[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!
Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.
Dale Carnegie
Thanks! I needed that today!
“All seasons are beautiful to those who hold happiness within” – Horace Friess
Since life is so fragile, I always tell myself: “Love life”. Then the sky turns clear and there’s no more big matters. Get up telling you that today will be the most beautiful day of your life. And smile!
My favorite quote….
I prefer to take the scenic route =)
I love quotes but one of my all time favorite ones is one that I try and live by everyday:
“so just live, make mistakes & have wonderful times, but never ever second guess who you are, where you have been & most importantly where it is that you are going”
I always strive for the Asics motto, “Sound Mind, Sound Body”
“With the past, I have nothing to do; nor with the future. I live now.” ~Ralph Waldo Emerson
This awesome quote is a reminder to live in the moment…..yoga has also taught me to live in each moment and not to worry about the past or future. We all must consider every moment precious and live it like it’s our last!
My favorite is my prayer. I am not religious but I think this applies to anyone who just wants to live a fulfilled, honest and sincere life:
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference.”
I have learned that “everything in moderation” truly works. Since I gave up on the fat-free version of everything under the sun and began to actually enjoy smaller portions of real, flavorful food, my body has responded by dropping pounds AND becoming stronger.
I’ve learned that it’s okay when things don’t go as you may expect. Being in college and having to experiencing the terror of job hunting in a few years is enough to make anyone crazy. However, I am able to put myself in a semi-peaceful state by remembering that it will work out how it’s supposed to. I can’t control everything, and that’s part of the fun right?!
I can completely relate. While I do know the number on the scale does not create my ultimate happiness, I struggle with it on a daily basis. I look down at the number with a half smile, knowing that as long as I feel good it doesn’t and shouldn’t matter what that number is. Life is wonderful, and I enjoy everyday that I have, good moments and bad. While I struggle with a medical problem that has been looming (thyroid and possible pituitary problems) I try to take one day at a time and do the best I can.
Thanks for a great site!! I enjoy reading your blog on a daily basis!!
Through it all, sometimes I stumble. I still have really bad days where all I can think about is what I ate, why I shouldn’t have eaten it and how I can immediately remove it from my body. I am also not a natural optimist, sadly, and I struggle with trying to look on the bright side. A couple years ago, I saw a little saying somewhere online and I’ve seen it credited to Walt Whitman and also as a Maori proverb. I don’t really care who said it but, it’s something I tell myself now on really bad days, “Always keep your face toward the sunshine and the shadows will fall behind.”
PS- Thanks for all you do, Angela!
Sometimes when things aren’t going my way but I just need to forge on ahead, I like to repeat Dori’s phrase “Just keep swimming” in my head. It makes me smile and reminds me not to take some things too seriously.
Wow, Angela, I do NOT envy you the daunting task of trying to pick a winner out of all these wonderful submissions. I’ve been reading through these and almost every one has struck an emotional chord with me for I see my own reflection in a part of every woman here. I just started reading your blog a few weeks ago (and Eat, Live Run’s :) and for the first time I fully realized I was not the only one with these same issues with equating my self-esteem with my weight. What a sisterhood we are a part of! But it’s also sad as well to see the consequences of society’s prevalent mindset that perfection is defined by numbers and certain physical attributes (most of which have to be generically enhanced to fit their image). Even worse, instead of unifying us to fight against this false ideal, it has caused us, men and women alike, to compete ruthlessly with each other. Tearing each other down physically and emotionally to minimize our own insecurities. This contest of out-perfecting each other is impossible to win. This has been a slow realization to me this past year after a long time of becoming increasingly frustrated with not exceeding these standards, no matter how hard I tried. It began with a bible verse, Galations 5:26, “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other” that planted the thought in my mind that my life view may need some adjusting. And bit and by bit God has encouraged it grow in my heart and mind until, I believe, coming to full bloom after reading your blog and others like it with the same healthy, “glowing” message. Just by letting go of something so simple as assigning meaning to a number on a scale has been so releasing. It’s amazing how much energy I was wasting about it day in and day out on something so meaningless in the big picture. “Then you will know the truth, and the truth shall set you free”….Thank you, Angela, for helping to spread the “truth” by sharing your own private struggles. It can’t always be easy but look how many people you have helped set on the path to a freedom from self-loathing. And, I can’t go without saying, thanks also for those cookie dough balls and VOO recipes…they ROCK! Glow on, girl, glow on!
“If we all did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves.”
-Thomas Edison
Potentially cheesey as it is, every time I feel backed into a hole of worthlessness, I picture a circle in my head. Each down has an up, everything comes back to the beginning, there is no end. Instant calm :)
Great post, Angela! I enjoy all the foods I like, just little bits everyday along with delicious healthy eats too! I don’t weigh myself daily, or that gets obsessive. Instead 1-2X per week at the gym.
When the going gets tough, don’t stop because it is all worth it!
Something that I tell myself associated with weight or life in general when I am feeling down is “I am a work in progress”. It reminds me that I don’t always have to be perfect and if I may fall short of something that I can get right back up again and keep trying.