What do you feel passionate about?

About a week ago I was sitting in a weight watchers meeting when the leader asked, what do you feel passionate about?  The theme of that meeting was how to keep motivated to reach your goal.  The question really got me thinking, what do I feel passionate about?

Well, it took some time for me to mull it over but here is a list of some things I feel passionate about:

Family - I love my family dearly and would do anything I could for them.  My family is my rock and they provide a lot of support for me.  I don't live close to my family, my parents and two brothers are in the Chicago area and my sister and brother-in-law live in Massachusetts, so I don't get to see them very often, but when I do, I savor every minute.

Friends - I have a few close friends whom are like my family.  My friends brighten my day.  They provide laughter, tears, love, and support when I need it.  I have a few friends in particular who always seem to know exactly what I need to hear, even though I really don't want to hear it.

 Career - Notice I didn't say "work", although I do like my job, I am very passionate about my career.  As you know, I'm a counselor (well, to be technical, I'm a Licensed Mental Health Counselor) and my passion is to help others.  I have two goals when it comes to career, to have my own practice and to obtain my Ph.D.  Right now, I am contracting with a substance abuse treatment program in St. Pete, which I love because I actually get to do face to face counseling.  My hope is to be able to make other contacts and possibly grow this experience into a practice of my own.  As far as the Ph.D part goes, I plan to apply to a program this fall and hopefully start in 2013, which, truthfully, scares the crap out of me, but the biggest plunges are the scariest.

Health - I decided not to list weight loss here because, actually, losing the weight is a small part of being healthy.  I want to be more active and I don't want to worry about having to deal with knee problems, back problems, heart problems, I think you get the picture.  So, to me, eating healthy, exercising, and losing weight is the key to being healthy.  I also want to travel and try new things and I don't want my excess weight to get in the way.

So, that is the list of my main passions and some plans for my future.  Writing down my passions and my goals solidifies my commitment to make them happen.  So, if you keep reading, I will keep you posted on my progress.  Also, Newton was right, what goes up does go down because I lost 2 pounds!

What are you passionate about?  Feel free to leave a comment and I will be happy to provide support!

What goes up...

Isaac Newton wrote his theory of gravity in the late 17th century, which basically stated, what goes up inevitably must come down.  I've been thinking a lot about this theory over the past week.  No, I am not planning to test the theory of gravity because I firmly believe it exists.  I was thinking about things going up and down after weighing in at my Weight Watchers meeting to discover I went up 1.4 pounds this week.

Now this may not seem like a lot, but I was sad and frustrated with myself when I got on the scale.  At first, I couldn't figure out what I did to cause the gain.  But when I looked back on what I ate and drank the week before, I could see what happened.  I guess that's the beauty of tracking what you eat, you can see where you screwed up.

Like everything in life, I know weight loss has it's ups and downs and it can be difficult to maintain momentum when facing a gain, even a small one.  What I discovered this week is it is not what is on the scale that is important, but the commitment to change.  Just like gravity pulls things back down to the ground, my weight will also go down if I stay committed to eating healthy and exercising.  I know I will have weak moments where I will overindulge, the key is to get right back on track and not allow myself to fall apart because I strayed off track.

This is true not just with weight loss, but with any goal that we set for ourselves.  There will be times when things go off track or don't work out the way we plan.  As long as we can pick ourselves up and get right back on track, we will eventually reach our goal.

So, if you've gone up and off course in your own journey, just remember Newton's theory and the idea that things will eventually fall back into place.  :-)