Fit and Female

Thinking About Thanksgiving

I love Thanksgiving, its probably my favorite holiday.  Of course, I love the great food.  But it's also nice to be under societal pressure to stop what you are doing and spend time with friends and family.  Best of all it forces you to look at all the good things in your life (no matter what your current situation) and give thanks for them.  It's the ultimate "glass half full" day.  It is kind of hard to be depressed when you are focused on everything that is right in your life and how much you have to be grateful for that you may forget -- or might not even be aware of.  So in the spirit of the holiday, here are a few of my favorite quotes on the subject.    Much love to all of you and your loved ones.  Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!! “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.” - Melanie Beattie “Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it.” - William Arthur Ward “Develop an attitude of gratitude, and give thanks for everything that happens to you, knowing that every step forward is a step toward achieving something bigger and better than your current situation.” - Brian Tracy “Gratitude is when memory is stored in the heart and not in the mind.” - Lionel Hampton "If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you" that would suffice." - Meister Eckhart

Free Hugs!!!

"All you need is love, love.  Love is all you need" - The Beatles

Now I know that I was definitely just a decade shy of being a hippy chick (except for the unsightly Birkenstocks and underarm hair).  Somebody sent this youtube clip to me today.  I loved it!!  Hope you do too!!! 

P.S.  Check out the first little old lady, she kills me!!!

Carpe Diem

Well, its almost that time again...New Year's.   And with New Year's comes the inevitable New Year's resolutions

Most of us start out with the best of intentions to turn some things around in our lives.  But more often than not, most resolutions end up falling by the wayside before February 1st. 

Which begs the question, "How do you set a New Year's resolution -- and actually KEEP it?"

Whether its losing weight, improving your relationships or excelling in your career...here are a few essential keys that I've learned (and am still learning, believe me) that can really help you to go for it 100% in 2007 --and beyond:

• Decide what you want.  This sounds self-evident, but it's really important.  If you have no idea what the target is, it will be REALLY difficult to know if you've hit it.  Spend some time thinking about what's currently bugging you about your life.  What is it that is holding you back?  Not satisfying you?  What areas do you want to see measurable improvement in by 2008?
• Want what you want.  Not to sound like Ayn Rand (although I adore her writings and if you don't know her work, you should - I recommend The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged) but you have a right to want what you want. It doesn't matter if anyone else understands it, or agrees with it.  It doesn't even matter if you fully understand why you want it.  Unless you are infringing on the rights of another, you have a right (and some philosophers would argue a moral obligation) to go out and get it.
• See what you want.  Here's the fun part...virtually all experts in the areas of self-improvement and human potential say the same thing.  To have something in your life, you need to first see it in your mind.  The poet, Carl Sandberg said, "nothing happens unless first a dream".  You need to use your imagination to see what the victory is.  Imagine achieving your goal in all the detail you can muster.  Who is around you as you celebrate that moment when you know you've made it?  What do they say to you?  What do you say to them?  Where are you?  Fill it in with enough rich detail as possible -- and run that "movie" over and over in your mind.  Not only will you have the joy of experiencing your dream in advance, but you will begin (on some level of your consciousness) to believe that this is real...and that it is coming to you.  Hold on to that image long enough and you'll be living it before you know it.
• Take steps towards your goal every day.  Commit to doing something, at least one thing, however small -- EVERY DAY.  A phone call, a 15-minute yoga break, 10-minutes of research on the net -- whatever it is.  Every small action takes you one step closer to your goal AND reminds you that you are keeping your promises to yourself.
• Commit to people who aren't going to let you off the hook.  I have two friends whom I meet with regularly (every week, in fact) to discuss our goals.  Frankly, many times I don't feel like going to our meetings.  After all, I'm very busy...I'm a mom...I have a full-time job...I have my book...blah, blah, blah.  But, almost every week with rare exceptions, I go -- and I am ALWAYS so glad that I made the time.  There is nothing like knowing you are going to have to fess up about what you did (or..gulp...didn't do) in front of other people to keep you from going off track.  In fact, many times when I am feeling less than motivated, it is only the image of having to tell my friends that I didn't do anything towards achieving my goals that gets me moving to do at least SOMETHING that I can report back.  Plus, I get to bust their chops about what they need to focus on -- and it keeps everyone moving forward.
• Share Your Dream.  This is related to the previous one...tell one person (or a few people) whom you trust all about your dream...the big dream...the one you're almost afraid to admit to yourself that you want.  Are you sitting on Oprah's couch (one of mine ;-)?  Are you 25 lbs lighter and in the best shape of your life?  Did you just finish your first marathon?  Are you celebrating with all of your employees at your new company's first Christmas party?  Share it with someone you trust and have them tell you.  There is something incredibly powerful about hearing yourself say what you REALLY want to another person -- and knowing that they want it for you too!  Better yet, if you really what to have some fun...have your friend(s) say what your dream is back to you...in the present tense as if it had already happened...It's very exciting and it feels even more real!

Anthony Robbins, quite possibly the greatest living expert on goal setting and achieving, says that human beings need to be constantly challenging themselves in order to be happy.  That in life you are either growing or dying in terms of your development.  Staying stagnant is a slower death, but its a death just the same.  Goal acheivement expert, Bob Proctor, says that we are either in a state of creation or a state of disintegration.  The more I learn about this stuff the more that I agree with both of them.

So Carpe Diem, everybody...hey, "carpe" the whole freakin' year -- and let's ALL get out there and make it happen. 

Here's my holiday wish for all of you -- that ALL of your dreams come true...

Love and Light,

G

The Law Of Attraction

In my last post I spoke a little bit about "The Law Of Attraction" and I'd like to go into that further, because it keeps popping up as a central theme in virtually everything that I read and listen to - and I find it endlessly fascinating. 

In the past six months I've listen to: Napoleon Hill, Tony Robbins, Brian Tracy, Marianne Williamson, Wayne Dyer, Jerry & Esther Hicks, John Harricharan, Eckhart Tolle -- and probably a bunch more that I can't even remember right now.  Amazingly, (or perhaps not so, because there probably is ultimately "one universal truth") -- all of these people have very much the same philosophy and the same advice for a fulfilling and happy life. 

As much as I can be a bit "out there" sometimes, there is still the pragmatic part of me that likes to cut to chase, get the bottom line.  So I thought I would just re-cap the some of the key points that keep coming up time and time again.  I want to share them with you, because they've been very powerful in my own life, of late and I hope they have similar value for you.

Digging Our Graves -- With Our Forks

There was a headline on my homepage the other day that made me say aloud, "No sh**, Sherlock!".  It said, "Chefs Not Counting Calories, Study Finds". 

Are they joking?  Did we actually need to do a study to figure this out?  What's the next headline, "Eating Lard Unhealthy, Study Finds"??? 

Seriously though, was ANYONE in the country naive enough to think that (as a group) chefs where stressing over the amount of calories found in the food they serve?

We live in a country where 64% of us are considered "overweight" and 30% are considered "obese".  And FDA study determined that Americans ate 300 more calories per day in 2000 than they did in 1985.   That translates into about 2100 more calories per week or 109, 200 more calories per year (the equivalent of 31.2 pounds).

Put that way, its amazing even MORE of us aren't obese.  Especially, when you consider that about 30% of the food we consume is consumed in restaurants of one type or another.

Acts Of Kindness

If you were arrested for kindness, would there be enough evidence to convict you? ~ Unknown

If we practice and eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, soon the whole world will be blind and toothless ~ Gandhi

Tenderness and kindness are not signs of weakness and despair but manifestations of strength and resolution~ Kahlil Gibran

I don't read the papers or watch (or even listen) to the news as a general rule.

This might make me seem like a Philistine in the eyes of some, but my thought is most of what is written there is "information" that I don't really need --- for a variety of reasons.

For one thing, the vast majority of the stories are negative.  Who is killing whom, who is threatening to kill whom (and why)...sad stuff about the people who got killed and their families...who is getting sick (from what and why)...it goes on and on.

For another thing, there is usually very little or nothing that I can do about it.  So it ends up creating an under current of negativity and anxiety which can run through my day. 

Take this horrible story about the Amish girls for example.  I honestly don't know the details.  I honestly don't WANT to know the details.  I heard about everything I need to know just by seeing the headline on my homepage.  But there was something from that story that I did read and that actually inspired me.

Om

"Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits" ~ Satchel Paige

Ever since I did a few posts on meditation I've had a quiet a few questions from folks about what meditation really is and how exactly to do it. 

It's one of those things that's very easy in theory -- and extremely complex in reality and execution.

The idea (in it's most basic form) is to sit quietly and clear your mind.  Both of which are MUCH, MUCH easier said that done.  But that is part of the point.

Summer's Lease

...And summer's lease hath all too short a date - Shakespeare

Well, it's that time of year again...summer is coming to an end.  (Big sigh!)

I refuse to call Labor Day the "official end of summer".  That seems so arbitrary...and quite cruel actually, to just cut summer off.  Like an ungraceful end to fabulous party...lights on...mood broken..."everybody grab your stuff and head home -- party's over".

Nope..I want a more graceful and dignified end to the summer...there are still a few more weeks of beautiful days ahead...summer didn't go anywhere...not yet.

Perfect Time

"Life is what's happening when you're making other plans"

~John Lennon

I cannot tell you the number of women I know who have a "when...then" mentality, particularly when it comes to their own health and well being.  "When the kids start school...then I'll start working out" or "when things aren't so stressful...then I'll start eating better"... or "when the weather gets nicer...then I'll start that walking program" .  The list is endless.

Too many of us are waiting for the "perfect time" to get started.  The time when all of our proverbial ducks are in a row...when we have fewer obligations and tons of time to just spend taking care of ourselves.  Get real!! 

Think back on your life so far.  For most of us, there has always been tons of stuff going on in our lives.  From school, to work, to having a family, to juggling career and kids...its always something.  The notion of a point in your life when time stands still so you can focus on yourself is a myth, particularly for a woman.  If time were really standing that still, chances are you'd be pushing up daisies