Tag: weight loss

You control your life. Did you know?

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So I walked into work yesterday and someone brought donuts. My husband and I are doing a major lifestyle change including eating a paleo diet. For those that don’t know, you are allowed to cheat one day a week and hubby and I cheated Sunday. So there was no way for me to rationalize having a donut but man did I want one…. which got me to thinking each time I walked by, why do I want a donut so badly. Yes they are delicious, but you know what is better than a donut? Knowing that I lost 3 pounds last week by eating healthy foods and exercising. Is it hard to do that? Yes. Is it worth it? Absolutely. I will not die if I do not eat a donut but continuing down the path I was headed could have led to heart disease, obesity and other health problems. I am not out of the woods, I still have 50 more pounds to go, but I am gaining (ha ha) on the first 50. I only have 12 more pounds until I hit 50 pounds lost.

In a burst of I-can-really-be-a-different-person-if-I-only-try, I signed up for a 5K on June 15th. I am walking it, not running it, and can’t even really believe it myself but there was a time I thought I could not LIVE without chocolate or cheese, or bread or potatoes and 6 out of 7 days of a week sometimes more….. I now do. Amazing what we can do when we try.

What would happen if you did that thing you were scared of, what would that look like? Think about it.

Lost weight, gained perspective

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Since January 1st, I am proud to say, I have lost 38 pounds. That looks so weird in black and white and yet it is 100% true. I never thought that would happen.

Let’s review my goals for the year, shall we?

More coffee, and face to face with friends, less Facebook. I am spending lots of face to face time with friends, still struggle with the less Facebook piece.

Read 10 books – I have now read 4

Lose 50 pounds. I HAVE LOST 38 POUNDS. Besides that, I feel great, rested and healthy.

So I have 12 more to go, I am really excited when the day comes to tell you I have lost 51 pounds because that is what it is all about. Making goal, Meeting that goal and beating it.

What are you working on? What kind of help do you need? How will you change one thing today to make a difference in tomorrow’s results?

The words you use matter…

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As a person, the words you use matter. As a writer, they matter even more. I am still working on getting comfortable with the label of writer. I prefer speaking, but to speak, I must write first.

However whether you are a writer or not, if you say you are on a diet, means that you are expecting to achieve a result and then go off the diet. If you adopt a lifestyle change (oft quoted by my cousin the personal trainer) your commitment level is that much stronger.

If you say you “want” to read more books or “going to try” to learn a language  you won’t do it because before you start, you are already using passive language. Now I am all for having a realistic view of your goals but what does it hurt to say things in the affirmative? In fact, it helps you meet those goals.

I will learn to speak fluent French. I will read 10 books this year. I will lose 50 pounds this year.

These are examples of how to talk about what you will accomplish.

Now you can not Tony Robbins yourself into a positive bank balance when its at 0 but there are things we say every day that contribute to our success or our failure, so kick out the negative thoughts in your head and make room for the positive thoughts and notions that push you toward your goals today.  I have attached two photos of me from Jan and February as a before and after. I have lost as of today 32 pounds. Please let me know what it is you are GOING to accomplish and if you feel like you need help to accomplish it, I would love to hear about it and encourage you in your goals- Write me at jennifermckennasays@gmail.com

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If at first you don’t succeed, try try again..

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I have heard this advice on and off for most of my life and it is good advice if not hard to swallow on the heels of yet another disappointment.

But when you don’t succeed over and over and over again, its hard to slap on a happy face and Tony Robbins yourself into a good frame of mind. With this post, I am aiming to do just that. I am trying to talk myself into doing what I know I must.

I am speaking about my weight loss in the last few weeks, or to put it more accurately, my lack of weight loss. I am doing the same things, but not getting any results. It would be different if I was chowing down on Haagen Daz  or even eating mashed potatoes at every turn but I am following paleo down to the letter and I have remained the exact same weight for three consecutive weeks and its making me ornery and a whole lot less motivated to “stay the course”

I weigh 255 pounds which is 30 pounds less than I weighed at the end of 2012, so in that sense I am experiencing real progress and should be happy. However, comparing a bad score to a better one doesn’t make the better one great, it just makes it better.

But enough of this melancholy michegas, I have a job, I am loved, I can walk, I can talk and I can read and I can write. I have to think about all the things I have and have accomplished this year. To review my goals were these. 

1. More face to face. Less Facebook- I have had no less than 5 face to face coffee, tea and lunch encounters. Still working on less Facebook. The lure of other people is strong.

2. Read 10 books. I have actually read 2 and am close to finishing a third tonight.

3. Give 10 effective speeches. I have given two and will give a third this Saturday

4. Lose 50 pounds. I have lost 30 and that is nothing to sneeze at..

So at the quartermark, I have accomplished some things and still working on others.

How about you? What are you working on? Who do you count on for support?

Patience. Not just an opera

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Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet-Jean-Jacques Rousseau

I tend to rely on quotes for inspiration. Today is no different. As some of you may know, my husband and I decided to adopt a paleo lifestyle (not a diet) at the first of the year and one of the side benefits of this change has been pretty significant weight loss, until now.

Two weeks have gone by and we have not lost weight but gained weight. I noticed that on the whiteboard where we track our weight, my husband had placed a sad face next to his weight gain and I erased it saying, “Don’t think of it like that. Weight loss is supposed to be a side benefit, the main goal is to be in better health” Easy to say, hard to believe.

Patience is necessary for this, because we are only allowed to cheat one meal per week, so you have to constantly turn down Girl Scout cookies, Worlds Finest Chocolate and other temptations wafting about the office. So while I am frustrated by this weight gain, I realize its not a setback but a guidepost in this journey to better health and in a few weeks, when the weight loss has picked up and we are noticing a lack of tightness in our clothing and an extra energy in my step, I will remember the bitter along with the sweet fruits of the patience I have developed.

What is testing your patience in your life, what can you focus on instead?