Happy New Year

Today is the final day of the year. If you are at all like me, you will find a way to celebrate with friends and a bottle of champagne. Tonight is a night for celebrating all the success you achieved in 2008.

For tomorrow is a new year, with new challenges, new goals and new successes.

Have fun while you can tonight, because tomorrow you will begin making new resolutions.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

I wish you and your family a happy holiday.

Bread, the greatest thing since well...

I love bread. I love all forms of bread - rolls, biscuits, toast, bagels - I love them all. This morning I made a loaf of white bread in my bread machine. My apartment smells heavenly, all that soft, white, squishy goodness that is bread.

I'm guessing my bread obsession is why I never succeeded on a low-carb diet. I mean really, who wants to give up squishy white bread, especially when it's fresh??

As a child when parents did the horrible threaten of sending me to bed without dinner or talked about those poor people who had to live on bread and water - I didn't see the harm personally. If I had to live on bread alone, I figured I would eat well. My five year old self did really understand the balanced diet and why our bodies need protein and fresh vegetables. Even though I understand that now I still can't seem to give up the bread.

I have no problem letting go of the pasta (though I'm a fan of lasagna and mac n' cheese), potatoes (a trip to Ireland several years ago lessened my urge for potatoes) and rice. I can give up sugar and artificial sweeteners.

BUT I CANNOT GIVE UP BREAD!

As of yet, I can't even say that being thin again would be worth it.

More I'm FAT

I thought of a few more to add to my list:

It's hormonal
DIET is a four letter word
It's not my fault that I got this way
Drugs and birth control got me this way
I HATE thinking about food
I want my way
I don't like vegetables
I'm unwilling to count calories long term
Exercise is too hard
It's dark at 4pm
I'm too tired
I cannot sleep

Hopefully none of these are duplicates since I didn't look at the earlier list before making this one.

I'm fat because...

Today I'm fat because

I love sugar
I crave soda and use it for stress relief
I don't exercise enough
I hate to sweat
I am too weak to stay motivated
Weekend binges
Cheese, butter & bread are my favorite foods
I have no self control
Moderation isn't in my vocabulary
I'm capable of consistency only in my work life
I make excuses
I am busy
I am lonely
I embrace change only when it is comfortable
I am comfortable with being lazy

If you are asking why I made this list, bear with me for a few minutes. You see we all have excuses, reasons or rationalizations for why we are not as thin, fit or healthy as we want to be. Today these are the excuses I have been using. Tomorrow there may be different excuses. For this week I will challenge myself to list every excuse I can think of that I have used - EVER.

Once I have a complete list I plan to start crossing off the crazy reasons and the reasons I want to make sure are never true again. I'm making getting rid of negative messages a step in my new plan to take control of my life and my goals.

Welcome to Winter

Today was the first snowfall of the season in my small town in Central Mass. The snow stayed pretty and pure until about 2 and then it became a mess of dirty slush. Not that you need the weather report but the snow announced winter and got me thinking about winter and weight.

You see the change of season means something to weight loss.

Winter Positives
Fat keeps us warm
We burn calories just trying to stay warm
No one wants to see your pasty skin
Sweaters cover a myriad of body flaws
Video workouts
Catching up on sleep
A new year to look forward to & reason to change

Winter Negatives

Too much darkness leads to couch potato syndrom

Holiday sweets

Stressful shopping and gift giving

Comfort food

Pasta and potatoes

Hot chocolate

Vitamin D deficiency

I'm guessing that the positives and negatives mean something different for each of us. So far I don't know which will win out for my life. Today I'm still weighing in at 180. I'm hoping for 170 by January 1.

What goals have you set?

Will winter get in your way?

Weight loss podcasts

How to you feel about podcasts? Have you ever listened to them?

I am a huge fan of my iPod. Having my music available without interruption makes me happy, not just when traveling. I use the iPod to tune out office noises at work so I can focus and concentrate while writing. I also use my iPod at home to motivate me when I’m cleaning or organizing. This tiny machine provides the music I love at my fingertips and provides a sense of privacy that allows me to tune out the rest of the world. In short, it’s a modern marvel in the life of a semi-technophobe.

While experimenting with the iPod I have stumbled across several free podcasts available on iTunes. Recently I found some podcasts that are directed towards those who want to lose weight. I subscribed to a couple, the one I found recently, Inside Out Weight Loss with Renee Stephens. This podcast is all about using the Law of Attraction to change your mental state to help you lose weight.

Surrounding the listener for a half hour of motivational speaking and zen-like background music seems to be the goal. This morning I was catching up on a few of the older podcasts. Renee spoke in this episode about not putting off the now and living now for the ideal life that will occur when we reach our ideal weight.

The conversation was interesting and focused on changing how we think instead of how we eat. I’m not saying that we won’t have to change our food or exercise habits but the idea is that before we can be successful in changing those habits we have to change our mental habits. She recommends changing our views on the past and past events. She talks about changing our minds to rethink the events in the past that have shaped us or are holding us back from being successful.

I’m willing to try listening to motivation for a few weeks before I make a statement of opinion but so far I am skeptical. What about you? Would motivational speaking hold any sway over your mental challenges when it comes to your life, and your weight loss?

Have you tried podcasts, or other audio reinforcement?
What did you try?
How did it work for you?

Please let us know.