I write a lot about the benefits of gratitude but never thought of it in relation to helping lose weight. That’s why I’m thrilled to have Pat Barone as my guest today. Pat has defied all the odds life stacked against her and lived to tell her tale. The child of addicts, she often felt addiction was the only possible way to live. Healing her own addiction taught her to live life backwards, dropping off baggage and bad attitudes along the way. When not writing and coaching clients to brilliant lives, she teaches and practices yoga.  Pat met her spiritual guide at age 25, and has been healing herself and the world ever since. Here’s what she has to say about gratitude and weight loss lists.

How “The Weight Loss List” Became a New Level of Gratitude
by Pat Barone

In an effort to clear my office of clutter, I recently began a scrounge-and-purge operation. I don’t consider myself a hoarder in any way.  I’ve learned to let go of old stuff, old fat, and, most importantly, old beliefs. You might say I love releasing things that don’t serve me. But, it’s amazing what can hide in bookshelves, beneath a stack of reading material, or in office cubbies.

Recently, as I was knee-deep in the recycle bin, I came across a series of old notebooks. I always keep a notebook with me. It might serve as a place to journal, make a to-do list, or plan the year 2035. I long-ago realized I can’t keep all the parts of my life separate, so everything goes in the one notebook I have nearby.

The day before Thanksgiving, I found myself going through a notebook from early in my final weight loss journey. I have no idea what cued the list I found… but I was actively losing weight and must have realized, or read somewhere, that I should hook into the rewards of the task I was planning.

So, here’s my list – the reasons why I wanted to lose weight permanently:
1.  I’ll feel connected to my body, no static in between it and me.
2.  I’ll be the essence of me, no excess anywhere.
3.  I’ll look better in clothes and find it easy to shop.
4.  It will show I walk my talk.  I say I want to be a healthy weight and embody health, and that will be apparent.
5.  Food will cease to be a focal point in my life.
6.  I’ll show love without food.
7.  I’ll love myself and others more deeply and purely. My expression of this love will be clean and simple and authentic.
8.  I’ll honor my body.
9.  I’ll be as I was meant to be.  I won’t carry my inadequacies and disappointments on my hips.

And here’s what’s important about this ten-year-old list: Today, it’s all true.  Every word of it.

I’m very grateful for all the wonder in my life. I’m even more inspired to look back and see what I have created.  I always had doubt, but my intention from those words somehow carried me through the doubt, the hard times, the heartbreak and meandering roads that make up life. What do you want to create?  In ten years, what will be on the list you find? The list you write today?
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Write your own list of the good you’ll have when you lose weight. Let it motivate you to love yourself enough to take healthier are of you.
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Join the Self-Love Movement™! Take the 31 Days of Self-Love Commitment and get my book, How Do I Love Me? Let Me Count the Ways for free at http://howdoiloveme.com. Read my 2013 31 Days of Self-Love Posts HERE. Join the Self-Love Movement™! on Facebook.

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