Moved to a new location

Hello, thanks for visiting my blog. Beginning May 3, 2008 all new blog posts will be posted at my new blog: http://sherizampelli.com/blog

This new blog combines weight loss and body image posts with posts about roller derby, spirituality, music and more. It is my unique on-line magazine for women who are ready to expand their vision of themselves and become all that they are meant to be.

If you're already subscribed to e-mail updates of the blog, you don't have to do anything you will get new posts automatically. If you are visiting this page on-line, go to the new blog at http://sherizampelli.com/blog.

The new blog is titled Get Gal VanIZed. To find out why, read my opening post.

All the best,
Sheri O. Zampelli, M.S., CCH

And the knee bone's connected to the thigh bone and....

Skating on a banked track during roller derby practice has taken it's toll on my body to be sure. Today I went to the chiropractor complaining of pain in the inner thigh/groin area.

After some poking and prodding and holding my leg steady in a variety of positions my practitioner, Mike explained that the muscle running down the the outside of my leg (forgot the name) was so tight that it caused my inner thigh (adductor) to overcompensate and eventually strain. He massaged and stretched the outer thigh and though it hurt like heck, I walked out of the office feeling like a kitty cat who just had its head rubbed by its owner. I was floating.

Left to my own devices, I never would have done anything to heal the outside of my thigh. Afterall, it didn't even hurt. I would have kept nursing the inner thigh, wondering why it never got better. Eventually, it might have gotten worse. Tonight, I'm doing the prescribed stretches and I feel better already.

It just reminds me of how everything is connected. This applies to emotions and personal/spiritual growth as well. Sometimes we have a particular goal in mind and it seems like we never "make it happen." Something always "gets in the way" or "holds us back." It's possible that there is another issue that needs to be resolved *first* before the goal can be achieved. If you refuse to acknowledge or resolve that issue, the problem will never go away and the goal is likely to go unacheived or unenjoyed.

My book, From Sabotage to Success is one way to get to the root of some of the things that might stand in your way. I also recommend A Course in Miracles or This Thing Called You.

My Mind is 67% Cluttered. Time to Clean House.

The results of my mind clutter quiz are in. My mind is quite cluttered. But I am sure that if I took this quiz 2-5 years ago I would have got 98% or so. But then thinking that is also mind clutter. Take the quiz, it's good stuff to think about.

Your Mind is 67% Cluttered

Your mind is quite cluttered. And like most clutter, it's a bunch of crap you don't need. Try writing down your worst problems and fears. And then put them out of your mind for a while.

How Cluttered is Your Mind?

Not Enough, Need Credit

My friend David Henseler really got me going the other day. He was talking about how the mind takes things literally sometimes and how the word "weight" could be percieved as "wait" in the mind which could lead to a delay in good things. It got me thinking.

Today I took it a step further. The word credit: when you look it up on dictionary.com you have to read through four definitions about honor, pride, acknowledgment, credibility and trustworthiness before you get to anything about credit as in borrowing or credit cards. What if credit card debt and the inability to give yourself credit are tied in to each other that literally? What if by giving yourself credit you could actually heal the part of you that spends beyond your means or earns below your potential?

What if? Regardless of the outcome, it certainly couldn't hurt to give yourself acknowledgment for what you do and who you are.

Focus on Where You're Going Part Two (The Derby Dolls Do)

Choppy doesn't look back. Photo by Rinkrat.
In a recent Derby Doll practice, Janis Choplin drove the "focus on where you're going" message home. She was teaching the "Fresh Meat" how to come to a complete stop using the t-stop or the snow plow.

"Where are your eyes?" she asked. "If you look at your feet, you'll fall everytime."

She was right you know. I've had a few bruises along the way to prove it.

"You need to keep your chin up and keep your eyes on where you want to go and you need to act like you know you're gonna stop" was Choppy's advice. I'll admit, I had flashbacks of listening to Tony Robbins cassette tapes in the 1990's and I'm sure advice like this is dispensed to military personnel, sales teams and atheletics clubs far and wide but it was so much easier on the ears for me to hear and absorb in Fresh Meat practice with Janis Choplin and Mila Minute.

My snow plow is still in process of being improved and I have decided to dedicate my energy toward putting Choppy's advice to work both on and off the track. After all, when is it not a good idea to keep your focus on where you're going and why would you want to act like you're not gonna get what you want when you could just as easily act like you are?

Focus on Where You're Going and it's Easier to Get There

The whole idea of focusing on what you want isn't just about aspiring to reach lofty goals. I think it's only fair to mention that the idea has very practical daily application.

I recently went on a road trip where I drove over 200 miles in one day. Most of the driving was on winding, 2-lane roads. As logging trucks sped past my left side, I sometimes felt nervous and like a deer in headlights, sometimes I looked at the truck as it came closer. But then I remembered the statement: "Focus on where you're going."

When I focused on the road ahead of me and not the lane and truck to my left, I was able to navigate the road successfully. Staring at the trucks or being afraid of them was not going to help me get to my destination safely and without stress.

The concept of focus on where you're going is something we use all the time without giving it much thought. I'm going to use it as a way to help me move toward long-term goals with greater ease.

Perfectionistic Backfire - Can Striving for Perfection Sabotage Your Success?

The topic of perfectionism has been coming up a lot for me lately. Okay, okay, it's been coming up my whole life but in just the past week or so I've been a little bit more aware. First was when my friend Cindy posted a blog about it (perfectionist be gone). Then there were a few random statements I heard from others that hit me hard. A client who said, "I don't have any successes and I don't want to set any goals because it will be just one more thing I failed at." Then there was the tabloid at 7-11. The cover had some sort of "best and worst bodies" theme to it. There was the cute little body in her bikini and next to the distorted, blown out, cellulite ridden, rolly polly body. Her eyes were blacked out with a bar like it was some sort of pornographic image. I was thinking that a good number of us could look like that in a bikini given the angle the poor quality of the photo, etc. etc.

So what is the message under all this perfectionism? It is this and this alone, loud and clear: YOU ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Most people who send this message to another person have something to gain. A sale, a feeling of superiority, power, control. But when we send this message to ourselves, we have nothing to gain. Perfectionism is debilitating and weakening. It will never help us to get what we want and even if it does, once we get it we won't feel good about it because it always could have been better.

This weekend is a holiday weekend. I would like to make it a holiday from perfectionism. I would like to kick back on the couch and revel in some of the things I have done well. I'd like to focus on what I have to be grateful for. Would you like to join me?

P.S. This post is purposely "imperfect" and as I write I am navigating the internalized voices and faces of my former college instructors and business coaches who all have something to say about how I "should" write and how I "should" present myself in public. I am giving them all the weekend off.