I haven't allowed myself to dwell on why I might fail, or why I have periods

where I am not succeeding as well as I may have been in a prior week or

month. Why? Because good or bad, success or failure, what happens to me is based on the *choices* that I make on any given day. And because I didn't get banded so that its presence around my stomach would rule my life or make me obsess about how anything I do relates to the band. I was banded because I needed a tool, unlike any of the other tools I've used/tried in the past, that would help me a) get to a healthy state-of-being and :thumbup: remain in that

healthy state. By *my* definition of healthy (again, see disclaimer), *obsessing* about the band and all the *guidelines* associated with it -successful as it (the band) and many of them (guidelines) are for me - is

not healthy.

Early on in this journey, as pounds were melting away from me and I was

developing my own, personalized, lifestyle of "what works for *me*", I adopted two key quotations here that became my mantra: "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should" and "Live life well." What struck me fairly recently is that neither has anything to do explicitly with weight-loss or dieting or the band or eating habits. The first is strictly about making choices. And it is suggestive in nature, not a directive. Otherwise it

would have read, "You can, but don't." The latter is, semantically, a directive - but the meaning of "well" is not defined and subject to individual interpretation. And I'd worry about the mental stability of

anyone who chooses to *not* live life well - as per their own definition. So if someone tells/suggest to me to live life well, I'd be foolish not to heed it. So I made choices, everyday, that weighed upon the outcome of my success/failure. Most were choices to follow most of the guidelines most of

the time. But sometimes I chose not to follow the guidelines. The reasons

don't matter. Either way, they were *my choices*. Sometimes I did give up

what I really want for what I want now. I agree with that quote and we all

do it from time to time. Why has that not lead to failure for me? Because

I think the statement should read that we fail when we *continually* (or

*consistently*, take your pick) give up what we really want for what we want

now. No one is ever going to fail by living for the moment - now and then -

as long as we don't lose sight of the goals for more than a moment (or two).

Again, if I'm living every day, every moment wondering if every single thing

I do runs counter to the long-term goals, I'm not living life well; I will

have trapped myself into a mindset that may lead to a very healthy life, but

that's not necessarily living life well. We all make choices. They may seem contrary or counter-intuitive but in the end,

if we're happy with our choices and lead to our individual success, then

we've done what we should.

These wise words came from a post by Alan of LI, NY on the SmartBandsters group on YahooGroups. I thought it would be useful to pass them along.