Discovering "The Secret"

I've decided to raise my AOL weight loss journal from the dead, mostly because that level of accountability helped keep me focused and on task.  Because of a herniated disk in my spine, weight loss and overall general health has once again become a priority, especially when it sidelines me from being able to go to work or even clean the house.

Here are my limitations:  I'm unable to physically push myself as strenuously as I have in the past.  I will include fitness into my routine, but it's going to have to come slowly.  Instead of using a week to get used to a new exercise, it may have to take a month.  Most importantly, I can't have my back go out again - so steady as she goes.

Other than that, I can definitely make food accountability priority.  This is part of my general goal for fitness and health for 2007.  As I discussed on my MySpace blog, it's not about resolutions because resolutions amount to no more than pipedreams we pop off in a champagne haze.

Rather, goals are dreams with purpose.  I have recently been introduced to http://www.thesecret.tv/, a philosphy that suggests we can have or be anything we want to be if we follow certain natural laws. 

The first of which is the law of attraction.  If we focus on those things we do want, rather than those things we don't want, we attract those things to us.  Where I've had it wrong all these years is to focus on the weight.  It's not important to lose weight, it's important to be a healthy weight.  So instead of focusing on how much weight I have to lose, I will instead meditate, concentrate and focus on the weight I need to be. 

Also instead of focusing on the weight I need to lose, I will instead focus on those things which will naturally result in weight loss.  A focus on health instead of diet and exercise.  A focus on eating the right foods, instead of the foods I can't indulge in anymore.

I started this process several weeks ago and even though I've slipped off the path here and there, I've found that when I eat unhealthy foods my body now rebels.  So I believe that there might be something to this.

Therefore this blog is to help keep me focused.  Instead of worrying about the scale, I'm going to focus on my daily choices to live a more healthy life.  I haven't decided if I want to track my weightor not, asit seems counter-productive.  I may have to go cold turkey on weigh ins.  If I'm doing all that I can do to lose weight, then I will.  There's no need to obsess over it.

This pertains to the second law: the law of time.  It's simply going to take a certain amount of time for me to get what it is I want.  I can't force it to come any faster, no matter how much I want to.  So I must learn patience, because this is one law I can't control.

The only thing I can control is the third law, the law of action.  It's one thing to dream of what you want, but if you want to achieve it you have to work towards it.  This is the nuts and bolts part of The Secret.  If I want to reach a healthy weight, then I must do the things that contribute to a healthy weight.  Watch portion control, eat healthy food and become more active.

In the spirit of this new philosophy, then, I will post my daily accomplishments instead.  Here I will repeat my mantra to make good choices for a healthy body.  Sometimes it's just an internal chant, especially when my back threatens to keep me immobile.

To track my success, I've chosen http://sparkpeople.com/myspark/sparkpoints.asp, SparkPeople.  Unlike some of the other weight loss websites, this one is completely free.  You can track your food here like on Fitday, but it also gives you a bunch of diet tips and motivational emails if you sign up for them.  I highly recommend them to record your daily food intake and track your fitness accomplishments.

According to Sparkpeople, they give me these guidelines in order to meet my weight loss goals:

Calories: 1520-1850
Fat: 34-73
Carbohydrates: 171-304
Protein: 38-164

Today's results:

Calories: 1357
Fat: 28
Carbohydrates: 213
Protein: 75

Today was a successful day and one day closer to a healthy body.

Tags: weight loss, developing healthy habits, The Secret