A little inspiration for the WLC girls

Hey everyone, I just thought I'd share something I ripped out of a magazine about 2 years ago. I have no idea who said it, but every time I read it I feel a little better and a lot more motivated. Enjoy =)

"There's an old dutch proverb that goes, 'A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains.' How many times have we thrown in the towel just because the weight didn't come off at the rate we would like? How often has bitter disappointment tormented us to the point of complete abandon? Think back to your own weight gain. Did you put on a pound a month? Did you have some months when you didn't gain anything and others where your weight went up by two or three pounds?

You probably don't know your rate of gain for sure because you weren't looking, you weren't monitoring closely, you weren't too concerned. So, that pound a month, which is nothing at all really, actually ended up with us about a stone heavier than we were a year before. Five years of that and there we are - five stone overweight!

Our problem now we've decided to lose weight is that suddenly we're very interested. Now we're monitoring closely. Now we're concerned. So high on my list of vital tools to help you succeed is patience. We need the patience to accept that losing a pound a week is extremely good going, and the patience to accept that some weeks it's OK to stand still and then lose a couple of pounds the week after. In fact, what we desperately need is patience with ourselves for not doing everything perfectly.

'Perfectionist thinking' is such a big stumbling block for so many of us. Instead of feeling good about every improvement we make, no matter how small, we kick ourselves because we feel we could have done better. So come on folks, give yourself a pat on the back. Congratulate yourself every time you break the habit of eating beyond fullness, everytime you skip dessert, or don't snack on crisps. These small changes are significant, important and praiseworthy.

There are some things I'd love to ban, and perfectionist thinking is certainly one of them. Guilt, blame, harmful anger, jealousy, pride - all these pile up to create a negative mind-set that damages our chances of losing weight.

So enjoy the journey, every step of it, every moment of the Big Dipper ride, the ups and downs. And let's keep in mind that when you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's too enjoy each step along the way."