Habits influence the character, as air currents influence an airplane, and whether the habits speed us on the way of our wishes or retard our progress, their effect is not the less important because they sometimes are imperceptible.

It’s a little wordy. I prefer:

Habits affect you just like air currents affect an airplane.

They can speed you up or slow you down, even though they’re nearly invisible.

It’s true. The difference between a “naturally” skinny person and an overweight person are tiny, almost imperceptible habits that are in place. Fidgeting when nervous or thinking is one such habit. Or perhaps chewing gum instead of mindlessly eating. Maybe it’s going for a run when things get really bad as opposed to going to bed. They are things that are almost invisible, yet they make the difference between a thin body and a fat one.

What small habit can you add today that would make you thinner? Here are a few to choose from:

• Get out of your chair every hour and walk around.
• Exercise first thing in the morning
• Set your fork down between bites
• Choose fruit or veggies at snack time
• Eat protein with every meal
• Get 7-8 hours of sleep every night
• Plan your meals
• Sip water between each bite of food
• Always have a healthy snack on hand
• Plan your exercise every day
• Eat all your meals without distractions
• Carry walking shoes with you so you can take a walk whenever
• Stand up instead of sitting down
• Chew gum when you’re upset
• Always be on the lookout for fun physical activities
• Read healthy cookbooks for new food ideas
• Moving around when playing video games, watching TV or reading

What is ONE small habit that you could incorporate into your life? Choose one and work on it for a month. Then next month add another one. Keep doing that until you have a host of wonderful habits that speed you up instead of bad habits that slow you down.

• Business Insider: Abercrombie & Fitch Refuses To Make Clothes For Large Women

Their nearly naked male models made me uncomfortable enough to avoid the store before, but now, they can kiss my money GOODBYE.

In fact, it made me want to show up at their store and do this!

Then I remembered. That’s how real life is.

In real life, women who are overweight are discriminated against ALL the time. In fact, pretty people get FAR more perks than ugly people. It’s wrong, but discrimination is rampant against people who aren’t sexy. Some scientists even argue that it’s hard-wired into our brains. We should do everything we can to avoid this behavior in ourselves, but at the same time, we need to be aware of it.

If you ever need inspiration to stay on the treadmill for ten more minutes, this is it. When you get to your goal weight, people will take you more seriously. They will listen to what you have to say. They will deign to allow you to buy their over-priced clothes.

F-You, Abercrombie & Fitch! Forever 21 has been there for me during my fattest times and I am buying EVERYTHING in their store when I’m at my goal weight. If they can showcase their “fat” clothes on models and make them look THIS good, then you have NO excuse!

Via: Funeral For My Fat, Abercrombie & Fitch Refuses To Make Clothes For Large Women

It reads:

You’re fat. Get over it. I STILL LOVE YOU! You can change if you want.

If someone wrote this to me, I don’t know how I would feel about it. Part of being able to change something is accepting it. I know that. I also would love to hear that an important person in my life loves me, even though I feel like a whale.

I guess the question in my mind that pops up has to do with the contradiction. If you love me, why would you care if I lose the weight? I guess you could love me AND want me to be healthy and fit. That’s not a contradiction, really. Something in that card strikes me as wrong, though and I can’t quite put my finger on it.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

It reads:

You are what you eat, so don’t be fast, greasy or fake.

Now, I might have to argue with the “greasy” part because healthy oils are ESSENTIAL, but surely, don’t be fast or fake, in real life or in your diet.

Two men became neighbors in a new housing development. Both men worked long hours removing the weeds from his new back yard. Then one was satisfied but the other went on to put in a lawn, flower garden, and even a few fruit trees and rows of vegetables. The first man soon realized that his lot was being refilled by a new crop of the same old weeds, while the second man was enjoying a thing of service and of beauty.

To resolve to remove an old way of life without substituting something else was not enough – the old way grew right back.

This story really spoke to me because I have tried time and time again to remove my old bad habits without replacing them with NEW good habits. I don’t WANT the same old weeds to pop back up in my life. I want to replace them with a crop of beautiful flowers and veggies. To do that, I need to focus on new habits that are good for me.

Right now, I’m concentrating on getting twenty minutes of exercise every single day. It might sound like a pathetic and small step, but that’s how new habits are formed, slowly and small and every freakin’ day.

Original photo by: Tobyotter on Flickr

It reads:

I hate people who successfully lose weight.

Yeah, I know you do. You want to know why? It’s because you hate YOURSELF. If you were at your goal weight, you wouldn’t be trying to pull down everyone in their lives who were bettering themselves. You’d be happy and supportive of them.

I recently read, “I Got This” by Jennifer Hudson. After she lost all her weight, some people were literally ANGRY with her for getting healthy. She talked to her WW leader about it, and her leader asked her:

“Would you trade your weight loss for acceptance from others?”

It’s an amazing question, because when I read that passage, I realized that, yes, I HAD traded my weight loss for acceptance from others. I had felt rejected by many people because of my new-found loss. I have the complete acceptance from those people now that I’m nearly one hundred pounds over my goal weight. Was it worth it?

Hell to the no!

The next time I feel that someone doesn’t accept my weight loss and maybe even HATES me because of it, I’m letting it fall away from me. Either they will get used to the new, skinny me or they weren’t worth it in the end. If you only like me because I’m fat, then you can not be my friend anymore.

PostSecret‘s beneficiary is the National Hopeline Network. It is a 24-hour hotline (1 (800) SUICIDE) for anyone who is thinking about suicide or knows someone who is considering it.

It reads:

People often say that motivation doesn’t last.

Well, neither does bathing.

That’s why we recommend it daily.

More importantly, the poster came from a Tumblr called Fitnessive. I found a TON of great motivational posters there and immediately started following them. Here are a couple of my favorites:

It reads:

A calendar determines when the year ends, but only you can decide when a new you begins.

It reads:

EVERYDAY is a good day to work-out.

It’s so nice to find another blog to follow that provides so many inspirational reasons to get off my butt and exercise!

If you have trouble working out at home, then a gym membership might be the best thing for you, or even taking a walk (or run) outside. I actually prefer to workout at home where no one can see me, smell me or laugh at me. I can’t wait until Jenna does a “How Gym Workouts Work” video!

• Zombies, Run! 2 on iPhone
• Zombies, Run 2 on Android

They made a pretty cool commercial for it here:

I love this game so much that it doesn’t really feel like exercise when I do it. I can’t wait to hear the new episodes!

The only reason I was enticed by it was because it promises to make things easier. I don’t have to figure out if my exercise was high, medium or low intensity. I don’t even have to log my workouts. All I have to do is remember to wear the thing all day long and then plug it into my computer at the end of the day.

But does it work with my computer? The stupid box at WW didn’t say what the system requirements are on the outside and I was told that I wouldn’t be able to return it after I plunked down the $40 for it. I couldn’t even find the system requirements online when I went home and looked it up. One member said that it worked on her Mac Mini, so I figured I was safe to use it on my MacBook Air, but there were no guarantees.

The website for ActiveLink, however, DOES tell you the system requirements:

• ActiveLink System Requirements

It just didn’t show up in any Google searches I did. For your benefit, ActiveLink works on both Mac and PC. Here are the minimums that you will need:

I am currently in the assessment stage, so I have no idea how this will work for me. I’ll post updates about whether I like it and whether it’s as easy as they say it is to use.

Update 05-05-13

I’m out of the assessment stage and I have to say that I LOVE ActiveLink! One of the reasons that I left Weight Watchers before was because I didn’t lose very much weight.

• Why I Left Weight Watchers

I went to every WW meeting and I followed the program for a year. My progress was minimal at best. I lost approximately ten pounds in that year, which is better than gaining that same amount, but it was a CONSTANT struggle to even have those minimal results.

Since I followed the program exactly, I was very frustrated that I was only losing minimal amounts of weight. I now know why. I am such a SLUG during the day, that I was over-counting my exercise points. What I would have counted as four points, is only showing up as two points with the ActiveLink because my workday is so sedentary.

I knew it MUST be something to do with exercise because when I didn’t eat my exercise points, I made a lot more progress than when I did. That’s because my calculation for exercise was completely wrong.

Now, I don’t even need to think about it. I just wear the ActiveLink all day long, try to get my butt out of the chair every once and a while and exercise a little harder (or longer) than I used to. I can completely trust the results when I pop my little gadget into my computer every day.

I just wish there was something like this for eating. What if I am UNDER-counting my food? I do my best to be accurate, but that was the case with exercise as well. I wish there was a little gadget that could analyze every morsel of food that I eat and record the points automatically. That would be one less place where I could screw up.