Those elements are DESIRE, DETERMINATION, DISCIPLINE and PERSEVERANCE.

Desire is your dream of something you want to accomplish in your life.  If you don’t have a strong desire to achieve your goal, the first obstacle you meet on the path to your goal could be all it takes for you to quit.  The strength of your desire will either allow you to continue to dream about it . . . or cause you to stand up and take that first step to making it happen.

Determination comes into play when you have taken that first step on your journey.  Without determination, you would quit when you reached your first obstacle or lost your first race.  Determination is like the wind at your back that keeps pushing you forward until you cross the finish line.

Without discipline you would easily be distracted by defeating self-talk and activities that might lead you away from the actions that are necessary for your success.  Discipline is the inner force that will help you stay on the path that will insure you continue to focus on the activities that move you toward the accomplishment of your goal.

Perseverance is the power you draw upon that keeps you going when you feel like you can’t take one more step, when you have lost confidence in your ability to reach your destination, or you are tempted to listen to people who tell you “you don’t have what it takes” to reach your goal.

When you start your weight loss journey you are no different than the athlete looking for the gold.  You have to look to the strength of your desire to make the changes that will improve the quality of your health and your life.  What are you willing to do to make sure you reach your finish line a winner?

How strong is your determination to reach your goal?  If you have a setback, can you say “I temporarily lost sight of my goal, but I’m back on track and I’m going to continue on, because I’m determined to be successful in changing my life.”

Every day will require you to make choices.  Some will allow you to take the easy way and others may require sacrifices.  The strength of your discipline will lead you to make the right choice that will keep you on the path to your goal.

Every athlete faces challenges from competitors who try to shatter their confidence in their ability to be the winner.  They may not always win the race, but it’s a sure thing they will never have a chance of winning the gold if they never get in the race, or if they fail to persevere and quit the first time they lose.

Do you have what it takes to reach your weight loss goal?  Only you know the answer.  If you incorporate the elements that helped 127 of our American athletes win medals at the Olympics, you have a good chance of reaching your goal.

And by the way, do you think those athletes who won the silver and bronze medals are going to give up and quit because they didn’t get the gold.  I don’t think so . . . they are just going to try harder . . . so they can have another chance at winning the gold four years from now.

Go for it girl . . . you too, can be a winner.

When you have a healthy self-esteem, you feel good about yourself, you appreciate your own worth and take pride in your abilities, skills, and accomplishments.  You have confidence and the motivation to try new things, and if you fail at something you analyze what happened and try again or move on. You project a positive attitude, make friends easily, and you enjoy life.

Your “body-esteem” is closely linked to your self-esteem and is sometimes referred to as “body image”. It’s very similar to self-esteem, except it relates to how you feel about your body and how you care for it.  It’s also the mental image you have of your body, and how you believe you appear to others.

It also reflects where you feel your place is in society and how you compare to others.  Unfortunately, our society glorifies the perfect body and it’s difficult to be positive if you believe you are fat, ugly, or don’t measure up to what you feel is the norm.

You don’t have to have what the media portrays as the perfect body to be attractive.  You can start today to develop body-esteem by changing how you feel about yourself.

First, stop comparing yourself to others and start focusing on the parts of your body you like and on your positive attributes rather than magnifiying what you feel are your negatives. Start dressing to emphasize you good attributes . . . and yes, you do have them.

You can also start an exercise program, start eating healthy foods, and write down compliments you receive about how you look, and refer to them often.  And, stand up straight, smile, and look straight ahead when you walk. You’ll look more confident and people will respond to you in a more positive way.

As a final suggestion, take a few minutes every day to visualize in your mind, how you will look, feel and act when you have achieved your ideal weight.

Your body is unique. Enjoy it and love it as you transform into your ideal image.

In order to support those who would like a schedule, we have added Support Plans for each Section in the book as a downloadable file.

You start these plans after you complete everything in the Introduction.

They were originally designed as daily plans, but you can do as much, or as little of each session, as you have time for. I recommend you only do one support session per day and if you don’t have time to finish everything in a session that day, pick up where you left off the next day and complete everything in that session before you move to the next session. The whole idea is to do it at your own pace without feeling pressured to complete everything in each session in a day. What is important is that you commit to doing something each day, even if it is only one thing in the session.

It’s also important that you don’t skip anything as each step in the book has a purpose and helps you progress to the next level. It also takes time for new information to be assimilated and for suppressed information to surface, so rushing through the book thinking that you will receive results that much faster will not serve you. Remember, you gained your weight over a period of time and it will also take you time to lose it.

As you progress through the program, each day will move you closer to your goal of a slim and healthy future. Believe in yourself and your ability to achieve your goal, and it will become your reality.

You can download the plans here: Support Plans for Body Esteem

We were all born with the natural instinct to know when and how much to eat. As a baby we cried when we were hungry and stopped drinking when we were full.

Unfortunately, that natural instinct was interfered with when someone (the doctor or a parent) decided we should be on a schedule and we should drink and eat more than we wanted. As we grew older we were told we had to eat everything on our plate. We were rewarded with sweets when we did something good, when we hurt ourselves, when we didn’t feel good, when we had a bad day, or for cleaning up our plate at dinner time. We were taught to think of food (and especially sweets) as satisfying other than nutritional needs and at that point we were programmed to be overweight.

Studies have shown that when very young children are presented with a number of food choices they will choose a healthy diet. The adults in our lives were the ones that messed that up for us, and it went downhill from there.

We all have an inner voice that knows what is best for us, but unfortunately we sometimes lose contact with it. It’s like losing our favorite radio station that made us feel really positive and good when we listened to it . . . but somehow we lost the signal and now all we get is static or a station that broadcasts negative messages. (more…)

(more…)