart to try and give her the best answer, to find some way to help her through this slump that she was in. In all honesty, all I wanted to do was hug her and give her my phone number and tell her to call me anytime!! I gave her the best advice I thought of. I remembered what my life looked like right before I joined Weight Watchers. The two years leading up to me joining WW were very hard years for me. So much in my life had changed. It was probably some of the hardest two years I had gone through. And on top of that, my health was declining. I was dealing with high blood pressure and borderline diabetic. I was tired all the time and had allowed my insecurities to keep me from doing things. I realized that many of the things in my life I had no control over. I couldn't control my relationships, my job or my responsibilites that I had. I could work at those things.. but never could I control them. When I joined WW, I realized this is something I had control over. I learned that I had control over the food, over my lifestyle, over the sitting on the couch doing nothing, over the late night snacking. I had control over the emotional eating binges. We seem to think we don't. We seem to think those things control us. But in all reality, it doesn't. We allow it too.. we sorta give in to those things. So here's what I told this young lady; your life might not look like you want it too. You don't have control over your job and the other things that might come your way. But you can have total control over getting healthy. And once you realize this, you will feel so strong on the inside! You will feel like you can accomplish anything! Your insecurites won't be able to hold you back because you'll be bigger than them. I wanted to share this with you. I want you to remember that, if you put your mind to this, you can conquer it. I know, many of my blogs are about not quitting and conquering.. and it might get old. But that is something I hold on to. If you never quit, you'll never go backwards. You have total control over your eating! Stop allowing excuses to cause you to quit or to not even start! Stop making excuses as to why you can't get up and move around. The time is right when you finally just take control. I hope my new friend realizes she can do it too!!

Keeping the bigger picture in mind

Hello!! I hope you had a wonderful holiday!! I feel like I've been going crazy since Thanksgiving. Time keeps going even when I ask it to wait up for me, it never listens! I am always curious as to what people got for Christmas, what their favorite gifts were, what their favorite gifts they gave were.. and so on. I absolutely loved all of my gifts! How can you not when someone takes their time and thoughts and money and uses it on you! It's hard to pick a favorite but I do have one that stood out to me above the rest. My sister in law, Lisa, wins the prize this year! This is what she gave me (see picture). It's a very large key ring. I was just as confused as you might be but believe me, there is a very cool purpose to this gift. She knows I am a runner and I have goals to run different charity runs and work my way up to 1/2 marathons and marathons. She brought out her matching key ring and showed me the purpose of this. It's to hang my bibs on it that I get from each run I do. A bib is the number that the runner wears on their shirt. So for each run I do I can poke a hole in the bib and attach it to the key ring. Her's has several. Mine doesn't, for now though! I thought, how future minded and goal minded is this gift!!! It reminds me of the goals we have set for ourselves. I know I talk a lot.. A LOT, about goals. I only do because that is one of the key things that got me to my total weight loss goal. I like to say I small goaled my way here! I think sometimes we lose focus and lose sight of the "main goal" we have the tendancy to give in to what we want right now, this minute, this second.. and we'll say, "Oh, I'll get back to it tomorrow, It's only this one time (when in reality we've said that since Thanksgiving)." You see, if we continue to give in and not make the changes we need to and not get rid of the bad habits or the bad foods or whatever else.. eventually we lose sight of the main goal. There is so much satisfaction in reaching goals. I'm talking beyond a smaller pant size or compliments from your family and friends, because believe me as someone that's now in maintenance, those things will pass. What doesn't pass is the ability that you have learned to set goals and reach them, the ability to press through a challenge that before you would just cave in and the strength you have on the INSIDE. So here's what I would like you to try. Get something physical to keep in your house somewhere. If it's a pant size, buy a pair of jeans in that size. If it's to do something like what mine is, and run races and marathons, buy yourself a key ring! If it's to fit into your wedding ring, be able to lift a certain amount of weight.. whatever it may be, get something for you to be able to see and have so you can look at it as a reminder. I am all for setting those small goals, those are equally important! But don't lose focus of those main goals either! I have high expectations for this next year. And lets be honest, there is no magic in a new year, it's all about how much work you're willing to put in. How hard are you willing to fight? I am not saying this because it has come easy for me, this has been the biggest challenge of my life. I am saying it is absolutely and totally possible!!!