[Image from my Operation Beautiful Book Tour Post]
‘I don’t have a goal weight, I have a goal life.’
I heard this quote while watching an interview with an Extreme Weight Loss participant and it really clicked with me!
Along my journey, I realized that a certain number on the scale wouldn’t magically make my life perfect. For years I chased this number while becoming more and more unhappy.
I now focus on creating the life that I want, by taking small steps each day. It’s about how I feel each day when I wake up. If I wake up happy and eager to start the day, I know I’m on the right track. A certain number can’t dictate my happiness, but I can make changes in my life to feel my best.
While, I’m busy baking up orders today, I thought it would be fun to have a Glo Bar giveaway!
Leave a comment below sharing a lesson you’ve learned along your journey or simply share one of your favourite quotes.
One lucky winner will receive a delicious box of 10 Glo Bars! Goodluck!
Coming up, one of our favourite recipes so far in 2011….get excited!
I suppose I’ve realized that I have the power to change my body and my attitude. I would get down about my weight, mostly because I never really believed I could do anything permanent about my situation. Now I believe in myself – for example, I gained 5 pounds this past week (traveling and stress), but instead of beating myself up about it, I know that I have the ability to change it simply by eating healthy and working out. I suppose my lesson sounds overly simplistic, but it’s something that never really stuck with me until recently!
“It is our failure to become our perceived ideal that ultimately defines us and makes us unique…your perceived failure can become a catalyst for profound reinvention.”
– Conan O’Brien
After years of striving to try and become the person that I thought I should be, I now realize that I was missing out on life along the way. My failure to achieve what I thought was success has actually led me down a much more fulfilling path, still with struggles, but a journey of self awareness and belief in myself.
First time commenter Angela, but long, long time reader!! You are such an inspiration!
Ugh, I am dying for glow bars!!
I wanted to share this little tidbit I heard from someone who follows Operation Beautiful. Putting the number you WANT to see on a post-it on your scale…I did this, and before you knew it when I had mentally decided to “weigh-in” the batteries in my scale were dead! Talk about a powerful message from a higher source. It’s not the number that matters it’s how you feel…and to this day I have not weighed myself. It’s freeing!
An excellent quote: There’s a difference between interest and commitment. When you’re interested in doing something, you do it only when it’s convenient. When you’re committed to something, you accept no excuses; only results.” – Kenneth Blanchard
For me, it is pretty simple: when I eat right and excersise, I feel better than when I don’t. Also, giving dishes pretty names seems to make them even more delicious…”Weekend Glow Salad” sounds so much nicer than “Kale w/ Tahini Dressing”, doesn’t it?
I got such a giggle out of your scale disclaimer! Potentially something that should come equipped with ALL scales! :)
Wow! So many quotes or things I could say in response! I feel like everyday I wake up there is a different mantra to get me through and new/old lessons to be learnt/re-learned. To not get caught up with the rush of life and society but to remember to tune into your body and be aware of every moment you live.
I recently watched an old repeat of Ellen Degenres’ show and they did a clip in honour of Oprah and the ending of her show. Oprah spoke in the clip of how passionate Ellen is for life and she has a light, and there is nothing better you can do in life then share that light. I can’t remember the exact words but it was so inspirational – mind you everything Ellen and Oprah do are very inspirational.
One of my classic favourite quotes would have to be from good o’ll Dr Seuss:
“Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. ”
Dr Seuss
There is always hope… always.
Currently I am in treatment for my ED, and I am clinging to this.
“Stop worrying about where you’re going and just enjoy where you are”
I’m not sure if this is an actual quote by someone else or if I made it up myself one day, but I try my best to always remember these words. It reminds me that what the future holds is not something to stress over nor consume your life. Whether you are aiming to reach a certain goal related to your career, social life or body image, if you are unhappy in your journey to that point it is probably not worth it. This quote relates to your post earlier this week about living in the moment as well. Enjoy and appreciate every day!
I have learned to be confident and have self-respect, because thats the way to get others to like + respect you too!
“When you have a setback, it’s not a brick wall that must be climbed…you’ve merely met a gate; it may delay you for a second, but if you open that gate and move through it, you’ll soon be on your way…”
There’s several gates and styles I have to climb over and go through on my running routes and one in particular is coming to mind. It’s on my fav route – right at the bottom of a hill, so I build up lots of momentum and speed and then have to stop to climb over this gate, it doesn’t bother me having to do it, I just get on with it.
When I’m up against an obstacle, whether it be emotionally, physically or in any other part of my life, I try to picture myself climbing over this gate and remind myself I just have to move on through it somehow – either up and over or straight through it, and then I’ll be on my way again.
Sometimes this is easier said than done, but it’s a good metaphor to use!
I hope others can use it too :)
I enjoy writing out my short-term and long-term goals using the mind mapping technique found here: http://www.novamind.com/mind-mapping/life-planning/. The key to accomplishing these goals is to split them up into bite-sized pieces. Take small actions each day, and make sure you take pleasure in doing them. I wise teacher once told me, “You can accomplish anything you set your mind to.”
my absolute favorite quote-
While walking along a beach, a man saw someone in the distance leaning down, picking something up, and throwing it into the ocean.
As he came closer, he saw thousands of starfish the tide had thrown onto the beach. Unable to return to the ocean during low tide, the starfish were dying. He observed a young man picking up the starfish one by one and throwing them back into the water.
After watching the seemingly futile effort, the observer said, “There must be thousands of starfish on this beach. It would be impossible for you to get to all of them. There are simply too many. You can’t possibly save enough to make a difference.”
The young man smiled as he continued to pick up another starfish and toss it back into the ocean.
“It made a difference to that one,” he replied.
I’ve learned that the weight on a scale doesn’t matter so much as whether or not my clothes fit me properly. When they start getting a little tight, then it’s time to step up my workouts a bit.
A favortie quote of mine is: Gratitude turns what we have into enough. This quote has helped me a lot in my quest of getting my home and life decluttered. It has curbed my desire to keep up to those people who I think have the life I want to be living.
“We are what we repeatedly do; excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle
My favorite quote, and a great thing to live by :)
You cannot change others — you can only change yourself.
(a combination of Viktor Frankl from his life-changing Man’s Search for Meaning and Gretchen Rubin in The Happiness Project, which is my current uplifting book).
Thank you for this entry’s daily dose of positivity and for being an inspiration, Angela!
My favorite quote: “Nature does not make jumps” which can be interpreted as the idea that natural things and properties change gradually, rather than suddenly. I love this quote because it embraces the idea of organic, whole foods that are grown slowly without chemicals or any other process that expedites the process. This quote also explains how struggles or the healing process takes time. No one can recover from some traumatic event the next day, everything takes time. It takes time to figure out who you are, it takes time to change your lifestyles, it takes time to lose weight and it takes time to love yourself.
I love this quote because it helped me through my struggles to accept my diagnosis of type 1 diabetes just three years ago. I have not completely accepted it but knowing that I cannot expedite the process of accepting this new disease, I have made small lifestyle changes everyday in order to live the best life I can.
I have come to realize that most of the pressure I feel is pressure I place on myself. I am learning to ease up.
I am learning slowly that doing what you know to be right, doing what makes you PROUD of you (rather than others) is what will fill your soul the most. Anything else will leave you with regret, guilt and all kinds of other feelings that steal the present moment from you… So do what makes you feel proud of yourself, not because of bragging rights, but because you feel good inside! Thank you for helping me find that path.
One of my favorite mantras is: “Sometimes it’s okay to break the rules.” This really resonates with me and my type A personality. I am a classic “follower of the rules, rigid schedule, to-do lists, good foods/bad foods lists, exercise paranoia…” I try to look at myself in the mirror daily and tell myself to just go off the beaten path a bit, skip a workout, sleep in, eat too much chocolate, or be a rebel ;)
The best advice I’ve ever received is from my mother, who said to me when I was a teenager: “No one is looking at you, so be yourself”.