I agree with the "all or nothing" one. Nothing makes you feel like a failure faster than falling short of ridiculously high expectations.

Also, I found that once I stopped comparing myself to othersmy self esteem improved. And I try to stand up straight, too

This is a concept I totally rely on. I'm not exactly low in the self esteem area, butthis is the concept that keeps me up on the days that I am low.

People need this, and I'm glad to see you posted it

People (just in general) rely on their size and or weight to constitute their self worth when in all actuality it's not your weight that makes you the person you are.

I'm a firm believer in "you only have one life to live, so live it." I keep that in mind everyday. I don't want to end up regretting my life because I spent most of it being down in the dumps about how I look. I have a million other things to offer in the world other than my size.

I'm not saying that I don't get down about it, because sometimes I do, but I keep on truckin and start struttin'

This was a good post

I think #8 is not about refusing responsibility, it's about acknowledging how darned difficult weight loss often is. Just because you haven't mastered it yet, doesn't mean you're stupid, lazy or horrible. There are a lot of factors that go into weight gain and weight loss and we are not personally in control of every single one. We have control of a small part, and all we can do is take control of the part we can.

"Blaming" myself for my failure at weight loss would be like blaming myself for not becoming a physician. It was no one else's fault that I didn't become a doctor, and I'm the only one that stopped me, and while I might regret not going to medical school, and there might have been alot of good and bad reasons that I didn't, it was still my responsibility to become a doctor, if I had wanted it badly enough. It's only when you see being overweight as evil, do you feel the need to "blame" someone for being fat. I don't blame myself for a lot of things I consider mistakes in my life. Most of my mistakes were made because I was putting more energy into other very good things - like my job, my education, my family, my friends. Which one of those should have been sacrificed, you know sometimes I'm still not sure, but I definitely don't have to blame myself in order to change, just as someone in excellent health doesn't have to assign blame in order to make more ambitious healthy goals and work toward them.

And some of my mistakes in weight loss weren't not trying hard enough, but not knowing enough about what works and what doesn't. In business, they say don't work harder, work smarter, but in weight loss it isn't always easy, because there's still thousands of theories on which is the smartest way. Trial and error to find what works for you can take years, but if you "blame" yourself each time you err, it makes the next trial that much more difficult.

I love love love!

Just had a bingy bad night - this picked me up alot.

All ready for the morning gym session me thinks

That's a keeper! Thanks so much for sharing..Even though I "know" some of that stuff, it's really hard believing it 99% of the time.