Hi everyone,

One of the fun things about becoming published is that you get to go out and promote your book. During the initial promotion for Crafting a Magical Life I had had several interviews but it was a TV interview on Lightworker.com that made me painfully aware of my appearance and how many pounds I had packed on in the last ten years.

We just don't know what we really look like until we see ourselves in pictures and on TV, and seeing myself on video was such a wake up call. I knew that I needed to do something to make a change happen, so I spent some time looking through all of the mind focusing crafts I had put into Crafting a Magical Life. I felt like weight loss would require daily attention, so I decided on prayer beads to help me focus my energy on eliminating the excess weight, building a lean, trim, healthy body, and feeling great.

In the end I made a bracelet, because I was so busy, and I was concerned I wouldn't take time for a full set of prayer beads. Every morning I spent just a few moments saying the prayers I had created around the my "healthy weight" prayer beads. Then I woud put the bracelet on my wrist and let it all go to the Universe.

An immediate result was that I became acutely aware of how often I was hanging in the pantry cabinets just looking for "something." When I would catch myself I would stop and consider what emotional state I was in. Often it was either boredom or anxiety. When I did catch myself I would drink a glass of water and walk away from the cabinet.

One day I came home from a short trip and discovered that my bracelet was gone! At first I was panicked, but after a few moments of thought I decided that it was probably because the Universe had provided a solution. So, I simply started saying a morning thank you every day. I still do it and it goes something like this.

"Thank you Universal Spirit that I am now a trim and fit 135 lbs, that
I am very healthy and feel wonderful. Thank you that I get to stay at
this healthy weight and positive state of health for the rest of my days."

Shortly after the loss of the prayer beads and the beginning of my daily gratitude prayer, a friend offered to help me and my husband, Chris, start on a Medifast diet program. Seeing this as the opportunity the Universe had provided I jumped at it, believing that it if the Universe sent this to us it would also help us follow through.

At the beginning of October 2009 Chris and I started on our Medifast. It didn't take me long to figure out, that while it did work and it did help us not to feel hungry, eating packets of stuff just wasn't going to cut it for either of us. Besides, I wondered what we would do about learning what foods to eat to build a healthy lifestyle afterward. I added to my morning thank you prayer saying "thank you for the perfect alternative to eating out of packets." Soon I found myself doing lots of research and hunting down a number of great foods that met the basic requirements of the snack meals used in the diet. Just to be on the safe side I added multivitamins into our daily regime.

Over the next several months we substituted more and more carefully planned "real food" snack meals and used less and less of the special diet food. We still lost weight and felt great, and for a lot less money. Plus, by slowly switching to real foods we both began building the skills necessary to eat well and stay fit for a lifetime.

Today we are eating only real food and are about to start the transition of slowly building calories back up over the next several months, with some exercise added to boost metabolism.
Chris has said goodbye to 60 lbs and weight induced diabetes, and I have eliminated 50 lbs from my body and feel fabulous. My back, knees and feet are happy, and I can breathe and wear fun clothes again.

Focusing your intention does work, and I believe that using my prayer bead bracelet to set my intention, then the gratitude prayer to keep the energy moving forward, helped me make the inner changes necessary to see results. My next diet focus will be on making a successful transition to a normal healthy diet and caloric intake while still keeping us both at our trim healthy weight.

What change do you want to make in your life, and how long have you been trying to figure out how to make it happen?

If wishing isn't getting you what you want, look through Crafting a Magical Life and find an intention focusing activity that can help you create what you want. Believe me, if I can manage it, anyone can!