12 Ways To Get Inspired This Christmas

Most people know the ‘Twelve days of Christmas” as partridges in pear trees, gold rings, french hens and so on. Strictly speaking, the twelve days of Christmas are actually the time between Christmas and the beginning of Epiphany (Jan 6^th) and, as you’d imagine, have nothing to do with the above. But as Christmas has a different meaning for everyone nowadays, we’ve put together twelve inspirational quotes for a time of year which can often be reflective. We hope that at least one is poignant enough to resonate with you.

12 Christmas Inspirations

One of our favourite quotes because it’s all about the power of your mind. When you get your mindset to support you rather than sabotage you, you can do anything. Rather than trying one new diet after another in the hope that this time it will work, focus your energy on changing how you think about your weight and yourself instead.

Although it’s great to have supportive friends who will help you in your time of need, a true friend will also support you in your time of triumph. Sometimes, though, friends, family and colleagues can feel threatened by your success and will say or do little things that make you feel bad or doubt your achievements. Next year make a resolution to start hanging out with people who support you to be your best.

It can be a scary feeling to try new things, but the feeling of being stuck where you are is far worse. Sometimes the best rewards come from a leap of faith, and that means taking a risk that things may not go according to plan but you’re going to give it a go anyway.

Do you have a quote that you try to live your life by? Well, this is mine. Whenever I feel out of my depth or question some of the challenges I’m taking on, I remind myself of this quote.

If you’ve ever done any of our programs or been to one of our talks you know that what you do is a million times more important than what you know! It’s not unusual for our clients to know the nutritional value of a certain food, or the calorific breakdown of everything they eat but they admit they can’t apply most of the things they know about nutrition into their lifestyle. Rather than keep looking for the best diet or the best exercise routine, start focusing on what you do on a day to day basis instead.

When you’re trying to reach a certain weight, it can be easy to get obsessed with the number on the bathroom scales. Unless you hit a very specific weight that you’ve set yourself, you often feel like a total weight loss failure. That’s why it’s important to focus on the changes you’re making to your behaviour and the small successes you have along the way. Sure, most of us have a weight that we’re most confident at, but it’s liberating to expand your view of real success.

Another one about taking risks, I guess there’s a bit of a theme here! But that’s because the main thing that holds all of us back is fear. And yet, when we do go to the edge and jump, isn’t it so often the case that we do really fly? And if we don’t fly, isn’t there so often someone there to catch us?

When I was writing my book (which is due out in the first half of 2013!), I interviewed a number of people who had had long-term weight loss success. One of those people, Jeffrey, has become a dear friend of mine. He lost an enormous amount of weight (over 225 pounds) without following any traditional dieting methods – in fact, he gave both Donna & I great confidence that what we were teaching in our 3 BMI system works for everyone. One of the things he said in our interview was: “weight loss is not a game to me. This is my life, and I’m living it“. Are you living your life fully every day?

Let’s keep this one simple: don’t quit. You have no idea how close you are to success, if you just tried one more time.

If you’re a sensitive soul like me, you can find yourself affected by what people say to you – even if most of the time they don’t intend to be hurtful. However, remember that you can also choose how you react to other people. It’s a fine balance between acknowledging and embracing your sensitivity, but also ensuring you don’t get ‘beaten up’ by being too sensitive to other people’s comments and opinions. By the way, if you are really sensitive this book is one of the best discoveries I ever made.

Back to those darn fears again! But isn’t it true that the bark is always worse than the bite and the stories we make up in our head are far worse than what happens in real life?

When asked what he wanted to achieve with Apple, the late Steves Jobs said: “I want to put a ding in the universe”. Although we can’t all put a ding in the universe in the way that he has, if we could all just be true to ourselves and aim to be our best then I think we can all make a ding in our own special way.

Hope you’ve enjoyed these 12 ways to get inspired this Christmas! Can you do us a favour and let us know which is your favourite in the comments section below? We’d love to hear from you!