I don't believe in diets. I don't believe in the guilt and denial, and I know intuitively and inherently that they don't work. Here's the inescapable truth of most diets: cut calories, lower metabolism, return to normal, rebound. It's a negative cycle, a myth, a lie promulgated by an entire industry of quick fixes, foods and pills and plans. Diets don't work. They never have. There's no secret to weight loss, and no magic fix.
Only one thing works: eat a little less, and increase your activity. It's common sense.
I love to eat. I love chocolate, cereal, fruit, ice cream, pork chops, potato chips, grilled cheese sandwiches, nuts, pie, mashed potatoes and gravy, cottage cheese, soup, beans, tomatoes, cake, peanut butter sandwiches, cheetos, cheezits, green beans, bacon, steak, hamburger, bagels, rolls, aspargus, milk, stir fry, pizza, spaghetti, cookies, and a 5,000 other things that don't come immediately to mind. I love food. I enjoy eating, and logically and realistically, I'm not the kind who could wake up one day and say, okay, rice cake and kiwi fruit for breakfast, cottage cheese and tuna for lunch, 4 oz. steak for dinner. It's just not happening.
I worked out five times this week. I tried to eat a little slower and a little less. I lost about 2 pounds. Tonight I had a big meal and probably gained it back.
They say your metabolism slows down every seven years. I'm not eating more than I used to, and I've been walking and bicycling 20 miles a week, but in the last three months I've gained 15 pounds.
Part of it, I'm sure, is stress. I started a Duck football blog that I'm writing 1500 words a day for. Work is stressful. My wife lost her job. I worry constantly about money. I need to start meditating again, regularly. It calms me. It slows me down. It keeps me in a better place.
I don't think I've really accepted the seriousness of what I'm up against. I hit 240. That's too much. It isn't vanity that is driving my concern about this (although that's a factor). It's the knowledge I will hit 250 or 260 if I don't change something.
Dr. Phil says you can't change what you don't acknowledge. Acknowledgement is one thing. Real change is another.
Friday, October 15, 2010
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This is the Way the Transformation Begins
"Some men see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say "Why not?"
George Bernard Shaw, Robert F. Kennedy
This is the way the transformation begins.
It begins in me.
It begins now.
It begins with small incremental changes and shifts in attitude
it begins with positive action
failing forward
and suddenly I start looking at the world and my place in it in a new way. I speak differently and dress differently and project a different energy, and the world opens up like a glorious pink azalea bush, eight feet tall and blooming like mad.
photo by Kajo123 from the website flickr.com
Good morning!
An engineer builds a bridge and every bolt and weld has to be exactly right; every measure has to be perfect, or the bridge collapses or fails to take its place. Fantastically detailed blueprints have to be laid out. Impact statements have to be filed, sediment has to be studied, years of effort, months of planning, and a man-made marvel rises in the sky. Park somewhere and take a good look at a bridge, and think of all the skill and knowledge and hard honest work it took to create it. Consider how a few thousand years ago we were living in caves.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
It is not so with a dream. Some people are remarkable dreamers and dreams spring whole from them, or they can leap up from bed and pages of creative genius flow out of their pen, intricate and perfect. Most of us though are baby dreamers, new at it and tentative to the trust the power of what we wish for.
Start the dream! Whether you want to go to nursing school or college or learn to play the guitar, take a first step, now, even in the wrong direction. Don't wait for the blueprint to come to you, the environmental impact statement, the permits and the 200-page budget and legislative dream approval. Rough it out, sketch it on a napkin, tell a friend, and take action. Your dream begins the moment you step out in first moment of believing, and the result can touch a thousand souls. Listen to Jim Valvano: never give up, never surrender. Believe in the audacity of action and your fantastic potential for change and new opportunity.
The Hawthorne Bridge at sunrise, Portland Oregon. Photo by Joe Collver, from flickr.com
Genuine happiness and success start with an attitude of abundance
Make it a daily practice to begin your day with five minutes of thankfulness. You can even do it in your car on the way to work. Do it in your own way, whether it's thoughtful reflection or a prayer or singing out loud, but focus on your rich, amazing, abundant life.
Feeling grumpy or resentful or worried instead of thankful? Change direction! Consider the incredible gifts you have--mind, body, spirit, senses, your family, your friends, your clothes, your car, and the breakfast you enjoyed this morning. By the standards of 99% of the world, Americans are incredibly, amazingly rich. You truly have no idea how richly blessed you are until you start thinking about it. Even the heart that beats within you and the lungs that breathe your air are an intricate and amazing miracle.
Some of my favorite movies are ones that feature a once-defeated character waking up to an absolutely new day: "It's A Wonderful Life," the various versions of Dicken's "Christmas Carol" and "Groundhog Day." How exhilarating it is for George Bailey to wake up and realize his life isn't over, it's just beginning, and that today truly is a brand new day.
"It's a Wonderful Life"
George returns home to everything he ever wanted.
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