Developing a positive mindset is a powerful life strategy.

I’ve found various positive thinking techniques to be useful.
Over time, small inspirational messages to myself, have helped me
to change the way I see the world around me,
and have helped me to Focus on those things in life that I find important and valuable.

Our words and statements about the events in our lives have a great deal of power.
The positive builds us up, heals us, and brings us joy,
while the negative
does the opposite.

Life contains both the negative and the positive.
However very few things in life are totally positive or totally negative.
Each involve personal value judgments rather than essential Truths.

I’ve learned that my own personal happiness is determined
by how much Focus I place on the positives.

 My current injury is putting this philosophy to a daily test. 

However I have frequently experienced that I  have the ability
to make myself happy through my own thoughts and behaviors.

I have been using DietPower for the past 6 1/2 years,
and I have logged in all of my food every day
during that period...ie. 2409 days.
I intend to continue using it for the rest of my life.

  During my first 16 months of DietPower use,
I lost from 190 lbs down to my goal of 115.
I have been working to maintain at or near that weight
during the 5 plus years since then.

During that time I've used a great many different diets and food plans,
but always continuing logging all my food into DietPower every day
no matter what that food plan was.
Even all my VERY HIGH-CALORIE were always logged.
I consider myself a 100% success with DietPower.
This is a Habit that proves very useful at times like now,
when my normal routine has been disturbed by an injury.
I don’t feel very well, and I have had a few higher calorie days,
but tracking my food gives me a feeling of stability, and the hope
that soon things will adjust, and I will be able to establish
a new normal, during my recovery period.

Easter has different individual meanings for many of us. 
For some of us it has great religious meaning.  
For others it means a new wardrobe and annual church attendance.
Many of us associate it with colored eggs and chocolate bunnies.
All these things symbolize a new beginning.

On Good Friday while in my yard i tripped and fell backwards on my left wrist,
breaking the two bones that connect my forearm to my wrist.
My left arm is in a temporary splint, and tomorrow it will get a cast.       
A side effect of my WLS 18 years ago is a restriction against all aspirin based drugs,
and my body's intolerance for many prescription pain killers. This currently limits me to
Tylenol for pain relief.. . . . Although I am not absolutely convinced that the ears of a
chocolate bunny would not provide additional assistance toward that goal.

Currently I must also use the one finger typing method which takes much more
time and effort.  This might result in shorter articles and comments for awhile.

I have several recipe videos already filmed, and will be posting them once a week
until they are gone.  After that there may be a delay before I can make more.

The Thinspiration Moment videos are much easier to do, and i've shot quite a few of them already,
so I don't anticipate an interruption of that function.

I am continuing to weigh daily, and to track my food.  When I get my cast, I will use that scale
number as my beginning stabilized  weight for maintenance and weight-loss. Hopefully this
will give me a small weight-loss to look forward to when my arm heals and the cast is removed.

Life happens.    Behaviors leading to Weight-loss and Maintenance need to continue
despite individual difficulties and setbacks.  Each of us goes through hard times on occasion,
and sometimes we respond with an inappropriate use of food. The same for good times.
But each day, each hour, each minute is a new beginning for us. 

Nobody’s Perfect.
I’ve spent much of my life trying to fix my various flaws.

One of my life’s dynamics has been thinking
that if I could fix everything that’s wrong with me
it would make everything else around me okay too.

Finally, insight came that instead of focusing on fixing my flaws,
I need to Accept them…even love them.

For a long time, I thought that if I Accepted the things I felt were wrong with me,
I’d never be able to change them.
But really, love is what leads to real healing and transformation,
and ultimately it is the only thing that can actually create changes in us

 In truth, all of what each of us perceives as personal “flaws”
is a subjective value judgment, based on our own interpretations
our own perspectives.

We can obsess about certain aspects of our bodies:
on our appearance; on our personalities; on our lives or work circumstances,
and judge them to be “bad” or “flawed”.

But in truth,
they are what they are.
We are the ones who place the “bad” meaning or interpretation on them.
It is very human to experience a sense of feeling flawed
in certain aspects of our lives and at particular times in life.
There's nothing wrong with us for feeling that way.

However, feeling flawed can rob us of our energy,
our passion, our happiness, our confidence and our lives.

It's one of the most painful ways we can allow our egos to run us,
and it can have devastating consequences if we aren’t conscious of it.

Here are some ideas about how to move from feeling flawed
to a place of acceptance, peace and love.

Acknowledge what's true for you, personally. The first step is telling the truth.
Trying to avoid, run from or pretend our flaws don’t exist doesn’t work..
Admit and express the underlying emotions. If we can identify,
acknowledge and ultimately express the true emotions we feel about
these perceived flaws, we can create a real sense of freedom for ourselves.

Forgive ourselves. Self-forgiveness is something that some people
don't have much experience with. Many of us have been trained
to be hard on ourselves, and to believe that forgiveness must come
from someone or something outside of us.
However when we are able to forgive ourselves,
we create the space for real change and healing to take place.

Appreciate. To appreciate means to recognize the value of something.
Sometimes dealing with our personal flaws teaches us a great deal about ourselves.
When we learn to appreciate and be grateful for what our difficulties have taught us,
we can move away from self-pity,
because It's impossible to experience gratitude and victimhood simultaneously.

Love. The ultimate antidote for all suffering is love.
Our ability to bring love to our flaws, to care for them with kindness
and compassion …like we would care for a child, a pet or a loved one,…
is what will ultimately cause the transformation we're looking for to take place.
When we love our flaws, we create an environment where we're either able
to make the kinds of specific behavior changes we truly want,
or able to learn to love and accept ourselves,
whether any change in the “flaw” takes place or not.

All of these things are much easier said than done.

Admitting the truth to ourselves, expressing our real emotions,
forgiving ourselves, appreciating our flaws, and loving all aspects of ourselves,
both the positive and the negative, gives us the opportunity to actually transcend our flaws.

Doing this takes a great deal of intention, support, compassion and patience.
It’s easier to take a pill, to get busy and distracted, to whine and complain, or to
pretend things are fine or continue with the other avoidance techniques we are good at.
But this is the way to can genuinely heal ourselves and end our cycle of suffering.

"Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.

As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly; and listen to others,
even to the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexations to the spirit.

If you compare yourself with others, you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.

Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble,
it's a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.

Exercise caution in your business affairs, for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals, and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself. Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment,
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years, gracefully surrendering the things of youth.

Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.

Beyond a wholesome discipline, be gentle with yourself, it is still a beautiful world.

You are a child of the universe
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.

And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God, whatever you conceive him to be.
And whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams
it is still a beautiful world.