Lifetime with WW

I haven't posted in a while but certainly not because things are boring. Actually quite the opposite.
On September 13th, I was awarded my Lifetime membership with Weight Watchers. I took pictures of my journey and showed people and explained to them the importance of not just eating low point, 100 calorie pack foods, but the importance of eating nutritionally dense food and exercising.
Exercising is such a key component to all of this. I'm not saying everyone needs to be out running daily or lifting weights although I think weights are very helpful in sculpting the body we want, but we do have to be moving. We can't stalk the Wal-mart parking lot to find the closest parking stall to the door and getting up to turn the TV doesn't need to be an inconvenience. We need to incorporate daily activities that we love and enjoy into our lives. This will help us be healthier emotionally and physically.
So with the Lifetime goal under my belt I move on. On to the maintenance mode. I'm a bit concerned about this as I no longer have a weekly weigh in to keep me in line or a loss on the scale as my reward. It is now about living this way for the rest of my life. But I know I can do it.
I have also signed up for a half marathon in Las Vegas in December so I will be training for that over the next few months and talking with everyone about the training as well as my continuing education with Weight Watchers to become a leader and share to everyone how they too can feel this great.

We are what we eat and

think.
We have heard so many sayings like this. Our bodies are like a computer or a fine tuned machine. Junk in junk out. The computer is only as good as the data that is entered. We could list a half dozen of these types of sayings.
But, have you ever thought about what you think about yourself and the attitude that you have towards this entire journey. I will guarantee you my friend if you think positive thoughts; positive outcome is what you will get.

I read this story the other day and just find it so telling of some people and perhaps even ourselves, if we are willing to admit it.

Two farmers lived in a town. One negative, the other positive, the positive farmer would thank God for the rain and watering of the crops. The negative farmer would complain that if it kept raining the roots would rot and they would never have a harvest.

The sun would shine and the positive farmer would thank God for the sunshine as it provided vitamins and minerals the plants needed and was confident in a prosperous harvest. Mr. Negative farmer crabbing the sun would scorch the plants and how on earth would they survive.

One day the two farmers set out to goose hunt together. The positive farmer brining is new hunting dog. Before long shots rang out and the positive farmer gestured to his dog and told the other farmer to “watch this”. The dog jumped out of the boat and ran on top of the water, picked up the goose and ran back to the boat onto of the water, jumped into the boat and laid the goose at his master’s feet. The positive farmer was beaming with delight and looked at the negative farmer asking what did he think? The negative farmer shook his head in disgust and replied “Just what I thought, that dog can’t even swim!”

Is this you right now? Are you the negative farmer that just doesn’t see the good in anything that you are doing? You only see the reasons that you can’t eat healthy, the reason that you don’t have time for exercise, perhaps even thoughts of the fact that you don’t deserve to be fit and healthy.
Stay focused on the positive things that are happening and you will be more inclined to repeat those as you move closer to your ultimate goal. Look at the energy you are gaining, the clothes fitting loser. Perhaps your blood pressure has decreased or you have been able to change medications. All of these are positive strides you are making and are moving you towards your ultimate goal.

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

We all remember this from the Snow White movie where the wicked witch would ask who was the fairest one of all. I'm sure the perception that she had of herself was one of perfection and pure beauty. She was fine until the mirror told her otherwise. However, I think that deep down somehow she had the "thinking" part right. She may not have been the nicest or the prettiest in comparison to Snow White but she did have a high self esteem. This comes from how she saw herself.

How do you see yourself, healthy, happy, physically able, determined, or do you see a an unhealthy, sad and debilitated individual who knows that he or she will not be able to complete or perhaps even start this journey?

We must learn how to throw down the negatives and and begin to see ourselves as the kitten in the picture does. We need to have a winning attitude that tells us we can overcome anything and face this with the ferocity of the lion.

The image that we need to see is one of power, stealth and tenacity. One of cunningness to be able to overcome the quickness of the world around us as we answer its negativity with that of firm belief in ourselves.

Look into the mirror today and tell me what you see. Look deeply, not what is on the first reflection of the mirror but what is in deeper and further down.

Mirror, mirror on the wall... who's the fairest one of all.

Frog in a pond

A frog was born at the bottom of a small circular well. He lived there with his family, content in the water swimming around that little well. He thought life could not be any better.
One day he looked up and noticed light at the top of the well. He became curious and SLOWLY climbed up the well. When he got to the top he carefully looked out over the ledge and what did he see, a pond! He couldn't believe it. This was 1000 times bigger than the well. He ventured further and saw a lake and was just amazed. As he continued his journey he came to the ocean. Everywhere he looked all he could see was water. As he thought back about his prior life in the little well he began to realize how limited his thinking had been.

Our journey to a healthy and fit lifestyle is like this little frog. So often we are content in our current life when all of a sudden we see a light. That light might be a doctor saying we need to become healthier, the death of a loved one, the fact that we cannot play with our children or a friend who has turned their life into a healthier and more active one. As we continue along our journey and see how much more we have instore or how many more things we are capable of we realize how sad it is that it took us so long to make this change.

Therefore, we need to go a bit further than we have gone before, dream a little bigger and look over the edge and out into the horizon at the big ocean that we learn to swim.

Leadership

One of my fears with this Weight Watcher Leadership journey is fear. I’m afraid that the people in the current meeting won’t like me as well as the prior leader. You know change is hard for people and something as simple as a change in leadership can bring the largest and most functioning company to its knees; all because the leadership changed. The leader may even be better than before but because he/she is different or completes tasks in a different fashion others are resistant.

I found a good quote from John C Maxwell.

“A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way and shows the way”

I need to remember that if I can show the members that I know, understand and feel what they do and know the best way for them to get to their ultimate results that they will be quick to embrace me. I’m sure after a few months with the group I will share this blog with them so that they can understand where I came from and the continuing transformation that I’m making even though the weight loss goal has been met.

Precious Time

Today was my son's first day of schoold. I can't believe how fast time goes by. It just seems that a few months ago he was starting first grade. I have that picture still, you know, the one with two top and one bottom tooth missing. How precious.

So many times we tell ourselves and others that we cannot fit exercise into our life due to time constraints. As our children grow they are involved in more activities and our lives are spent as taxi drivers more times than not. However, we can't let time dictate our life and control us. How much time do we spend in the evening chatting on the phone, watching TV, or surfing the internet? Lots I bet, especially if we were to actually tally it up.

We can enjoy these other aspects of down time but only after we take care of ourselves first. The next time you are sitting at a child's sporting event take some time to walk around the parking lot. Tossing a pair of dumbbells or resistance bands in your car and voila, instant gym. Grab another one of the other parents and before you know it you will have your own little fitness network. You can even ask each person to come up with a new activity and that will keep the variety alive and well.

Time is important and if we want to live long and healthy lives and even extend the amount of time we have on this earth, then watching how we spend our time is key.

Whatz Up!

I'm sure you are wondering... thinking she has lost some weight, gained some muscle, ran a race, what else could she possibly want to do next.

Well, I'm pleased to say that the next portion of my journey will be to work with Weight Watchers. I have loved this program for many years and the things that it can offer women and men of all ages, shapes and sizes.

I'm hoping to eventually have my own meetings. I'm so excited to be able to be part of the program and perhaps even change some of it too. I believe they are great at teaching people portion control and how to best work foods, any and all into their daily lives. However, I believe that a huge portion of eating clean, nutritional dense food, along with more emphasis on the exercise portion could and should be included. So, after I get acclimated to the WW way of doing business I'll be trying to incorporate some of my own tips from the exercise area into my meetings.

I will be sharing with the members my progress pictures and blogs too as I believe that I will have lots of inspiration from members as I move forward in this area.

Hope to see you at a meeting in Indiana some day.