“You are working on a healthier life, but you find yourself obsessing about calorie counts and food foes. Here's how to think outside the food box.”

If you constantly think about food, what you can or can't eat, how you'll manage at your sister's wedding dinner, and if eating a Twizzler will blow your diet, you need a reality check. If you have this much time to obsess, maybe you need to find something more constructive to think about. Think beyond yourself. Get some food perspective. Go volunteer at a food bank, women's shelter, or online to sponsor a needy child. Realizing that your excess can actually turn someone else's life around can be very liberating, and motivating. Look at this as an opportunity to not only change your life, but someone else's.

“You want to do more, be more, but you are waiting until you feel more prepared. Here's how to gear up.”

Okay, sorry but sitting out in life isn't going to cut it. Sure, you could wait until you are completely on top of your game in life (whatever that means to you). Or, you could start living it now. What do you want to do? If you feel your weight, or your age, or your personality is holding you back, it is. If you feel nothing can hold you back from your dreams, then they won't. Abraham Lincoln once said, "Always bear in mind that your resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing." If you decide to succeed, and actually move toward that success, you will either succeed or be able to know why you didn't, instead of wondering if you could've or just writing off that you can't.

“You want to eat healthier, but it's such a chore. Here's how to clean up.”

If you've said (probably in a whiny voice), "Eating healthy is more expensive," or "My family doesn't like eating that stuff," or even, "I don't know what to make that's healthy," you are not alone. All of those statements SEEM true, until you overcome them. You are probably just not USED to thinking that way. Start by trying one healthy recipe each week. Yes, there will be some that you or your family doesn't like. You've probably tried new, unhealthy recipes that they didn't like from time to time too. It's okay. Chuck it and try again. There are plenty of very good recipes that will be successes. You may believe that healthy foods are expensive. Depending when produce is in season, and your location, prices will fluctuate. But you can usually work around these issues. You might feel your grocery bill is higher too, if you are buying fresh ingredients in ADDITION to what you normally buy. Once you start REPLACING the processed, pre-packaged foods (and probably a few trips through the drive thru), you'll see that eating well is healthy for your pocketbook too.

I am. Chesapeake. Sleeved 12/11.

“You want to feel inspired, but there's de-motivation at every turn. Here's how to run it off the road.”

Television, family members, so-called friends, magazine ads, a look in the mirror. There are plenty of things that make us feel bad about ourselves. Things that make us doubt that we'll ever succeed at our goals. So, what are we going to do about them? Eleanor Roosevelt had a great quote, "In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility." We know outside influences will occasionally bring us down, so how do we spring back up? What motivates you? Music? A particular movie? Thinking about God? Standing in the sunshine? Reading uplifting quotes? Exercising? Find what motivates you and keep your goals on the road to success.