Shining Light by Annie Lennox: This is a great warmup song. I like to think that maybe someone thinks this about me. I love the lyrics, “You are a force, you are a constant source, yeah you are a shining light.” When I’m starting my workout, I like to listen to this song to get me ready to work hard.

Move It Like This by Baha Men: This song is so fun that I just can’t help but run a little harder on the treadmill when I hear it. I know they are talking about dancing, but it makes me want to do better.

Everybody But Me by Lykke Li: This song reminds me how hard it can be to be fat and want to have fun with everyone, but you don’t. “Everybody’s dancing. I don’t want to. Everybody’s joking. I don’t want to. Everybody’s laughing. I don’t want to. Everybody but me.” Pushing past that anxiety has been the most helpful thing I’ve done for myself and my health.

Beautiful by Moby: If Lykke Li reminds me of how being fat can be, Moby wrote this song to make me feel beautiful. I prefer the Benni Benassi remix, but this one has the same lyrics and upbeat mood.

Working Overtime by New Order: This song reminds me that if I concentrate on work so much that I neglect myself that I’ll be like the guy in this song. It’s alright to take an hour a day to exercise. It’s worth it.

Think I’ll Go To Saks by SkinnySongs: I love this song. I’ve never been able to shop at the expensive stores like Saks or Neiman Marcus because those clothes just never came in my size. I love the idea of being able to try on the clothes in those stores, feel them fit me perfectly and just not buy them.

With Every Heartbeat – with Kleerup by Robyn: This song has a great beat to run to, but I really love the lyrics. “So I don’t look back/ Still I’m dying with every step I take/ But I don’t look back/ Just a little, little bit better” It doesn’t hurt that it has the word heartbeat in the lyrics, so it reminds me that it’s okay to hear my heart pump a little harder.

Movement In Still Life by Bt: “Dance to the beat! Shuffle my feet!” I don’t know why songs that tell me to dance get me running, but they work every time.

Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush: This is a great cooldown song. I really like how she tells him to keep going, “Don’t give up because you have friends. Don’t give up, you’re not beaten yet. Don’t give up, I know you can make it good.”

Listen to the clips for these songs. If you find just one song this week that motivates you to exercise, then buy it and make it your powersong when you’re working out this week. I bet you’ll find that you’re more willing to get your butt to the gym and your workouts are easier.

You become a vegan.

But what happens when being a vegan isn’t enough? When there are so many people out there who are also vegan, it doesn’t make you feel special enough, so you need to take it one step further.

You become a raw food vegan.

But what happens when being a raw food vegan isn’t enough? When there are so many people out there who are also raw food vegan, it doesn’t make you feel special enough, so you need to take it one step further.

You become a freegan.

At this point, you find yourself rummaging through a dumpster to find your daily meals.

Maybe it’s time to reconsider the idea that your diet is supposed to make you feel unique, special or superior. When they said that you are what you eat, I don’t think they meant that as a judgment of your personality, just as a guideline for food choices.

Using your diet as a statement of your political beliefs is just as disordered eating as anorexia, bulimia or binge eating. If you need to feel good about yourself, your diet isn’t going to make you feel any better than earning a lot of money, wearing the coolest clothes or exercising a lot. There is ALWAYS someone out there doing more than you and you cannot outdo the crazy people of this world.

If you feel some sort of superiority from your diet of choice, it’s time to re-evaluate your emotions and find a way to aid your self esteem that doesn’t involve being better than other people.

Otherwise, you’ll find yourself eating out of a dumpster.

The announcer says:

Hi, I’m Bob. I’m the spokesperson for the Coca-Cola company. I’m here today to ask you to continue buying Coke. I’m sure you’ve been drinking it for years and if you still enjoy it, then I’d like to remind you to buy it again sometime soon.

Basically, it’s just brown sugar water. We haven’t changed the ingredients lately, so there’s nothing new I can tell you about that. Uh, changed the can around a little bit, though. You can see that the colors are different there and we’ve added a polar bear so the kids’ll like us.

Coke’s very high in sugar and like any high calorie soda, it can lead to obesity in children and adults who don’t sustain a very healthy diet. And that’s it, it’s Coke. It’s very famous, everyone knows it. I’m Bob, I work for Coke and I’m asking you to not stop buying Coke.

If any soda was forced to advertise at this level of honesty, I don’t think anyone would drink it.

Video via: What If Advertisers Couldn’t Lie?

It reads:

I often wonder if I’ve ever been caught in an obesity news segment.

The thought of seeing myself on the news as an example of the obesity epidemic made my stomach turn. I know they have the right to film people in public and show them on television as long as they don’t show their faces, but it just seems cruel and wrong to me.

It’s just one of the those reasons for me to get my butt on the treadmill every day. If eating healthy and exercising every day is what I have to do to keep myself from that embarrassment, then I’m ready and willing to do 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.

I bought myself one because I had just heard the story about Apollo 13 again.

After four days of nail-biting tension, the Apollo 13 command module Odyssey splashed down into the Pacific Ocean. Astronauts Jim Lovell, Fred Haise and Jack Swigert had safely returned to Earth despite an explosion that took out much of their service module during their aborted trip to the Moon.

And although he never actually said the words back then, it was the Kranz character in the Ron Howard movie “Apollo 13,” who said aloud what everyone at NASA believed during those tough days in 1970: “Failure is not an option.”

Every time my workout gets a little hard or I’m tempted to eat when I don’t really feel hungry, I look at this bracelet. Failure is NOT an option. Keep on running. Walk away from that dessert. Get enough sleep and drink another glass of water.

If you are thinking of skipping a workout or eating more than your program has allowed, remember this skier. Instead of falling, do your best to stay on track, even if that means waggling your arms and riding down the hill on one ski for an incredibly long time. Do everything you can to stay upright.

And if you do fall, get up immediately, brush yourself off and start trekking down the hill again.

Video via: * Your daily gif blog *: Skiing Fall Save

• Starling Fitness » Turn Dieting Into a Game with Weight Watchers

Here is a teenager, Taylor LeBaron, who took that idea to new levels. Like any game, he identified his enemies, his allies and his points system. He calls his caloric intake his “money” and he pointed out who his true enemies are: Inactivity, food choices, large portions, liquid calories, and stress.

You can find out more from his book: Cutting Myself in Half: 150 Pounds Lost, One Byte at a Time by Taylor LeBaron.

Here is Taylor on the Today Show:

Here is his story:

Via: How a 17-Year-Old Video Gamer Cut His Weight in Half

Shake It by Metro Station: I got this song for free from iTunes. I know the verses have nothing to do with working out, but the chorus sings, “Sha-sha-sha-sha-shake it!” over and over! How could that song NOT be on my workout playlist?!

Hard Currency by Information Society: A couple of years ago, the New York Times had an article about how being overweight can cost you not only in insurance premiums and medical bills, but in lower wages: Extra Weight, Higher Costs – New York Times. For my BMI at the time, it estimated that I would save five thousand dollars a year if I just got to my goal weight. That’s why this song is on my workout playlist, to remind me that I will be $5000 richer when I get to my goal.

Your Body Is A Temple by Argonaut: This song was one of Mike’s and it came up on a shuffle play once. I immediately added it to my workout playlist. With a preacher yelling, “And the bible says that your body is the temple!” it was a shoe-in!

Skinny Jeans by SkinnySongs: This week’s song from the Skinny Songs album is about getting back to a thin weight. It doesn’t really talk to me because I’ve never been at goal in my adult life. I like the song, though!

Walk Away by Kelly Clarkson: This song is on the list because it has the phrase “Walk Away” in it. It’s a high energy song that gets me moving and I like to walk at 4.0 mph while hearing her telling me to keep walking.

Work 01 by Front 242: This song is mostly an instrumental song. Long before The Matrix made music like this popular, Front 242 was making me run. You’ll have to ignore the “another mutilated body” voice overs and just concentrate on the “Is this the kind of work you’d like to do” voiceovers instead.

Don’t Give Up by Chicane: All a good workout song needs is a fast beat and one good lyric. This song has “Don’t Give Up” and a beat that will get your feet moving!

A Little Less Conversation by Elvis vs JXL: I absolutely love this song. With lyrics like, “A little less conversation. A little more action,” it reminds me that I can’t just talk about exercising. I need to DO it!

Running by No Doubt: This is a great cool down song, but I also like listening to it when I’m running. The chorus says, “Running, running, as fast as I can. Do you think we’ll make it? We’re running, keep holding my hand, so we don’t get separated.”

Listen to the clips for these songs. If you find just one song this week that motivates you to exercise, then buy it and make it your powersong when you’re working out this week. I bet you’ll find that you’re more willing to get your butt to the gym and your workouts are easier.