Focus on the Positive

One of the things I love about my eating plan--and one of the reasons I believe it worked for me--is that it focuses on all the different foods you can and should eat, rather than on the foods you should avoid. There are far more items in the first category than in the second; there's so much variety that there's no reason to get bored and quit. It's not a diet. You can't "fail" because it allows for treats, indulgences, slip-ups and plateaus. It's a real-life way of looking at food, and it empowers you.

I think it took me nearly 40 years to figure it out because I was subconsciously gathering information about food, weight loss, health and diet my whole life. It wasn't until the lightbulb went on over my head that I was able to put it all together and create a healthy eating plan that would take me to my goal weight.

But if my plan had focused on negative energy--what I can't eat or how much I can't eat--I believe it would have failed. Basing your goals on a series of negatives, of things to "not do" is a recipe for failure because we're built to take action. It's frustrating to be told "you can't have that" or "that's not on your diet." It's depriving to think in those terms--makes you feel like Cinderella home in rags while everyone's having a great time at the royal ball. It's much healthier and more productive to think of all the things you CAN do and CAN have, the enormous list of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, poultry, beef, beans, nuts, seeds, etc., and all of the fun healthy forms of exercise that will make you feel powerful, strong, sexy, whatever you want to be. Try it for yourself and you'll see what I mean.