Ok, I do know I look goofy again, but had a blast. This was from the day we made the Kale/Avo Salad!

From Spark People for January 17^th

“Write about your motivation in your journal. There are so many reasons you chose your goals; better health, self esteem or happiness.  Put all those reasons on paper and read them when you need motivation.”

My why for deciding to get healthy instead of going on a diet was simply to stay alive.  I realized I was at a very high risk for a stroke and or a heart attack and I did not want to die – period.  Coming to the realization inspired me to view losing weight with a whole different perspective.  Not a short term fix to a long term problem, but a lifelong solution.

An example of how important it can be to list ALL of your reasons is how I explain being vegetarian.  Initially I read a book which caused me to eliminate chicken my meals due to factory farming.  A different book helped me eliminate beef and finally Diet for A New America by John Robbins was the final tip.

When asked why I am veg here are the reasons I give:

1.  I love animals and it hurts to see them mistreated.

2.  My health is better when I am not eating the saturated fats in animal products.

3.  A vegetarian diet helps sustain the earth.

Now these are my reasons and let me state very clearly, you may not agree with my statements and that is ok.  I am not telling anyone else to be vegetarian, just that these are my reasons.  So if I am in a bad mood, and don’t care in the moment about the planet, instead of eating a cheeseburger, I remember my other two reasons and vice versa.

When we write down ALL the reasons a healthy weight is important to us; different reasons on different days may be just the motivation we need to stay on track.

Milk, butter, ice cream and cheese are a great source of nutrition — if you want to pack on weight, feed allergies and autoimmune diseases, and grow fatal tumors according to Dr. John McDougall  Here is his FULL 1 hour-plus presentation from the 2005 Healthy Lifestyle Expo.

In it he shares why dairy products are probably the most unhealthy aspect of the standard Western diet.