Give It All You've Got

“We keep going back, stronger, not weaker,
because we will not allow rejection to beat us down.
It will only strengthen our resolve.
to be successful there is no other way.”

Earl G. Graves
(Nationally recognized authority on Black business development and the founder and publisher of Black Enterprise Magazine.)

GIVE IT ALL YOU'VE GOT

On New Year’s Eve of 2002 (2003 was the next day), I made a resolution that dramatically changed my life forever and I’ve managed to keep it every day, ever since.

What was it?

I made walking a daily, health habit for life.

What’s the secret?

You really gotta wanna change that damaging behavior, whatever it is, once and for all. And at that particular point, I wanted to, needed to lose weight and get healthier more than anything else in the Universe. And I knew the only way for me to do it was to get serious about daily cardio and develop walking into a daily habit - combined with my already improved, healthier eating plan – for life.

The diet I was on was successfully working, just not fast enough. My weight was eking off and by diet alone, I was only able to lose about 40 pounds in the first year. While this is not stellar, it’s nothing to sniff at, either. I had about 90-100 more pounds to go and was eager to get it over with ASAP, but in the most natural, healthy and safest of ways, so my excess weight would stay off of me for good this time.

As of today, January 28, 2008, I’m still walking every single day, no matter what, and my weight’s down 145 pounds, on a good day. And I’m going into my 4th year of maintenance - a lifetime achievement for me. Traditionally, I would’ve zoomed right back up the scale once again if it were not for my diet diligence and my daily walking routine. Nothing, and I mean nothing, comes between me and my daily walk. Ask anyone who knows me.

If I can manage to turn my life around, you can, too, and I’ll help.

Resolutions can be made at any time, on any day of the year. They can even begin right now, today. When you make a resolution, it doesn’t mean that the thing you want to work on is gonna get better or change right then and there, like, Poof! And you’re thin, or sexier, or healthier. Or Poof! You quit smoking, drinking, or whatever.

What counts first when you make the resolution is that you’ve had absolutely enough of that certain bad behavior or situation that you want to clean up, and I mean you’ve had enough. You’re at your breaking point, at your wits end.

Then you must do something that very day to stop your destructive behavior that will improve your situation and move you toward your ultimate, healthier goal.

When you need to lose weight and take that first walk, even if it’s for five minutes, you’ve already won the battle. Now all you have to do is fight the rest of the war by duplicating that same effort, that feeling that got you out the door or to put that cigarette down in the first place.

You accomplish this by reminding yourself everyday about how sick and tired you are of the thing, like being so heavy, so fat, so unhealthy, so this or so that. Don’t obsess; don’t beat yourself up about it, just look at it in an honest light – every morning, and every night. Remind yourself of what you need to do to get healthier and where you want to go.

And if you fall a bit short with your New Year’s resolutions, don’t worry, there’s always the next meal, the next minute, the next second where you can just simply begin again.

One success leads to another and then another, and then another, and before you know it, the scale will start to move in a healthier, downward direction. Or, you’ll stop buying cigarettes, or wine, or sweets, or whatever - and get on the road to wellness.

I know a gal in her upper seventies who walks 1.25 miles every single day that the weather’s above 30 degrees in her southern Indiana hometown – and she walks every day when she’s down on Ft. Myers Beach, Florida. She gives it all she’s got - every single day she’s alive. What do you suppose she knows that we don’t?

Give It All You’ve Got.

Make these five little words your mantra, your weight loss, wellness, health and fitness battle cry for 2008. Begin right now.

Make this the year you finally lose your weight, or stop smoking, or stop drinking - once and for all.

And you CAN do it. No matter what anyone else says.

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