74) Love thy self...

I never thought I would be the type of person who craved exercise over chocolate, or feel like I was being robbed because I couldn’t find the time to work out… I found myself jealous of anyone who was more motivated than I was, but that still didn’t manage to motivate me.

Then one day, my weight hit a peak… I looked at the scales and thought they must have been wrong. I looked in the mirror and saw someone I didn’t know. It was at that moment that I realised that I had to do something, so I put on my runners and went for a walk. I didn’t even realise then the power of ‘now’ and how much of the way I thought controlled not only everything that I thought was possible, but also how my mind had let me justify my weight gain.

I quickly learned that I could find an excuse to miss a session with my personal trainer because of my busy life, or because I was too tired. I felt like I had deserved to rest or skip the gym to fit in other things. And when I didn’t see results, I felt like it was because I was ‘big boned’ or had a ‘slow metabolism…. Inevitably, the real reason was because I was cheating on myself; by not finding the time to work out then by rewarding myself with food to help me feel better. I was able to justify my negative mindset when it came to physical activity by eating foods that didn’t fuel my body correctly and by drinking alcohol to make me feel better after a bad day.

Somewhere along my mission to epic physical health, I realised the power my mind had on my situation. I came across some small tricks from my own experience, from my trainer and of course Google and Facebook pages. I found things that motivated me and reasons for achieving my goals. I realised that by understanding what my body was doing, that I could manipulate my mind to get the most out of the experiences.

They are -

· Don’t make unrealistic goals. Instead of trying to lose 20kgs, aim for 2kgs at a time and appreciate your hard work at every mile stone
· Make working out a commitment by making it an appointment – allocate that time to yourself. You deserve it.
· Always keep your stuff to take to the gym in a bag and in the car. If you don’t do it while you are out, you won’t make it back out again after getting home and will get distracted with other things you think take priority over ‘you’ time.

· A 15 minute workout is better than no workout. No-one is taking notice of how long you work out for; just make that time count while you are there.
· If you plan to work out that day, wear your gym gear from first thing in the morning. You will feel ridiculous wearing it and knowing you haven’t made time to work out that day.
· Don’t be put off by other people who are fitter or skinner than you. We all feel the same about our bodies and cellulite etc. Use it as motivation and appreciate that you are surrounded by like-minded people who just want to look and feel good on the inside as well as the outside.
· The gym isn’t the only place that work-outs count. Mowing your lawns or walking the dog count too!
· Make a play list and pace the intensity of your workouts by the music you are listening to. The songs will be familiar to you, so you will know when the song gets fast or when the chorus is and you can use that as the peak of your workout. When the song slows down or when the chorus ends you can slow down and use it as your rest period. Wait till the songs end before you change activity, and finish the playlist to complete your workouts.
· Compete with yourself. If you see you are 8 minutes into your workout and have burned a certain amount of calories, set yourself a goal to reach a certain amount of calories in the last few minutes and really push yourself. This will help you to not cheat yourself and slack off towards the end!
· Gain knowledge. Understand nutrition and what your body needs. You will soon start feeling full of energy and proud of your achievements. It’s addictive. You will eventually let off steam by punishing yourself during a workout or reward yourself with taking time out instead of turning to anger, food or alcohol.
· Look for photos and words or quotes that motivate you. Remember – strong is the new sexy… use weights; it burns more energy than you realise and gives you the sexy body that you want. Its not achieved by starving yourself, using fad diets or excessive exercise regimes.
· Don’t give yourself time frames or numbers to reach. When you do, you often relax and undo all of your hard work. Instead, use physical things like being able to jog for 5kms consistently or being able to do 5 chin ups and then increase them as you reach them.
· Don’t let other people’s opinions affect what you want to achieve. People will ask you why you did it at first, and then they will ask you how you did it. Be proud of what you are doing and enjoy the moments where you choose healthy options over junk. You will be surprised how many people are inspired by you and want to do it too.

· Exercise your mind and use training as your therapy. Focus on your breathing and let yourself think of other things instead of the pain that you may endure. If you concentrate hard enough on breathing right, you will find that you can almost reach a point where you are meditating instead of wishing for time to pass before you die. You will eventually crave that feeling and then the time that you can stay at your highest intensity becomes longer and longer until it’s not difficult anymore – but remember to push yourself for best results. A bit of hard work won’t kill you, but having an unhealthy lifestyle might….

In the last 12 months, I made it to my weight loss goal and lost a total of 20kgs in 8 months before I started to relax based on other peoples’ opinions (that I was obsessed with my weight loss and getting too skinny) and in turn relaxing my ‘mind muscle’ for too long until the weight creeped up again. Now that I have seen the power of my mind and body, I can get straight back on track and pick up from wherever I left off. I punish myself and work hard for a little while because I have been cheating on my body by mistreating it with the wrong foods and alcohol but then use it as my kick-start for the next goals I set. It is never too late to start and I will never give up trying, no matter how many setbacks or kick-starts I have to do….. I have found a passion, and that passion is me. It is like any relationship, it takes hard work, patience, commitment and not letting anything get in the way of what you want. I am in a relationship with myself and have in turn, found love. I have not only learned to love myself, but also realised that it’s necessary to love yourself before someone else can love you. Life can be crazy sometimes, but if you have nothing else in life – you always have a choice…. Choose to be the best version of you….. And ask yourself – what would you do if you knew that you couldn’t fail?

73) The Notebook

Young Noah: Would you just stay with me?
Young Allie: Stay with you? What for? Look at us, we're already fightin'
Young Noah: Well that's what we do, we fight... You tell me when I am being an arrogant son of a bitch and I tell you when you are a pain in the ass. Which you are, 99% of the time. I'm not afraid to hurt your feelings. You have like a 2 second rebound rate, then you're back doing the next pain-in-the-ass thing.
Young Allie: So what?
Young Noah: So it's not gonna be easy. It's gonna be really hard. We're gonna have to work at this every day, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, for ever, you and me, every day. Will you do something for me, please? Just picture your life for me? 30 years from now, 40 years from now? What's it look like? If it's with him, go. Go! I lost you once, I think I can do it again. If I thought that's what you really wanted. But don't you take the easy way out.
Young Allie: What easy way? There is no easy way, no matter what I do, somebody gets hurt.
Young Noah: Would you stop thinking about what everyone wants? Stop thinking about what I want, what he wants, what your parents want. What do YOU want? What do you WANT?
Young Allie: It's not that simple.
Young Noah: What... do... you... want? Whaddaya want?

72) Success

Thoughts create words, for words are the vehicles of ideas. Words also affect thoughts and help condition and create attitudes.

It's attitude, not aptitude, that affects your altitude.

You can make your mind re-call anything you want, but it can only give back what it was first given.

Often people who lack inner peace are victims of a self-punishment mechanism. God will forgive them, but sometimes they will not forgive themselves. Often people will over-work to relieve feelings of guilt.

People who lack energy may be disorganised by their deep emotional and psychological conflicts.

There's no understanding the future without the present, and no understanding where we are now without a glance, a least, to where we have been. Joyce Maynard.

The way to create happiness:
Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry.
Live simply, expect little, give much.
Fill your life with love, scatter sunshine.
Forget self, think of others.
Do as you would be done by.
Try this for a week and you will be surprised.

Winners find reasons to ...
Losers find excuses not to.

Success comes when preparation meets opportunity.

Success is often a matter of hanging on longer, when others have given up.

Success is never final.

Search for better ways to do things and you will find success.

Be what you are and become what you are capable of becoming.
Take charge of your life - become the person you would like to be.

Skills are not copyright - they are transferable.

Identify your strengths and weaknesses. Learn new skills to achieve your goals in life.

Your success will depend on your attitude to life.

Everybody lives by selling something.

To convince others, first convince yourself.

Unless you are prepared to take risks, you will do nothing, have nothing, and be nothing.

Nobody ever choked through swallowing pride.

Problems multiply when you take your eye off the goal.

All the skills to solve a problem won't help, if you don't have the will.

Discover the power of praise - it will make your world a better place.

Persistence prevails when all else fails.

Stick to the fight when you're hardest hit -
when things go wrong you mustn't quit.
From "Motivational Adages for Achievers" by Geoffrey Moss

That which we persist in doing becomes easier to us, not that the task becomes easier, but that our capacity to do so has increased.

It is easy for others to put you down when they are simply agreeing with you.

Conceit is a strange disease. It makes everyone else sick except the person who has it.

What we get is what we expect.

Say to yourself - Yesterday I thought something was a problem. Today I see it as a divine opportunity to stretch myself and progress.

In our lives we each act, evaluate, correct, then act again.

After all is said and done, there is more said than done.

You cannot lift another soul till you are standing on higher ground than he or she is.

We can't live our life over again, but we can really live up to our potential from this moment on.

Everyone has a gift. Recognising the latent potential we each have enables us to look beyond what the person has done in the past and see that person as they could be.

Forgiveness is giving up my right to hurt you back because you have hurt me.

Make changes with SNAPS
S pecify the situation
N ame your feelings
A sk for what you want to happen
P ay off - will be either positive or negative
S o go for the positive result

Goals should be
S pecific
M easurable
A chievable
R elevant
T ime tabled

Depression is frozen rage - anger that has never been dealt with.

To kill time - try working it to death.

If we are to progress we must go forwards, not backwards.
We can look backwards, we can learn from backwards, but we must not go backwards.

We don't need to look where we are, but where we are going.

Faith will take us to the destination God wants us to get to. We have a destiny.

Man has a destiny and faith has a destination.

If you don't know where you are going, how will you know when you get there?

God says, "If you can see it, I can build it. If you can believe it, I can do it."

Man succeeds because he believes he can, or he fails because he thinks he will.

If you don't have a test, you won't have a testimony.

A challenge gives you the opportunity to flex your spiritual muscles.

When you have a lot of problems, and you think you can't go on -
Isn't it a blessing to find out you're wrong!

Life is like a book. You can't look at the beginning and the end and know what it's all about. You have to live it all the way through.

Discouragement is the last tool of the devil. When he can't 'down' you with anything else, he will use discouragement.

Treat people as they are and they will remain as they are.
Treat people as they could be and they will become as they could be.

Yesterday is past - we cannot change it.
Tomorrow is the future - it is unknown.
But today is a gift -
That's why it is called the present.

How we affect other people is all we leave behind when we leave this earth. Once we recognise that message then we know what we are to do.

Six Secrets of Success
Expect to succeed.
You are what you think.
You become like those you associate with.
Really excel in one thing in life and it will spread to other things.
Education is worth any price you have to pay for it.
Then is then, and now is now. Forgive yourself, and move on and progress.

You cannot teach what you don't know,
Any more than you can come back from a place you ain't been.

Whether you think you can, or you think you can't,
You are probably right.

When in danger of becoming too self-important remember what the mother whale told her baby. "When you get to the top and start to 'blow' that's when you get harpooned!"

When we don't speak up about something through cowardice we must remember, Silence is not always golden, sometimes it's just plain yellow.

It's not just that honesty is the best policy, but honesty is the only policy.

We can choose what we do but we cannot choose the consequences of what we do.

There is no room for road-rage on the straight and narrow.

Selfishness is the detonator for the explosion of all other sins.
It is the hammer that breaks the Ten Commandments.

Selfishness leads to terrible perceptual and behavioural blunders.
It makes a pot of pottage look like a banquet, and thirty pieces of silver look like a treasure.

Sometimes, the only way out is through.

Act with faith. Do not re-act with fear.

5 most important words - I am proud of you.
4 most important words - What do you think?
3 most important words - If you please.
2 most important words - Thank you.
1 most important word - Love.

The focusing power of attention never fails. It is the secret of success. Concentrate. Then go after what you want.

If you have a strong mind, and plant in it a firm resolve, you can change your destiny.

Live more simply, so that you can find time to enjoy the little pleasures of life.

You are immortal. Do not burden yourself with earthly limitations. Every regret for shattered hopes of success must be transformed into the joy of new achievements.

Behind the dark clouds of temporary disillusionment awaits the silver lining of eternal fulfillment.

Accentuate the positive,
Eliminate the negative,
Latch on to the affirmative,
And don't mess with Mister-In-Between.

When you sing
Don't worry about the sound you hear
Or you'll miss the music you could make.

To be truly happy, you have to find a way to give to the world. When you give to the world, the world gives to you. What goes around, comes around.

Go to college
And get some knowledge.
Stay there till you're through.
If they can make penicillin out of mouldy bread,
They can sure make something out of you!

It's only the view from where you sit that makes you fear defeat,
But life is full of many aisles, so why don't you change your seat?

You are the person who has to decide
Whether you'll do it, or toss it aside.
You are the person who makes up your mind
Whether you'll lead, or linger behind.
Whether you'll try for the goal that's far
Or just be contented to stay as you are.
Take it or leave it, here's something to do,
Just think it all over - it's all up to you.

Life is like a hawk flying high in the sky. Sometimes the hawk chooses where it will fly. Sometimes the wind takes the hawk where it will, whether or not the hawk wants to go there. In the same way, sometimes we choose what we want to do in life, and sometimes circumstances happen that we do not choose, but which we can learn good from if we look for something to learn about. But when we are resentful and angry, we miss the lesson.

Pain is inevitable but suffering is your own decision.

You don't have to know what to do.
You have to do what you know.

We do the best with what we know.
When we know better, we do better.

The opposite of love is not so much hate, as ignore.

Don't let a tragic past get in the way of a bright future.

It's maturity that brings "impulse control".

The only person you have to be better than, is the person you were yesterday.

If you've got nothing to hide, then hide nothing.
Be a person who can really be relied on.

If you're not sure whether something is right to do -
Ask yourself how you will feel about it tomorrow.
Will you then think it was right or not?

Our choices do not begin with an action,
They begin with an idea.

If you don't seem to be getting the answers you need - are you asking the right questions?
What questions should you ask?

Blaming yourself or others, or feeling hurt, angry or worthless, mean you can keep the situation the same and not have to move on. Therefore you don't have to make changes. So life stays safe - but you don't make progress.
In what ways should you be making progress now?
What do you do and say to stop that happening?
Isn't it time you stopped saying and doing that?
If you saw your good friend saying or doing this, what would you wish they would do about it?

As long as you have your 'prickles' out, like a porcupine, no-one can get near you to hurt you. You can't hurt a porcupine - but you can't hold a porcupine either. So it's not a win-win situation.

The first stage of a huge shock is disbelief - I can't believe that's happened. As soon as you learn to accept what's happened you are ready to move on in life and pretty soon you see a job that's interesting, or meet someone who looks good, or find a project you want to be involved with, and start putting emotions there that up till then you had been pouring down the hole of your previous disaster.

As long as you are living you will have people who leave you, either through death or the finish of a relationship, but that doesn't mean you have to stop loving.

In pursuit of any dream there will be moments when it seems that the dream is lost. It is then that you must have faith in the person that you are. Believe that you have the ability to overcome any obstacle standing in your way, and when your dream comes true you will realise then what a stronger person you have become.

Hold fast to your memories, to all of the cherished moments of the past. To the blessings and the laughter, the joys and the celebrations, the sorrows and the tears.

The special moments and memories of your life will never change. They will always be in your heart today and forever more.

Although words seem to say so little, I hope they help in some small way to ease the sense of loss that you're experiencing today.

Stop looking at yourself through your own eyes, and see yourself through God's eyes.

We are judged by our actions, not our intentions.
We may have a heart of gold, but so does a hardboiled egg!

Forget about mistakes you made yesterday
The lessons you learned are good for today.
Never give up and think that you're through
There's always tomorrow to start off brand new.

Always remember, look forwards not back,
Believing in making your dreams all come true.
Always believe in the best you can be
And have faith in the things that you do.

There are a handful of people in this cold world
Who can warm the hearts of others.
Their happiness is genuine, their smiles sincere.
At first glance they appear to be like everyone else,
But a second look reveals an extra-ordinary person.
Thank you for being one of those people.

71) he's just not that into you...

Gigi: Girls are taught a lot of stuff growing up. If a guy punches you he likes you. Never try to trim your own bangs and someday you will meet a wonderful guy and get your very own happy ending. Every movie we see, Every story we're told implores us to wait for it, the third act twist, the unexpected declaration of love, the exception to the rule. But sometimes we're so focused on finding our happy ending we don't learn how to read the signs. How to tell from the ones who want us and the ones who don't, the ones who will stay and the ones who will leave. And maybe a happy ending doesn't include a guy, maybe... it's you, on your own, picking up the pieces and starting over, freeing yourself up for something better in the future. Maybe the happy ending is... just... moving on. Or maybe the happy ending is this, knowing after all the unreturned phone calls, broken-hearts, through the blunders and misread signals, through all the pain and embarrassment you never gave up hope....

70) Really?

I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours.

68) 50 questions to ask someone new...

1. What do you believe to be the purpose of a relationship?
2. What do you believe is the purpose of a woman in a relationship?
3. What do you believe is the purpose of a man in a relationship?
4. What are your three most worst qualities?
5. What are your three most important qualities?
6. What kind of girls do you like?
7. What can you do for your woman on a daily basis?
8. What does she have to do on a daily basis to make you happy?
9. What pisses you off the most about women and you cannot tolerate in a relationship?
10. Sexually, what do you find most attractive about women?
11. How is your relationship with your mother?
12. Describe the best relationship you had with a woman and why did you break up?
13. How many relationships have you had?
14. Describe the worst relationship you had with a woman and why did you break up?
15. Best qualities to find in a girl?
16. Do you like animals?
17. How many best friends do you have?
18. How often do you go out?
19. How do you have fun?
20. What is your purpose in life?
21. Who are the 5 closest people to you?
22. Do you believe you have a soul?
23. Have you cheated before?
24. Favorite meal?
25. Pretty or brains?
26. Longest relationship?
27. Do you do boy things like mow lawns and service cars?
28. Tidy or messy? Is housework a woman's job?
29. Spooning or forking?
30. Sleep in or get up early?
31. Could you be around people all the time or do you need 'alone time'?
32. Do you believe in affection in public?
33. Ideal date and who pays?
34. Do you believe in marriage and kids?
35. Your ideal woman celebrity?
36. Man crush?
37. Sweet or savory?
38. Full price or chuck out rack?
39. Brand you buy the most?
40. Thing that makes you feel crazy happy?
41. What makes you emo?
42. Girl that orders steak or salad?
43. Is honesty the best policy even if it will hurt someone?
44. What is your first impression of me and How would you describe me to your mother?
45. How would you describe your version of a normal life?
46. Is all fair in love and war?
47. Hold back and not get hurt/ disappointed or jump in head first and take the opportunity while it lasts?
48. Do you keep you friends and people you are seeing separate or want to introduce them to each other?
49. Live to work or work to live?
50. Live basically and modestly or have more money than you can spend?

66) changing the way you think...

“Whatever you hold in your mind will tend to occur in your life. If you continue to believe as you have always believed, you will continue to act as you have always acted. If you continue to act as you have always acted, you will continue to get what you have always gotten. If you want different results in your life or your work, all you have to do is change your mind.”

Missing you could turn from pain to pleasure, if I knew you were missing me too. ~Author Unknown

60) My plan

Be a good mum- do everything I can to give my boy a stable life with people around him who love and encourage him...
Study- Cert III and Diploma in Children's Services then Cert IV in Training and Assessment
Start a business or 2- Drug and Alcohol Screening Services and an RTO to teach everything I'm qualified in
Start enjoying life- buy a boat, go camping... and take my boy on a holiday... Do festivals! Have fun!
Go to uni- be a midwife
Make new friends and have fun with my old ones- Make some memories!
Be extraordinary- Try my hardest to be an inspiring and dedicated person, mother and friend...

59) :)

I need this!!! It could almost solve all my problems!! http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com.au/viewitem?itemId=130677363197

56) Scarred for life...