Q: "How long did it take you?" A: "The rest of my life!"

This is my new answer to that question. 

Seriously.  When I tell people I lost 135 pounds, the first thing they want to know is "how long did it take you?" 

Frankly I'm kinda sick of answering that question BECAUSE it puts the focus on the wrong thing as far as I'm concerned.   It doesn't matter how long it took me to physically lose the weight.  I did it.  It is done.  Never to come back again.

And THAT is really the most important thing.  THAT is the rest of my life.  I am committed to this process, and when I signed up to attain and maintain a healthy weight, in other words to create and maintain optimal health and even ultra health in my life, I was not signing up "For X diet for YZ amount of time."

That was not my mindset.  I had an "I'm going to attain and maintain a healthy weight for the rest of my life" mindset, so it didn't "take me" a certain "number of months" which is what I know they are looking for in terms of an answer.  It is taking me the REST OF MY LIFE.

And that is AWESOME to me, because I LOVE the process and I LOVE being optimally healthy.  I loved GETTING healthy and I love STAYING healthy. 

What people really want to know when they are asking that question "How long did it take you" is "How many months am I gonna have to NOT have what I WANT to have in order to GET this weight OFF?"

And that smacks of a deprivation mentality.  And I'm not going to water those seeds by satisfying your curiousity.  Suffice it to say that it will take me the rest of my life to reach my goal, because my goal is attaining and maintaining a healthy weight.  So I'm not "done".  I'm never "done".  I'll be "done" when I'm dead and I have no body to take care of anymore.

And if that bursts your bubble, if that discourages you or makes your heart sink because I gave that type of an answer then I have some very heartfelt advice for you because I want to see EVERYONE adopt that mindset!  Focus your attention NOT on what you'll have to GIVE UP AND FOR HOW LONG.  Focus your attention on WHAT AWESOME THINGS YOU WILL BE BRINGING INTO YOUR LIFE AS A RESULT OF THIS AMAZING TRANSFORMATIONAL PROCESS. 

GET a copy of Dr. A's Habits of Health.  READ it.  Nothing of my mindset is anything I came up with out of the blue myself one day sitting on a rock doing yoga.  Now, don't get me wrong I love me some good yoga.  But I did NOT re-invent a wheel that had already been invented and is just waiting for you to read it and employ the principles.  Learn and practice the Habits of Health.  Not the Dealbreakers of Dieting.  I hated THAT book, THAT book (no it really doesn't exist but maybe I should write it) kept me fat and unhappy for 35 years.  It was all about what I COULDN'T have and what I COULDN'T do.  And who I COULDN'T be, no matter how much I tried.

I much prefer the Habits of Health book (which DOES exist!) and I much prefer adopting those Habits of Health so that this journey in this body can be joyful and vibrant, not holding me back from doing anything I desire to do, and not being an excuse for me to check out of life and living.

I choose health!  For the REST of my LIFE!  How about you?

Rinse and Repeat!