Where is Your Focus?

Post written by Veronica Kipfer.

I would like to follow in Patrick’s lead from his post yesterday, Two Words You Never Want to Say. I too managed to neglect introducing myself in last week’s post. As you already know, my name is Veronica. Since Patrick mentioned he is a newlywed, allow me to mention that I am single, I work as an Office Assistant. It’s not my dream job but it’s a very good job for now. One day I will own my own coffee shop, be married with a family… etc, but this is not a time for me to expose all my future hopes and dreams to the world, maybe next week. (or not) I went to school, majoring in Psychology, for about two years before it became clear that wasn’t the right path for me. It wasn’t until I left school, as I am sure is true for most young adults, that I discovered what my passion was. I discovered where my life was heading and it became my focus to do everything in my power to get there.

The mind intrigues me. As I shared last week, I am a firm believer in positive thinking. Thinking positively takes focus. And focus requires determination, diligence and patience. Yes! Imagine that, focused people posses more patience than the unfocused. So what is focus and why should you care if you are focused?

According to dictionary.com, Focus is defined as, a central point, as of attraction, attention, or activity. Why should you care if you are focused? Let’s take last week’s article, Push Yourself, Don’t Quit and use it as an example of why it’s important to keep yourself focused. For those of you who may not have read the article, I shared how I found myself in a horrible mood, I changed the focus of what I was thinking about and just like that, my spirit began to lift and I found myself feeling much better even though circumstances may not have been so wonderful.

Focus is something that has been very important and influential in my life over the last year or so. I grew up as an overweight child and it held me back from fully living my life. I remember being in middle school and dropping out of soccer. Did I quit? Yes. Did I want to quit, absolutely not! Over the last year I’ve been focusing on my lifestyle habits and choosing healthier options. Ok, let’s all face it, we’d all rather make excuses for why we can’t make healthier choices. I’ve heard many, here are just a few examples, “I’ve tried that diet… I can’t do the no-carb thing… I don’t have time… I just can’t keep it up…”

First, I’d like to say every single one of us cannot use the same health plan to lose weight, maintain weight or put weight on. Whatever it is you want to do, you’ve got to make it work for you with your body. I’ve had many people tell me their opinions of what has worked for them, and their magical food they ate that helped them drop that last 5lbs that seems to always stick around. While I welcome all advice from others, I have to stay focused on my goal, to be healthy.

I joined a biggest loser competition last year at my office and nothing motivated me more than that. Just like NBC’s The Biggest Loser, we would weigh in once a week, Monday mornings of course. Each week I would wait in line for my turn to weigh in. I was shocked how many reasons, or excuses rather, I was hearing for someone’s 2lb weight gain, or why they didn’t lose this week. “Well I had a party on Saturday and then the family was over Sunday for dinner and the whole nine yards.” It’s amazing how quickly we can excuse our behavior. For anyone that watches The Biggest Loser, change is a must! The overweight contestants join the show because their focus was off. Maybe they’re a single mom, trying to raise a few kids. Or maybe they’re a busy Dad working two jobs, whatever their story is, they’ve all made choices to lead them to where they are when they first join the show. I see The Biggest Loser helping these contestants change their mental focus the most. Yes, they train them in proper nutrition and workouts, but most importantly they help re-align their focus.

Since a little over year ago, I’ve dropped roughly 70lbs. It has taken a lot of work, and focus. It also took a year. Staying focused will produce amazing results if you keep going, refuse to quit and push yourself.

Let’s say you’ve attained what you were focusing on. Don’t stop there! Get a new focus that incorporates your previous focus and build on your achievements.

I’d like to share with you a tool I have found very helpful. It’s called “The Daily Plate”. You can find “The Daily Plate” on livestrong.com This is an amazing tool that allows you to enter your weight, the amount of weight you would like to lose or gain, your activity level etc. It then gives you an approximate calorie intake and allows you to track your daily food and exercise. This helped me stay focused to lose the 70lbs. A great thing about “The Daily Plate” is the breakdown of carbs, fats and sugars. Helping you make sure you are getting a healthy balance. Enjoy!

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