#whole30

It turns out that Henry Ford was right the whole time.

A recent survey performed at Stanford found that individuals who believed they had the power to fulfill their goals were more likely to accomplish them than those who didn’t believe they could. There are a few reasons why this may be true.

Maybe you believe in the power of attraction or the universe’s ability to cosmically bring power to you based on your intention. Or perhaps you believe in the power of positive thinking to make us act as if we are able to accomplish them. Regadless of the reason, there is one practice that will make an enormous difference:

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF.

You can’t believe in yourself and harbor excuses. You can’t believe in yourself and not act as if you will accomplish your goals.

I struggle because I am used to living in a credit card world. I want the prize now and to pay for it later but that’s not what achievers do. Achievers work BEFORE they receive payment. Achievers act in such a way because they have FAITH that the MIRACLE will come.

Faith is the principle of power in all intelligent beings. Do you want to control your life? Do you want to obtain results? Have faith in yourself, think you can and act as if and I think you’ll be surprised at the results. I know I was.

BELIEVE then ACT. Results will come.

The harvest comes only after you plant and pick. Transformation is waiting for you on the other side. Are you ready?

For years, I prided myself on being a perfectionist. I used to have a mantra:

“I strive for perfection because why should you aim for any less?”

For years I abused myself mentally and physically every time I’d make an error. Even the smallest mistakes represent massive failure when the only thing you’ll accept is perfect. I’ve learned that we will never find contentment, joy or satisfaction if the only thing good enough is perfection.

Perfection should never be your goal in weight loss or anything else! We only fail when it is. Love yourself to create and sustain change. When we try the other way around-changing because we think that somehow we’ll love ourselves in the end, we end up in one of two places: 1) giving up before our goal because we don’t love ourselves enough during the journey to keep going or 2) relapsing after hitting our goal because we don’t find love there immediately.

You are good enough already and you have everything you need to be successful. Take joy in progress and love the journey.

The results will come-even if they aren’t perfect.

January 1st is coming soon which means one thing: millions of people are about to Google the question I’m going to answer for you today:

WHAT IS THE BEST WAY TO LOSE WEIGHT?

If you’ve been following me for any amount of time, you may or may not know that I u weight using a #Paleo diet but I do not strongly advocate Paleo. It’s not because I don’t believe that it’s an amazing way to eat (I do) or that people can lose weight using it (they can). I learned something incredibly valuable in studying the habits of weight loss professionals:

Low carb diets are incredible for weight loss. So are low fat programs. So are vegan low protein programs. And juice fasts. Also keto/mostly meat diets are great. Weight watchers works and so does shake based meal replacement and surgery and…

Picking up on the pattern yet? Like skinning a cat, there’s more than one way to shed the fat. But like choosing a pair of shoes in a store with thousands of selections, sometimes we can be paralyzed by indecision in the face of infinite decisions and so we make none.

Sometimes we will pick a program and after it doesn’t make us lose 100 pounds in the first week, we call the diet (and sometimes ourselves) broken or bad and give up. There’s an old phrase they use in Alcoholics Anonymous about the program that “it works if you do” and this is just as true as it is in your weight loss program.

In weight loss, in relationships, and in virtually every part of life, your ability to keep working in spite of setbacks and “lack of motivation” (I.e. life’s greatest excuse) will dictate your success.

Didn’t lose weight this week? Keep going.
Not at your goal weight? Keep going.
Can’t see changes in the mirror yet? Keep going.

You’ve lived your whole life the way you are now. Why not see what happens if you stuck with it?

Vegan, Keto or Paleo? Whatever you want. It all works… But only if you do.

This is a story of boy meets tennis ball.

It was November 2010 and my life was at rock bottom. My marriage was in its death throes, I was burnt out personally, professionally, spirtually and I didn’t know if I would be alive the next year and frankly I didn’t care. It was a tennis ball of all things, that I came face to face with and couldn’t handle (see my TEDx talk at TinierTim.com/TED for more on this).

This neon green symbol was something I was angry with at first, but eventually became a beacon of hope that told me the most important message an obese kid who is about to give up could hear:

“YOU CAN DO THIS.”

And so I started with baby steps, finding a way to make small changes that yielded small results. I met with personal trainers and nutritional coaches who helped me devise a plan that I was able to stick to. Most importantly, they told me something and these plans showed me the one thing that I needed to hear over and over.

“YOU CAN DO THIS.”

And so it goes. I managed to lose one pound and then another. Like Michelangelo said about the Statue of David, once I chipped away the excess, the physical TinierTim was inside the whole time. I dealt with the mental issues, seeking out the best counselors and overcoming a lifetime of learned helplessness until all that was left was the message that I share every single day when I tell my story:

“YOU CAN DO THIS.”

The BS excuses you’ve been telling yourself are kindle for the fire of your passion and dreams. Use them. Don’t have time? Focus on shorter, harder workouts. Don’t have money to eat healthy? Learn to grocery shop on a budget and save money by cutting out dessert. Slow metabolism? Start exercising and watch that metabolism take care of itself.

Once you dump all the weight and all the excuses, you’ll prove me right and join your voice with the thousands of other successful Transformation Tuesday stories screaming all over the internet today:

“YOU CAN DO THIS!”

Do you love yourself? I don’t mean this in a #feelinmaself instagram kind of way where you “love” yourself enough to post one of the 1000 selfies you took in a “good enough” kind of way.

Do you love yourself the way you love your kids, your parents, your siblings and your best friends? Imagine that you had a best friend who was allowing a romantic partner to abuse them mentally and physically to the point where they were chronically depressed and struggling to find peace in a troubled world? Would you step in and help? Of course you would.

Yet for many of us, we are in an abusive relationship like this with ourselves. Not only do we not love ourselves as much or as well as we love others, but we are harming ourselves daily with negative self talk, a low image of ourselves and practices that are not designed to be good for us.

What you are willing to accept for your life is inevitably what you will receive. So you don’t like where you’re at? Quit settling for that place. Start with a declaration (to your self, your partner, your loved ones and friends) that you deserve better followed by a burning desire to change your circumstances and with the faith that you can change.

Stop settling. Raise your standards. Then let the desire burn inside you until it burns your old world down. What will be left? A fresh start, love in your heart and a lifetime of possibilities.

You’ve got this!

I have a confession: I hate losing (except fat ).

I was raised by a strict, German perfectionist who worked more than anyone I’ve ever known. He was the kind of father (and my first boss) who tolerated nothing short maximum efforts and maximum results. Failure was not only unacceptable, it was shameful. In Weight Loss counseling, I learned that one of my earlier memories of him involved his reaction to a mistake I’d made: he closed my bedroom window before punishing me to muffle screaming so “the neighbors won’t know what a terrible child I have.”

This type of messaging runs deep in many of us who struggle with obesity. We get laughed at when we start our weight loss journeys so we’re afraid to try and call attention to ourselves. We know the road is impossible so we give up the second we misstep. We are prone to self sabotage after a lifetime of abuse (much of which is self inflicted).

The thing I want to tell you is that there is help out there. Sure, there are trainers and meal plan experts, but if information was all we needed, we’d all have six packs and bottoms. I don’t know about you, but I needed to retrain my mind. I worked with counselors, coaches and mentors to pull myself out of the habit loops that kept me obese. I took one step and lost one pound at a time.

I learned to forgive myself. I’m still learning how to love myself every day. That’s why we call this crazy thing a journey.

It’s worth it. You’re worth it. You can’t fail unless you give up. I believe in the power of the human spirit. I believe in you.

This weekend I found myself back in front of a TEDx audience but this time as a host instead of a speaker. I had the opportunity to share my story and met two incredible gentlemen who were also victorious in their own battles against obesity. Another person shared with me how she used my talk last year to help inspire her sister to lose weight.

I saw people leave with tennis balls to remind them that any journey can be completed one step at a time. Oftentimes the first step is forgiving yourself and believing that no one thing, decision or mistake defines you. Maybe you haven’t lived with intention or mindfulness. Maybe you’ve “let yourself go”. Those small missteps do not change what You are.

A blank tennis ball reminded me: You are a miracle of unlimited potential. You are capable of greatness even if you don’t believe it. Start with one meal. With one workout. By losing one pound.

That’s all I did: I didn’t lose 225 pounds. I lost one pound 225 Times.