Getting Lucky

Sunday night, Joe and I sat down to watch a movie as we usually do.  The movie, this time, was the 6th in the Harry Potter series. We only got about half way done with the movie before I fell asleep (as I usually do), so we watched more of it last night...but didn't QUITE finish it yet (so please no spoilers).

At any rate, in this movie, Harry wins a potion called "Liquid Luck" that, when it's consumed, gives a lot of luck to the person who drank it.  Later, his best friend Ron is worried about his first game where he's basically the goalie on a team.  So Harry tells him to drink from a goblet before he goes out to the field - and everyone at the table knows that Harry put the Liquid Luck in the cup. 

Sure enough, Ron goes off and does an awesome job defending the goal - thus allowing his team to win the game.

It's only during the after party that Harry reveals to their common friend Hermione that he didn't put the Liquid Luck in Ron's drink.  Therefore all of Ron's saves and moves were his own - he just thought that he was lucky.

We've all heard the question, "What would you do if you knew you couldn't fail?"  And while I think that's a great question to me, it's such a BIG question that I have a problem fathoming the answer.  It seems too powerful and too obscure.

On the other hand, if you came to me and told me that if I only drank a thimbleful of some magical liquid every day that my weight loss efforts would work, I would buy that.  In fact, I'd buy it by the case.

We all want the easy way out, on some level.  The hard part is sticking to any plan for the long haul - am I right?  I think for me, the hardest part is actually believing I COULD do it, that I could be successful.   I've been beaten down by DECADES of yo-yo dieting - showing me that I can't do it, no matter which diet I try.  At least not for long. 

So if I had some magical thing that made me believe that I could do it, I bet I'd be more successful with it.

But what if, just like the Liquid Luck fake-out, I actually have the belief inside me.  What if someone said to me that whatever I decided to do at the beginning of the day is what I would do?  

I'd pick these things to do each day:

Making time to prepare healthy meals.

Taking time to enjoy the meals.

Making time to work out.

Making time to make out. :)

Assessing my hunger levels before, during, and after each meal.

Honoring my body's hunger signals by eating when I am hungry and not eating when I'm not.

Getting enough sleep.

If I could do each of those things on a daily basis, I'd be happy.  Scratch that, I'd be thrilled. 

I think sometimes this whole DIET thing seems so huge.  It seems like something that we HAVE to tackle - it's like a giant beast.  When in reality, we could probably just boil it down to a few goals each day.  That makes me believe that it's doable.

AND that?  That feels like magic.