Letters that Have been submitted by Others

Please note that information has been (and always will be) changed to protect the identity of the author.

A question of How to do it.

This motivational letter has been written in response to a letter received by the webmaster. Can you relate to this story?

On Thu Mar 08 09:07:12 2007, the following results were submitted from the"Contact Little Known " on little-known-food-facts.com:

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First Name: ----

E-mail Address: -----

Country: ------

Which page has helped you the most?: A)Fruit,

B)Protein,

C)Vegetables,

E)Recipes,

G)Diet,

H)Junk Food

Anything else you would like to share?:

Ya, how does a person stay motivated and not let the evils of yummy sweet food, or comfort food get the best of them? How do we get moving when our body says STOP!!!

How in the world do I accept myself for who I am, believe in myself and "JUST DO IT" instead of always meeting the pitfalls and excuses?

How do I do what you have done, be healthy, happy, and filled with knowledge so that I make good choices?

Sincerely,

a friend

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Thank you for your input!

Celeste

little-known-food-facts.com

And the Response

Well, the first step to being motivated is to learn what your triggers are. Just like quitting smoking, understanding what makes you turn to comfort and junk food is the first step. It is ok to still have comfort food, just work to change your idea of what comfort food is.

If, for example, a Kit Kat bar is what brings you up during your tough times, remember what it feels like before, during and after you eat it. Saviour it, feel the wonderful sugar as you swallow it and enjoy it.

The happy feeling that the sugar gives you can equally be accomplished with a ripe pear. You just have to know the feeling is the same, you just didn't have to pull the wrapper off first. You know your body best and making small baby steps is the start to making major changes. This can also be done with simply changing which shoe you put on first. It will be awkward and you know it doesn't feel right, but the result is still the same.Eventually it will feel comfortable.

Few people can successfully accomplish something with no knowledge or idea of how they want it to happen. Sometimes planning can take months but it is never a rash decision, but the goal is always the same. Practice your game plan and how you want your goal to be goal accomplished, they are all the same. It will be tough. But know that it will become easier with each passing day.

The only person you have to be accountable to in the morning is who you see in the mirror. No one holds us accountable because they love us, or they don't want to hurt our feelings, but we are our own worst judge and jury.

How do you make those choices? Change your mind set. If we learned to look at a Kit Kat bar(for example)as filled with toxins that decrease our bodies response time to stress, increase our chances of being sick and are a large part of food allergies, that is half the battle. We understand that car pollution is bad to breathe in, but forget that the additional toxins weingest remain in our system as we cannot flush them out.

After extended periods of time, these toxins attach to each other and become caught on inflamed parts of the body. This is just one of the ways that ulcers grow, there is a rise of bowel diseases and illness in children.

How do you accept yourself for who you are? Know first that you are where you are because you have made your choices and you accept them as reality.

You won't fight for something that feels truly wrong in your heart. The only way to believe in yourself is to like you said "Just do it". If we are always saying or thinking the negative of something, that is exactly what is going to happen. If you have tried "every diet out there" and they didn't work, did you really expect them too? Or, did you really expect the results to last? The mind is a powerful tool and from sneezing to bedtime it controls every action we make.

Being motivated is not easy if you don't have the right mindset. You really and truly have to believe in something to make it work. And it really is work. A one week diet is a quick fix, and often we return to old eating habits because "one won't hurt", and it spirals out of control. Too many of the diet fads out there offer little in day to day assistance and take too much out of the bank account, leaving us unmotivated, still feeling unhealthy, and with a little less in the bank.

How do I do it you asked? I changed the way I looked at food and what it did for me. I used to think that it was cheaper to by a bag of chips then it was to by a tomato, until I realized that I was spending more on eating junk food and gaining weight, then I was maintaining a girly figure.

What was the straw that broke the camels back? I counted one week of groceries at the store for me, my husband and our 18 month old son and saw 13 (YES 13!) 2L of regular coke in the cart... For one week.

Drinking water was unheard of in my house, and milk was for cooking or for the baby. I realized that something had to change when a complete stranger joked about all those pop being for a camping trip. Wow.. What a wake up call!

Then my next realization that things had to change was when I gave my son the choice between the chips his dad was offering and strawberries I had. Fortunately, he choose the strawberries but there should be no choice!!

When I was a kid growing up chips for us where always a treat. I wanted my son to think that as well. I was very blessed to work for people who struggled with weight loss just as I had. These people where my motivation to maintaining a goal weight, and to helping them get there.

The only way to do something is to know in your heart it can happen. If you hate certain fruits or vegetables then that might be the first place to start. If you simply cannot ingest them then you need to understand what it is about it that you despise.

I found that this was a great starting point to changing my attitude because if I could convince myself that I "wasn't ever going to eat that!", then how could I ever plan on losing weight and keeping it off? I made the sacrifice and began slowly eating better. I HATED Brussels sprouts growing up but my children love them.

Because of the slow and SIMPLE changes I made, my family will gladly ask if they can have an apple or banana before bedinstead of the bag of chips.

One last tip: surround yourself with the most amazing and positive people you can find. We are who we want to be and remember "The only person standing in our own way is ourselves." And NOTHING happens until we can release the ego and let it happen as it should.

Sincerely,

Celeste

Ps. If there is anything I can do to help you establish a daily plan, pleaselet me know. Helping people get healthy is my passion.

**As a side note: We all need motivation from time to time regardless of what path we follow. Depending on what we choose as junk food, it is all a matter of perspective. Changing our diets is the hardest thing to do. Baby steps are learned for a reason. One meal at a time, you will find your own motivation for being healthier.

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