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It’s Day 77 of the last 100 Days of 2025!!!

Whoa. Time to scramble into 2026…

I will keep emailing some thoughts as we navigate the holiday season, but I don’t want to bug you either…. if I am bugging you, unsubscribe here:

It's a busy time of year but many of us have a moment here or there to reflect on this past year and on the year to come.

Consider this story in that spirit.

It was November of 2017 on the mountain road near my house. I had walked the road at least a thousand times over 25 years but I hadn't walked on it for nearly a year. I had a serious knee injury in that time and was 280 pounds.

However, by November 2017, I was down 70 pounds and it was a gorgeous fall day.

I took a walk.

I had a great joy in my step -- the sights and aromas of fall were all around me and I relished them.

I walked joyously for a couple hundred years when I stopped to look around. Something was different and I just couldn't put my finger on it.

I kept walking.

I stopped again some yards later. I looked around wondering: "What IS it??? Something is different!"

I KNEW something was different, yet the rustling leaves and yellow grasses were all just as they'd been for the 25 fall seasons before.

That is when I gasped and realized: The difference was ME. 

I had changed so fundamentally in that year that I was in the midst of a complete new physical experience.

That realization of how far I'd come is what fueled my weight loss for nine more months and 70 more pounds.

When the wildfire swept through our forest two years ago, devastating all of my hiking trails, I leaned into that feeling from November 2017. I pushed myself outside everyday to remember and to be grateful for the life I have now.

That exercise kept me from gaining 100 pounds back from the devastation of that fire.

All of this was part of my own Big Goal in weight loss -- a goal not about pounds or pant sizes but about what I'd be doing in my new life. It fueled my weight loss and it has fueled my weight maintenance.

We should all be reflecting on our Big Goals as we head into 2026, no matter where we are on the path today. Dig in here: https://eatlikeabear.com/big-goal/

Go be awesome!!!

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