Monday, December 6, 2010

Setbacks


I've never been afraid to fail.

You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.

I've missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.

I've failed over and over and over again in my life and that is why I succeed.

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can't accept not trying.
Michael Jordan

The important thing is to realize that temporary setbacks are not permanent failures. Successful people recognize that we all experience temporary setbacks that require us to reevaluate our performance and take corrective action to achieve success.

They know that adversity is never permanent.

Correct your course, get your act together, put on your big girl panties and do everything it takes to win - that is how you succeed!

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Emperor Penguins


Emperor Penguins are some of the most social and well traveled animals in the world as shown in recent big screen movies like Happy Feet, Surfs Up and March of the Penguins. Their unique habitat and way of life is not duplicated anywhere in the animal kingdom. Once an egg is born an unusual phenomenon occurs. The mothers gently transfer the egg on the top of her feet to the top of the feet of the father.

The males then shuffle into groups. Their eggs still tucked above their feet. To survive they must generate their own heat by huddling. Speeding up the action, reveals an unparalleled display of sharing as each penguin works its way to the warmer center. Emperors are the only non-territorial penguins and they have to be. If they lose the huddle for even a moment, precious heat escapes.

Their greatest test lies ahead—winter blizzards. The temperature plunges to seventy-five below zero. The birds at the edge of the huddle bear the brunt of hundred-mile-an-hour winds and shelter those taking their turn in the middle.

The penguins huddle together, tighter and tighter in what looks like hump after hump of snow-covered, black, furry mounds in concentric circles. Their senses tell them their personal survival depends on their fellow penguins. Their instincts tell them the next generation, tucked safely between belly and feet, needs them to endure.

In many ways we are like Emperor Penguins. We've hatched this egg (our desire to lose weight), and now it's up to us to keep it safe until it hatches (reaching our goal weight). And just like the Emperors we can huddle together to keep our egg safe. Here are ways we can do it:
  1. Keep to the 5&1 religiously - like the Emperors if we step outside the huddle we loose precious energy or face certain "death" of our egg. I like the saying, "Cheating only keeps me fat longer". Each bite we take out of the "huddle" throws us out of fat burn, sabotaging all the work we've done!
  2. Report in each week to your Health Coach. Reporting each week allows us the opportunity to take our turn in the center of the huddle. All week we've been out in the blizzard and it's time to come in from the cold. Your Health Coach has been where you've been! We've survived the winter blizzards and lived to encourage, strengthen and support you!
  3. Take advantage of all the support available.
    1. Client.Powerlosers.Com
    2. Support In Motion
    3. Weekly Support Call Schedule, Support Center Information
Working together, taking turns incubating, feeding, shielding, and teaching we can survive the long winter of our "egg's"journey.

Stress


Ever had one of "THOSE" days?

Maybe a better question is who hasn't had one!
We all have stress - it's how we deal with it that sets us up for success in our weight loss

I'd like to share with you an article written by one of our team members - Dan Morgan. Dan is a wellness spokesperson for his company and writes a monthly article for the company newsletter. He's given me permission to share it with you. Check out how Dan deals with his stress:

Hello again! I have made it another month in my quest toward my commitment goal to lose a total of 114 lbs. by January 31, 2011. This past month it has been a little rocky and a little slow for weight loss. My weigh-in this morning was 220 lbs. My goal still remains at 195 lbs., but I have added a commitment goal of an additional 10 lbs.

Occasionally, I find myself wanting to binge eat if my stress level has been above normal for my day. The key to my success is realizing my weakness -- similar to a smoker realizing their weakness -- to use food to comfort me after a bad day. I also know that this is a lifestyle change I must embrace to keep the weight off. I must continually be aware of this moving forward in my quest.

Recently, I met with my doctor, who (I must say) was ecstatic about my results. Since my first visit with doctor, I am off two of my medications for high blood pressure. The key to my weight loss is that I eat six small meals per day approximately every 2-1/2 to 3 hours.

I am still playing racquetball and have just started playing in a competitive league. Then, in October, I am attending the “Fran Davis Racquetball Training Camp” to increase my ability level. Racquetball is my way of saying NO to the boring treadmill that in the past has lost my interest and become a great clothes hanger.

In closing, let me say, I must continually take ownership of this process. This is my healthy lifestyle change, and my will to continue to be happy and healthy for my family, my children and my grandchildren. I wish each of you the WILL to do the same.
Kind regards,
Dan

If you don't have stress it probably means your dead! So learn what your stress triggers are and how you can deal with them. Take ownership of your lifestyle and your choices - no more blaming it on "Mother Nature", hormones or aliens invading your body! Work the plan and the Plan will WORK!!

The Tribbles Tree

When I was a kid growing up the Tribble Family lived down the street, right on the corner. When I was about 9 or so I got a new bike and started learning how to ride it. I was terrible!! And to make it worse, back in the dark ages and before dirt, they didn't have training wheels! (see the photo of some cool kids with training wheels AND Helmets!)

Like all good parents, mine decided they would teach me how to ride my new bike - btw it was a pink and white Huffy! I had tried it out a little on my own and was moderately successful - meaning I could go about 20 feet before crashing. I figured out that I could balance the bike against the front fence, hop on and start pedaling, go 20 feet then crash - maybe that accounts for some of the loss of brain function I have!! But I digress......

Back to the parents teaching me how to ride. On that fateful day we all gathered out in front of our house and my dad started pushing me and running along side me to help me learn to balance, then he would let go and let me do it on my own, but catching me if I started to fall. After 3 or 4 tries he decided I was "experienced" enough that he wouldn't go with me this time.

Dad gave me my big send off and I started pedaling like mad! With the family cheering me on and screaming "pedal Lynn, pedal faster" I was going to ride this bike by myself or die trying! I made it down the street pedaling my heart out only to come to the end of the street where I knew I had to stop or I would ride into a busy street. I had 2 choices: 1) put my brakes on and try to stop or 2) put my brakes on and turn. The problem with either choice was I hadn't been taught how to do either! We were so focused on teaching me to stay upright and to ride that no one had bothered to teach me how to turn or stop!! Minor detail??

So here's where the Tribble's tree comes in. Remember the ride or die trying sentence a few moments ago? Well, I was going so fast that when I tried to use my coaster brakes I didn't realize I would end up turning too. And that's when it happened - I killed the Tribble's Tree! Yes, I AM A TREE KILLER!! Mr. Tribble had planted a small sapling in the front yard that ended up breaking my fall. A tree gave it's life so that I, the helmet-less, training wheel-less young bike rider could live!

You're probably wondering why I would tell you about the Tribble's deceased tree. From the story of the tree we can learn:
  • Weight loss is like learning to ride a bike. You have to learn to balance your life in order to be successful. Eating 6 healthy meals a day is so different from what most of us have done in the past. Yes, we may have eaten 6 (or more) times a day, but it probably wasn't healthy, and no french fries are not a vegetable!
  • Using replacement meals, like the ones we use, is like using training wheels. It makes our weight loss "ride" easier. Yes, you can learn it on your own, but it's a lot harder, and you'll find yourself crashing - a lot!
  • Having a coach is like having your parent run along side you as you learn to ride on your own
  • Like training wheels, at some point you may decide to take them off - and that's ok. My words of caution: make sure you have mastered the fundamentals of riding, like stopping and turning, BEFORE you take them off!!
  • If you find yourself crashing because you took the wheels off too early - you can always put them back on
  • And finally, watch for the trees in your path. Don't become a Tree Killer!
Some of you are pedaling for all your might right now! Congratulations! Remember, you have more than one set of training wheels you can use if you need them - I'm your training wheels too - and I'm there for you anytime you need me. I've crashed - a lot, and I'll continue to crash, but I've also been successful, I'm having the ride of my life and I'm willing to run next to you and catch you if you fall! BTW: Thanks for riding along with me!!

Biafra and Sirens

Growing up in the days following the Great Depression and major World Wars my mom made sure we were members of the "Clean Plate Club". She didn't actually call it that, but that's what it was. You couldn't leave the table with food on your plate no matter how much you hated it! I remember one time sitting there crying for what seemed like hours because I couldn't leave the table till I finished my soup - it had cooked tomatoes and celery - which I hated and still to this day have a hard time getting down sometimes.

I remember Mom using such motivations as "There are starving children in China who would love to have this to eat". To which I was thinking, "Well send it to them!" or "Why don't you go cook for them then?". Ooh, I was a rebellious soul!

Later on I used the same, less than successful, motivation on my own children, only by then it had changed to starving children in Biafra. Does anyone even remember Biafra and the images of children suffering from starvation and malnutrition caused by the civil war? Let me tell you those images were powerful!

I recently sat down to a beautiful dinner at well known steak house. My tender and juicy fillet, cooked "just right" as Goldilocks would say, surrounded by the roasted asparagus and steamed broccoli. A perfect Lean and Green. I had chosen wisely.

But there IT was. Sitting innocuously off to the side. Perfectly golden brown. Fluffy. Innocent in it's own simplicity. I hadn't asked for IT and IT certainly wasn't in the description of the meal on the menu card or I would have asked to have IT removed, but there IT was! Granted IT was small, maybe only 2 inches square by 1 inch high, but for the power IT had over me IT could have been the size of an aircraft carrier and IT wouldn't have made a difference!

It was with this internal brain tape of "cleaning your plate because others were starving" constantly running that when I had finished my meal I just couldn't leave well enough alone. IT started calling to me! That siren song [ of several sea nymphs, part woman and part bird, who lure mariners to destruction by their seductive singing]. I was about to go under!

All of us are going to face temptations while we journey our way to being Healthy. For some it's going to be a small IT. For others IT will be huge! What ever IT is for you, identify IT. Plan for IT.


Remember Ulysses, in Homer's Odyssey, who planned for his encounter with the sirens. He had his crew's ears stopped with wax and himself lashed to the mast of the ship in order to survive. No amount of pleading with the crew - who could not hear his cries - would allow them to release him. Yes, people IT can be that seductive.

Take a minute to contemplate how you've been responding to the sirens. Are your ears stopped? Are you lashed to the mast? or have they invaded and you are about to go under? Remember you can change your mind tape!

A Case of Mistaken Identity

You've probably heard a version of this fable:

After touring the barn and the orchard beyond, the two men started back toward the house when the ranger noticed the hen house and chicken coop built against the back of the barn. He couldn’t help but smile at the way several dozen baby chicks were scratching and pecking in the dirt right along with their mothers. There was also a rooster and a couple of half-grown turkeys. Just as he was about to look away and follow the farmer back toward the house, his eye caught the movement of a huge bird just emerging from the shadows alongside the chicken house. At first, the ranger mistook it for a full grown turkey due to its size, but then he all but gasped as he recognized what kind of bird he was looking at. It was a huge bald eagle, one of the biggest and most beautiful bald eagles he had ever seen in all his years in the mountains!

Seemingly oblivious to everything around him, the eagle was turning his majestic white head from side to side, peering at the ground, first with one eye and then with the other. Every now and then he would stop his awkward gait and scratch in the dirt like a giant chicken, even though his giant talons dug deep grooves in the earth instead of just scratching the surface like the hens around him.

“Wha . . . what? It’s an eagle!” he stuttered as the farmer chuckled at his shock.

“Yep. Found him in the mountains a couple of years ago, just a chick. Apparently his mother had been killed and the other chick died. We barely saved him, but he pulled through. We brought him home and put him in with the chickens and he’s been living with them ever since.”

The ranger watched in amazement as one of the hens got upset at the eagle for getting too close to her chicks and flew at him in defense. The giant bird ducked his head and ran awkwardly away from the hen.

“Do you keep his flight feathers clipped to keep him from flying away?” the ranger asked.

“Goodness, no,” answered the farmer. “No need to. He’s been with the chickens so long he doesn’t know he can get off the ground any farther than they can. Sometimes he’ll start to spread his wings and all the chickens get frightened and start making such a fuss that he tucks them right back in again. I think it scares him to have them react like that. We’ve never had to worry for a minute about him taking off.”

“But . . . but . . . what about his instincts, his ancestry, his heritage! He’s an eagle, not a chicken!” the ranger blurted.

Once again the farmer smiled as he started to turn away. “Well you know he’s an eagle and I know he’s an eagle, but the deal is . . . he doesn’t know he’s an eagle.”

Are you like this Eagle - you've been scratching with the chickens so long you've forgotten how to fly?

When you start to fly and the other chickens raise a fuss do you pull back your wings?

Do you really believe you are a chicken even when all the signs say you're not?

Have you even gone so far as to say I've always been this way, I'll die this way?


Eagles soar high above other birds. Therefore, eagles must be willing to fly alone.



Chickens, on the other hand, are content to scratch along the ground with other chickens.

Which will you be?


A Wise Yogi


A wise Yogi once said - It ain't like football. You can't make up no trick plays.

Of course I am speaking about the great Yogi Berra.

Yogi was also a talker behind the plate. He used to talk to the opposing batters in order to distract them. Hank Aaron tells the story about the 1958 World Series, with Yogi behind the plate. Yogi kept telling Aaron to 'hit with the label up on the bat'. Finally Aaron turned and said "Yogi, I came up here to hit, not to read."

Staying on plan ain't like playing football! You can't make up no trick plays! The game is played straight, no fakes, misdirections or "hotdogging". At times you may be blindsided, blitzed and even roughed up. You may even come up against someone trash talking you from behind the plate [or across the plate at the buffet], but like Hank, you aren't here to read [other than your Habits of Health book!] but to hit it out of the park.

Dr Seuss's Plan for Life

You've got brains in your head.
You've got feet in your shoes.
You can steer yourself any direction you choose.

Dr. Seuss' classic book, Oh, The Places You'll Go!, is an incredible allegory* for our weight loss journey. Lets take a closer look at it to find out how we can use those principles to succeed.
*[A story that has a deeper or more general meaning in addition to its surface meaning. Thank You Dictionary.Com]

Dr Seuss' Plan for Life

Your Plan for Life

Brains in your head and feet in your shoes

5 & 1 Plan

I’m sorry to say so but, sadly, it’s true that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.

Life gets in our way if we let it

Un-slumping yourself is not easily done

Immediately get back on 5 & 1! And remember that it will take about 3 days to get back into fat burn – so choose wisely!

You’ll look up and down streets. Look’em over with care. About some you will say, “I don’t choose to go there.”

Just say NO! It's YOUR plan – own it!

How much can you lose? How much can you win?

The choice really is yours

Simple it’s not, I’m afraid you will find, for a mind-maker-upper to make up his mind

Set your goal weight now and don't look back

Everyone is just waiting. No! That’s not for you!

You no longer are stuck. You have hope! Yes, you can turn your “inner” skinny self into your “outer” self

And when you’re alone, there’s a very good chance you’ll meet things that scare you right out of your pants.

You will get scared. You will have to look yourself square in the facr and ask yourself, “Can I really do it this time?” The answer is YES, if you are a mind-maker-upper!

Step with care and great tact and remember that Life’s a Great Balancing Act.

You will always be making choices. Make sure your choice supports YOUR goal


And will you succeed?
Yes! You will, indeed!
(98 and ¾ percent guaranteed.)

Kid, you’ll move mountains!
Today is your day!
Your mountain is waiting.

So…get on your way!