Well, the time came to get a new computer after having spent hours and a few too many dollars wrestling with detecting the problem, virus scanning and ultimately installing a new hard drive during the holiday at the end of 2009. Kept me out of the fridge though!

So here I am in February and the same things start showing up: slowing of the system, “not responding” messages and just plain freezing up! The truth reveals itself to me louder than ever: “Lisa, it’s time to stop spending time and money on fixing it and just buy a brand new computer!”

So I did and I am absolutely elated!

My curiosity is, why does it sometimes take getting hit over the head or another such profound awakening metaphor to make us move in the direction that is ultimately forward? Why are we so quick to fall back into complacency and futility?

Of course I am relating this to weight and health, you know that right?

I was talking with my wonderful partner of 10 years last night and we were pondering why it is so difficult for people to change their behaviours that no longer work for them and adopt new behaviors that are better suited for the current situation including their new dreams and desires for their life. In talking about it I realized that most people just want to stop one thing and begin another the next day. It just doesn’t happen that way!

I'm no good at this game! I can't even hit the ball! This game is no fun and frankly... I quit!

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Wow, the weather has gotten so nice the past few days here in Northern California and it takes me back to a time when the warm weather made me unhappy because I could no longer wear big baggie sweaters to cover up my fatness.

That’s why I am so excited about getting my book Being Fat Suck! out to other people who are so tired of the pain and shame that goes along with being fat.

Being Fat Sucks! but life doesn’t have to anymore!

There is nothing worse when it comes to keeping our lives in balance than the effects of stress!  The stress of the state of the world, the financial markets, the job markets… all of it can get us so anxious and stressed out.

Stress is a major contributor to weight gain.  The insane demands of our schedules theses days keeps our body in a state of fight or flight and that messes with our cortisol levels.

When our cortisol levels get out of whack, we struggle with  a slower metabolism, emotional eating and insatiable cravings for fats, sugars and fast food.  All this is absolutely the worst thing for your waistline and your self esteem.

The delicate balance of life is again disrupted and we are the ones who suffer the most.

How do you deal with the stress of life?

Does the nasty, blustery, cold, rainy weather make you just want to stay in your house by a warm fire and munch?  It does for me still.

I wish I could say that those old tendencies to soothe myself were a thing of the past and had left with the almost 50 pounds I let go of, but that just isn’t the case.  The thinking, the beliefs, the habitual tendencies to eat are still there and something I have to contend with every day and it’s still better than battling the self deprecating self talk that went along with being fat!

Now I have to work through the feelings and find more appropriate ways to satisfy my feelings and keep myself on the track of feeling good, looking good and enjoying my body.

Hope the sun is lifting your spirits today also!  Get out there and enjoy it.  It’ll do you worlds of good.

Have a fantastic day!

I have been thinking and reading a lot lately about changing my thoughts and how powerful that whole concept can be in making tremendous life changes.  Especially having to do with our relationship with food… but more about that in a minute.

The fact of the matter is, The Secret has taught us that what we think about can greatly contribute to what we create in our life.  Then we learned that you can not just think something into existence.  You must take action to make it happen.  That makes good sense.

So now let me through something new and exciting into the mix that will illustrate the concept even more.  Think about a radio.  At the lower end of the tuner are the stations like 88.1 FM and at the upper end are the stations like 106.5 or whatever.

Now here’s the idea… our feelings and thoughts can be placed on a scale similar to the tuner of a radio.  So when we feel down, depressed, beating ourselves up, etc… those feelings and thoughts would be in the lower range of frequency or vibration.  Then the happier, joyful, self confident thoughts and feelings would be where?  Of course, on the higher end of the tuner.

Then the real important part to believe is that wherever you are on that tuner or wherever your thoughts and feelings are at on a vibrational level, you will be mingling with other things on that same frequency.  So if you feel lousy and you keep running  in to things that keep you feeling lousy, could it be that at the level you are vibrating, that’s all you have access to.  If that is the case, then all you have to do is change your thoughts to a higher vibration and see what you start bumping into up there!

Ask yourself, what is the best feeling thought I have access to right now?, and change your thought to that.  You will automatically increase your frequency for the better!

It just makes such good sense to me.  I tried it today when I was out walking and the thought of something that has been really frustrating me lately came back into my mind.  I stopped, checked in and could feel that I was feeling worse than just a few moments ago, so I changed my thoughts and I felt better.

Now, think about the times when we reach for food because we are lonely, angry or bored?  What if we could proactively change the thought to something that felt better and made it much easier not to eat something that will ultimately make us feel worse about ourselves anyway?  Do you see the magic in this?  It will take practice and effort, but how much effort is it every day to fight the urges, bad thoughts about ourselves and inner conflict?  Doesn’t even compare when you put it like that hey?

What a great tool to keep joy in each and every moment possible!

Happy New Year to us all!

My plunge into brutal, naked honesty caused one astronomical change. For the first time, I took responsibility, total and complete responsibility, for my weight and the control that only I had over it. When I did, I suddenly and finally saw that change was really possible! Now, that revelation didn’t come to me very easily. It took a lot of soul searching and more than a little restraint to keep myself from falling back on the same old excuses to come to that conclusion. There was no one to blame for my weight or for my life, for that matter, except for one person: ME.

I started with the obvious. I was fat. That was a given and something I could and had readily admitted. Then came the next truth, which was probably more important—I was miserable being fat. Then the truths began to fly: I am lazy. I give up too soon. I set unrealistic, unattainable goals. I eat for the wrong reasons. I use food to interrupt my feelings. I use food to numb whatever I’m feeling. I used food to fix whatever is happening at that moment. I eat for comfort. I eat when I’m bored. The list goes on and on.

No revelation was too small or insignificant to write down. Each statement of truth fed right into another. It was like somebody popped a balloon and let it all out. I went through it all and discovered some amazing things about me and who I really was. Seeing myself for my truths was like a breath of fresh air. It was like being freed from the prison I’d trapped myself into so long ago! As a result, I felt what it was like to really accept myself more than I ever had at any point in my entire life. The truth really does set you free!

You can free yourself the same way. Being fat carries with it more than pounds. It burdens your life with limiting and sometimes degrading internal thoughts and beliefs that effect your actions, decisions, and attitude. It weighs you down in more ways than one. In order to free yourself from it, though, you have to internally assess what it is you’re feeling and why.

Start by writing down everything you struggle with. Don’t leave anything out. Full disclosure is very important. Don’t keep any nuggets hidden. After you’ve documented your struggles, move on. What do you dislike, or even think you might hate, about yourself, your life, and your body? Don’t limit it to weight issues, include all your self truths. Be honest to the core of your being. How do you truly feel about where you are in your life? How do you really feel about your body and your health? Do you like the things you do and the way you do things? Why or why not? How do you feel about the things you say to yourself? Do you like your inner voice? Dig deeper and delve into your values and beliefs. Leave no holes barred. Now is the time for you to expose the whole enchilada!

Okay, so that probably wasn’t the best phrase. After all, we’re trying to make food less important in your life. But right now, lighten up. This is the time to free yourself up, not beat yourself up! Make this exercise fun. It can be, you know. Believe me, being honest with yourself can be a very freeing experience. Think about how much your life is burdened by the past and the “stories” we’ve told ourselves that hold us back from becoming the person we truly want to be. Then think about how awesome it will be to release all of that! What a load that will take off!

Begin every sentence with “I feel”, “I am” or “I will no longer.” These are just a few examples. Use whatever works for you and let the pages flow as you document the truth about who you are, where you are, and why. You will always have the option of throwing away or destroying these pages at a later date if you feel it’s necessary, so give yourself carte blanche to let the feelings pour out of you onto the page.

My sudden, but revealing, awareness of my feelings about my weight and my life has made me much more observant about the truth. I found that in order to make long lasting changes in my life, it’s vital that I am honest with myself—100%, brutally honest. It was time for an honest assessment of who I was and what I really wanted. But, there was just one thing in the way—was I capable of exercising that degree of honesty? And if I was, did I even know the answer to those questions anymore?

When we talk about the truth, the box we open is often much larger than we imagined. Are slight misrepresentations considered to be falsehoods? Does the truth only pertain to the things we say to others, or does it apply to the things we tell ourselves, as well? Does being truthful go so far that we must examine our beliefs and whether or not they still honestly represent the person we’ve become, not the person we used to be? Does the truth hurt, and if it really does, why? Finding out those answers can provide you with some insight that will explain a lot about yourself and how you deal with many issues in your life.

How long has it been since you did some soul searching to reveal what the truth really means to you? It didn’t come easy or quickly for me. As a matter of fact, it’s something that I’ve struggled with for a long time. As I explored my beliefs, issues with the truth traced back to my childhood. Even as a child, I yearned to impress other people. So, I often manufactured myself to be someone better than I really was. Because I had self esteem issues, I didn’t have a very good opinion of myself and never thought of myself as anything very special. To make up for that, I told “stories.” To me, they weren’t lies—just little misrepresentations made so others would have a reason to accept and like me. The stories I told weren’t about other people and were never meant to hurt anyone, so I convinced myself that there was no harm done in embellishing my life a bit.

Frankly, my stories weren’t made up entirely to impress other people. Their purpose was also to impress myself, making me feel better about the real me by creating a new, more exciting me. The stories I told myself and others served to protect me from the hurt I would surely face if I came face to face with the truth. That hurt was there, but by lying, I didn’t have to deal with it.

What stories to you tell yourself?