Friday, November 30, 2007

Hiding...

"Respect your efforts, respect yourself. Self-respect leads to self-discipline. When you have both firmly under your belt, that's real power." - Clint Eastwood

Here's the deal:

The other night my son and I were in the van coming up to a red light, the vehicle next to us decided to run the light. Just so happened that a sheriff was on the opposite road and witnessed the whole ordeal. The light turned green and he made his turn, I was thinking that he was going to let it go. Next thing I see is bright flashing lights as he pulled the car over. Busted.

I relay that story to the fact that you always get found out, lies fall apart, falsities are brought to light. Sometimes people weave so many lies that they begin to believe them - I can look around at other overweight people and wonder that myself. Did these people just give up on life, believing the lie that they are trapped and doomed to be overweight the rest of their lives? Who gave them that Kool-Aid to drink?

I myself need to come clean, through secret snacking and intentional over-eating I have gained 25lbs over the past year. My pattern of nervous eating, frustration eating, stress eating has crept back into my life. I admit that, and that is the first step. It came to light for me when I had to go out to the used clothing stores to purchase some larger-in-the-waist pants (went from a 42 to a 44) but I didn't want to face it. The ordeal with the sheriff rang as an alarm bell in my head.

Self-respect and honesty are important to living a life of freedom, freedom from criticism and ridicule. Being forthright is more virtuous that anything else. So here I am.

Be honest with yourself, you won't regret it...

"Self-respect cannot be hunted. It cannot be purchased. It is never for sale. It cannot be fabricated out of public relations. It comes to us when we are alone, in quiet moments, in quiet places, when e suddenly realize that, knowing the good, we have done it; knowing the beautiful, we have served it; knowing the truth we have spoken it." - Whitney Griswold


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com
(more honesty - PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE buy my e-Book! It's on sale for $9.95!)

Friday, November 16, 2007

Limits...

"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do." - Dr. Benjamin Spock

Limits. We all know our limits, we know how far we can go in pretty much any situation. But do we really? Dan Miller (www.48days.com) mentioned in one of his books a story about a high jumper. A high jumper never knows how good he/she is until they trip the bar. By tripping the bar, they know their limit at that point. They know what they need to work on to get past that barrier.

Have you tested your limits? Gone back to that restaurant that you used to go overboard at? Tasted that food that you previously couldn't get enough of? Have you stretched yourself in your exercise routine to see what your body can do?

If you fall and overeat or overexert yourself, you know your limit in that area and what you need to work on. Don't be afraid to test your limits, that's the only way you'll be able to grow...

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill


Matty V.
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com
"Dead Man Walking: A Weight Loss Journey" e-Book is now on sale!

Friday, November 09, 2007

Rest...

"We live in a very tense society. We are pulled apart... and we all need to learn how to pull ourselves together.... I think that at least part of the answer lies in solitude." - Helen Hayes


Rest. That's what I think my body needed this week. I came down with a head cold that my loving son decided he needed to share with me. I started the week doing my usual routine, feeling a little rundown but in overall good spirits. Then the cold hit. I felt like I was bogged down, like suddenly I was in a groggy fog - not feeling like doing anything. Housework has suffered, my exercise has ceased, just an overwhelming need to sleep and rest.

Sometimes I think we need that - a time to just relax and regroup. A refreshment comes with rest, a time of reflection and possibly strategy for the future. But this is not the same rest that is talked about in Proverbs:

"A little extra sleep, a little more slumber, a little folding of the hands to rest and poverty will pounce on you like a bandit; scarcity will attack you like an armed robber." - Proverbs 6:10-11, NLT

The rest talked about above is that of laziness. The rest of recuperation and regeneration is different than that of lax laziness. Rest for a short time but then get back to the program. Rest is good for the body, mind, & soul in limited quantities. Any longer than that and it becomes a detriment to our spiritual, mental, & physical health...


"Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul." - John Muir


Matty V.
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com
"Dead Man Walking: A Weight Loss Journey" e-Book is now on sale!

Friday, November 02, 2007

Mediocrity...

"Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world." - Lily Tomlin

I heard somewhere that a rut is just a grave with the ends kicked out. Do you hate the "daily grind", the "rat race", the "hum drum existence"? In our weight loss journey, this is called a "plateau" - no weight gain/no weight loss. I hate it and I am sure those that experience it hate it as well.

We need to use this time, this feeling of mediocrity as a staging for daring to change - do something great, something challenging, something out of the ordinary. If we are not comfortable or like where we are in life, then we need to make a change. Dare to dream, dare to excel, dare to fly in the face of conformity and comfort.

I rally today to plan out a break from the mediocre. You and I were destined for more than that!



"Mediocrity is a hand-rail." - Charles Louis de Secondat


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com
"Dead Man Walking: A Weight Loss Journey" e-Book is now on sale!