Laci: there are two directions we can walk each day....one is toward our goals and dreams....we may tire, we may falter, we may even crumple in the dust....

Our success is not measured by how many times we fall but how many times we arise and take another step toward the Light....

We can choose our path....or it will be chosen for us;

we can act in our own interests....or we can remain trapped by forces that hold us prisoner;

we can move ourselves by discipline or we can be imprisoned by our old habits.

The energy we lose bemoaning our fate can be better used to move us yet another step in our journey.

Which do you choose?

Jack posted the above message to a woman who was struggling because she seems to have lost her wind.

Jack is one smart mofo.

Its all a personal choice, isnt it? Its all about if youre willing and able to focus and if you truly want to change who you are.

I have said to my bestie ray a few times, you know dude, if I had had the gastric bypass, it would have been much quicker, and much easier. Then I remembered why I had the lapband in the first place. I didnt want easy, I wanted to OVERCOME. I needed help slaying the beast of the fatness.

I have gone from eating 10000 calories a day (believe it or not) to eating 1200-1500. I have gone from eating out every single day, sometimes two or three times a day, to cooking my own food (imagine that). I have gone from sitting down all day long, and being exausted, to walking around the building I work in (circle it twice and its a mile, I try to circle it 6 times a day), plus doing a work out tape in the morning.

I have gone from not giving a shit about my apperance to actually caring, to painting my nails, and doing my hair, and taking care of myself in a way that I was almost embarrassed to do when I wasnt doing anything about my weight.

Look, my weight loss has been slow, and it doesnt take a genius to figure out how to eat around the band, but it takes a helluva lot of will power to stay on track. Sometimes I stumble, sometimes I falter, but my LIFE is changing.

I'm proud of MYself and this is causing a huge shift in my life, in the way I carry myself, in the way I generally feel about the world. I wake up in a better mood, smile more often, I dont always 'look mad' anymore.

My band is the best decision I have ever made, and its been difficult, but I would do it again a million times over.

Now then, speaking of cooking, I made a sort of low carb something last night, and its really really good.

Okay, so I got 3 chicken breasts, threw them on the foreman, a decent sized can of green chilie, 2 tomatos, and about a half a cup of onions.

I have this new awesome little vegetable chopper, I dont have to cry when I want to use onions anymore, and it minces it up really finely.

So after the chicken breast were done on the foreman, I threw the can of green chilie, some cheese, the tomatos, the onions and the chunked up chicken in a glass baking dish and put that in the oven for about an hour.

That stuff is SO GOOD.

HA. Angelica, master chef.

-A

:thumbs_up: