My initial reasons behind a new, healthy lifestyle were inner healing and becoming comfortable in my skin as a metaphor for feeling emotionally balanced and whole. Achieving that balance allows me to enjoy life more, feel more resilient, receive more of what I want, and have energy to help others. Healing from the broken shards that used to lay in my path has been my ultimate non-scale victory. Yet as the progression of my journey continues, the reasons evolve.

I now walk into a building, capturing my reflection in the glass, feeling pride for the body I maintain. This summer takes on new meaning when I don a bathing suit for the first time comfortable in the body that resides within it. Walking proudly, full of energy and strength, is my new day dawning. Yet what keeps me going, what is the “why” now that my arena has transformed and the game has changed. What propels me to keep the focus, the consistent process of small steps leading to progression and long term success and maintenance?

My new “why” is about longevity. Playing catch with my son today, the answers of my “why” reached out with each throw, watching my little one excited by life, by baseball, by simplicity. I want that joy to sprout in me as it does in him. Without my health, that happiness is as good as gone. Living a long, meaningful life with my children and husband is my “why”. My parents were twenty-five years older than me, whereas I am 35-40 years older than my kids. This fact cannot be denied as much as I may defy age. To remain fit and fab, young and energetic, I must repeat the process of my current journey consistently over a lifetime.

To utilize motivation for any goal is a powerful piece of success. Feeling the urge to step off the rails from a food lifestyle when barraged by obstacles, rather than stay the course is typical. Where the food supply consists mainly of processed, chemical-laden edibles, and dairy, sugar, and bread are commodities, it feels often like working against a tide. Yet moving against the grain that brings health, happiness, and well being are worth the efforts to establish longevity, inner peace, and healing. My reasons for maintaining consistent action are evolving, yet results are the same. Contemplating this change is part of the journey.

“Wait! Come back! I forgot to say goodbye!” I screamed, as my Subaru sped down the street. Feeling the painful emotions from the last glimmer of my silver Subaru vanishing forever, I cried relentlessly, attempting to relieve the grief I felt for its loss. Wondering if I forgot anything inside it, how I would ever retrieve it if I remembered? What little memory did I leave for someone else to discover? Did I really want to send it away? Had I regretted the decision to depart from the Forester as it began to move out of my driveway? Did I need to check the seat cushions again, glove compartments and nooks and crannies to ensure something of mine was not forgotten? Although I had checked it twice, why a feeling that something was missing, and somehow I was unable to find it in the confines of the vehicle?

I awoke suddenly, feeling the sadness for a vehicle I had not owned in a decade. Yet the sadness was familiar, like a great ache of nostalgia, wanting back a mechanism that brought joy to my life. As I lay in bed thinking of the “Silver Rocket,” the name I penned my car back in the day, visions of missed items formed in my memory, a book I wrote and illustrated in elementary school my mom had thrown away. Having worked incredibly hard writing and coloring it, my devastation of that loss was great. A pink, musical, stuffed bunny that was swept away in the sheets at Disney World was lost forever with the cleaning service. Yet it marked the final birthday present my Uncle Louie had given me before he passed away causing tears to drown me in sorrow for years. As these memories dissipated, a conversation chimed in my head from a few weeks prior.

“Do you miss the food, the ones you gave up?” A friend had inquired, wondering how the elimination of gluten, simple sugars, and most dairy was possible for any extended period of time. I recall thinking it was not much of a sacrifice when the rewards were extraordinary: weight loss, energy, joy for life, feeling comfortable in my skin and worthy of respecting my body while having a new love of life that had greater value than any food. Yet now as I awaken, I feel an intense sadness, as if forgetting to say goodbye to something I valued with great affection and incredibly grief stricken about its departure and loss.

Freshman year college in Washington, DC, feeling alone in need of comfort, I walked to Georgetown to a little popcorn store that sold caramel covered popcorn in a variety of flavors. Grabbing a gigantic bag, I pranced to the Circle Theater, an old cinema that repeatedly cycled through a double feature of classic, foreign, and old films all day long. Tickets were two dollars per double feature. Memories of Jules and Jim, 8 1/2, Casablanca, La Vida Loca, and La Belle est Beast reel through my mind now. With sweet and salty popcorn, comforted by the escape into the world of film and numbed by the food, loneliness scattered as the reel spun and circumvented my pain, sadness leapfrogged into pure contentment from the big screen of black and white. This was my heaven, living on a the edge of reality, jumping into escapism regularly.

Meringue has also served a similar purpose. Eating tubs of these sweet delights until exhaustion set in, or my tongue grew sore from excessive straight shots of sugar, the crash of my blood sugar level drove me into a deep sleep, preventing any feelings from reaching the surface. Thoughts of insecurity and a depressed state of being vanished with each bite of meringue goodness. My apartment in Boston sat across from a CVS Pharmacy where a sixteen-ounce Hershey Bar and a large bag of Lays potato chips had my name on them often. Like the meringues, these items served the same purpose as several trips to the bakery for elephant-ear cookies. To denounce the feelings was one avenue like fighting a tide, but hiding purely behind the food, weight, and numbness were supreme allies in direct combat of feeling emotions, especially the painful ones.

Although lack of self worth was the underlying predicament resulting in bingeing behavior, sadness, loneliness, and depression solidified not surrendering unhealthy foods. As numbing agents of painful emotions of my past, feeling unloved, unaccomplished, un of any sort, brought more misery as the weight piled on, and my self image deteriorated. Guilt and shame were also connected to food as early as age eleven. Hearing my mother say, “Who’s in the cookie jar,” as the lid crept onto its closure, making an inkling of a noise that she could hear no matter how small or far she sat away from the container. The hidden empty wrappers, she found in my bedroom as if hoarding food in shame were a better avenue.

These foods for numbing emotional pain had acted as allies and pillars in earlier days. They served as foot soldiers against what I deemed unsurvivable emotions that needed a ‘catcher in the rye’, my inability to function without their defense. My anger, disappointment, and sadness as a child needed respite from their existence; food worked overtime. Yet as the years progressed, food’s due diligence caused more injury than relief. The weight crept up, my energy waned, and self esteem plummeted from an additional stabbing with each blown diet. I wanted relief, yet my methods became fatal and destructive; deeper into depression I fell.

When my recent journey began, a commitment to feeling emotions fully, and respecting my body with food as fuel, the old foods that served me well in earlier years had lost their value. They served a purpose at a time when I needed them. There is a nostalgia and gratitude for these edible goodies that helped me hide from the grave pain that felt unsurvivable. Had I ever given them merit, spoken my peace about how much they helped in moments too painful to feel, too hurtful to embrace, that I now may look upon their former value as a gift given out of love rather than destruction? Today food serves a different function, yet acknowledging my past and the foods that sweetened and spiced up my life feels necessary for closure and releasing their foothold and connection.

“It is time to let you go, my sweets. But wait! I forgot to say goodbye and thank you for being a friend when I needed you most.”

Exercise avenues and lifestyle food plans are experienced differently per person. “Your memories are different than mine. You experienced things differently than I did,” my sister retorts when I excavate a memory from our childhood. Our life experiences are diverse messages, reactions, and interpretations of what is seen, heard, and felt. Whatever thoughts, emotions, and energy that wave through experiences, the stories have lasting effects upon us, uniquely interpreted by each individual. Like growing up in the same household, each experience that resonates for one may not for another. Within each food and exercise lifestyle analysis from varying viewpoints tell a different story.

Last week I met a woman who quit the successful, exercise/food plan I follow. She said her dislike for the program’s leader contributed to quitting, that the plan was extremely challenging, and caused her great anxiety. Though I recognized immediately her interpretation was different than mine, I agreed that trusting a process is scary enough, as most of us have attempted many plans prior. My memory meeting the program’s leader was similar, distrusting her blatant lashing out for those who questioned her opinions and her harshness that lacked supportive emotion. Yet with time, I grew to appreciate her tough-love ways and her tried and truly tested program. This woman and I told ourselves different stories while interpreting same scenarios. We started in the same seat, and ended in opposite corners of the spectrum.

Our lives are a smorgasbord of experiences which impact differently by interpretation. Through our analytical stream, we pick and choose our conclusions. What works for one will not work for another. Finding the best fit for ourselves is the goal. Using our knowledge, intuition, and response to outcomes, we decide best course avenues to reach our destiny. Listening to the success of another will not necessarily be the path one chooses. The stories we tell ourselves convolute, disrupt our senses, cause anxiety, or flow beautifully onto a path we have been searching. Whatever our journey, choosing the right road is one of telling ourselves a story that illustrates the ups and downs into a fulfilled destiny of success.

People ask me, “what’s different this time?” Successful weight loss, exercise, and maintaining a new lifestyle, why is this time working for me? I eat clean, attend boot camps, and journal my food into MFP. When I have questions or to support others, I inquire and respond on a private Facebook group page. It is not that I have greater willpower than another. My food choices prevents blood sugar levels from spiking, making it physically easier to maintain an equilibrium, preventing cravings and overeating unhealthy choices. Yet other than that there is no holy grail for what I have done thus far and what I will continue to do. What I have learned is that doing the little things consistently over time is what makes me successful. Continuing to do these small action items is what will contribute to maintaining that success. Nothing more and nothing less is needed for explanation.

Yet time will change, life events will affect my behavior through choices within and outside of my control. Yes, maybe for a day, or two, or three, or a week or month, yet when I return to these small, simple action steps that have made me successful, my path of success continues. Doing these small tasks consistently is the path different from others. As easy as it is to complete these small, simple steps, it is just as easy not to do these small, simple steps. In Jeff Olson’s book, The Slight Edge, this is his philosophy about successful people. Having this slight edge over time establishes long term success. Time enforces advancement along a spectrum where success shows minut, barely visible progress in the short term, yet compounded over time is noteworthy. Doing the little things consistently over time builds momentum, until suddenly success appears and its continuation maintains it.

When you know this truth to be self evident, you simply do what must be done, day in and day out. No excuses, no retorte for its difficulty, and no perfection in the process. Like Yoda’s philosophy, “Do or don’t do. There is no try.” Changing your mindset to fit the stream of steady and slow wins the race is necessary. In a world of big breaks, magic pills, and instantaneous gratification oozing from all corners of our culture, to live moment by moment doing the small things is transformative. That altered state of being pays tremendous dividends with a long term payoff. Success is anyone’s for the making with small, simple steps leading the path. No need to see the end, following one action into the next gets you to the finish line. With this knowing, success comes to fruition with rewards often greater than expected. My transformation from repeated failure for decades to successful path is proof of concept. Success, why me? Success, why not you, too?

Ever notice the woman whose hair part is zig-zagging, pantyline is showing, and clothes are wrinkled? Not well kept, yet raised to know how, I was that woman. — the one who appeared to have “bed head” and didn’t seem to care, threw on the ruffled and wrinkled wear, ignoring the fashion police. Yet as the weight starts to drop, viewing my body on closer examination naturally seems to occur. What is this beauty mark, that old scar, and this bump and lump? Aware of what once seemed invisible suddenly has come into view. Although always there, noticing as if suddenly illuminated and spotlighted, I tune into caring about my body respectfully.

Visiting the dermatologist to examine every freckle, growth, and mark, I wade through troubled waters expecting skin cancer diagnoses. Saved only by arriving early enough in life, I feel lucky as each review from a lab comes back negative. Removal of skin markings, cysts, and zappings with cryogenic force and surgeries, my healing continues, like dominoes falling into place, toppling from one to the next, applying care to each nook and cranny. My head feels like a weight descends upon it as a surgical removal of an enormous pilar cyst gouged out a section of my scalp. Yet the weight, pain, and gravity will lessen with healing, prepared by a dimension of loss I know well.

A variety of victories exist within weight loss. Releasing the figurative bumps and lumps is a domino effect of noticing. Without the awareness those growths transfixed to my body remained invisible in years prior. Not that I did not know better about practicing self-care, but my priority in noticing was elsewhere, blinded by other avenues unable to see my reality. Weight loss continues to establish greater awareness, sensitizing the physical climate of my body. Every line and crevice viewed with respect and appreciation add depth to the winning dimension of losing weight. Dressing it with self-care follows. The domino effect of losing weight contains big wins for well being. Let the dominoes fall where they may!

Life is a journey. Since age eleven weight loss management occupied my path due to lack of self worth, using food to numb emotions, and cultural food consumption when celebrating holidays and honors, as well as band-aiding physical pain. Life passages with weight loss via a variety of stages as aging, lifestyle changes, tainted food supply, and a lack of knowledge, infers my journey aware of my pounds and how the scale falls existed long before other’s. Paving the weight loss path with tools, reflections, and solutions supports travelers upon the same journey, an avenue I wish I had visited and discovered sooner.

Losing weight is considerably more than eliminating food, adding exercise, and consuming healthy food. The emotional component taxes the heart and brain, hoping to excavate the hurt awakened by change. Without an outlet of support the “why” of the weight buries itself within, ignoring the core problem. Although millions lose weight repeatedly, without emotional resolution, the physical component slides back to its original self and often adds extra cushion for good measure. The body’s response to processed foods, sugar, and the tainted food supply contribute to the appearance of lacking self control.

Combine the unhealed, emotional brokenness, and the physical, inward response of a body’s chemistry, the chance of weight loss management success reduces. Exposing the pieces to healing the mind, body, and spirit along the avenue of weight loss change are imperative components. Ignoring one piece prevents the puzzle from completion. If hiding pieces of oneself, unwilling to address a physical issue as a food sensitivity or possible tangible saboteurs, or neglecting emotional baggage weight, the solution of the puzzle is left with holes, destroying the masterpiece eventually. Filling in these healing pieces solidifies successful completion.

A foolhardy method to ignore any pieces, as it destroys one’s success over time. Shards of brokenness physically and mentally cut deeper with each attempt at solutions. Weighed down by trying repeatedly prevents future efforts, resigning that solutions either do not exist, are too difficult or made for others. Repealing into weakness slows the journey until surrendering to rest midway along the weight loss path becomes permanent. Weight typically returns, followed by additional complications as disease or ailments that affect optimal living. Emotional pieces lay dormant, possibly preventing exposure or reexamination forever.

My assessments within this book explain a path that jars stagnation, paving the “weigh” to successful weight loss permanence. Not without effort, struggle, or perseverance, it exhorts the opposite. Embracing the hard, illuminating the deep recesses of our pasts, and digging beneath the surface for healing and solutions, successful weight management are reachable long after the pounds release. Physically respecting the body with healthy food options clears the “weigh” for completion of emotional healing. Take that first step along the path and allow me to Pave the Weigh for you. Read on, hardy traveller, success awaits you!

Another phase of my weight loss journey ends, while maintenance commences. Evaluating which strategies succeeded, failed, and collective wisdoms support sustainability is helpful. Weight loss’ healing road is paved with a variety of key elements: community support, self-worth, and embracing the imperfection as stepping stones to mastering future outcomes. Consistent practices over time enable a slow, but victorious result. Embracing the slow, but steady path, self belief and faith the process works, achieves sustainable weight loss. Yet personal growth, healing, physical steps, and mindset transformation are necessary also.

Although weight released painfully slow in the direction of my dreams, goals overall were reached. While the cleansed closet released its contents, my body shrunk four clothing sizes, and bathing suit ready I became, success elsewhere proved exceptional. Gaining comfort in my skin and walking with confidence were substantial victories. Continuing the lifestyle without the scale’s negative influence was also a definitive triumph. Obstacles as sleep deprivation, dehydration, or not eating enough healthy food, and uncontrollable life events thwart progress; learning from their cues is vital.

Overall my weight loss goal took months longer than expected. Steadfast and determined to understand the reason for my weight and why travel this journey repeatedly for solutions, I delved deeper for answers and understanding. To slowly become comfortable in my skin and lose at a tedious, slow rate in small increments (one half to one pound weekly) offered me the time to process healing beneath the surface. Emotional scars dormantly awaited awakening to be felt, addressed, and healed. Physically removing toxicity (sugar, processed foods, cleansing the gut, and addressing a sugar addiction), which affected weight loss and gain were vital during the journey. Without these parts, the whole of sustainability is lost.

Self-care modeled by clean food choices, boot camps, utilizing social support mark successful processes. Paving the way for others for a sustainable lifestyle must include personal growth, self belief, and inner healing to transform and maintain success. Losing weight is a physical response from actions, maintaining it is an avenue of self respect, self love, and mindful manning of the body’s fuel or food intake. Gaining self worth from inner healing while losing weight establishes long term success. Feasting on quality food, moving the body that empowers it, and utilizing resources that support you is the weight loss path to sustainability. New epiphanies will arise, yet I am living proof of this sustainable lifestyle.

Tripped up again by a variety of unsteady pieces of the weight loss puzzle, I hit speed bumps that slow me down, forcing me to pause and contemplate the journey’s continued lessons. Observation offers constant improvement, failure’s lessons guide the journey’s sustainability. Although sleep deprivation, imbalanced blood sugar levels, and emotional and physical stress cause my journey to stumble, these preventative predicaments of the body’s equilibrium are countered, minimized, and knowingly allowed to interrupt the process. Choices to circumvent their interruptions is ultimately about self care and self respect.

Choosing an earlier bedtime, creating an atmosphere for quality sleep, and repeating this process daily is self care. When eating every few hours, choosing balanced meals always including protein to prevent an imbalance of blood sugar level spikes, we stimulate an equilibrium that thwarts cravings, instability, and mindless decision making. Minimizing emotional stress by choosing new mindsets, practicing shame resilience through self compassion and support, and changing the story we tell ourselves, guides the body to positive, healthy food choices. Finally reducing the physical stress through constant self care is imperative to balanced well being.

Too often I stay awake watching television, reading into the night, or numbingly finding all types of activity to keep me busy, when sleep’s necessity awaits. Too often without proper planning, missed breakfasts occur, healthy food is not a grab-and-go option, and unmindful of the repercussions, it is eleven o’clock, my blood sugar levels are shaky, and risk of overeating, cravings, and famished effects take hold, altering my potential success. Too often emotional and physical triggers set off an old reaction to consume unhealthy food to ease pain, when the solution to speak with a supportive listener, rest the body, stretch, and relax, to feel and release the hurt diminishes the effects.

Although life happens and these practices may be beyond our control, choosing wisely when within our power is what tips the scale in our favor. Self care requires vigilance, reaching intended goals through action. Respecting ourselves is taking responsible action, learning from our failures, and utilizing our resources. Once we learn what helps and hinders our success, proactive choices become the support we require, where speed bumps disappear, and full speed ahead becomes normal routine. Maintaining equilibrium, balanced sugar levels and energy, alleviating emotional and physical triggers, is necessary to motor forward successfully. Speed bumps necessitate change. Drive around them by choosing your actions wisely.

A lifetime commitment free of sugar is a monumental action. Doubtful this is possible, simple, white sugar, an acceptable, legal substance may be purchased, consumed, and found virtually anywhere. As a commodity it is readily available and inexpensive for food manufacturers. Money to be made, its addictive element attracts corporate giants. Like cigarettes, legally selling an addictive substance that increases sales is a capitalist’s dream. As an entrepreneur, I admire the economics and rate of return, yet as an individual with a moral compass, sugar’s unhealthy, negative nutritional implications, the greed and power the industry has over the food supply is daunting. Finally sugar addiction, its physical and psychological effects are debilitating making the decision to become sugar free simple, but not easy.

Eliminating simple sugar from dietary choices is a removal of the Cs: Cookies, candy, and sweetened carbohydrates. Keeping blood sugar levels stable enables maintaining an equilibrium that prevents an invasion of the substance. When consuming excessive carbohydrates, sugar levels spike, then drop, and cravings for sweetened foods relentlessly pursue action for more. The physiological effects trigger a reaction to replace deteriorating energy, an attempt at equilibrium as sugar levels crash, and an urge to circumvent the uncomfortable feeling of lethargy. Removal of simple sugars while balancing carbohydrate intake alleviates these roller coaster reactions, winning the fight against sugar addiction and enabling self restraint. As an addictive substance, refraining from consumption is necessary.

Utilization of sugar for emotional purposes is also powerful. Food as a numbing agent for emotional and physical discomfort is common. As children, rewarded, consoled, and barraged with sugary consumables solved problems and hosted festivities. Whether a skinned knee, a hurt feeling, or a celebratory holiday or experience, sweets commemorated or bandaged bruises, emotions, and events. The correlation between eating sweetened snacks with negative and positive emotions, cornerstoned sugar consumption into our psyche. To prevent simple sugar intake from food choices requires a replacement for the emotional outlet previously needed. Feeling emotions and physical pain fully without distraction by food, and celebrating the social aspects of connection with others minus simple sugar is transformative.

Remaining physically removed from simple sugar intake is the immediate action step to releasing the power of addictive behavior, while emotional response alternatives to sugary sweets is another imperative step. Feeling an incessant pull physically and mentally is overwhelming. Over time as a recovering sugar addict conquering the force eases. Questioning whether small amounts may be consumed periodically is a lesson in futility, though some refrain from pure abstinence. Utilizing protein to ease the addictive symptoms is one way to test whether small amounts of simply sugar can be consumed without grave reactions. For many even small exposure can lead to an all out binge. Recovering sugar addicts lead a slippery slope when venturing into any sugar territory. Sobriety for a lifetime may be the only solution.

In reference to the Carly Simon song, “You’re So Vain,” according to Mr. Webster, vanity is having too much pride in one’s appearance. As I shrink to a svelte, strong, kettlebell-wielding woman, I view my body with a great sense of pride. Fitting into clothes without tampering by a taylor, watching my happiness glow in the mirror, and confidently striding while strutting my stuff all correlates with tremendous pride with the physicality of my results. Deeply viewing the external frame of my existence has realigned life’s priorities only temporarily.

As soon as vanity starts to hit the mirror, I notice things, like a cyst on my back, a dime-sized, red, scaly patch above my eyebrow, and a skin outbreak around my eye. Finding a dermatologist applying an anaesthetic, removing the lump from my upper back, sewing a couple of stitches with needle and thread, brings me “back” to my senses. Zapping my forehead with a cryosurgical device, freezing the scaly patch that appeared two years prior, and destroying the diseased or abnormal tissue relinquishes any vanity. Priorities quickly change when ego is annihilated by relevance.

Though nice to walk tall and confidently into a room, reality strikes midnight on a regular basis to shake us from the self-centered space we enter. Survival, life, internal well-being has vitally greater importance than my skin not shining, my back bandaged, and my face needing constant explanation of “what happened?” I may be lean, comfortable in my body, but needing to look in the mirror repeatedly has come and gone. My wrinkles represent wisdom, my stretch lines correlate with mastering motherhood, and my silver streaks that line my hair show a lengthier life lived well.

Yet vanity has its value. Without scouring the details of my body, noticing pre-cancerous cells may have gone awry. As my exercise community thins out “figure-atively” discussions arise about fine lines enhancing as fat flushes away from our faces. With skin care spreading smooth contour dreams, eradicating wrinkles, and touting an everlasting youth serum, we may engage with vanity that overshadows our core value that diminishes our self worth. Vanity has its working order, allowing us to walk tall, proud and confident. Yet if you thought this blog was about you, an evaluation of priorities awaits.

Spring has finally sprung leading to the end of hibernation and much rebirth. Buried beneath snow, cold, and parkas, sun, warmth, and tank tops reunite to illuminate the day. With this new reign comes outdoor activity, walking with friends for miles upon miles, baseball at Fenway and little league on sandlots, and natural vitamin D dispensing into my body from rays sunshine. While a spectacular birth of buds grow upon branches, I step into the world a novel woman, rebirthed over the former eight months. Walking where many have ambled before, I stumble out of the old version of myself into the new. Now proud, comfortable and confident in my skin, I feel reborn emotionally, physically, and spiritually, and distanced from what I deemed impossible a year ago.

Emotionally I feel euphoric, full of joy and light that dimmed and darkened when my energy waned and depression resulted. A roller coaster along a sugar high and low brought me to tears many days, searching endlessly for solutions only to find myself in the void again. The beacon of light finally showed itself where I was initially blind, uncertain it led to an island of hope. Yet when I trusted the signs, the process, and the people around me, I was raised by a lever that raised me up until I was independently secure. Hearing hope, direction, and possibility, and feeling love, support, and gratitude, I ventured slowly along the journey I had been seeking. Happiness arrived before my physical transformation, an acceptance, surrendering, and self love that led the way.

Physically my energy is restored, replenished, and recharged. Years of lethargy, ultimate exhaustion by three in the afternoon, and a weakened core caused lower back pain and deteriorating strength. Alleviated now of all these ailments, my muscles enhanced and empowered by push ups, planks, and pullups, my physical strength rehabilitated my energy, core, and posture. Walking tall, carrying boulder-heavy items with ease, and rejuvenated, my physical force is not disputed. Rebirthing atrophied muscles into dense matter alters my mood, has me reaching for more, and striving to strengthen all aspects of my life. The physical aspects connect with the emotional dimension, fueling my body and brightening my core, mind, and spirit.

Enhanced by physical power and emotional stamina, rebirthing my spirit has replenished my soul. Soaring when writing, words pour out of me like a watering can, enhancing the soil, soaking the seeds, and sprouting the part of me blessed with this gift. As the strength rises within me, my core purpose stirs to send the words from my heart to paper, sharing my journey, enlightening lives though the magic of letters upon a page. This rebirth aligns me with a higher power that had escaped connection when the blues, weakness, and darkness surrounded me. Freed from my own shackles, words sprout daily, flowering my thoughts and feeding my soul. No longer a void to fill, nor an emotion to numb, spiritually these new beginnings connect me to something greater than myself. Life purpose appears present and set in motion.

To ride the rails of change and personally grow, rebirth is a steady process of patience. An emotional, physical, and spiritual transformation primes itself over a lifetime. Yet strengthening all avenues, releasing the “old”, and birthing a new body, energy, and spirit, engages senses, empowers souls, and changes lives. Self worth, the mighty mountain at the core of emotional, physical, and spiritual growth is paramount. Comfortable and confident in my skin and freeing myself from fear, rebirth began. Formerly falling deeper into an abyss, I clawed my way out as rays of hope and lightness of being led me out of misery, darkness, and desperation. Years of turmoil, feeding hidden emotions, weakening physically and mentally, seeds sowed, spring sprung, and self love created rebirth, strengthening my mind, body, and spirit.

Keeping my lifestyle on the down-low seemed necessary even though there is no shame with clean eating, boot camps, and community support; all are non-threatening, harmless, and need not hide. Debilitating burns from sharing truth, vulnerability, and opinions causes trepidation and has kept me silent. Yet living a life skeptical of another’s negative reaction hurts the soul and prevents sharing. My hush-hush response has been a reflection of fear until now. As a walking success story, down five sizes, svelte and trimmer, others prompt me to disclose my secretive life in the gym, my food intake, and the overall how’s of my journey. What risk is there in sharing my story?

Recognizing lifestyles are successful based upon personal experience, I have treaded lightly when exposing my approach. This lengthy, but successful option requires readiness and is not what everyone needs. Since I searched far and wide for an easy fix for decades, I conclude others seek the same. What happens if I bare my soul, steer others along the same avenue, and they hop on board without similar results or hate the process? Am I responsible for their failure? Sharing my journey may inspire others searching for a sustainable solution to weight loss, but if not willing to plunge into the hardness required, it may lead to painstaking disaster, resentment, and animosity towards me.

Ultimately everyone is responsible for their own destiny. Sharing the disclosed information is worth an attempt to motivate, inspire, and encourage others. Perhaps their success will commence with a conversation about mine. Reframing my story that sharing is unwelcomed, risks judgment, and can make or break other’s actions, I now choose to view these inquiries as those seeking solace, solutions, and seeing the possibility for themselves along the path I have chosen. To share outweighs the risks of vulnerability and judgment. Sharing on the q.t. is about caring, yet a balancing act along a beam of possibility. Disclosing my journey and trade secrets is a gift worth giving. It may even transform lives as it has my own.

Recommitment starts today, paddling further to relinquish the pounds and live a healthy lifestyle. Time to contemplate the process, set fresh goals, and align and energize waning motivation, contributes to momentum and triumph. Repeated dedication in short term increments is how to prolong the hard journey against the current. My goal weight, suddenly reachable within these next weeks creates new psychological challenges. Many stagnate as they close in on the gem of a weight loss number. Close enough to reach out and grab what we desire, loose footing, spinning out of control, and capsizing may occur while we struggle to stay afloat. Smoothly traveling along powerful currents in a stream of potential obstacles is exciting, scary, and incredibly inspiring.

To navigate the boat along the desired path, steering clear of mental mishaps requires intention, determination, and consistency. These next weeks carry no different weight than the past. Steady on with processes already in place, preparing healthy food, meeting macros, and exercising muscles, make the map readily readable to follow. Veering away, turning around, leaning weight to one side, definitely constitutes self sabotage. Rocking the boat causes a splash until eventually and inevitably falling in results. Paddling successfully along the path of weight loss, health, and healing requires direction, stamina, and constant reexamination. Yet there is no need to sabotage efforts when traveling smoothly and successfully. If already thriving, change nothing!

Recommiting to processes that work is simply about sustaining motivation. When energy wanes and goals are close, we tend to amble confidently without focus, coasting aimlessly, until one day we find ourselves overboard in the water, the current dragging us toward the waterfall. If such should happen, reach your boat, climb aboard again, seek support, and rediscover your reasons for the journey. No shame in failing and falling; it is what we do when drowning seems imminent that matters. Climb aboard and recommit to the process. The gem you seek is yours for the taking. Recommitment is a prerequisite for long term success. Today continues my paddling upstream, but recommitment keeps me afloat while the paddles dip deeply and smoothly, aiming for consistency and steady direction.

Stress, sugar addiction, and lack of motivation may be the catapults that deter weight loss, but exhaustion is my nemesis. Sleeplessness sinks me deep into depression, contributes to excess caffeine consumption, and hotwires my decision-making, causing my healthy eating habits to drive off a cliff temporarily. Seems such a simple solution to get some shuteye, yet late night meetings, restless young offspring, and early rise schedules thwart success. I utilize my reserves, throw it into high gear, get the troops on their way out the door, make work and life happen while the energy tank is close to empty. Seems like a normal day, that is, until it isn’t.

I arise zombie-like, but rifle through the day outsmarting fatigue. Adjusting to exhaustion, I convince myself mentally and physically, is an irrelevant predicament. Except like Cinderella, there is a cutoff for my magical recovery, dressed in fairy tale garb I throw together in an instant, riding in luxury in my imagination making life smooth, happy, and beautiful, when all felt shakily unsettling upon wake up. Late in the day things begin to disassemble, arguments develop between me and anyone in my path, and failure to engage rationally enters the scene. I wonder why the magic, energy, and stamina, dissipating from an “I’ve got this” type of day is transforming into shambles.

Exhaustion is the culprit, and my transition from riches to rags is four o’clock in the afternoon. Suddenly supposedly famished, food finds its way abundantly consumed subconsciously, numbly, and without merit. Lacking mindfulness, sleeplessness feebly drives decisions like a drunk driver, veering off the road, hitting bystanders, speed bumps, and obstacles that normally can be seen from a distance. Unfortunately weight loss attempts and daily rituals cannot accommodate lack of essential zzz’s. My body has been hijacked by new drivers, incapable of responsible choices. Weight loss efforts suffer dramatically by overeating and irrational reactions to fatigue.

Even with this mighty knowledge, it remains a great struggle to maintain equilibrium post sleepless nights. Twenty-minute naps sometimes band-aid the symptoms, but essential sleep is ultimately the only solution. Shocking that something as simple as sleep changes the game play, its strategic advantage is critical to the weight loss game. Cinderella may have been fortunate to get to the ball, but her run for the exit at midnight shows the clock only strikes when you think, “I’ve got it!” Perhaps she, too, was sleep deprived, demonstrated by leaving her glass slipper behind. Yet if the shoe fits, her dreams come true. Achieving a healthy lifestyle is a dream come true when sleep turns from foe to friend.

I confess. I was a naysayer, critiquing other’s lifestyles regularly. I heard the words, Nutrisystem, Atkins, Weight Watchers, South Beach, Jenny Craig, Raw Food Diet, The Zone Diet, The Lemonade Cleanse, Restricted Calories Lifestyle, and cringed inside from my experiences attempting each of these food plans over decades. Buns of Steel, The Firm, P90X, TurboFire, marathons, and gym memberships, also make my hair stand on end. What I know for sure is that every food and exercise plan works for somebody, and may be sustainable. Unfortunately or fortunately none of those mentioned curved my appetite nor motivated me to continue long enough to maintain weight loss, lose optimal weight or increase muscle mass. As a Debbie Downer, a wet blanket upon other’s dreams, the pessimist searching for a sustainable solution thinking the well ran dry, I am now a recovering naysayer.

Now I encounter reflections of whom I used to be within the eyes and voices of others. Many question my current success wondering it carries sustainability? Can clean, real food, unprocessed, free of gluten, simple sugars, and most dairy, with community support become a lifestyle? Will I always journal my food? Will boot camps, Strikefit, and Grind classes bring boredom eventually, injure joints and muscles with aging? Will motivation wane, perseverance give way to cookies, candy, and the next food craze? The helpful question, does this lifestyle work for me, is critical. If every plan works for someone, have I found the one that works for me? Informing my cardiologist uncle that I consume several eggs daily but my LDL (good cholesterol) level reads 74, he inferred genetics plays a role. My parents nearby consuming cholesterol medication daily, concludes, everyone is highly individual.

After nine months, my current lifestyle seems sustainable, while my body, mind, and soul respond well. I feel great! The journey always necessitates continued evaluation and growth. Needing not to answer how the future unfolds, but knowing a solution exists in my favor is the imperative piece of the puzzle. Personal growth journeys aim for the best versions of ourselves. When we arrive, do we know it? What does it look like for each of us? What necessitates change? What is sustainable? As different specimens, reacting in various ways, finding the right avenue individually is crucial. While a naysayer, stuck in my own failure, envious of those who discovered sustainable weight loss, maintenance, and fit lifestyles, my negativity unleashed inward and outward. While in recovery now I observe my old self in others, naysaying, hoping they, too, shall find their sustainable solution.

Sleep is possibly the most crucial element to weight loss and gain. My experience, articles, and studies, validate this claim. When weight loss and overall well being are your intention, prevention of sleep deprivation must reign supreme. Mental clarity, metabolism, health risks, and a plethora of plaguing reactions occur without enough zzz’s. Consequently when high levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, exist quality sleep is interrupted and may prevent sleep, creating a host of problems related to sleep deprivation and weight gain. If weight loss seems stunted, examining your stress and sleep levels, may be an immediate solution to effectively rev the engine for optimal forward motion.

Sleep deprivation affects the brain’s frontal lobe, the focal point for decision making and impulse control. Like being drunk, the lack of mental clarity, the reaction time slowed, and ability to respond responsibly, negatively impact choices. Several studies show that with less sleep, high fat and high-carbohydrate snacks are craved and consumed, late night eating and increased cravings occur, and receiving comfort by utilizing food to relieve the discomfort of lack of sleep is common. Without effective quality and amounts of sleep, attention, alertness, concentration, reasoning, and problem solving skills are impaired and decrease successful weight loss attempts.

Imperative also is to recognize how quality and amount of sleep affect the metabolism from functioning properly.  Author, Michael Breus, PhD, author of Beauty Sleep and clinical director of the sleep division of Arrowhead Health in Glendale, AZ, states that receiving enough sleep affects nightly hormones. Ghrelin, the hormone that signals when to eat elevates with sleep deprivation, while leptin, the hormone that controls satiety decreases. Additionally, less than seven hours of nightly sleep affects glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity, determining how well the body can metabolize energy from foods containing carbohydrates.

A host of other ailments are conclusively impacted by sleep deprivation. Insomnia increases the risk of heart disease, heart attacks, high blood pressure, stroke, and diabetes. Greater sleep deprivation may attribute to lower levels of libido, hence affecting sex lives as well. Less than six hours of sleep has been associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Lack of sleep also ages skin, causing puffy eyes, dreary skin, and fine lines. Without solid sleep, the stress hormone, cortisol, may break down collagen that maintains skin’s smooth elasticity, while the growth hormone that thickens skin, thickens bones, and increases muscle mass, lessens.

Necessary sleep is vital for optimal health. Affecting decision making, metabolism, cravings, hormones, health risks, libido, depression and anxiety, skin, and overall well being, the connection between sleep deprivation and weight loss efforts is immense. Seven to nine hours of slumber per night requires due diligence. Utilizing magnesium, or a calming routine to encourage immediate and quality sleep is helpful. Reducing stress via meditation, healthy food, and a calmer lifestyle, to prevent cortisol levels from rising, while reducing caffeinated beverages in the afternoon are also supportive processes. Optimal sleep is a definite prerequisite for weight loss management; be sure your getting your essential zzz’s.

Self reliance and accountability are vital necessities in life, yet human connection cannot be minimized as equally important. Traveling the weight loss and exercise journeys alone contains potential hazardous risk of failure. Community support, our external environment, and helping others while holding oneself accountable are a combined union for successful results. When asked what happens when the support dissipates, leaving me alone to fly solo, will I succeed upon this journey? Conclusively my thirty years of experience answers definitively I shall never seek weight loss and exercise alone. Rather than living in a bubble with sole self reliance, accessing community support encourages human connection and a web of consistent accountability. Although courageous and ambitious, martyrdom I seek not. A solo expedition increases failure rate considerably. Community support is a strategic advantage in winning the weight loss war.

Hardwired for human connection, we utilize communities consistently to support our families, education, and lifestyles daily. Companies, jobs, and careers require human support networks to accomplish most tasks. Raising families without community support through carpools, emotional sustainability, external resources as recreation and education, would fail miserably. In all facets of our existence, the need to rely upon others requires trust, faith, and vulnerability. To empathize, support, and reciprocate help is part of the human condition. Allowing others to raise us up in so many corners of living is no different with a healthy lifestyle. Many studies prove that social, external support to improve weight loss management is crucial. Without it, the risk of relapse is greater. Joining supportive networks of friends and strangers along the same journey is significant for successful long term results.

While being self reliant is notable, seeking support is not weakness. Instead it shows wisdom to recognize the power of community, the strength of common experience to propel group success, and how team bonding causes motivation to help others in order to help yourself. This strategic advantage does not release self accountability. There is no one holding my hand to choose healthy foods, drive me to boot camps, nor make me journal my food intake. Self motivation, determination, and perseverance are still required. Yet orchestrate a union between self accountability and community support, and the power to succeed is strengthened. Going it alone is one option, combining it with the power of many is another. My experience propels me to utilize the latter. Everyone has to make the call for themselves, but community support remains a strategic advantage in my playbook.

When asked about my fitness and weight management lifestyle, I explain its gradual, consistent, and purposeful ascent into habit. With focus and intention on “clean” eating, allowing it to penetrate physically and psychologically, it becomes a consistent routine. Not a diet, I defensively deny the depiction of the boxed definition of deprivation, restricted calories, and control over food intake. Instead my lifestyle requires a new mindset, viewing food as fuel, consuming an abundance of healthy real food, and practicing self respect and care for what enters the body. As for fitness, boot camps, and specialty strength training classes strengthen the core, muscles, and mental toughness. Yet subtle describes the process, like a dot-to-dot puzzle, connecting one action to the next. When exchanging old habits for new ones, fresh seeds are planted.They orchestrate the winds of change.

Eight months concentrating on altering my actions, mindset, and knowledge, establishing a sustainable lifestyle is transformative. Yet the test of time is the deciding factor. Is it sustainable for a year, two years, five years, or a lifetime? Embracing this lifestyle and engaging in extensive emotional healing with significant physical, mental, and emotional strength has added a meaningful dimension to my life.  A newly conceived body, a healed heart, and a committed mindset lead the line of longevity. Making the habits what I do, who I am, how I live, and allowing the winds of change to wash over me, require continued motivation, inspiration, and intention towards each day’s actions. Can I do this for a lifetime? At the end of my life I will know. For now, moment by moment, I embrace the change while a lifetime passes.

While attending business school, an assignment to fill in our tombstone fostered a meaningful discussion. Writing your eulogy for leading a better life examines our values, ambitions, and dreams. Hearts beat in an inspiring direction to live with purpose. Grounded in meaning, our actions breathe a life of compassion, kindness, and connection. A playing field of anything is possible sprouts from the imagination. Yet as I took stock of my life, awareness of my damaged wings rose to the surface. Emotional baggage prevented me from soaring, tattered and torn wings were weighed down by my past. A wounded soul in need of healing, I reexamined my life from the inside out.

To live a life with meaning, my wounded heart must know forgiveness, experience peace, and learn to love again. Without the wherewithal, I searched within for worthiness only to find empty space, a tortured anger, and dormant sadness from yesteryear. Uncovering the depth of my despair, healing the wounds with compassion, love, and forgiveness, years passed. The process was as silent as a whisper, as if inching closer without being heard, gathering strength by the gram rather than pound, and releasing the past like a caress that dissipates into the wind. Enigmatically with fifteen years of gradual ascent, a knowing of self-love, gratitude, and comfort of self-worth encompassed every cell of my being.

Arrival at this knowing is palpable, but not readily explainable. Like a softened heart, an inner strength, and a self-respect, the intangibles source the emotion of well being, happiness, and self-love. Healing reformulates wings, more magical than I imagined, stronger than I thought possible, and full of Grace for flight. Soaring now with self confidence, self-worth, and comfort in my skin, I fly effortlessly, higher by the heart’s internal light, and smoother by the wind that releases my sails initially obstructed by weight, force, and obstacles. Lightened by the healing, love, and journey, I see my tombstone now engraved by a life being fully lived. Written upon it is the description of a woman who lived, worthy of speaking her truth, loving, and connecting all the way to her grave. She soared like an eagle, free to fly, free to roam, and free to live without fear. Are you living from the tombstone?