Dare to Dream -- about Real Weight Loss Now

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(This article is about an amazing "thought experiment" -- to consider what it would take, what it would be like to lose ALL your excess weight. My thanks to Emily for suggesting it. LG)

It is difficult to get to know who you are.

It is easier to know who you have been (at least until an old acquaintance finds you on Facebook and tells a very different story of who you used to be).

But the real difficulty is in knowing who you really want to be in five years, or ten. Or twenty.

Yet that thought about your future is really not a useless or fanciful excursion. That act it is a key to your ability, your willingness, the depth of your passion, to lose weight now.

It begins with who you are when you are alone. It ends with a commitment to crafting the future you ardently desire. In between, well, that is the gray area, the amorphous "I am just being who I already am."

Do you dare think how different your life would be if you lost ALL your excess weight?

If you have been 25, 50, 100 pounds or more overweight for a very long time, if is difficult for you to imagine weighing much less than you do now. You probably even have a weight loss goal defined by how much you weighed just a couple of years ago, not when you were 18 or 22.

But seldom do you even dare think you could ever get back to where you started, what you weighed before the serious pounds started accumulating.

Why not?

Why not dare to dream the unthinkable? Why do you not allow yourself the freedom of imagination to project yourself into the future weighing what you know you should, instead of what you are willing to settle for?

Sit back for a long moment and linger. How would your life be different if you weighed the correct weight for your height? How would your primary relationships be different? How would your friendships be affected? What would you do differently? How would you be different? How would you feel about your life?

You see, your ability to lose most of the excess weight you have had for many, many years is directly tied to your willingness to see how your life would inevitably be different. If you can't imagine that hoped-for world, you, of course, can never get there.

If you do not find the prospect of weighing the right weight an exciting possibility, an enticing opportunity to re-invigorate your life, you will lag in your motivation to get there.

Permanent weight loss is more about what you feed your heart and imagination, than what you feed your body.

And that has to begin with you knowing not only who you are, but how you want to live out the remainder of your life.

If you are content with losing 10 or 20 pounds, it will help your health -- every pound you lose does.

But that amount of weight loss is not going to change your life. When you achieve significant weight loss, 40-50-75 pounds or more, many things WILL change in your life, whether you want it to or not. And it will change a lot more than just your wardrobe.

When you learn to grasp that change in reality, and begin to shape it, begin to mould it around all that you have wanted to do and be, and be seen as, then you will begin to take control of your weight. The more you shape your dream of the future, the more you will reshape your body today.

These are connected wholes -- who you are, and who you strongly desire to be. Both are real. You need to shape your future more clearly, more carefully, less haphazardly. You need to accept ONLY that you can achieve what you greatly desire, what you fervently deserve.

Weight loss success is not about money, nor those who love you...

Nor is permanent weight loss even about those who don't love you the way you wish, or need them to. It is not about finding the perfect time, or way, or program to do it. It is about accepting the imperfect you, who nonetheless, is doing something more very day to get your weight where you know it can be, where you really want it to be.

This type of life is not about shaving calories from your meals, nor fat grams from your food choices, nor worrying if you should have cheated on yesterday's food exchange points.

This type of life is measured in the real steps you take every day to grasp your desired future by the reins and lead yourself, step-by-joyful step.

It is not about sacrifice, nor giving up, nor turning away from old enjoyments.

It is all about building a new reality around the beautiful core that is you. It is about what you are gaining in your quest, not what you are giving up to achieve it.

Dare to dream the unthinkable dream. Make it real and alive and vibrant in your mind. Let it become your living reality. And leave the tired and older and overweight you far behind. Not because it was bad, but because your future is so much better.

Dare to dream.

You have one life to live in this body. Where will it take you the rest of your days?

The decision is up to you.

VP Programs Development, ScaleDown for Life
VP Education, GoZonkers Inc.
Founder, CelebrateLifeNutrition.com
Curb Your Appetite – Stop Your Cravings
©2009 Laura Gontchar. All Rights Reserved.

Weight Loss Motivation? Where is My Instruction Manual?

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It is easy to lose your way on the road to permanent weight loss. Very easy to get stuck. When you want to lose much more than 25 pounds, it is a process that takes months, not weeks. As the weeks wear by, as the days droll on, it can be dreary, monotonous, annoying. And lonely. A journey not shared with others.

No matter how many pounds you lose there is always this fear that you will slip, and gain most of it back.

Of course there are those moments of joy when you reach one of your interim goals. Certainly there are rewards when others tell you that you're looking slimmer.

But in the alone minutes, in the times when so much is happening and you have to eat on the run, or over a pile of paperwork, it's tough to know what you are really doing – are you doing the right things? It's also easy to find a ton of excuses why this meal, this snack, this day, this week, etc., you have a very good reason not to eat like you know you should.

Permanent weight loss is more about what you feed your brain, than what you feed your body.

Permanent weight loss is more about your belief in your ability to do it, than it is in which program you use to do it.

Permanent weight loss is about learning to connect the dots between what you do each moment, and what happens to your body a year from now.

Permanent weight loss is about commitment to a principle and never backing down. It is about accepting that you don't do everything correctly, and don't do it every time – but you are doing it.

Permanent weight loss is visualizing your body the way it should be, then letting nothing, (including you momentarily falling off the path), stand in your way.

Permanent weight loss is relentless devotion to your ideal body – emblazoned – seared, into your conscious thought – you will NOT be denied.

Permanent weight loss is – or it is not.

There are no half measures on the road to permanence.

So how do you get there? How do you increase your motivation to make all that happen?

How do you achieve the never-fatigued inner resolve to let nothing stand in your way?

How do you get that day-to-day, moment-to-moment motivation drilled into you, pounded into you, convincingly persuaded into you, until you achieve your lifelong goal?

In other words...

...Where is the instruction manual to your weight loss motivation?

The short answer is...

There isn't any. At least none that any other person can tell you, or give to you.

The difficulty with weight loss motivation lies in its inherent contradiction:
a. You can only find the answer to the riddle of your motivational challenge within yourself
b. But you don't really trust yourself to stay motivated

What you don't realize is that your motivation is something that boils up from inside of you. It is not something imposed on you from the outside. It can't be. Besides, it is already there. Dormant. You just need to get all your blockage out of the way, to let your inner motivation escape into the open, then guide your daily actions.

Beset with a record of past weight loss failures, you doubt that is going to happen anytime soon. So you reach instinctively for someone else's opinion. A friend. An expert. A person who has successfully done it. Maybe even Oprah.

What you desperately want is a checklist. A crutch. A guide. A great video series. An inspirational book. A carefully structured way to "find" your everlasting motivation.

An outside guide to weight loss motivation that works, doesn't exist.

None of them. Never has. Never will. And those who tell you otherwise have something to sell you -- perhaps some modern-day snake oil. Or a large swamp outside of Las Vegas that just needs to be drained before you can build a billion dollar hotel on it.

Not that checklists and structured paths (those done with sensitivity and professional skill) can't take you a way down the path of lifting your motivation. A few can. The trouble is, they just can't get you to go all the way to your success. Because that can only come from deep inside you, and no one can tell you how to do that.

So, when these guru's get you part way there, and you ultimately fail, you blame it on yourself. Then you lose even more precious confidence in yourself -- and you had none to spare in the first place.

Reflect and find your way to weight loss motivation success.

Sustaining weight loss motivation, especially if you weigh 50 pounds or more than you should, is exceptionally difficult to maintain month after month using anyone's system. In part, that is because in the really tough moments that always happen, when the pressures can really get to you, you come to realize the "system" you have been relying on is NOT YOU TALKING TO YOU. And that gives you the perfect excuse to reject it. Once rejected, you can never again rely on it. It has been discredited. Then you are back to square one: impaired motivation, with nothing to replace it.

That is why you must find your own way to weight loss motivation.

The purpose of my book "How to Curb Your Appetite – And Stop Your Cravings" is to give you 36 different views of how others have done it successfully. None of them are your path. Nor were they intended to be. Their purpose is for you to seek some alone time to read them. Then reflect. Come back several days later, re-read a chapter, and think about it again.

Personal reflection, repeated often, is a re-building process. No single idea (or chapter) will get you far. No single idea is going to jump out of the page and smack you alongside your head, and have you say, "Eureka, now I've got it!"

As I look back at the faces and remember the stories of those who have been through the process you are going through now, every one of them will tell you that at some point they wanted to just shake me and say, "Laura, just tell me what to do, and I'll do it."

And, in the end, each one of them who made it through successfully now tell me, "Thank you Laura for not "giving" me answers. Thank you for making me think more carefully about myself. Thank you for having the patience to allow me to keep experimenting until I found my own unique way to stay motivated every day. Thank you that I now can trust myself, and know that I am the author of my own success."

Unknowingly, they were not thanking me. They were really just thanking themselves. They did all the interior work and deserve the full credit for their success.

There is NO roadmap to your weight loss motivational success.

Your success is who you already are. You need no map to take you somewhere. There is nowhere to go. Everything you need, everything you require, you already have. You just need to accept that. Then live it.

Reflect and learn one piece of your inner truth at a time. Each piece will build the mosaic of your future, your lifelong, your permanent, weight loss success.

If you want weight loss success, consider what you may not have considered, this way, before

VP Programs Development, ScaleDown for Life
VP Education, GoZonkers Inc.
Founder, CelebrateLifeNutrition.com
Curb Your Appetite – Stop Your Cravings
©2009 Laura Gontchar. All Rights Reserved.

5 Minutes. 4 Doughnuts. 3 days of dieting down the toilet. 2 late to change it. And you can't rewind.

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It's not the big binges that get in the way. It's the little ones. The ones that creep up on you unawares.

Your body needs energy, first of all. It needs nutrition, second. When you don't feed your body energy, it produces uncontrollable hunger. When you don't feed it nutrition, your cravings speak loud and long. They will be satisfied.

This is the world of the dieter, driven between faminous hunger, and persistent cravings.

The time to stop these diet destroyers is BEFORE they happen, before they creep up on you and without warning take remote control of your body until you feed it what it is desperate for.

When are you going to get the message – the one your body has been consistently telling you every time you diet?

Never starve your body. Always feed it the quality nutrition it demands. And you will neither have mini nor maxi binges. You will have peace in your food wars, You will lose weight naturally.

So, why do you insist on dieting? Why do you think that short term starvation is a ticket to anything but delayed weight gain?

There are foods that feed you nutrition. There are food combinations that will help you lose weight. So, why do the opposite? Why be starved of nutrition? Why insist on eating food combinations that nature designed to make you add on weight?

In this case ignorance is neither bliss, nor defensible. Take control of the life energy that fuels your body. Learn to eat right. Then do it.

When you know there is a weight loss technology out there based on the science of your body, why do you ignore it?

When you know Nature crafted your body to eat directly from its fields, its trees, its forests, oceans, rivers and lakes, then why do you insist on eating food out of boxes, and think that something served through a car window is anything but poisonous to your every cell?

If you are not going to feed your body correctly, who is going to do it for you?

If you are not going to do it now, when are you going to start doing it? There are no cows to come home any more, but is that roughly your timetable?

If all it takes is 5 minutes to down 4 doughnuts, maybe you shouldn't have been on a diet for 3 days. Or any days for that matter.

Eat whole foods from Nature's bounty. Your weight will do what it's supposed to do.

No one is going to make a whole lot of money off of you for diet foods, but, hey, it's time for someone else to sacrifice.

It's time for you to be at a healthy weight. Do it now while it is still fresh on your mind.

Are you ready? Can your hear that "moo" coming your direction?

VP Programs Development, ScaleDown for Life
VP Education, GoZonkers Inc.
Founder, CelebrateLifeNutrition.com
Curb Your Appetite – Stop Your Cravings
©2009 Laura Gontchar. All Rights Reserved.

The Best Weight Loss Method for Holiday Overeating...

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Here is the best weight loss method for holiday overeating...

Everyone sort of goes off-diet during a holiday weekend, especially the 3-4 day long weekend type of holidays that pop-up too infrequently on the calendar.

Even when you are not on a "diet" diet, but just trying to eat sensibly, holidays are a huge invitation to allow a lot of off-menu foods onto your menu.

Do you know the #1 strategy used by most people to compensate for over-eating during the holidays?
-- Not eating breakfast, or skipping other meals in preparation for the holiday. Most people usually skip 2-3 meals during the holidays, or cut back on the appetizers. The idea is to "save" some calories now to make up for the extra ones you know you will be eating later.

-- Does it work? Nope. It just sets you up for binge eating later in the day, which adds a lot more calories to your body than the ones you "saved."

Want to know the #2 thing people do to handle the extra calories of the holidays?
-- Promising themselves they will skip some meals AFTER the holidays to make up for it.

--Does it work? Actually, these promises are almost always broken before they get started.

And the #3 thing people use to handle holiday culinary excesses:
-- Just eat whatever, and worry about it later.

-- Does it work? Can't really call this one a strategy, but a lot of people prefer it.

The only proven strategy to handle weight loss for holiday over-eating?
If you don't put it on you won't have to take it off.

OK, I know that was not what you were wanting or expecting. But, you know it is true.

Desiring, even planning to overeat, or eating the wrong foods during the holidays, is a great old cherished tradition. It is also one where a weekend can set back your weight loss goals for a month or more.

Let's say you were losing a healthy 2 pounds a week. If you are like most people, you'll gain 3-7 pounds over a 3-day weekend holiday.

Thus, you didn't get your 2 pounds of loss for the week, PLUS, you added 6 pounds. So, the total change in your weight is 2+6 = 8. You just set your weight loss back 8 pounds -- a month. Is 3 days of eating wrong really worth losing an entire month's worth of renewed weight loss efforts?

If you indulge in any form of the #1, #2, or #3 strategies for weight loss Or have your own special form of suspending sensibilities during a long holiday weekend, then you might want to consider a different approach...

Would you seriously consider changing your relationship to food?
Is overeating really a requirement to enjoy a great weekend?

Is eating the wrong foods worth the extra pain and renewed efforts it requires for true weight loss?

While holidays involve having fun with family and friends and having lots of new, luscious foods available, do you have to think in terms of "denial" when you see the vast buffet? Just because all that yummy food is calling out to you by name, and saying, "eat me, eat me, have an extra helping of me," doesn't mean you have to actually do it.

It is really possible to ignore all the loud voices clamoring for you to consume what you know you shouldn't.

Isn't it possible to take a small portion of each food you "really" want to try, and savor them in small quantities?

Isn't it possible think of the buffet spread as a chance to taste new and favorite foods, instead of an invitation to overeat?

You will feel great, and in control of your life, if at the end of the holiday weekend, you know you didn't gain anything. Or better yet, you lose 2 pounds. If you've never experienced that sense of weight loss victory, you're really missing something special. You will achieve a sense of personal satisfaction that can really rev up your weight loss motivation for weeks on end.

That result is the best win-win: Weight loss now, plus renewed weight loss motivation for the future. It is a real confidence builder. You really ought to try it.

Remember, the only proven strategy to handle weight loss for holiday over-eating?
If you don't put it on you won't have to take it off.


VP Programs Development, ScaleDown for Life
VP Education, GoZonkers Inc.
Founder, CelebrateLifeNutrition.com
Curb Your Appetite – Stop Your Cravings
©2009 Laura Gontchar. All Rights Reserved.

Has Food Defined You?

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Is food defining who you are?

Is food an obsession? Do you fear food? Absolutely love it?

Does food creep into your thoughts when you should be thinking of something else?

Do specific foods make you crave them? Does just thinking about certain food combinations make your mouth water?

Do you knowingly overeat today, telling yourself that you will fast tomorrow to make up for it?

Did you eat excessively this week, telling yourself you will start dieting next week?

Do you lie to yourself about what you will and won't do about food, and dieting? Or consider purging?

Do you worry about what others may think when they see you eating in public, and change your food choices because of it?

Is food obsession a large part of your day, starting with when you first wake up and barely ending when you fall asleep at night.

Do you grab a bite to eat late in the evening, sometimes just before bed, even though you know your body doesn't need it, and you really aren't hungry?

Are you being defined by food?

Let me know about how food has defined you, in one way or another.

VP Programs Development, ScaleDown for Life
VP Education, GoZonkers Inc.
Founder, CelebrateLifeNutrition.com
Curb Your Appetite – Stop Your Cravings
©2009 Laura Gontchar. All Rights Reserved.