What is holding you back?-Part 1

I went to Barnes and Noble this weekend to devour the weight loss section over an iced soy chai. I realized the irony of this only about half way through the drink, and then was all, whatever, I'm workin' on it! After standing there for a while with a slightly glazed over look, I started picking books that caught my eye. Eating Clean, The Rebel diet (hello, are we made for each other?), The 90/10 diet, and so on.

One of the books I picked up was Savor, by Titch Nhat Hahn which FYI is not in the weight loss section, it's in the "hippie" section as Scott called it when I asked him to find it for me. I was really hoping this book would speak to me, and it totally did! So I snatched up and started reading. Savor is about weight control, but more importantly it's really about being mindful in every area of your life, which is a practice I've gotten further and further away from in the past few years. There was a funny zen story in the book and I'm not sure why I find this so freekin' funny, but here it is. Paraphrasing of course.

There was this guy riding on a horse.
The horse was running really really fast, almost out of control, but the man on the back of the horse looked like he was in control and like he knew where he was going. There was a look of intent on his face. So a passer by asked the man "where are you going?" and the guy said, "I don't know, ask the horse."

Ahhhhhhh ha ha ha ha ha! See, funny right? No? Yes? Anyways, according to the book, we all have a horse. The horse is your "habit energy" or something that's just driving you even when you're not in control. Makes sense right? My habit energy is Mexican food.

The book is full of questions to ask yourself. Normally when a book asks me to ask myself questions, I skim over that part. I mean, I read the questions but then say something like "pshaw, I already know that" or "pshaw, I have no idea" and move on. But this time, I actually asked myself a very important question. The important question was essentially "what is holding you back from losing weight and from living the life you want." I've heard some version of this question many times and never really paid it too much attention.

Do you watch America's got talent? I've never watched it until this season and now for some strange reason, Scott and I can't seem to turn away. Anywho, there's this freaky dude who's sort of Indian looking, but sounds sort of Austrian. His name is Hannibal Means. Last week they asked Hannibal why he was trying out and he gave probably the most honest answer I've ever heard. He said I'm conquering my greatest fear. He said, I'm afraid of my own greatness. Let that marinate in your brain for a while.

What is holding you back from losing weight and living the life you want?

Tomorrow, I'll tell you what's been buzzing around in my brain for the past few days.