Vision Quest

At our house we have a saying about good movies…we just say,“quality movie.”
Remember The Titans… “quality movie”, The Count of Monte Cristo… “quality movie”, …Zoro “quality movie”.

We always remember great lines of quality movies. One of my favorite lines ever is in the movie Zoro when the governor of California asks Alejandro, “Are you a man of vision?” He replies… “I am a man in search of a vision!”

So I’ve got to ask you today…are you a person of vision, or are you a person in search of a vision?…or neither?

Vision…it’s a dream, a mental picture, foresight, the ability to see the future

Quest is a chase. Pursuit, you go in search of, you are on a hunt for.

To change…to lose weight permanently, to have a vital, strong, healthy, free life…you MUST have vision quest! You know your vision…now you’re on a quest to get there!


Without Vision…people perish…(give up the ghost), die!

The first step to any change is to know what you want…to have vision! Vision is about looking ahead…looking to what you want…not what you don’t want!


Vision is a picture or idea you have in your mind of yourself, or your life. A clear vision helps you pursue dreams and achieve goal. A vision that is clear will open your thoughts to the endless possibilities of the future. Your thoughts dictate your feelings and your feeling dictate your actions…you’ve got to have vision to open your thoughts and keep them on right track!
A vision will help you to overcome obstacles in the way and helps you hold on when times are tough. A vision that is well defined helps you to focus and create a purpose that becomes your measurement for your success. If you do not have a vision of who you want to be, how you want to succeed or what you want out of life, you begin to lack drive and your life becomes just an order of events.
A strong and current vision connects with your passions and greatest potentials. Regardless of what is going on in the world or challenges that present themselves, a vision helps you know what and why you are doing the things you are doing. Having a vision is most important in the path of your success in life.
A vision might be the most powerful way to keep focused on what you want in life while keeping you motivated in achieving it. A vision will open up your mind to many possibilities and a brighter and bigger future. When you can envision a future that is better, happier, more productive, you are going to make the changes that are necessary for you to reach that type of life.

Who do you want to be?
Your vision should include who you want to be. It is important to know clearly who you are right now to know who you want to become. This includes your habits, attitudes, and your beliefs. If you are unclear about yourself, you will be unclear about your future. The destination of your vision should be emotional, physical, spiritual and intellectual.

When you create a successful vision, you begin to feel passionate about it. The only way to be successful in your vision is to visualize it and set goals and a plan of action to reach your vision.

Over time, you will begin to see more parts of your vision coming true until one day you see yourself living your vision. You gained your weight little by little…you didn’t wake up one morning with 30 extra pounds on your body because of what you ate last night...that’s how it is when we begin to live a new life, with new habits, based on a vision of the life we really want. Little by little we begin to see that vision lived out! That’s so cool!
A vision is the capability to see beyond your current reality, creating and inventing what does not now exist and becoming what you are not right now. A vision is important in all aspects of life; body, soul and spirit. Building your vision does not have to be difficult as long as you know exactly what it is you see for yourself in the future. But that can be the problem sometimes…not knowing what we really want.
Important things to remember when creating a vision:
Know exactly who you are.
Brainstorm, imagine and dream.
Focus on things that give your life purpose and meaning.
Do not put limits on your dreams.

What do you really want? Why have you set out to lose fat off your body? Is your vision to weigh less…or is your vision to live more!!!?

If you have not created a vision for the life you want to be living…the life you MUST live, then now is the time to do it!
It’s really about having the discipline to sit down and dream. We are all so different…but it helps me to dream in compartments. A vision for my physical body… a vision for my soul…my mind, will and emotions…and a vision for my spiritual life…the deepest place of who I am.

Creating a vision should be intense…it’s about knowing who you are today…knowing how you live today and saying…I want it to look different. I want a new life. I want it to be different!
Then, and only then, will you be inspired to move, to go, to leave behind what you’ve known and go to that new place!

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Motivation is in the Doing!

Motivation is at the heart of all success. The word motivation comes from the word motive…think about that. Motivation is at the heart of all success…motives come from the heart! Motivation comes from within you!

Here’s the good news…you have control over how motivated you are!

You’re not alone if your motivation wavers…you’re not alone if you’ve said, “This is hard,” “I don’t know if I can do this”, “I don’t know why I’m doing this”. “I don’t want to do this anymore” “I’m not motivated.”

Those are normal thoughts

But Remember…..
Your Thoughts dictate your feelings and your feelings dictate your actions.

If you are thinking those thoughts, If you are saying those words…I need to let you know that the odds are against you...you might not get to the finish line.
How motivated do you feel right now?

Words are powerful, thoughts are as powerful!

The truth is this. Making the choice to be disciplined with your eating and exercise, setting limits on yourself and learning to say no thank you, is less than fun, less than exciting, less than happy…but the benefits are all of that and more!!!

Motivation is all about the benefits…all about our thought life… all about what we focus on!

So it’s up to you to keep motivation alive. Motivation starts with a thought. A thought that says, if I want to be successful, if I want to cross the finish line and then keep my weight off, I need motivation and I need it now! I will choose a thought pattern that keeps me focused on where I’m going, what I’m getting, and what life will be like when I get there!
Motivation is in the doing…doing something to keep your thought life right, strong, focused.

Some of my tools, my secrets to keeping my motivation alive are…

Clothing
Hang it out…hang it in the pantry if you need to!
Do you have clothes in your closet that still have the tags on them? Did you buy it a little small and then never get into it? Get them out and make them visible!
Change it out if you get used to seeing it there!

What would you be wearing if you were at goal weight…That’s what you focus on!

Year at a Glance
Get it out in front of you…what will your next 12 months look like as you get slimmer and slimmer…healthier and healthier?!

What events will take on a different feeling a different excitement a different freedom at your goal weight?

Words
Be inspired by them, print them, post them in view. Words are powerful and they will keep you focused!

What motivates you?

Sporting equipment?
How would you be playing if you were at goal weight. That’s what you focus on!


Collages
What would your life represent if you were at goal weight How would your life improve?


Motivation is in the doing…it’s taking a naturally negative, discouraged, unbelieving attitude and turning it around.

Motivation is about walking away from spending your time and energy thinking about food, thinking about what you don’t get to eat today, and instead, thinking about a life free from being burdened down with extra pounds.

How much time are you spending thinking about what you can’t eat instead of where you’re going?

Let’s turn our homes, our cars, our workplaces, into places of renewed motivation…reminders of where you’re going, why it matters, how our life will improve
That’s doing motivation!

Every place you go…you should be inspired and provoked to climb this mountain, to run this race, to accomplish this task…you’re just the one that has to create it!

Motivation is truly in the doing!

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Independence Day!

It's July, and we're headed into the weekend that we as a country celebrate our Independence and our freedoms. I'm wondering today how free you really feel? Has food, or your struggles to control your eating, made you feel less than free? Do you sometimes feel like a prisoner, trapped in an unhealthy body?

Freedom takes work. It took work over 200 hundred years ago as our forefathers fought for what was ours. It takes work today as we fight for what is ours; a healthy, fit body. To be free is to not be under the control or power of someone or something. I see men and women fighting to be free every week at The Healthy Weigh.

I'm convinced that the key to being free from overeating is to fight the battles on the inside as well as the outside. How much time are you spending on coping with life's difficulties, healing past pain, and working to understand your beliefs? Equal time or more should be given to the inside of us, as we focus on changing the outside. That's when freedom comes!

As you spend time with your families this weekend, celebrating our great country, I hope that you will take some time to ponder your freedom as a healthy adult. Choose freedom both on the inside and out this Independence Day.

Always encouraging you.
Letha

Contentment = Weight Loss

Today I taught an extensive class on how to stabilize and then maintain weight loss for life. Although I have gained tremendous knowledge about food, calories and nutrition over the past 29 years working in the weight loss industry, you'll rarely find me talking about those things in this blog. The amount of information available to the public about dieting is overwhelming and plentiful. If you have a question about food, calories and protein...you can get that question answered 100 different ways.

My experience has taught me this...it's a lot more about what's eating you...than what you're eating! As I sit with clients every week, I'm continually reminded of that.

Today I visited with clients who seem to be "bored with the food" on the Healthy Weigh weight loss diet, but with further examination discovered that discontentment was at the root of "needing" more or different food.

Being content isn't easy. If you've studied contentment at all you find it gets harder before it gets better. Contentment is being satisfied with what you have and where you are; a feeling of calm satisfaction. The problem with contentment is that we look for the circumstances to change, when being content is really learning to be satisfied with things just like they are.

The rub comes when we feel those feelings of discontentment and we don't know what to do with them. Food so often becomes the drug of choice to numb, avoid, or escape that uncomfortable feeling of discontentment.

The answer is ALWAYS to identify those feelings and then process them. That might look like journaling, talking to a friend or choosing gratitude for what you have and where you are right now.

Choose contentment this weekend. Challenge yourself to process feelings of discontent and be grateful. See if finding contentment in your present circumstances doesn't just make following your diet a little easier.

Join me and my Healthy Weigh friends on the water front this Saturday morning at 9 AM. We meet in front of Beaches restaurant and walk for about an hour. Bring a friend or a dog! Come,walk and enjoy the Northwest beauty. It'll be great.

Always encouraging you.
Letha

Body ~ Soul ~ Spirit, The Spiritual Perspective

This week we concluded our 6 week class by reviewing the last, and I believe, the most important Personal Control Guide. We looked at the spiritual perspective of weight loss.

We were created in three parts...body, soul and spirit. Our body, the physical part of us which relates to the material world. Our Soul, made up of our mind, will and emotions, our personalty you might say, which relates with people. And our spirit, the deepest place of who we are, which relates with God.

To live completely healthy lives, we need to submit our body to our soul, our soul to our spirit and our spirit to God.
The problem lies, when we have an unhealthy soul; a mind that is negative, a will that says, "I do what I want" and emotions that are wounded and have not been healed from past and present pain. You can imagine what a body would look like that comes under that kind of influence.

God makes our spirits new when we invite him in and surrender to him.
Our work, is the work of the soul; renewing the mind, submitting the will and healing the emotions.

I continue to see men and woman work so hard at dieting, losing weight and will power, all while their souls are ravaged. When we focus on the work of the soul; renewing, submitting and healing, the body comes under the influence of a healthy soul and this journey of weight loss gets a lot easier.

We continue at The Healthy Weigh to challenge you in areas of soul work. How many times have we talked to you about renewing your mind..saying no to the bad and yes to the good, and healing those emotions that are keeping you from an abundant life? It's all soul work, at The Healthy Weigh!

We have a society of excess! As we grow older and deny past pain, empty places begin to develop in our souls. We do a great job of trying to fill those empty place with things. Food, clothes, cars, houses, money, and busyness. Excess of anything, is about our emptiness. All those empty places are addictions waiting to happen.

The belief I have says this...many of our empty places can be closed up, healed, with God's help and our soul work, but many of those empty places are holes that only God can fill. He created us for relationship with him and until we surrender to Him, we will always be looking to "fill" those holes.

We had Church at The Healthy Weigh Thursday, no offering was taken, no choir sang, but I know that God was present and tenderly waiting to be invited in.

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Exercise and Weight Loss~It's a Math Problem

We spent a couple of emotional weeks looking at the things we're responsible for and then coping skills. It's always good for the soul to throw in a little logic after spending time on our emotions! Our Math workshop did just that!

Sometimes math can be hard too. The simple fact that our bodies need a certain amount of calories to maintain weight can be a difficult truth to accept. The amount of calories we burn compared to the amount we take in, is the story problem.

As we look back to the generations before us, there is a big difference between the amount of calories expended in a day compared to now. That's where the problem lies. Our lives have become more automated and we still want to consume the same amount of calories as the people generations before us did. That's where weight gain comes in!

It takes 3500 calories to lose or gain a pound. We are either saving up calories to add a pound on our bodies, or we are working to have a deficit of 3500 calories to lose a pound off our bodies. It truly is a math problem.

We talked about exercise and the ability to turn up our bodies thermostats to have a speedier metabolism. Keeping close track of all calories consumed and working to burn more calories by being active is the goal!

With so many unknowns in our world today...it's somehow comforting to know that weight loss really is a math problem!

I hope you'll join me next week at noon or Six on Thursday when I conclude this 6 week class schedule with Body Soul Spirit, the spiritual perspective.

Always encouraging you,
Letha

Coping Skills ~ Feeling Your Way Through Life

Can you spell vulnerability? That was me, this week, teaching "Coping Skills ~ Feeling Your Way Through Life." It was a hard lesson for many clients to hear, so I loved it when one of our clients voiced this great word..." Hard doesn't mean bad." How true that was this week as we looked at the importance of having healthy coping skills to be truly healthy; body soul and spirit!

We took a look at the coping skills that our society uses. Drinking, drugs, shopping, and over eating to name a few.Coping; wrestling or grappling with difficulties and acting to over come them. As we looked closer at our societies list, we realized that we are not coping at all...we're avoiding. Avoiding the pain of the past and present. Instead of overcoming and healing our issues and pain, we are numbing them.

At The Healthy Weigh, we are convinced that unless a person acquires a healthy list of coping skills and begins to use them to heal past and present wounds, they will have temporary success at best.

The feeling wheel was introduced this week as a great tool to identify feelings and begin to process them. For many of us, we are a bit handicapped when it comes to expressing our feelings. We were taught to feel; mad, glad or sad. Identifying our true feelings is the first step to being able to process what's really going on inside of us. We recommend that you keep your feeling wheel on the inside of a journal so that you can refer to it as often as necessary while you're journaling. It wouldn't be such a bad idea to put it on the fridge so that the whole family could benefit from it!

We spent most of our time Thursday talking about forgiveness. I believe that unforgiveness robs us of more joy than any thing else in life. I shared a technique or tool to help clients begin to forgive the people, including themselves, that they need to, to heal those wounded places inside. Forgiveness only takes one person, so it definitely is a process that we all find right inside of our own back packs! It is your responsibility to do the work to heal the places that are keeping you from living the life you were intended to live.

I inspired courage Thursday...it takes a little bit to forge ahead and begin to use real coping skills. What I know is that a mind that is healthy, and emotions that are healed will effect a physical body more than any diet ever could!

I hope I will see many of you next week when we have a little math workshop...math will seem easy after Coping Skills! :-) Thursday, Noon or Six! Hope to see you there!

I love you all, I'm walking with you and want you to have your very best life.
Until next week.

Always encouraging you.
Letha