Apple Valley, CA
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Everyday we make countless choices that affect our lives. Some are so major that we only make them a few times in our life - should I go to college or start working at the factory? Should I get married and raise a family? Should I live in Montana or California?

Others are so trivial that in the scope of life they are completely meaningless – what color shoes should I wear today? Which movie do I want to see? Do I want the fish or the chicken?

And of course there is everything in between. The point is, we all have choices and routinely make several every single day. Some decisions are more important than others and affect our lives to a greater or lesser degree, but we made the choice. The good news is that very few of our decisions are permanent. We all change with time and with change we alter our lives.

Choice #1 - do I want to change my current lifestyle?

Not everyone wants to change their dietary and exercise habits. Human beings usually need a motivator to make real changes in an otherwise familiar, comfortable, lifestyle. The National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) is a database of individuals who have lost 30 pounds or more and kept it off for 1 year or more. What this database shows is that people with a medical trigger as the motivator to lose weight (diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease) lost more weight and gained less of that weight back over a 2-year time period than individuals without a medical motivator. But, the good news is that this same database shows over 20% of overweight individuals are successful at long-term weight loss.

Most likely you have been eating and (not) exercising the way you do for many, many years. You probably made some temporary changes only to return to the life you are most

comfortable with. The way you eat might be dictated by time constraints. Rushing all day to take care of a family, work a job or go to school, come home and work some more before going to bed to start all over. Maybe you are a cross-country truck driver forced to eat at truck stops and sit for hours upon hours every day. Or, maybe you are a stay-at-home mom with finicky kids that don’t like to eat anything. There are as many different scenarios as there are people.

The question is should you make a change at all? If you are the only person making changes and your family will begin to eat as two different units, it probably won’t work. If you make changes that you are not comfortable with - it probably won’t work. For example, if have been raised all your life with ethnic food – Mexican, Italian, Chinese, etc. – then it is not realistic for you to abandon your heritage, especially if your entire family will be continuing to eat the old way. If you hate vegetables and refuse to eat them, then a diet instructing you to eat nothing but vegetables will not last. If you feel you must have a large, thick, juicy steak, then trust me when I tell you that a diet depriving you of this pleasure simply is not going to work.

The real question is
not whether you want to make a change, of course you do or

you would not have read this far. The real question is how much change are you willing to make now? If you are relatively young, in good health and just want to lose 15#-20#, then you just have to make some simple and small changes. If you want to start young, the best time, to prevent future illness you will have to make more changes.

However, if you are 45 years plus, overweight, high cholesterol, maybe with diabetes and high blood pressure; then small changes are not going to work. But, you do not need to make all the changes at once. You can gradually build in the changes. Then, as you become comfortable with one or two changes, add another. The key is not to go overboard and set yourself up for failure.

The Formula For Life program is based upon education and no guilt. We all have enough of that already, why add? I am a firm believer that some change is better than no change at all. In time, with the proper motivating trigger, you will do what’s right and comfortable for you. First, incorporate something new. Then learn why that change is good for you. Then, learn about new healthy changes and add that. Before you know it the changes will be a new and healthy lifestyle.

If you are ready to start making changes, then continue on to some easy choices.