The Yellow Pants: How I Did It:

For 20+ years I wore black, head to toe. On broiling summer days and on occasions like Easter and Valentine's Day when the rest of the world is immersed in pastels.  Well, today my traditional wardrobe has turned on a dime. Often, I still wear black pants, both because black blends well with other colors and a simple force of habit.  Eight months ago I bought a pair of yellow pants because they called to me. For some reason the lemon-yellow beckoned my name, even though I couldn't get them past my thighs.

I knew there'd come a day when I would indeed have them fully hoisted and the button fastened comfortably around my waist.  The key: not forcing my intended result into a timetable of my making.  The body, as I've been saying for so long, knows what it's doing, has its own intelligence and has things covered that I can't even begin to comprehend, like the automatic regulation of my heart rate, body temperature, blood pressure, and on and on.  I realized it was futile and not very smart to try and boss it around. So I stopped.  And now, when I have a goal, a particular finish line I want to cross, I set my sights on it and then step out of the way and leave the mico-managing to a higher and wiser force.

So it took eight months, big deal. They fly by when you're not obsessing and clock-watching anyway. I simply kept up the way I now live:  being active through YRG, long-distance walking, and weight training; and being faithfully married to clean eating.  Keeping gluten and cow dairy out of my system continues to enhance both my body and mind.  I was also lucky enough to join a gym that had a trainer who was beyond helpful and enthusiastic.  His guidance and formula (supersets) helped transform me and give me the extra push I needed at the tail end of my weight release when progress can sometimes slow down. Thanks to the discerning prescription dispensed by Paul Grassia, my progress actually accelerated, which accelerated me into those yellow pants.  Yeah Baby!

I did the work, but no one does inner and outer transformation like this alone.  So here's to my A-Team:  Paul, DDP, Terri Lange, Team YRG, my Ayurvedic nutritionist Judy Joy Wyle, my spiritual avatar Sri Pranaji, Karina Allrich (the Gluten-Free Goddess), Inner Beauty Goddess Masha Penson, massage therapist and belly-dance teacher extraordinaire Mary Imbimbo Kuntz, Angel-Photographer Joan K. Lentini, role-model-for-creativity Serena Kovalosky, fellow-shadow-seeker Carrie Lee McClelland, and everyone else who have thrown me bouquets of support.

Thanks to you all, I'm Living Life.  REALLY living it.