Wednesday, November 16, 2011

She called me "Her Coach!"

Now I know how Fawn felt when she took each of us on...excited, scared, and ready to do anything to help her "chicks" succeed!  This last week a friend of mine was finally ready to start working with me.  We had talked a year ago, and she wanted to, but we never got together...then two months ago when I saw her at a swim meet she told me whe was going to get her stomach stapled. I almost started crying and said..."NO DONT DO IT!"  I told her I would work with her.  This last week she told me she was joining a gym. I told her that is wonderful, and if she goes to mine for the week for free I would show her what to do.  Well...she has been with me the last two days.  She is working soooo hard! I am so proud of her.  We will have to work on her diet to, but right now we are trying to get to the gym as much as possible because we only have one free week!  It is helping me to.
I came accrossed an email I had sent to my sister Paulette in November of 2009. She has a clothes closet and can get us clothes when we need them. THis is what I wrote. Paulette, "If you can look in your clothes closet Dave and I could really use some clothes.  I am a 2-3X and Size 24-26 pants and dave is 3X and size 46 pants! We really could use some things for the winter!"  Wow! This is two years later and I am a size M_L and size 14 pants!  Dave is now M-L and size 38 pants! We have kept the weight off for over a year and we are still faithful to going to the gym at least 3-5 times a week and are continueing to loose weight!  We are doing it! I am so happy and so thankful for all of you who have supported me this last year. 
As I was at the gym working with Pam I looked up and saw our reflections in the mirror.  I looked at her and said, "Look in the mirror!  A year and a half ago I was your size....If I can do  it so can you!" That is what life is all about... continuing to help others the way others have helped you....pass it on!  If each one of us passes it on, we will have a better world to live in.

Monday, November 7, 2011

You can do anything you set your mind to...

You Can Do Anything You Set Your Mind To!

There are certain days in your life that you look back on and you say, "This was a life changer!"  The day I married my childhood sweet heart. The day we decided to have children. The day of my accident. The day we decided to loose weight. Well this last week was one of those Life changers. We spent the week at a conference of people all wanting the same thing...to take their business to the next level.  Now mind you, of everyone there Dave and I were defiantly on the lower rung of the ladder.  We were surrounded by people who have succeeded, and wanted to do better.  The whole concept was mind boggling to me.  Here we are struggling to keep our bills paid and these people have been living the dream that we have wanted and are making it.   Why weren't we?

The moment of change was Thursday night.  We sat in Brad Ross' (the Brad Ross that traveled with Disney doing magic shows) suite for our fireside chat. I had just done my 100 laps in the pool and sat in front of Dave on the floor. Now mind you , this is after we had a Fairy tale day of working with Joanie Spina (the person who has choreographed David Copperfield's shows) We had a makeup artist put our make  up on and had done a photo shoot.  It was an amazing day.  I thought about going to the room and just relaxing, as I did the first night...but I couldn't. Tommy Hilken, the motivational speaker for the night,.told us we needed to be there...we had to go. 

As I looked around the room at my new found friends, I felt accepted an full of peace in that room. Tommy was the most amazing speaker I have ever heard.  I am a note taker, and I can honestly say I filled 10 pages of notes in his hour speech.  It was all about becoming who you were meant to be.  He challenged us to see our selves making our goals, to forget about the past and make room in our subconscious to make our dreams come true.  He told us to use our intuition and trust it, not ignore it.  One of our biggest obstacles in life is our self image.  Although our self image has grown with the weight loss,we still have the nagging voices inside that say, "you will never be good enough!", "You cant do it!", "You don't deserve to do it!"  He challenged us to put a name on that voice and tell them to shut up!  We need to weed out old ideas and don't let our fear, doubt and uncertainty rule over us.  As he challenged us to see ourselves as being what we wish-hope- dream to be. I thought about my weight loss.  If you would have told me a year and a half ago that I would be wearing a 14 pair of pants, instead of the 26 I was wearing, and Dave would be wearing size 38 pants,instead of the 48 he was wearing, I would have laughed at you. I would never have seen it as possible.  It took a dream...a dress of my mothers, a wish of my husbands, and a book of someone that did it to make me believe that it was a possibility.

Once we found that dream we took steps to see it happen. I contacted Fawn, made a commitment to her, cleaned out my cupboards and filled them with good food, and started making the gym a part of our life.  Every day we had a plan, a purpose, and a reason for doing the things that we did!  See, we had the power to create that image that we wanted, and to become that image in a short period of time...WE DID IT!  He said, "If you want to stop smoking....you need to stop smoking. In the same way, if you want to loose weight, you need to loose weight.

Here are some steps that you can take to loose weight;
1. Make a decision- Decide who you want to be
2.  You have to work to get what you want- make  plan
3. From this day forward take steps towards that plan
          *Clean out your cupboards
          *Go shopping for good food
          *Plan your menus and stick to them
          *Start exercising every day (30-45 min)
          *Evaluate how you are doing (weigh in once a week)
          *Make plans to make it happen
           *Set your goal and stick to it.
           *See yourself  being the person you want to become

I loved when Tommy said "Your imagination is the workshop of your mind...you can build anything you want!  See it!  Believe it!  Start to Achieve it!  Become it!
Get rid of the old image, let go of those destructive habits...remember the old image is giving you the results you have now. You don't want those results.  you want to achieve things you never thought possible. Go ahead, dream them up, and you can achieve them.."

So my challenge to you is: Take immediate steps to accomplish your goals.  IF you have gotten sidetracked on your journey...get back up, wipe off the past, and start fresh today!  You can do it.  Don't be discouraged if you have gained your weight back.  It will come off easier now. Your body wants to be down to what it was before.  My friends...You can do it.  You just need to go back to the beginning when you started and start telling yourself exactly what you are doing for the day!  Get a winners image.. because you are a winner!  You can succeed.  I believe in you.  All it takes now is for  you to  start believing in yourself and make it happen!