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Most of the time when we read about diet and weight-loss success stories, we hear how “easy” it was and how “anyone” can do it.   But the reality is, for most of us, it’s far from easy. In fact sometimes it’s so not easy that we just give up. Believe me, I get it. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve worked hard at eating healthy or exercising with little to no results.

Of course, I’m still inspired when I hear success stories of women like Valerie Bertinelli and Marie Osmond.  But what do we do when we are giving it all we got, and we are still not getting the results we’re looking for?

Should we throw in the towel?  Consider ourselves a failure?  Give up?

No, absolutely not.

Rather than looking at where we’ve gone wrong and just giving-up, it’s time to look at what we’ve done right.  That’s what I’ve been trying to do.  Instead of focusing on the fact that I haven’t lost any weight in the last six weeks (even though I’ve been eating healthy), I’m trying to focus on the positive…And you can do it too.

For me, it all started in May, when I decided to get serious about making healthy lifestyle changes.  Not just because I want to lose weight, but also because I know it will make a difference in my overall health and wellness.  I knew I wouldn’t be able to make all the changes I wanted to over night, but I did want to make the commitment to gradually eliminate the unhealthy foods from my diet, while incorporating more nutritious foods.

And now I find myself in the classic half-full or half-empty mark in my healthy eating plan.  I can choose to see my plan as half-empty, because I haven’t even lost one pound yet.   Or I can choose to see my plan as half-full, because I have had success in eating healthier foods and avoiding sugar.  In other words, I can choose to feel good about myself, or choose to feel like a failure.  It’s totally up to me.  And I’ve decided to try something new, and “choose” to feel good about myself and take a closer look at all the ways I’ve been successful.

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Well, I’m here to admit that I was unsuccessful in my Choose You commitment. I don’t really consider it a failure though, because I did meet most of my goals. I’m very happy that I am finally at the point where I am not craving sweets and other junk foods.

I didn’t lose any weight, but I was successful in maintaining my healthier eating habits. I wasn’t even tempted when my daughter brought back a plate full of deserts when we went out last week.

I have no plans of giving up. My next Choose You commitment will be to continue my healthy eating while also integrating regular exercise (specifically swimming) into my plan. Although I hope to lose some weight in conjunction with all of this, I’m not going to hold myself to any number on a scale. If I lose five pounds that will be a great bonus, but I know the most important thing is that I am choosing a healthier lifestyle for myself.

I recently wrote a post about choosing to see the positive when we are working hard at weight-loss and fitness goals, but not seeing many results.

I find myself in the classic half-full or half-empty mark in my healthy eating plan. I can choose to see my plan as half empty, because I haven’t even lost one pound yet. Or I can choose to see my plan as half-full, because I have had success in eating healthier foods and avoiding sugar. In other words, I can choose to feel good about myself or choose to feel like a failure. It’s totally up to me. And I’ve decided to try something new, “choose” to feel good about myself and take a closer look at all the ways I’ve been successful.

Although I haven’t lost any weight yet, I have had the strength and willpower to maintain healthy eating habits (and give-up sugar) for over six weeks. In my book, that’s success.

Anyway, that’s my story. I’ll let you know more about my new diet and fitness commitment next week.

What role does stress play in your life?   Sadly, these days, stress is not a rare event for most of us.  Personally, I’m not sure I can even remember the last time I had a totally stress-free day. Can you?

Stress isn’t always a bad thing, but when stress becomes chronic it can suppress the immune system, cause high blood pressure, and even increase the risk of stroke and heart attack.  For this reason, it’s extremely important to learn how to recognize the warning signs of unhealthy levels of stress.  We need to recognize when stress is becoming a problem, before it has a chance to cause harmful physical and mental complications.

Would you know if your stress level was becoming unhealthy?  Here are some of the symptoms you may experience if you’re suffering with chronic stress…

• Muscle tension
• Physical weakness
• Poor memory
• Sweaty hands
• Fear
• Confusion
• Inability to relax
• Constant worry
• Shortness of breath
• Palpitations
• Upset stomach
• Poor concentration

When these symptoms are accompanied by ongoing stress, it’s time to consult with a medical professional.

[I know there are many people that think it's a sign of weakness to admit that stress, anxiety, or depression is getting the better of them...But the truth is, it's a sign of strength.  It takes a courageous person to recognize when it's time to reach out for help.]

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Thanks for all of your wonderful and supportive comments on last week’s post. As promised, all of your comments were entered into a drawing for a Choose You stainless water bottle and lapel pin. Here is how it went down…

I had told my daughter (and official Choose You referee) that she could pick the winner. But when it was time to pick, my mother (and Choose You supporter) wanted to have a debate over who was more deserving of that honor. Ultimately, I let my daughter pick. Then, in order to appease my mother’s sense of competition, I had them both compete to see who could draw the better picture of the winner’s name. Only catch was, they didn’t want me to choose whose picture was better, they wanted all of you to decide (see poll at the end of this post).

And the winner is…

Congratulations Michele. You are the winner of the Choose You water bottle…I’ll be contacting you soon.

So now that we’ve taken care of business, let me tell you how I’ve been doing with my Choose You commitment.

It’s good and bad. The good…I haven’t eaten any of the foods I committed not to eat (that would be sugar and high fat snacks). The bad…I’ve been over compensating by eating more low-fat snacks (mostly pretzels). Since part of my commitment also involves losing at least five pounds, my current pretzel consumption isn’t going to be acceptable. But not to worry. I have a plan.

This is something that has worked for me in the past, so I’m going to do it again. Since I tend to be a “grazer” when it comes to eating snacks, I’m going to use small zip-lock bags to divide my snacks into smaller servings. I’ll go ahead and do it now so I can show you what I mean…and so I actually do it.

So now the bag of pretzels is filled with a bunch of smaller bags. I’m going to do the same thing with low-fat Cheez-Its. I know you can buy snacks already in smaller bags, but I always think it’s more expensive that way.

In addition to trying to be more conscientious about my snack consumption, I’m also going to start using the online calorie counter/food journal again (it really helps keep me more mindful of what I’m putting in my mouth).

And although I tend to be more of a do as I say, not as I do kind of girl…I’m going to try to take my own advice about willpower…

The more willpower you have the easier it will be, but perfection isn’t necessary.

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Be Careful of Diet Resolutions – Cross Posted at BlogHer Health & Wellness

Welcome to the dawn of a new decade.  I would be lying if I said I was sad to see the last one go.

It’s a new year, and once again we will all spend time analyzing our lives.  We will wonder if there is something we can change that could make our lives better in the coming year.

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This is a re-write from something I wrote back in January 2007…

Finding Empowerment Through Adversity

When we are suffering it is very difficult, if not impossible, to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  But it is there.  We will get through it.  And in time, our wounds really will be healed.

Can something good come out of adversity?  Often in the face of adversity, we are unable to see anything through our pain.  The only thing we can think about are questions.  Why is this happening to me?  How will I go on?  How will I survive?

Although we may want to, we should not turn away from our pain.  It is very important that we feel all of our feelings during these times of adversity and heartache.  Denying our pain, or denying our feelings, will not benefit us in any way.  In fact, it will likely prolong our troubles.  But if we look at our situation, and face our problems head-on…we will triumph.

We may sometimes feel like we are losing the battle; but when we push through the battle, we come out on the other side the winner of the war.  That’s because we are empowered when we conquer life’s toughest battles.  Only at these times of empowerment do we grow into the people we are meant to be.  Think about that for a minute.  Who would you be right now, if it wasn’t for the adversity you have been through in your life?

For me personally, I wish I had never had to go through many of the painful events of my life – loss, divorce, illness, betrayal, just to name a few.  But I also know that I would not be the woman I am today, had I not.  My past heartache and my past pain, are what make me the compassionate person that I am today.  And in retrospect, I don’t think I would want to be the kind of person who knows no hardships.  It is because of these hardships that I appreciate every thing I have, even the little things, the things that many people often take for granted.

I can now see that my past adversity, has truly been a blessing in my life.  And although I don’t look forward to future adversity, I do know it will come.  And when it does come, I will have the knowledge of my past strengths to help me overcome, and once again triumph.

My hope for everyone, is that they are able to one day look past their pain, to find their empowerment.

September was childhood cancer awareness month and I never had a chance to post on it. But I did want to at least mention Carolyn Rubenstein’s book Perseverance.

Can you imagine being in high school or college and suddenly learning you have cancer? You thought you had a lifetime ahead of you and the whole world at your feet, but suddenly you’re told… maybe not. How would you cope?

That’s the question the twenty young people in this book had to answer when they were diagnosed with childhood cancer. Perseverance shares life lessons learned through their stories and educates the reader on how to incorporate them into his/her life. It tells of their trials and tribulations, of their triumphs, and of the unique challenges that day-to-day life brings them. Perseverance also provides an intimate look at the lives and journeys of these young people and how their courage and strength have affected the lives of others.

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Is stress wearing you down? Are you worried about the bad economy? Your job? The mortgage? Your health? Your family? If so, you are not alone.

Life is always changing, and that can feel very stressful. But often, seemingly bad things will happen in our lives, that will actually turn out to be the catalysts to something positive. It’s very true that when one door closes another will open. Although it never feels so great when that one door closes. Recently I’ve had several doors close on me. But as hard as it’s been, I can already see that these things needed to happen to bring me closer to where I am meant to be.

There are three things we can do to help relieve the stress in our lives…

Continue reading the full post here.

“Go Confidently In The Direction Of Your Dreams” — Henry David Thoreau

With the pressures of daily life, do any of us really have time to think about our dreams? Do we even know what our dreams are? Kids know what their dreams are, just ask them…What do you want to be when you grow up? It is always such and easy answer for them. But once we do grow up, then what? Is is too late for us?

What if we never realized, that we might have been forgetting to follow our dreams? Worse than that, what if we thought we were following our dreams, but it turned out that we were living a nightmare? Then what? Is it too late? Do we get a second chance at our dreams?

When is it too late to follow your dreams? I would like to believe the answer to that question is never. I think our dreams are ever changing, and ever evolving, just as our lives are. I think that it’s o.k. not to be exactly sure what our dreams are, and it’s also o.k. if our dreams change from time to time. The only thing that is not o.k., is to give-up on our dreams. Because, once you give-up your dreams, you lose hope for your future.

But why then, do so many people give-up or deny their dreams? That is an easy one to answer…They give up because they are afraid, afraid of failure. Fear is what stops us from following our dreams. Fear is the darkness that casts a shadow over our light. And, fear is what we need to overcome if we want to reach for our dreams.

The most important thing to remember…Is to never let go of your hopes and dreams, even when you are not sure what they are. So, take some time to figure out what your greatest dreams are for your life, and then walk confidently towards them, without fear.

More on following your dreams…

• BlogHer Contributing Editor Marie Niles has recently done a post on How To Make Your Dreams Come True and Discovering Your Dream, Purpose or Passion.
• BlogHer Contributing Editor Mata wrote  10 Years From Now — Where is your happiness?

*cross-posted at Be The Change You Want To See In Yourself (from February 28, 2007)

Valerie Bertinelli’s Weight Loss: Inspiring or Controversial?

Last week I watched Valerie Bertinelli and Marie Osmond on the Oprah Winfrey Show talking about their personal weight loss success stories, and I found both stories to be very inspirational. As most of you already know, I’ve been struggling with my weight for several years now. And for that reason, I find myself easily able to relate to these two women. After watching that show I felt more motivated then ever to continue eating healthy and losing weight. I don’t think I was alone, but as always, there was also a backlash.

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When you hear the word “yoga” what do you think of?  You may think you know all there is to know about yoga, but there is a good chance that you don’t.  Let’s take a look at some of what women are blogging on the topic of yoga.

Have you heard of Hot Yoga?

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Would you like to live to 100 years and beyond? Dr. Oz and other medical experts believe that a calorie restriction diet can help people to live longer with a higher quality of life. The calorie restriction diet also focuses on consuming calories that provide a high nutritional value, not just low calorie.

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I wasn’t sure what I was going to write about today, and then I came across this interesting article on how reading can reduce stress. Since I love to read, and I also love anything that can help me reduce stress, I thought this would be a great post for today.

Are you stressed about the economy? Your job? Your kids? Politics? It’s no secret that life is very stressful these days. So…What can we do to reduce stress? Apparently, reading a book is one of the best ways to reduce stress.

Reading is the best way to relax and even six minutes can be enough to reduce the stress levels by more than two thirds or 68%.

New research by consultancy Mindlab International at the University of Sussex says reading works better and faster than other methods to calm frazzled nerves such as listening to music, going for a walk or settling down with a cup of tea.

Are you a reader? Does it help you relax and de-stress?

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A few weeks ago I was flipping through the million channels on my TV trying to find just one thing worth watching (which isn’t an easy task). Luckily I found Dr. Wayne Dyer on PBS.

I read my first book by Dr. Wayne Dyer (Real Magic) about twelve years ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since. So when I watched his seminar on PBS that was based on his latest book, of course I had to run out the next day and buy it. This one is called Change Your Thoughts – Change Your Life, and it’s his interpretation of the 81 verses of the Tao.

[The Tao Te Ching was written five hundred years before the birth of Jesus, and offers advice and guidance for living a balanced life.]

As I read, I came across aspects of this wisdom that are helpful in my quest for better health and weight loss. So, even though I’m no philosopher (obviously), I thought I would share some verses that stood out for me. They offer guidance for healthy living and even weight loss. Here are three.

[Keep in mind that I am only pulling the parts of these verses that I find most relevant to good health, this is by no means a complete look at any of these verses.]

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October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and I wanted to do a little more than the average breast cancer awareness post.  Here is my humble attempt.  I’ve put this post together with; videos of survivors, an interview with Christina Applegate, early signs & symptoms, blogs of note, news, and links to informative support sites.  If I’ve missed something (and I’m sure I have), please share the information with our readers in comments.

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I thought I would take tonight’s post to do a roundup of some of the great fitness blogs on BlogHer.  I took some time and surfed the Health and Wellness BlogHer Blogroll (I also used BlogHers new search tool), and here are fourteen of those blogs.  Do you blog about fitness?  If so, leave you link in comments.

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I have a love/hate relationship with my scale. — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

About eight weeks ago I posted about how I started a pre-diet. I was trying to get reacquainted with the taste of healthy foods, and wean myself off of sugar. As far as that goes, I feel like I’m doing pretty well, I’ve even lost some weight. At the time of the post I had lost about six pounds, and since then I have lost another six. I’m now down 12 pounds from my heaviest weight ever (not counting when I was pregnant), I know because that’s what my scale says. If it wasn’t for my scale I wouldn’t believe I’ve lost any weight at all, so for that reason, I love my scale. However, I also hate that the number is still so high. And, I hate that even after losing 12 pounds, I still have almost 30 to go.

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Dooce on Nightline – Posted by Catherine Morgan

In a much better interview than had been done by Kathie Lee on the Today Show last week, tonight’s Nightline interview with Dooce was witty, clever, and informative.

Are you a woman blogging about politics? Join us at The Political Voices of Women.

Stressing Over Money Can Make You Sick — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

Do you stress over money? I do. With the way the economy is going, if you’re not stressing over money now, you sure could be in the near future. Gas prices are going up, home values are going down, and what money we do have is buying less and less. The thing about stressing over money is…It doesn’t pay the bills. What it can do is make you sick.

Yes, stressing over money (or anything for that matter) can and does make you sick. How sick? Here is an excerpt from an article at About.com, that addresses Health Problems Associated With Stress…

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Healthy Living: Motivation, Dieting, Yoga, and (hopefully) Success – by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer Health and Wellness)

Successful Healthy Living – How I’ve change my life through motivation, dieting, and yoga.

Well, not really. It sounds like a good plan though. The truth is…I have no motivation, I haven’t been able to stick to a diet in years, and yoga is just another four letter word to me. When if comes to healthy living…I’m slowly but surly becoming the poster child (middle-aged woman) for unhealthy living.

So, I started this post thinking I might find some motivation to stop eating so much ice-cream and cookies. And then I came across this…

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Healthy Living and The Great American Health Challenge — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at BlogHer)

We’ve been talking a lot about making healthy lifestyle changes since the New Year. If you are one of the millions that wants to become healthier in 2008, you may be interested in this program…

The American Cancer Society is introducing an exciting new program on Thursday, it’s called The Great American Health Challenge. The campaign is designed as a comprehensive prevention and early detection program. It’s a simple program with four interactive tools to provide information and encourage healthy lifestyles.

The Great American Health Challenge is based on four simple things…

1) Check — Take a quick quiz that screens you for potential risk factors, and promotes early detection and treatment.

2) Move — Encouraging exercise by finding activities that are best suited for your lifestyle.

3) Nourish — Maintain a healthy weight, learn about healthy eating and get tips on diet and nutrition.

4) Quit — Information and tools to help you quit smoking.

So that’s it, four easy steps that could help you prevent cancer and heart disease.

You can also participate in BlogHer’s Good Health-A-Thon.

BlogHer’s Good Health-a-thon is all about what we can do, little by little, day by day, week by week and month by month to live healthier. It’s not a matter of saying “I’m going to go to the gym more this year” and then reviewing your progress in January of 2009, only to discover you haven’t actually used your gym card since mid-February.

Instead, the point of the Good Health-a-thon is to have each of us set simple, attainable, health-related goals for ourselves throughout the year. Our goals can be anything we want, but with the idea of broadening our definition of “health” well beyond calorie counting.

See: Week One

Other recent BlogHer Health and Wellness posts you might be interested in…

Body Image, Dieting, and Your New Years Resolution

Weighing In on the New Years Dieting Frenzy

Four Tips That Could Prolong Your Life

Ten Random Tips For Weight Loss

Journey To Physical Fitness and More

Fitness: It Changed My Life

Curvy Moms Are Brainier

Beans Are A Great Choice For Good Health

Online Diet and Fitness Tools

How Do You Choose To Diet?

Contributing Editor Catherine Morgan
also at CatherineBlogs.com and The Political Voices of Women

Happy New Year everyone! This is one of my most popular posts, and since everyone seems to be talking about dieting and weight loss, I figured now was a good time to re-post. Hope you like it.

THE-ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT DIET PLAN — by Catherine Morgan (cross-posted at Be The Change You Want To See In Yourself)

You heard right. All you can eat. And it’s not a gimmick. How can that be? All you can eat diet? No diet is all you can eat? Well you are right, and wrong. No starvation or quick fix theme diet, is ever going to be an all you can eat diet. And we all know there is no pill or powder that allows you to eat anything you want and still lose weight. So, what exactly is an ALL YOU CAN EAT DIET?

Most diets have you starving, or at least hungry most of the time. If you do happen to lose weight on one of these “fad” diets, you just end up gaining it all back and then some. Worst yet, many of us go on these diets because we know it would be better for our overall health if we lost some of our excess weight. We might want to lower our blood pressure, control sleep apnea, prevent diabetes, just to name a few. But, what we end up doing by following “fad” or starvation type diets, is put ourselves at greater risk for health problems.

So, why do we do it? Why do we spend millions on books, pills, and powders that are generally 100% proven to be ineffective. Well, I don’t know the answer to that. But, it might have something to do with the fact that, “keeping” you at an ideal weight can’t be the goal of these multi-million dollar companies, or there just would be no more money to made.

Not only is this an ALL YOU CAN EAT DIET. But, it is also not going to cost you one penny to get the secrets. Because, I’m going to just tell you. The truth is, you already know it. It’s just that we have been programed to think that dieting is some kind of big deal, and if we don’t do it just right we will fail. Well, that is just wrong.

The one way you will lose weight, without risking your health and in fact becoming a more healthy person. The one way, is to eat healthy foods. That’s it. Two simple words; HEALTHY FOODS. What ones? Any and all of them. What is healthy? Basically, anything that isn’t full of sugar, fat, and sodium. Fruits, vegetables, whole wheats, fish, lean meats, milk, cheese, nuts. The list goes on and on. By now we all know the difference between the healthy foods and the not healthy foods. There is no trick, no gimmick. Just stop eating the processed foods that are full of sugar, fat, and sodium; and start eating healthy foods that aren’t.

Throw away the unhealthy foods and the unhealthy diets, and say hello to healthy foods and healthy living. No need to limit yourself. It will take a bit longer, than starvation, but results will last much longer. Once you start eating healthy foods, you won’t have cravings for sugar and salt, you won’t need to binge eat, and most of all you won’t be hungry all the time. You will be on your way to a leaner, healthier you.

No need to make it complicated, just go shopping and get all the healthy foods you want, and start eating them. You can even use the Internet to look up healthy new recipes for the foods you like. Best of all; it’s ALL YOU CAN EAT, ALL THE TIME.

Yum.

ALSO SEE:

Six Tips To A Healthy Diet Plan

3 Easy Steps To Get Started On Your Diet

Women’s Media Center Introducing Progressive Women’s Voices — by Catherine Morgan

I was pleasantly surprised today, to find that my political blog “Informed Voters” was receiving incoming links from The Huffington Post. It seems Carol Jenkins wrote a post about women in politics, and my list of over 275 women political bloggers got a nod. As happy as I am about being recognized by The Huffington Post, the overall message of Carol’s post is an extremely important one…

“Don’t let your voice be silent. Let’s change the conversation together.”

The Women’s Media Center has created Progressive Women’s Voices, a new program to change the conversation and ensure that all of our voices are heard. Through this program, the Women’s Media Center will train, brief and support 15 progressive women whose stories and expertise are critically missing from the national debate.

The Women’s Media Center is seeking participants who represent diverse backgrounds, with experience and knowledge of specific subject areas and with strong communication skills which they will help to further develop. Full program details are available here.

We need your help now – to identify these women and give them a chance to receive the training and support they deserve.

So tell us: Who are the great women out there whose voices deserve to be heard, but who are not yet a part of the national dialogue? Leave your suggestions here, and we’ll make sure that the program information gets in their hands.

And if you’re reading this and think that you may be that woman, then let us know. Whether your expertise is war or peace, leadership, climate change, health care, or technology, chances are you follow the news, and realize that progressive women’s voices, like yours, are missing.

READ THE FULL POST BY CAROL JENKINS HERE

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HOW WE CAN CREATE PEACE AND LOVE IN OUR LIVES – BY LETTING GO OF ANGER AND HATE – by Catherine Morgan

If we wish peace for ourselves, me must first wish peace for others. How do we do that? I think a good place to start is to take “hate” out of our thoughts and mind. It’s easy to say you’re not a hater, but to truly live a life without hating is not that easy. Here are a few suggestions….

1. Start with yourself. Stop hating yourself. Stop hating your weight, your looks, your job, your face, your inabilities, and on and on. This first step might be the most difficult, but it is also the most important. Learn to love yourself.

2. Stop hating the uncontrollable situations in your life. Things like; the traffic, the news, the bills, the check-out girl, any circumstance in your life that makes you angry but that you have no control over.

You can be conscious of your emotions at these times. When you feel yourself getting impatient in a traffic jam, use this time to reflect on your need to learn how to be more patient. Realize that this hold-up may actually keep you from being in an accident yourself, acknowledge that traffic isn’t the enemy unless you let it be. Do this type of refection with all the uncontrollable inconveniences that you hate in your life. Take some time to reflect, see the uselessness in your anger.

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Redefining Yourself From Healthy and Successful to Successfully Living with a Chronic Illness — by Catherine Morgan (cross posted at Living With Chronic Fatigue Syndrome)

This issue is so important, and that is because; When you suffer from chronic illness, although you are being treated (even successfully), going back to your former life before you were sick may be impossible. I hear this all the time from others suffering with CFS and FM, and I am certain it holds true for many others suffering with chronic disease as well. The biggest problem, is that many of us “define” ourselves through our work, or what we do for a living. Quite frankly, this is a bad idea even if you are a healthy person. None of us “are” our work. Our work is not who we are, it’s simply what we do. But, we all know it doesn’t always feel that way, especially when out of nowhere, we are unable to do what we do.

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Find Your Way Out Of The Darkness — by Catherine Morgan 

Challenge yourself to see past the darkness in your life, and find the beauty. Walk through your life today, just a little slower, and just a little more aware. How you see your life is ultimately up to you; if you see yourself as sad, then you are sad. When there is no light at the end of your tunnel, it is because you are choosing not to see it. Just remember that the darkness can not exist without the light, darkness is simply the ying to the lights yang. So, if you are having one of those “dark nights of the soul”, know that when you are ready, you can choose to let the light back in.

See the light at the end of the tunnel, and walk confidently in the direction of your dreams.

(above image from)

How We Can Empower Our Children By Empowering Ourselves — by Catherine Morgan

I wanted to write a post about children today, but I wasn’t sure how to start it. Then I remembered how about 12 years ago (shortly after I had my second child), I was driving to my job, and I heard a song on the radio that really resonated with me. The song was called “The Greatest Love Of All – by Whitney Houston”. At the time, it made me feel like I finally understood what my purpose was in life, and I felt empowered by it. I needed to become strong, and confident, and fearless. I needed to be empowered enough to step out of my comfort zone, and become the women I was meant to be. I needed to become the kind of person that I wanted my children to become. Let me share some of those thoughts with you now.

I believe the children are our are future…..Teach them well and let them lead the way — We have such a great responsibility as mothers, not just to our children but to the world. Because, what we teach our children, is what the world will be someday. And, don’t we all want the world to be a wonderful place for our children? The future truly is our children.

Show them all the beauty they possess inside…..Give them a sense of pride – We need to teach our children that their beauty is from within, and help them to develop and cultivate a strong sense of who they are.

I decided long ago, never to walk in anyones shadows — Showing our children that they are strong enough to walk alone, and not limit themselves to someone else’s dreams. To recognize when they are emotionally trapped, and not to fear escaping once they do.

If I fail, if I succeed……At least I live as I believe — Teach our children to never give up on their dreams, and to not let fear stand in the way of being who they are.

No matter what they take from me….They cant take away my dignity — Show our children that no matter how bad life gets, or how bad others treat them, that the core of who they are is never broken.

I found the greatest love of all…..Inside of me — Love is the greatest of all things, and something no one can ever take from us. Because, love is who we are and what we are, so love is always with us.

The greatest love of all….Is easy to achieve….Learning to love yourself….It is the greatest love of all — Show our children that taking care of themselves, and loving who they are, is a gift they need to give to themselves. And, is a gift no other person can ever take from them.

And if by chance, that special place….That you’ve been dreaming of….Leads you to a lonely place….Find your strength in love — Teach our children that even when they are feeling hopeless and unhappy, they are still strong and have the power to follow their heart on to another dream.

These are lessons we teach not with words, but with our actions. So, we need to believe these words for ourselves, and live these words for ourselves. When our children see us being strong, they will know they can also be strong. When our children see that we can love ourselves, then they will learn to love themselves. When our children see us fail but never give-up, they will learn to never give-up. The greatest gift we can give our children, is for us to be, everything we hope they will become.

HOW WE CAN CREATE PEACE AND LOVE IN OUR LIVES – BY LETTING GO OF ANGER AND HATE – by Catherine Morgan

If we wish peace for ourselves, me must first wish peace for others. How do we do that? I think a good place to start is to take “hate” out of our thoughts and mind. It’s easy to say you’re not a hater, but to truly live a life without hating is not that easy. Here are a few suggestions….

1. Start with yourself. Stop hating yourself. Stop hating your weight, your looks, your job, your face, your inabilities, and on and on. This first step might be the most difficult, but it is also the most important. Learn to love yourself.

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