Dess for success.

You cannot climb the ladder of success dressed in the costume of failure.

Zig Zigler

Good Morning Sister W.W.F.F.,

I love the above quote when I found it, and decided today would be a good time to put it into the e-mail. I can only account for my own feelings on this subject, and as I write I may step on a few toes. So remember you have been warned. ha

Did anyone but me walk into Weight Watchers with the thought of ''this is not going to work"! I have said this many time, "I walked through those doors kicking and screaming." My mind all made up that I was going to fail yet again. It was all those voices in my head, and the one telling me the loudest that I would fail was my very own voice.

Since I have been on maintenance, and by the way, I'm on my 4th week. One thing keeps ringing in my ears and that is Cara's voice (picking on Cara now, ha). Cara was the first person I ever heard being completely honest about maintenance, she was the only person that said, ''Welcome to Hell." That one sentence has helped me so much, thank you Cara, cause if Cara had not said this, I would have stepped into my first week of maintenance thinking, ''I lost all this weight, then maintaining will be a breeze".

Since I had been forewarned that this may well be ''hellish", I have been prepared. There are some days I do feel as if I am walking on a frozen pond and its beginning to crack. So worried that I may fail, but I realized something.

As long as I am dressed for success, and that dress is, my weekly meetings, my daily e-mails, my weighting and measuring of my food, getting in my activity, and not allowing those old voices to continue to play in my head. I may miss a rung on that ladder to success, but I will not fall all the way off.

I do not believe for one minute that anyone can be perfect while on this weight loss journey, or while on maintenance, but we can pick ourselves up when we stumble and continue on. One slip up does not mean ''its time to throw in the towel and resume my affair with Ben, Jerry and Russell."

No names being used here, but a conservation took place yesterday and the person I was talking with was telling me of a health problem a family member has. Something was said about ''this person has always taken such good care of themselves, exercises daily, eats right, kept their weight in check, and still they get this." It is sad that someone that has been so tireless in taking care of themselves has bad things to happen to them, but think how bad it could have been if they had not taken the precaution of taking care of themselves. So just because ''you'' are pretty sure you'll end up with something just because it runs in your family does not give you the ''set on your butt and eat Twinkie's pass. What I was hearing was this, ''I'll probably get something bad as well, so why should I try to take care of myself now?" I hope I am wrong, but that was the message I was getting.

We have choices, we are the ones that decide what is best for us. We can go ahead and dig our grave and wait for the Grim Reaper, or we can dress ourselves in the Armour we need to be successful. Ask yourself, ''am I worth it?"

Wishing Everyone a great day.

Hugs,

Joan