You are here: Home / Archives for resolutions

You Can Make A Difference …

January 2, 2012 By Leave a Comment

You can make a difference.

My friend Sean Anderson has lost 275 lbs, the right way – reducing calories and increasing exercise. It didn’t happen overnight. He didn’t make People Magazine’s annual “Half Their Size” issue. But he’s helping a lot of people. Sean has blogged for nearly all of the three years of his weight loss journey. He’s created some unique tools for himself, such as the “Steel Curtain Zone,” the “Calorie Bank and Trust.” In his journal today, he relates how the Rachel Ray show sought him out and then turned down an opportunity to have him on their show. Their loss.

So, Sean won’t be a celebrity this week. Instead of being a guest on the Rachel Ray show, he’s busy helping people, one at a time, to experience a shift in their thinking toward healthy weight. He writes, “My goal has never been fame and fortune. My goal is very simple: Reach as many people as I can with my experience and to communicate it in such a fashion, that somehow, maybe, just maybe…it’ll make an impact, shift someone’s perspective—the tiniest amount, but enough to help them facilitate their own “click.” Because I’ve found a sweet freedom and it would be selfish of me to keep it to myself.” I feel the same way about helping people to find a spiritual approach to living, one person at a time.

There are some great spiritual people out there – Joel Olsteen and Wayne Dyer, people who really affect the masses. There are also weight loss heroes who will make the People magazine special issue. And then there are the little nobodies like Sean Anderson and me. I wake up every day and ask God to show me how to be of service to Him and to those around me. The opportunities are often subtle and if I’m not on my game, I’ll miss them. Sean touches thousands daily with his 3,406 friends on facebook, and counting! And he’s captured his dynamic story in his recently released book, Transformation Road.

This morning I got up and made two pots of coffee – a decaf and a regular. My husband’s brother is visiting for a few days. He likes the high test, so I dig out my second pot and fix some regular for him and decaf for me. It’s the little things like that which make me feel good about myself. It’s a small spiritual moment and my brother-in-law doesn’t even know that he contributed. It can be that simple. It doesn’t have to be People Magazine or the Rachel Ray show. It can be a friend, a spouse, a co-worker, a sister or a stranger.

Can you make a difference today?

Share
Filed Under: Blog Posts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Trick or Treat?

October 23, 2011 By Leave a Comment

Halloween is next week. Soon, little goblins and witches will knock on doors, announcing themselves. “Trick or Treat!” They want candy!

Halloween was one of my favorite holidays. We grew up in a moderate income family, but had no idea that we were ‘poor’. Our costumes were originals. One year I made dice out of cardboard boxes for my brother and me. Creating our get ups was part of the fun of Halloween. But the best part was the candy. I lived in anticipation for weeks before the holiday arrived.

We lived in a high density neighborhood, where we could go door-to-door in a short period of time, and fill our bags with every sweet concoction our hearts desired. And on the following school day, someone who’d eaten too much of that candy would get sick on the bus; it never failed!

My heart’s desire was not just for my bag, but also that of my brother’s.

At some point in my life, my treats turned into a trick. No matter how much candy I ate, it was not enough. I’d inevitably get into my sibling’s bags, sneaking more and more chocolate, attempting to satisfy a craving that could not be satisfied. I had become a sugar-addict! As soon as I’d eat one, I’d want more. That led to other foods too; mostly high carb, processed foods. That led to morbid obesity and a life of depression, obsession and emotional flat-line.

My first Halloween with David was a hoot! I’d been sugar-free for over six years. Feeling confident, I greeted the children, commenting on the great costumes and throwing handfuls of bite-sized tootsie rolls into their bags. After they’d gone, Dave took one of the tootsie rolls (about the size of the end of my pinkie finger), popped half of it into his mouth and wrapped the other half up. I asked what he was doing, since the concept of half a tootsie roll was totally lost on me. He said he just wanted the ‘taste’. Whoa boy, that would have set up a craving in me, leaving an empty bag in the morning, and I don’t even like tootsie rolls!

This will be my nineteenth Halloween with no sugar. Isn’t that amazing? I’m no longer obese, maintaining a healthy body weight now for eighteen years. I can look forward to the colorful costumes without worrying about gaining a whole bunch of weight. You see, if I don’t eat one bite of a candy bar, I cannot eat a whole bag of it, and your bag, and everyone else’s I could pilfer.

Happy Halloween to everyone who celebrates! I’ll spend a quiet evening with my 90 year old parents. That’s about as good a treat as I could hope for.

Share
Filed Under: Blog Posts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Dream Big ~ Dream Interesting!

December 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Dream BIG ~ Dream INTERESTING!

A few weeks back, I planted an avocado seed in a pot. I’ve thrown a lot of avocado seeds away in my day, but I guess they deserve a chance for a new beginning too, eh?

I watered it dutifully and waited. Nothing happened for about ten days, maybe even two weeks.

Then the day came where something other than dirt greeted the watering can; a little tiny stick of a thing popping up out of nowhere! The following day, I swear that little nub doubled in size! A week later, I’m looking at a scraggly foot-tall stick with the beginnings of what looks like leaves on the top.

So, now what?  This is my first venture into avocado propagation – do I trust trial and error or do some research? A quick Google leads me several articles and I discover what to do when the shoot is six or seven inches tall.  I need to cut it down 50%. Oh no! I’m too late by three inches! But having nothing to lose, I’m going to follow the directions. The article says that it should sprout out again and then I’m directed to plant it outside where it could be as big as sixty-nine feet! Or, if it stays in the pot, it could be an interesting house plant.

This whole ordeal really parallels to life. I have choices- YOU have choices! – To be as big as we can be, or maybe not so big, but interesting.  Maybe both!

I’ve really made some dramatic changes in my life over the last five years, and even more this past year. What do I want to do in 2011? Dream big? Dream interesting?

What will I do with that dream? If I take no action, that dream will just stay an old avocado seed and that’s that.

I haven’t picked the date yet, but I’m going to call a bunch of my girlfriends to see if they want to get together to create vision boards for 2011. We’ll get all messy – glue sticks, magazines, cardboard, and let our seeds of a dream take root, sprout and become something.

 Maybe something big.

Maybe something interesting.

Maybe both.

Share
Filed Under: Blog Posts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Sailing into 2011

December 8, 2010 By 4 Comments

There are twenty-three days left in 2010. In her blog, another friend recalled her goals for this year,  and it gave me pause to consider where I was with mine for 2010.

It is a habit of mine to make a dream board in January, and hang it where I can see it often, allowing me to stay on course with an action plan. I didn’t do that in January, so no wonder why I’m struggling to recall my goals! I did go back to my old journals and was able to glean my direction. Oddly enough, even without a rudder on my ship, I sailed through a few of my goals.

I had planned to further my education this year, to the highest level for life coaches, that of a Certified Master Coach. On Sunday I will have achieved that goal –and can put some more letters behind my name! I will also be credentialed to mentor other coaches and best of all, take my coaching practice in the direction I am lead to pursue, that of Spiritual mentoring! I am proud and excited to have cared enough about my work and clients to become an expert in the field.

I’m going for a do-over on the dream board for 2011! It is fun to bring my goals to life, through words and pictures. It’s not going to slip by me again!

So, on New Year’s Eve, I’m going to sponsor a dream board party, inviting friends to bring their magazines, glue sticks and posters to my house. We’ll  have a ‘pot luck’ dinner and then spread out on the dining room table, sip some sparkling water and dream of where we want to go in the coming months. Sounds like a perfect way to visualize our direction and keep on course!

Another goal was to publish a third book, a meditation journal. That happened too. Seasons of Spirituality was borne out of a conversation  with my husband, who suggested going the route of an e-book. That has some challenges, as a 365 page pdf document is cumbersome to download. To navigate those waters, I broke it down into twelve separate books, and download them to my list every month. It has been so much fun to find quotes from years of journals, coordinate them with art and typeset the pages with lines. I am not quite finished, but releasing it in October has given me the opportunity to share it with my readers while it’s still in creation!

Thank God, there was no crazy diet this year. Seventeen years ago, I vowed to never diet again and changed my lifestyle to support healthy eating choices. I’m maintaining over a 100 lb weight loss ever since.  I never have to make that doomed resolution again. Why, if you even look at the word, you can see it’s doomed to failure … DIE-et.

I won’t wait until the last minute this year – I have the twenty-three days to daydream and plan my annual life-trip.  On December 31st, I’ll have a more clear picture on where I want to go. Where do you want to go in the upcoming year? Good question, eh?

Share
Filed Under: Blog Posts Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts