Size 6 HERE I COME!

Goosfraba weight issues! I am sitting here eating once again a cheeseburger from McDonald's when I get this email about an appointment I have tomorrow night in order to get my measurements taken. Suddenly I feel this urge to stop eating the cheeseburger and go for a run around my store...about 10 times. Ever since I have had my store, I have not been eating the way I should. I have gained weight due to lots of things such as; poor eating, going off medication, stress, and mostly because I stopped taking my tap classes. Now, I could sit here and feel crappy and sulk about the way I feel about the way I look. HOWEVER, The Secret has worked for many when it comes to weight loss, I have seen it with my own eyes. I am here to share with you what I am going to.

I am going to this appointment knowing in my head that by the time this wedding comes....actually sooner....that I WILL be a size 6. I know I will be. How do I know you are asking? Well, I did what The Secret said to do. I put a picture of myself in a bikini from 11 years ago...before childbearing days, next to my bed. Every night I focus on this picture and tell myself that I will look like this again! I thank the universe for keeping me healthy and making me skinny. (I seriously have not been sick since I read the book.)

I started the 10,000 step challenge and so far have reached 10,000 steps all but 4 days in one month. What makes up for those 4 days are the days that I was well over 10,000. I read yesterday that when you do the 10,000 step challenge it takes 6 months to lose all the weight. At first I was disappointed in the long wait. Then I read on to see that because it takes 6 months, the weight stays off. YEAH! LOVIN THAT! My clothes do not fit any better after one month which to most would be discouraging, but not me. I know my size 6 is coming. I am not going to sit here and think, "Well, I don't want this lady seeing me the way I look right now." Nor I am going to think that I will continue to be this weight in 2 years. HELL NO! LOL! Don't think that you can sit there and do nothing and lose weight. It is something you have got to work at. First you have got to work on your thinking! If you think you are going to stay at a weight you are not comfortable with then guess what....YOU WILL! Once you have it in your head that you will be that size you want, go after it. Start making a plan to achieve this goal. Sometimes it does include changing your habits which we all get stuck in....believe me I know!

I met a woman years ago when I worked in retail. She was once 1200 pounds. When I met her she was 550 pounds. She lost and incredible 650 pounds! Because I worked in a store that carried plus sizes she was able to find something to fit her. I was so inspired by this woman who was once stuck in a bed not able to fit out of her bedroom door. Here she was standing in front of me shopping for clothes when before she had to be naked covered with blankets. How did she get that heavy? She went through a depression that took years to get out of. She was always a larger lady from her teenage years and on. One day she made a decision that she was going to be able to lose enough weight to get into a car and go shopping for clothes. It took some time and lots of slow moving but she accomplished what she set her mind to do. The only surgery she had was the one where the doctors had to remove so much loose skin due to her weight loss.

Put yourself in her shoes. She could have given up, she almost died from being so unhealthy. All it took for her was one positive thought, one positive decision to get her where she is today. Do not sit there and tell yourself that you cannot do it. Tell yourself that you can and you will. If this woman can do it, anyone can. I was lucky enough to have had the chance to meet her and see first hand how someone can totally turn their life around.

Size 6 HERE I COME!

What I am thankful for today:
energy
the power to change anything in your life

pedometers

the 10,000 step challenge

the power of positive thinking

inspirational people I have met throughout my life

my children thinking I am beautiful no matter what I look like or feel like
the picture of me in my bikini

water

sneakers

the ability to walk whether rain or shine

Jenny who keeps me motivated to keep walking and keep up my faith in losing weight

sunsets which remind me that everyday is a new day and that I am that much closer to my size 6!!

Spreading the Light

A huge thank you to everyone who helped out with the Locks of Love fundraiser. It is so awesome to see all those wonderful people get together for such an awesome cause.

Turning on the computer this morning, I of course see the earthquake in Italy and all of the horrible news on my Yahoo home page. It is so hard to avoid because everywhere you look there is bad news. I love keeping up to date with current events, don't get me wrong. However, I know that seeing all of this horrible news and not seeing anything positive is what has everyone so down, negative and feeling all around crappy. You cannot help but to feel so badly for these people that are losing their homes or have lost loved ones. It is only natural to feel sad over it. Seriously though, how does feeling sad over it help us or them, in any way? We can all try to help by sending things out to them, or sending positive thoughts their way. In one of my Beliefnet articles it stated that if you cannot help out a person in need by sending money or goods, close your eyes and send light from your fingers, your heart and your toes. Feel as though you are sending light to the most darkest parts of the world. How simple is that? So I close my eyes and picture myself standing in the sand facing the sun. I spread my arms up and out as though I am reaching for the sun. I then picture light coming from my heart, my finger tips and my toes while I picture it spiraling to people in need. If I can help spread joy and light so simply, why not try it. When people are in a very bad situation thy cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel. There may be steps we need to climb to find it, but it is there. We all know that hard times do not last forever and that something wonderful always ends up coming out of it. However, it may not be right away.

We cannot stop bad things from happening, it is a part of life. Focusing on the bad things however, is in our control. When I am done praying and sending light to people in need, I move onto positive thoughts. If only the newspapers and the home pages of internet sites did the same thing, people would be a lot happier and much more positive. If you want to know how the author created Chicken Soup for the Soul, it is because he was tired of reading everyday news and needed to create something positive for people to read. Now, he is a millionaire.

What I am thankful for today:
positive thoughts
light at the end of the tunnel
positive people
everyone who helped with the fundraiser

people who amaze me

magical moments

Creativity, a Huge Part in Finding Happiness

I received this article from Beliefnet.com, a site that sends me an inspirational quote and inspirational article every day via email. Today's article was 7 Tips to Finding Happiness. In the article there were a lot of things that most of us do everyday already such as; giving someone a hug, feeling connected in nature, giving of ourselves and so on. I know I am hugging people everyday, especially my children and I constantly feel connected with nature (a little more distant in the winter though) and I am always trying to find ways to give of myself. One of the tips actually hit me in a very good way. The tip was to use your creativity to make a project that touches others.

Reading The Secret (all you negative people can now sigh and say...here we go again..LOL! Goosfraba to you!) has me connecting with some very positive people. And, we are all the same. We all hug which is one thing, but the best is the creativity we share in our projects. The bestest is what we end up doing with these projects. Most of us have that one or two scrapbooks that we call our own but along with those are the scrapbooks for our children. We also make cards to send to our friends, family and to those who need a little pick me up. We make scrapbooks, paper crafts and chipboard albums to give as a gift. We all know that right now with the economy being the way it is, it means more than anything to receive a gift that took creativity and less money. On a personal level, for me it means so much more to receive something that a person put a lot of thought and time into. Something that I will never forget and can cherish for the rest of my life.

I say to my children and my husband all the time that if our house were to burn to the ground, as long as my family, my pets, my scrapbooks and the sentimental gifts that had been given to me throughout the years were ok....than I am happy. I do not need the rest of the material things because they can all be replaced. To me, there is no creativity involved in picking out a new TV, furniture, stereo, etc. It is all a matter of ones taste and how much they have in their wallet.

One thing people need to understand that your creativity doesn't need to be a project or something one can hold in their hands. Creativity can also be held in one's heart. I have run into so many people that I admire for their ability to come up with such awesome ideas. There are those who seriously are not creative at all. Maybe they just have not found their nitch. Some people I think cannot be creative because they tell themselves that they are not. Maybe it is also due to ones stress level and inability to think outside of their box. I have been blessed to have people in my life do some amazing creative things for me, things that I can only hold in my heart...and my mind, hoping it doesn't completely go on me as I get older...LOL! I am hoping that I can be an inspiration as well as people have been to me. Whether it is a card, scrapbook, a surprise visit, a magical moment, creativity is one huge tip to happiness. I thank all of those who have blessed me with their creativity. I thank all of those have inspired me to be creative. Being creative can take a moment of awkwardness, or what seems a bad situation and turn it into something absolutely unforgettable.

Today is a GREAT day!

Makenna went to bed last night at 9pm and woke up this morning at 9:45am. It was a wonderful night of rest for everyone in the Musser house. Makenna is once again teething. This should be the last of it. Believe it or not, she is still in a good mood....with a couple wishy washy moments when she gets upset over silly things. Thankfully she is easily snapped out of it. Today is going to be a great day because she is feeling well rested and I am going to make today a great day!

I sometimes end my emails with Make today a GREAT day. It is a saying that my friend Jen from PartyLite uses. I love that saying because we are totally in control of what are day entails. Yes, crap happens but it is our attitude that we need to adjust when it does. I firmly believe that if you start the day off on the wrong foot, it doesn't mean that your entire day will go that way. It will if you have the attitude, "Oh great this is the way my entire day will go!" Why, because you are telling yourself that it will. Try telling yourself that it is going to get better.

A while back I woke up with a major headache, not enough sleep, and it was a rainy cold day. Makenna woke up early and cranky and of course my first thought was.....HERE WE GO! This day is going to suck! Something clicked in my head and I thought, "No, it doesn't have to continue this way and it isn't going to." I got Makenna her breakfast, took some Advil, sat down and said to myself, "I want to have a great day. I want Makenna to be in a better mood, I want to be free from this headache and I want to be on time for work." I also relaxed and took deep breaths about 5 times. Don't worry I didn't pass out. LOL! My frame of mind went from crabby and not feeling great to feeling a lot better. My day went wonderful! Makenna was happy, my headache was gone, the sun came out, I had new customers in my store.....everything went wonderful. Now I could have just gone with my day being crappy and let more crappy things happen by staying negative but I chose not too. Even if something happened to set me back a little, because of my frame of mind, it didn't bother me. We are in control of our lives, completely. We all can choose to make today a GREAT day. Or, we can sit and complain and get comfortable staying negative so that our day continues down a negative path. What is your choice?

What I am thankful for:
Spring
the sun
the spring flowers
the power to change my mood
the warmer weather today
the fact that today is going to be a GREAT day!