Experiencing Life

Eleanor Roosevelt has become somewhat of an intriguing and captivating figure to me. During the past few years I have run across quotes from her and she seemed to be such a well educated individual. After reading her book entitled "You Learn by Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life" I learned that she really had no formal education yet seems to be such a smart individual and a person that would have been fascinating to meet and listen too.

Here is one of her more famous quotes:

"The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience"

For some reason, this just smacks me across the face and tells me to ponder, consider and reflect on my life and what I'm doing with it. Am I living it to the utmost? Do I reach out and eagerly reach out without fear for those newer and richer experiences? Honestly, I have to say no. I'm a person that likes things to be black and white and unknown or vague situations are not circumstances that I handle well.

I learned through my weight loss and fitness journey that I would be experiencing situations of this nature and slowly I had to embrace them. Now I have come to love them. The gym to me in the beginning was not a familiar place to be. I really didn't know what I was doing. Fortunately, I had a great trainer and some awesome material. However, I still was doing it on my own basically, and I had to struggle through the uncomfortable stages and awkward feelings. Nevertheless, I now, blast through the gym doors and know what I'm doing, and why. I now have people asking me for help. What a change! I've learned to enjoy different foods not only for their taste but also from their texture and color and I'm better now because of it.

I know that I want to experience more in life. I know I have a lot more to experience in life. I can't say yet that I will do so eagerly but I am committed to "reaching out".

What fears or concerns you have about losing weight and being healthier that are keeping you from living your life to the utmost? Let's work on them together so we all can begin to really experience life.

In It For Life

Two nights ago, during my Weight Watcher's meeting I posed an interesting question to the group. I wanted to know by a show of hands, how many of the members would describe themselves as being on a diet. I was pleased when not a single hand was raised. It made me feel confident that each member of the group is destined for success in the pursuit of their weight loss and fitness goals.

Weight loss and ultimate fitness cannot be contained by following a fancy diet of high this, low that or none of those. It has to be a sensible approach to choosing healthy foods 90% of the time and getting our tushies off the couch and moving more. We have bones and muscles in our bodies and they need to be used. If we don't use them we will lose them.

Too many people start the process thinking in terms of being on a diet and that once they reach their ultimate goal whether it is a certain number on the scale, a specific dress size or what have you, that they are done and all will be well from then on. When this approach is taken, it is just a matter of time before the individual reverts to the same lifestyle that brought them to where they were to begin with, and in many cases they end up worse off than they were before.

The sooner we resolve ourselves to the fact that this is the way we will need to live our lives from now until the end of time, the better off we will be.. This means learning to find moderation in what we do and eat, embracing moving more and having healthy activities incorporated into our daily lives.. It means believing in ourselves and filling our minds with positive thinking and the desire to pass these lessons on to our families and to the next generation. It means learning to love the feeling of rolling on the floor and playing with our children or pets and not having to dread the thought of having to say that we can't participate.

Folks, if you want to be successful, you must be in this for the long haul, for your lifetime that is. Be in it for life and it will become your lifestyle. If you do this, I can say with confidence that your weight loss journey will be much easier and a lot more enjoyable.

Time in a Bottle

I often hear people say that they don't have enough time to exercise or cook healthy meals. I've talked often about tips for prepping foods on the weekend and planning to help us have a smoother week. I also posted a few months ago a schedule of mine showing how busy my day is and how I get through it.

My come back to this comment is we have all the time there is. The problem is: How do we make the best use of our time?

Here are couple suggestions for helping you.

1. Work on developing a routine pattern.

If we plan our day with a routine pattern waking up at the same time and incorporating our activity as an essential part of our day we are less likely to miss or skip it. If we have a general pattern as to when and what we eat we are less likely to stray.

2. Say no to nonessential tasks

Many times we find that we agree to take on additional tasks and work without considering how this will impact our own life or those around us. Before agreeing to one of these tasks consider your own goals and schedules and ensure that you can still ascertain what you want to accomplish.

3. Maintain good health

Maintaining good health through proper nutrition, rest and regular checkup help us to ensure that we can continue with our active lifestyle..

All of us have only a limited amount of time on this earth and as sand through an hour glass it can quickly disappear before our eyes. However, using this time and making it count for something is the beginning of good judgment and lasting happiness.

Open up to Self Knowledge

Eleanor Roosevelt wrote: "It is curious that many people seem to fear self-knowledge because they assume, and often quite wrongly, that it implies discovering only derogatory things about oneself. Actually, an important part of self-knowledge is that it gives one a better realization of the inner strength that can be called upon, of which one may be quite unaware.."

Because it is easier to say, "I can't," than "I can," or at least "I can try," many people go through life unaware of untapped strength, even untapped ability. They haven't explored their own capabilities. They really don't know where their strength lies"

Wow, do I see so much of this in people that are in their weight loss and fitness journey? You bet I do. I even see it in myself and today that's what I want to write about.

Before, I started this journey the thoughts of doing any type of physical activity short of a walk with my child or dog was really something unheard of. It really isn't that I didn't want to do it. I just didn't think about it and I'm sure if someone suggested I would have laughed them off.

It wasn't until I met an individual that helped me realize that I had so much more potential in me if only I would take one leap of faith and "try". It started with just losing weight and slowly learning more about healthy nutrition and activity, including weight lifting and various cardio activities. Then she asked me to run a race. "A race" I thought, I mean I'm no Olympic marathon runner but she told me how this would give me a new found degree of self knowledge regarding what I could do and how far I could push myself. I did my first 5K and actually enjoyed it. Then she asked me consider a ½ marathon. 13.1 miles. Honestly, I thought she was insane. Again with quiet persistence she encouraged me and suggested that I just start running longer distances.. I didn't commit to running that first race until I had already run 8 miles and it was at that point that I knew I could do it and I did.

Now I'm at the beginning of a new journey for triathlon training and I'll tell you. I'm scared and I'm not sure if I can do it. I know I can run and I'm pretty confident that I can ride that bike. It's the swimming part that has me worried. I'm practicing and doing the things I know I should do to train. I've contemplated several times backing out but decided I really, really wanted to do this. So I signed up for my first race. I'm not backing out now, because I would lose $45, and I'm cheap! :)

My wonderful friend continues to gently prod me and encourage me as I learn to discover myself, my capabilities and my potential.

You too have more within you than you know or can even mentally conceive. If you only reach within yourself you will be able to take yourself to astonishingly new heights.

I would love to hear of what things you have felt concern over but looked within yourself and discovered that you could do.

To Reach Your Destination, Don’t Go It Alone!

I'm reading a fantastic book by Eleanor Roosevelt. I've used her quotes many times and decided that I wanted to know a bit more about this woman. The book, in case you are interested in reading it, is "You Learn by Living - Eleven Keys for A More Fulfilling Life"

Some of the things she writes about have given me so much to think about. Its fascinating to realize just how so many aspects of what she says can apply to our weight loss and fitness journey. She tells the story of a young child telling his parents that he wants freedom. The parents decide that for one day the child may decide everything for himself. After about half of the day the child returned to his parents and started to ask questions. The parents responded that it was the child's decision because it was his day of freedom. The child paused and replied, "I'm tired of Freedom".

I share this story from the book because many times we start a fitness and weight loss program and believe that we can do it "all on our own". We want the freedom to make the choices and do it "our way" only to quickly realize that "our way" doesn't work, and that going it alone is tough.

We have the freedom to make choices during this process and we should learn how to make them wisely. After all, we can't have someone buying our food and cooking it for us. I wish I could, but I'm not rich enough. What we do need is someone or a community of people to help us learn to make better assessments and decisions that will enable us to develop the tools to at some point, do it "our way".

Are you trying to do this on your own, is your own way working or are you getting the help and support that you need from someone or a community of people. I would love to know your thoughts on this.

"Because I'm Worth It!"

L'Oreal has a great catchy line in one of its commercials that says "Because I'm Worth It" and some Hollywood beauty then tries to entice you to purchase their cosmetics. Now I'm not here to say that that makeup line is good, bad or indifferent. What I am going to say is that YOU are worth it.

So many people don't take the time, money or effort for themselves in this weight loss and fitness journey. I hear it all, I don't have time, eating healthy is expensive or it's too tough and yet they still want the ever elusive fit and healthy body.

Before any of us can really know that this journey will be the one that sticks, we have to believe that we are "worth it". We are worth the struggles, the planning, preparation, and yes maybe pain and heartache that will accompany us on the journey. In order for us to get from one point to the other we have to look deep within ourselves and embrace all the good, bad and ugly and then let it go.

Too many times women believe that their worth is in taking care of their family and friends always giving of themselves to others and never providing a moment for themselves. Men tend to find their worth in their jobs and will often work long hours for a job that they can't stand but won't take ten minutes to prepare some food or get involved in some activity to keep themselves sane. Both wonder what they are doing living a rat-wheel type of life, moving rapidly but going nowhere.

Each of us deserves to be healthy and fit. We deserve to live life to OUR fullest potential. We deserve to laugh and roll around on the floor with our loves ones or our pets. We are worth the extra expense of a healthier diet and some time away to take care of ourselves.

I encourage you this week to find one or two ways that you can be kind, love yourself and find your worth because if its one thing that I have learned is its that "I'm Worth It"

Hope vs. Expectation for 2009

I've been doing some reading lately and something caught my attention that I thought was so significant that I had to write about it. It's the difference between concepts of Hope and Expectation. What is the difference between these two ideas and how can we use each of them to motivate us to achieving a healthier, fitter and more fulfilling life?

Hope is a belief in some sort of positive outcome. It allows us to think in a bigger scope than what we might normally be accustomed to. However, it leaves us with some sort of opposite "choice" as well. Perhaps what we are hoping won't be the outcome as well.

An expectation is considered probable and normally there isn't a question about it. It implies a high degree of probability and usually some type of plan or preparation is envisioned so that we can reach it.

Too many times when we start a new year we are "hoping" that this is the year that we will lose that weight, start eating healthier or exercising, even if history has shown that the likelihood of our completing the dream isn't favorable.

I would like to challenge everyone to look at 2009 in a different light. Let's set ourselves up to obtaining some of these dreams by setting expectations for ourselves so that our dreams are more likely to become reality.

If we start expecting ourselves to eat right, exercise and lose weight, we are more likely to put a plan into place and follow it. Set the expectation today. Start with just a few simple changes to get you on this road. Here are my suggestions:

1. Plan. Plan a day of your life or two days of your life. Write it down on paper so that you know what hours you really have to work with.
2. Add one veggie to your daily menu. (We should be getting in 3-5 per day!)
3. Drink an extra class of water during the day.
4. Move just a little bit more. It doesn't have to be a lot, just start moving around. Commercials during your favorite television program are great times to do it and you won't miss a beat of it.
5. Plan. Plan how you can incorporate items 2-4.

Dreams are wonderful and I believe that we should all have them, and big ones. Set new and higher expectations for yourselves in 2009, which will in turn bring you that much closer to making those dreams part of your own reality.