The One Day Way - Chapters 1 & 2

Excerpts from chapters 1 and 2 of The One Day Way:

Chapter 1: Old Habits Are Hard to Break - Let's Make Better Habits That Are Hard to Break Too...

If your desire to change is not intense enough to push you past the point of no return, and if you don't have a fearless attitude, you will give up.

We think if we can't achieve tremendous levels of success overnight, then we may as well give up.

Success has nothing to do with someone else's expectations or your getting into the same size jeans as your best friend wears. The truth is this: success is personal. No one else can dictate how you have to measure your own success. For the women who has been eating Oreo cookies and potato chips every afternoon for as long as she can remember, going one day without either is a huge deal! That day is a success. Whether or not anyone else struggles with cookies and chips doesn't matter. You'll be amazed how far your small steps, taken consistently, will get you.

I like the points she makes in this chapter. We can't keep comparing ourselves to others, we need to make this personal and measure success in a way that is meaningful to ourself.  We also need to stop looking for instant results and fad diets.  Those don't work.   We need to make lifestyle changes, a little at a time and as we make those small changes and maintain them, we'll see results over the long haul.

Chapter 2: Are You at Your Point of No Return? First Change How You Think

In order to lose weight, live well, and love your life, you first have to reach a point of no return. If you don't pass that point, chances are good that you will eventually return to your old way of living. To make change last, you nee to decide that you're not just going to try a diet, but you are going to change your entire lifestyle, permanently. Going back to your old life is no longer an option.

The One-Day Way celebrates only the successes of today, so ditch the long-range dieting mind-set, and forget about the hourlong walk a week ago.  Instead, shift your focus to the success you can achieve in one day - today.

 I like what I bolded in the above paragraph.  PERMANENTLY.

Guess What Came in the Mail Today?

I like Facebook :) One of my favorite Christian romance authors, MaryLu Tyndall, is on Facebook and I joined her Facebook fan club. Not too long ago she was asking for what she called influencers for her new release, The Raven Saint. Those who were chosen would receive a free copy of her newest book and all they have to do in response is to blog about the book, talk about it on message boards and tell people about it in person. No problem! I can do that :)

It came in the mail today! I'm excited :) Here's the cover:

Here's the description of the story:

When Grace Westcott is kidnapped by a French mercenary, tossed aboard his ship, and told she will be sold to a Spanish Don in Columbia, she cannot imagine what she has done to deserve such a horrid fate. She has spent her entire life serving God and helping the poor, not to mention trying to save the souls of her two wayward sisters. Thinking perhaps God has sent her to preach to the vile captain and his crew, Grace's every attempt to correct their sinful ways is rewarded with only mockery. When Grace's situation grows far worse than she could imagine, she is forced to face her own human weaknesses. But she isn't prepared to face her biggest weakness of all-falling in love with the nefarious captain, Rafe Dubois.

 I haven't read the other two books in this series, so that'll be something I'll be doing as soon as I can.  I've read some of her other books and can recommend them highly.

The Falcon and The Sparrow was a wonderful Regency romance full of intrigue and drama.  The heroine is forced to spy for France against her will and she falls in love with the man she's sent to spy upon.

Mary Lu's Legacy of the King's Pirates series was amazing.   If you loved Pirates of the Caribbean and pirate romances, these are for you.   First we have The Redemption, followed by The Reliance and ending with The Restitution.

Be sure to check out Mary Lu's books, you can buy them at Amazon.com or at CBD.com.  I'll be reading The Raven Saint soon, so be sure to come back here for the review :)

The One Day Way - Introduction

I started reading "The One Day Way" by Chantal Hobbs last night.   I'd begun it earlier, but wanted to start over, this time with a highlighter :)   The subtitle of the book is "Today Is All the Time You Need to Lose All the Weight You Want".

The best way to share my thoughts about this book is to share some excerpts and comment on them, so let's begin.

Introduction  - Today Really Can Be Different From the Rest

You want to break free from the habits that have held you back, but you're beginning to realize that the changes won't last unless you look below the surface.

Your opportunity to change happens today - not yesterday or next week.

Most diets fail because the dieter fails to first change the way she thinks.

Your life won't change as a result of setting fantastic and lofty long-range goals. Your life will change because of what you do today and the next day and so on.

Your thinking always controls your actions. Both negative and positive thoughts have the ability to dictate your actions at any given moment. What gives you the upper hand is that you have a choice: will you make sure that positive thoughts control your mind, or will you give in to negative thoughts? The ability to choose your thoughts and actions gives you tremendous power. You can decide which thoughts will rule your actions, and those decisions will dictate whether you succeed or repeat a past failure.

You can change your life in some way, starting today!

Grasping the truth of how to lose weight permanently and gain a new life of passion is a day-to-day process. Losing one pound at a time, strengthening one muscle at a time - that is how you can free yourself from frustration and failure. You're not preparing to embark on a new diet but rather a new way of thinking and living.

If you want to really change your life, you have to understand that you change it in one day. And that day is today. What you did or failed to do yesterday is in the past. Don't let it drag you down. And what you hope to do tomorrow doesn't matter either. Tomorrow is beyond your reach. What you can control is to choose the best actions today. You change your life with what is immediately in front of you. You have been given today, so use it well.

The way to get a new life is to do things today that will propel you to change in small, measurable pieces...you take a step toward the life you want today, and then another step tomorrow...don't be interested in perfection; instead be committed to progress.

These were the portions I highlighted from the introduction. 

All I can do is what's immediately in front of me right now.

In the past, I've tended to suffer from having lofty goals and constantly falling short.  That's been very frustrating and I give up because I feel like I'll never be able to lose all the weight and get to the goal.

Looking back, I can see that focusing on small changes and maintaining them does work.   Granted, it works s...l...o...w...l...y, but it works!  Without being completely and totally dedicated to losing weight, I've lost nearly 70lbs over the last 7 or so years.   That was simply by making small changes to what I ate, drank, and my activity level.  We are talking small changes, not big ones.

I can do this, and so can you!

Getting Back on Track

I haven't officially begun my healthy eating yet.   I've done my shopping and have purchased fresh and frozen fruits and vegetables, chicken breast and salmon fillets.  Whole grains, sprouted whole grain bread and some additional seasonings also made their way into my shopping basket.   There were other items as well.

I'm not following an official plan this time.   I need to develop a habit of healthy eating that's realistic and fits into the lifestyle of me and my husband.  I'll be working on portion control and proportions with my meals.  I'm using the portion guide at WebMD.com to help me determine proper sizes and amounts.

Tonight's dinner is chicken breast sauteed in a small amount of olive oil then I added some pesto.   I've also prepared a mixture of brown rice and Kashi's whole grain pilaf cooked in chicken broth and will be adding a bag of an asparagus vegetable mix.   I'll be heating that up in the pan in which I cooked the chicken so that the vegetables pick up that flavor.

Breakfasts will vary from 2 slices of sprouted whole grain toast spread with 1 1/2 tablespoons natural peanutbutter and topped with a sliced banana; steel cut oatmeal with fresh or frozen fruit and unsweetened vanilla soymilk; Yoplait yogurt with some granola and fresh fruit.

Lunches will be soups or stir-fries.  Dinner will be something like what I made this evening.   I still need to figure out snacks for me.   My husband will be snacking on things like cheesesticks and peanuts.  He needs to maintain or gain some weight, he's 6 feet tall and barely 150lbs.

Hmmmm...fresh cucumber with a lite cheesestick, or carrots and bell peppers with hummus.   Those are good snack ideas :)

Please feel free to share snack suggestions in the comments, I could use some help!

The One Day Way

I won a copy of Chantal Hobb's latest book, "The One Day Way" in a Facebook contest and it arrived in the mail a week or so ago.   I've just begun to read it and am going to share portions of it here along with my thoughts.

This looks to be a very good book.

New Beginnings

It's great that we can always begin again when we fall off the wagon.  The good news is that I haven't gained any weight, I've been stable.   But now it's time to work on the next batch of pounds.

I'm aiming to get down to 160-170lbs by the end of 2010, and now's as good a time to begin as any.

I'll be posting more later today, right now I need to make a run to Super Walmart and get a few things I forgot to buy yesterday.