's motd Saturday June 4, 2011

[Guest guest]

WHAT OTHERS

THINK

Saturday, 04 June 2011

I can't remember even one day

where I didn't overeat when I was a youngster. I'm

telling you, I thought about food every single waking

moment of my life when I was a kid. Yes, it was that

serious. And how serious was it? Well, I'm

almost embarrassed to tell you.

See, I used to walk around the French Quarter and

stand in front of the many great restaurants there.

Oh, how I loved the smell of wonderful New Orleans'

foods wafting from the doors of those restaurants. I

would stand there just about drooling! And when I got

home for dinner, I'd be so hungry, I devoured

everything on my plate. Then I'd end up feeling

guilty because I would have wasted another day, eating

too much and gaining even more weight.

And as I kept gaining weight, what

made things worse is the way some people looked at me

as I walked down the streets of the French Quarter. I

could "read" their eyes and their faces as they walked

past. Oh, I know what they must have been thinking...

What a sloppy, looking kid. I wonder what he

weighs? Or, Look at that fat boy, I'll

bet he's so lazy! Or they might be assuming, I'll

bet that kid has a lot of problems because he's so

fat.

No, I couldn't be exactly sure what they were all

thinking about me. But, I'm pretty sure they couldn't

have been thinking good things. Oh, I'd

spend so much time, thinking about what those people

must have been thinking. And may I tell you

something? All of those thoughts made me feel really

disgusted about myself. In fact, I'd go to bed with

those thoughts on my mind. There were many nights I'd

end up crying, wondering...Why am I the way I am?

But you know what? With all of those worries

about what other people were thinking, I was giving

them the power to define who I was. In fact, I'd

given them so much power, I did feel

sloppy, lazy and, on top of all that..I felt ugly,

too. Isn't that just awful?

Did you ever experience any of

those feelings at some point in your life? Did you or

do you worry over what other people think

about you? If your answer is yes, then you know how

tough it is to overcome what you feel others think of

you. But you know what? You have to overcome

it! If you keep worrying about how others

define you, then you're defeating yourself everyday

you're alive. You simply can't do that. I mean, why

choose to live that way?

You know that you want to lose weight,

right? Well, that's what you should be concentrating

on right now. Hey, I say to heck with what those

other people are thinking or to what you think

they may be thinking! Once you stop giving people

that kind of power over you, you'll begin having more

power over yourself!

And when you're taking good care of yourself, when

you're staying on program and working out, you'll not

feel so disgusted about yourself. And hey, that's the

way it should be. In fact, that's where I am today

and that's where I want you to be in your

life, too. Now when I turn in for bed at night and my

head hits the pillow, I take inventory of all the good

things I got done that day. And I have to tell you,

my day's accomplishments lull me to sleep feeling so

good about myself.

Like I said, that's the way I want

you to feel about yourself. As you walk down the

street, walk proudly with a smile on your

face. And don't be afraid to share that smile and

your positive spirit with everyone you see. Because

when it comes to you, it's not what others think about

you that matters. It's what YOU think about

yourself!

Love,