It’s January and you know you need to lose weight this year. But are you ready? Will this be the year to tackle this problem once and for all? Will 2012 be the year YOU become SKINNY?
Losing weight and restoring your health requires COMMITMENT – commitment to a new life and a NEW YOU! You need to know why this is important and what you will gain should you embark upon this journey.
People who make New Year’s Resolutions, especially to lose weight, often fail because their resolutions lack certain key elements required to be successful and to SUSTAIN the success.
Consider some of these questions to determine if you are ready to tackle this issue for good in 2012 -
- Are you ready to give up your attachments to the way things are, to old paradigms and habits, to old ideas about food and stress and your body?
- Are you ready to begin a new life and become a new you?
- You will need to adopt new beliefs. Are you ready to let go of the old beliefs about your body and being heavy? Are you willing to embrace NEW BELIEFS about being thin and healthy? Yes, you really can lose weight even though you may have tried several times before. Are you willing to believe that yes, you CAN?
- What are you afraid of? Name your fear. Identify your “resistance behaviors”, the ways in which you sabotage yourself such as forgetting your goal, not taking yourself seriously, hanging out with the wrong people or in the wrong places, etc.
- Do you understand what will be H.A.R.D. about losing weight?
- Have you decided on a method of weight loss that will help you drop pounds quickly and safely? You can jump start your efforts with BestChoiceChanges Weight Loss Program to ensure success and maintain motivation.
- Are you committed to taking this journey and doing everything you need to do in order to succeed? Or are you attached to keeping things as they are? What are you committed to?
- What, if anything, holds you back from making this change? What has hurt you in prior attempts to lose weight? How can you ensure success this time around?
- Do you have a community of support or a personal adviser to assist you along your journey – to keep you motivated, support you and celebrate with you?
There are several things you need to succeed:
- Commitment. I have said this before and I will say it again and again. You are committed to something – either it’s to staying the same and enduring the consequences of your actions OR you can decide to change. It won’t be easy but it IS possible.
- Believe in the possibility for success. If you do not believe it is possible, you won’t bother to do the work. Believe in YOU. I certainly do!
- ACTION is the key element here. Develop a plan and take baby steps. What will you do in order to achieve your success? Determine some milestones and be willing to change course if your first plan does not produce the results you seek. It’s nice to commit and to believe and to plan but if you do nothing toward your goal, you will not achieve success.
- Surround yourself with positive people, places and things. Your environment needs to support this NEW you rather than the old one that everyone is accustomed to. Feed your mind with positive and healthy thoughts and messages as you learn to feed your body the fuel IT needs to be healthy.
Losing weight is a byproduct of living a healthy life. So the goal is about what you will GAIN by living differently and not focused on losing weight. If you focus on what you are losing and what you cannot do or have, you will feel sad, as if something is being taken away from you and you are being deprived.
RESTORING YOUR HEALTH is the key to losing weight. Focus on living each day in health, honoring yourself and taking better care of your body. This way, you can be excited about this new life you are creating.
Here’s to your health and to happiness!
Julie Donley, RN ~ Nurturing Your Success by motivating you to be your best!
As we turn the calendar to a new year, many thoughts emerge. What will you remember most from 2011? And what do you want to accomplish in 2012?
Each year has its own memories. To make the most of your life, take a short assessment of last year. Celebrate. Acknowledge your accomplishments, your travels, your hardships and your triumphs. If you are alive to read this, then you have much to celebrate!
Now, take a moment to consider what you want to focus on this year.
It’s a simple process to take a moment to do each year. This way, life slows down just enough so that you can determine if you are living it well or just getting by.
When you live on purpose, you will find that life has more meaning, you have more control and power over your happiness, therefore you enjoy it more AND you fear death LESS.
Yes, you will fear death less when you truly live and enjoy TODAY.
So, what do you want 2012 to be about? What will you focus on this year?
These are just a few things I have planned for this year -
- I will continue to lose weight and restore my health. I have just a few more pounds I want to lose. I want to be a little skinnier.
- I will increase my workouts each week. I want to do more cardio to ensure I maintain this new weight and I want to increase my strength by adding more resistance training. The goal here is HEALTH – to age with grace, be strong and increase endurance.
- I intend to save more and learn to amass wealth.
- I will write another book in 2012. This will be a two-part book series on creating amazing relationships, the first of which is about attracting the right partner. Stay tuned…
- I will also take my family on our first cruise! I am so excited to celebrate my dear hubby’s birthday this way.
One of the wonderful things that happens when we set out to accomplish something is that synchroncity occurs and we begin to attract the resources and people we need to assist us in our journey, making it much easier to accomplish our goals.
Goals (intentions) require commitment. As soon as you become committed to achieving something, you receive the support you need. This may sound hokey but in reality, when you set your mind to something, you start looking for ways to make it happen and you become more open to receive information and assistance from what has been there all along just waiting for YOU to be ready to go for it!
So set your sights on 2012 and decide where you want to focus your energy this year. You are much more likely to succeed when you focus your attention. You must have a destination in mind.
When you have no destination in mind, any road will get you there.
Here is to a healthy and happy 2012!
Warmly,
Julie Donley, RN ~ Nurturing Your Success by motivating you to be your best!
May the holiday season be enjoyable and relaxed for you and yours.
May the holidays bring you joy and peace and as you reflect on what is important in your life.
And may you make a commitment to *health* in the New Year -
- healthy relationships
- healthy intake of food and drink
- healthy and respectful communication
- and healthy self-love and self-care.
You are the most important person in your life and deserve all of the best life has to offer.
Happy holidays!
With love,
Julie Donley, RN and family
So my birthday came and went. That’s what happens. Days come and go. If you are not careful, they fly by all too quickly. Slowing life down to savor it is the key to success.
It was a wonderful day. My husband spent the day with me. We didn’t do a lot. There wasn’t a lot of fanfare. We were just together and that was priceless.
One of the special things about life is knowing that you are cared for and loved. When I checked my email, it was wonderful to see all of the birthday wishes! So many people took the time to wish me a happy day. I feel so blessed!
The emotions we experience during life is what makes life real and enjoyable. We all want and need to feel that we matter. Yet, how often do we deny our emotions? We know people who are so guarded they will not let anyone too close to enjoy their presence. This wall of resistance keeps people out – it also keeps the individual locked in.
When we hide behind a wall, we are not allowing ourselves to love or be loved. We are hurting and scared. This interferes with our relationships and our ability to get close to others, to trust.
And just like us, other people have walls. They, too, are hurting and are scared.
We can use empathy to help us to understand what might be going on for others; we can also learn to be more patient and understanding with ourselves. This is the lesson we are here to learn – to learn how to love and be loved. When we allow others to help us, to share with us, to care for us, we experience love.
So today – and every day – let’s learn to love, to bring down the walls that we hide behind and learn to give our best to the world. Imagine if we all approached others coming from *love* as opposed to fear and from *abundance* as opposed to lack. We would all feel better, safer and happier and the world would be a better place.
Thank you for the happy birthday wishes. I feel loved.
And if no one has told you yet today how special and wonderful you are, then let me be the first. You are wonderful! You are loved!
- Just because you are you!
To your health and happiness,
Julie Donley, RN ~ Nurturing Your Success and motivating you to be your best!
There were several cues to my depression. I was becoming increasingly moody. I was having trouble making even little decisions, like what to wear on any given day. I was sleeping a lot. The day seemed to get away from me. I found myself seeking out motivational materials, things I know all too well. Yes, I read other motivational people’s work but lately, I felt a need for it rather than a curiosity about it.
I have come to a turning point in my life. Is it a mid-life thing? Maybe. My 46th birthday is fast approaching.
Part of it is that I have too much time on my hands and my mind was drifting into negative territory. The hospital I work at as a psych nurse has been closed for renovations for the past three months. With the added space in time and no distractions, I have the ability to look more closely at my life.
And sometimes I just think too much!
So I am in this funk. It is what it is. It will pass. But as an upbeat, positive person on any given day, I’m not used to feeling this way. I work with depressed individuals all of the time, however, and am all too familiar with its subtle and destructive nature. So I thought I would share about it today.
Depression is a funny thing. Everyone experiences depression at some point in life. It is important to recognize it and identify what you need in order to take care of yourself. There are a few things you can do to ensure you come through it quickly and remain healthy. Depression can become ‘clinical depression’, where medical treatment is needed. You need catch it quickly and manage it responsibly. Here are some tips to get you through.
Read the entire article.
To your health and happiness,
Julie Donley, RN ~ Nurturing Your Success by motivating you to be your best!
Learning to ‘be your best’ begins with becoming more self-aware. Read my book: The Journey Called YOU: A Roadmap to Self-Discovery and Acceptance. Pick up your copy on Amazon today!
