Going for your goals - how 3 African American women reached their objectives

Remember how full of life you were as a child? If you wanted something, you simply summoned the spirit and energy to get it; being told no just meant you needed to ask for what you wanted in a different way at a different time. Nothing could stop you.

Wouldn't it be great to rekindle that spirit? You can. But it all starts with getting yourself together mentally and physically, embracing a whole new attitude toward health and planning for a happier, healthier lifestyle. From there other blessings will flow. The key word, though, is planning; good health doesn't just happen. You have to make it happen. Believe me, I know.

For more than three painful years I was almost 70 pounds overweight. I tried to lose weight with every shortcut I could find, but nothing worked, because I didn't have a detailed plan. I saw only where I wanted to be--not how to get there. Big mistake. Only when I began setting goals could my goals become real.

You can do the same. And what better time to start than with this New Year? Now's the time to stop the would've-could've-should've mentality and put a plan in motion. It's as simple as saying "I CAN." I CAN is an acronym I've created for the steps needed to reach any goal. The letters stand for Inspiration and Influence; Clarity; Attitude; Now. Check it out.

Inspiration and Influence: Using positive body language and uplifting words are great ways to get yourself inspired. Try to sit taller, walk quicker and smile more--it's tough to be negative when you're smiling! Next replace negative words with positive ones: Instead of saying "I have to work out today," say "I get to work out today!" And as for influence, leave those Negative Nellies behind; they'll only try to sour your positive persona. The company you keep will reflect in your language, behavior and actions. So if you're trying to quit smoking, don't lunch with a group of smokers. Remember when your mother said the world would judge you by the company you keep? She was right!

Clarity: To achieve your goals, you must be crystal-clear about what you want and why you want it. So ask yourself the following questions: What do I want to accomplish? Why do I want to accomplish it? What will happen--and how will I feel--when I accomplish it? And, most important, how will I make my goal happen? Once you are clear about what you're after and why, get even more specific. In your journal or daily planner, write down your goals and look at them daily; three-by-five-inch cards or Post-its with your goals on them can also be placed where you'll see them often. This helps keep your goals alive. Next list the actions that you can do each day to help you reach your objective. For instance, if you want to lose 20 pounds, your game plan for Monday might be to clear all tempting foods from the cupboard, drink eight glasses of water and go for a walk during lunch hour. Refer to your game plan regularly during the day, and check off goals as you complete them. If you don't complete a goal, stay positive and determined; put it at the top of the list for the next day.

Attitude: Simply put, we have to feel good to do good. Our challenge is to love and accept ourselves no matter what our size or shape. Visualization can alter your attitude and can motivate you on a day-by-day basis. Close your eyes and see yourself working out, stress-free or at your divine-right size. See yourself move in your mind's eye with energy and freedom. After all, if you see it, you can be it. Visualize. Actualize. Realize. You have the power within to achieve your dream.

Now: Do it now. Every day you delay puts you that much farther from reaching your goal, from achieving your vision. As women, we take charge when it comes to our children but are often passive with our health and physical fitness. Take a stand! Aim to be healthy and increase your longevity. Work at your dreams and watch how your newfound energy empowers you to do anything, be anything, get anything you want. Begin a morning ritual of saying to yourself daily "I can do it. Yes, I CAN." And go for your goals. Now! The concepts outlined above are based on Victoria Johnson's book Attitude: Complete Guide for Activating Personal Power and Weight Loss. Information on the book and Johnson's workout videos is available by calling (800) 635-3893.

When I was little and could walk, I never wanted to do anything. I used to sit and watch people skip and run, but I never wanted to join them. After I contracted polio, it continued that way. I was probably seven or eight before I started wearing braces.

When I was in my teens, 15 athletes from the United States came to Jamaica to help us start a wheelchair sports program. I noticed immediately that these athletes had a certain kind of confidence--and I wanted some of that. I used to focus on my handicap a lot, but when I started doing sports in my late teens, it brought out a different side of me. Most people used to look at what I couldn't do, but when I got involved in sports, they began to look at what I could do. And that built a certain confidence that today I take with me everywhere--on the job, in the home, in my relationships with my husband and 21-year-old son.

In the beginning, I played archery, darts, air weapons and wheelchair basketball. Internationally, I competed in field events, table tennis and basketball. I was a good all-around athlete, but not good enough to win the major titles.

When I decided that I wanted to win a major competition in something, I evaluated all the sports I did and decided that table tennis was my best one. I like it because I can play with anyone. Whether he's in a wheelchair or on his feet or standing on crutches, it's equal ground. When you win, it's your accomplishment.

So in 1983 I dropped everything else so that I could concentrate on table tennis. I set myself the goal of winning a gold medal and becoming a champion, and I worked at it. In 1984 I won two silvers in the Paralympics [an international Olympic competition for the differently abled], and that was okay. But in 1988, I laid everything on the line to go for the gold.

I used to drive an hour and a half to a club in New Jersey to play in a league twice a week because I wanted to add more variety to my game. I'd come home dead beat, then get up at six o'clock in the morning and go to work. I followed that exhausting schedule for the whole summer. This time, when we went to Seoul for the Paralympics in October, I won two gold medals and a silver. I felt wonderful!

But after that tournament, I got bored with the game. I felt I needed something else, so in 1990 I got into karate.

There are five belts in my style of karate. I'm a green belt, which is the number-two belt. I can use my arms to perform the blocks, and I can do certain movements with the upper body. When it comes to the part where we do the kicks, I use the wheelchair. You know how we kick? We do a wheelie--that's the kick. And when we do the katas, which are choreographed movements, we control the chair and adapt the moves. Our sensei [teacher] tells us that karate is not really about what you can do physically; it's the spirit--what you have in your mind and the way you project it.

Now I've set myself a goal for Atlanta: I'm training to try to regain my table-tennis championship in the 1996 Paralympic Games. [Johnson did not win a medal in the 1992 Games in Barcelona.] I'll be in my late forties by then, and that's kind of old to be winning a championship--but we wheelchair athletes don't have to worry about our knees! In high school I drank sporadically, but my drinking didn't get intense until I was in college. The second week of my freshman year, I got alcohol poisioning. The Black Student Union gave a party, and I had some reservations about how I would appear to the members. Was I too middle-class? Could they tell I was from Texas? Would they know I was questioning my sexuality? All those issues were swirling around in my head. When I got to the party, they had Sea Breezes [vodka, cranberry juice and grapefruit juice], so I had one. Then I had another one. And another one. I lost count and kept drinking.

Finally I stumbled outside and began crying and throwing up violently. Somebody called the emergency personnel on campus, and they drove me to medical services, where I stayed until six o'clock the next evening, throwing up.

Eventually I became quite popular on campus. I was involved with the Black Student Union, and I was very vocal about my political views. Meanwhile I was involved in a relationship that wasn't working out at all. So I would drink most of the week to cope. As soon as classes were over, I'd return to my room. I always had vodka and a bottle of wine there. I'd drink about four or five screwdrivers a day. I started missing a lot of classes and getting incompletes. I began to cry a lot and not want to get out of bed. There was a counseling service on campus, which I finally went to. The counselors said that I ought to think about Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)--but I never really thought that alcohol was the problem, I thought my failed relationship was the problem.

A doctor advised me to take antidepressants, but I'd have to quit drinking. I thought, Okay, I'll take these antidepressants, then I can go back to drinking. But during the winter break, I went to a party on New Year's Eve with my ex. I wasn't getting along with my mother, and my ex was on the other side of the room--with someone else. I sat there drunk and alone. I knew that if I kept on having the relationships I was having, I would be unhappy forever. Or I would just want to die. So that night I made a decision not to drink again.

Back at school, a friend named Andrea encouraged me to go to AA meetings. They were "women only" meetings near campus in a church basement. The women there had a number of other issues to deal with--sexuality, abuse, incest and domestic violence. I learned that it wasn't solely about how much you drink, but why you drink.

Staying sober for six months was a big deal for me. It was a benchmark because I began including my family in the program. They even attended an AA meeting with me. Part of my recovery is no longer having to keep secrets.

Another goal was nurturing myself. In my room I've set up an altar of things that are important to me--pictures of my family, a picture of myself as a baby, a Bible, inspirational messages. I see this as a center of positive energy.

Now I look at what I want to accomplish, and I make lots of lists. Before, when I'd put down a goal, it would usually be for something big--like "I want to be a great journalist." I wouldn't put down "First I want to go to all my classes this week. Then I want to graduate. Then I want to do A, B and C." Now I've learned that I can do the steps in between. And each step is a triumph.

I began gaining weight when I was about 9 or 10 years old. Looking back, I think my weight climb was the result of my parents' getting divorced and my mother and me moving in with my grandmother, who was a cook at a nursery. I was about 13 when I went on my first "professional" diet. My mother took me to Weight Watchers. I'm five feet three inches tall, and I weighed between 140 and 150 pounds at the time. As long as I went to meetings and weighed in, I got temporary results. Back then I probably lost about 30 pounds.

I think I've been on every diet there is: Weight Watchers (about four times), Jenny Craig, the "miracle" diet, a high-protein diet, fruit diets, starvation diets, something called the "stewardess" diet--everything. I've even gone to a weight-loss program at the DeKalb Medical Center. I'd do anything that I thought would work. But nothing worked. I'd lose the weight and then gain it all back.

It wasn't until three years ago that I realized that I had an eating disorder. I was a binge eater. I used to think that I was greedy because people would tell me, "You don't have the willpower. Anybody can stay on a diet. You're just greedy." It's a vicious cycle. You're teased because you're fat, and that makes it more painful for you--so you eat to ease the pain. I didn't have any boyfriends growing up: Food was my friend, my lover, my companion, through good times and bad. It wouldn't let me down.

But in August 1992 my weight got to its highest point. I was about to tip the scale at 200. I always said that 200 pounds would be the erisis point for me. At that point I knew I was in serious, serious trouble. Fortunately, I remembered two words somebody had told me earlier that year: "Overeaters Anonymous" (OA). I had to go. I had no other options.

A year prior to my going to OA, I had turned my life over to the Lord. He had helped me clean up some other areas in my life, but this food issue needed a different approach. I had been sitting there waiting for God to remove my weight problem from me. But not until I humbled myself--and acknowledged that I had a problem that I really could not deal with on my own--did the healing finally begin. I've learned that you have to play an active part in your healing.

At that point I went to [OA] meetings weekly and worked out four to five times a week. I'm hooked on step aerobics, and fortunately there's a club at my job where I can work out on my lunch hour. When I first started, I was on a four-inch step and could barely make it to class. Now I'm on an eightinch step, I go to classes and I teach two classes a week. I also run three to four miles about four times a week. And I do weight training too.

I don't know how much I weigh now. I've lost more than 70 pounds, but I haven't weighed myself in a couple of months. The size of my clothes is more of an issue for me than my weight is.

I haven't gone to OA in a while, but I plan to go back. I recognize that it's not always about me; it's about service. Sometimes my going to a meeting can help someone else. I also know that the Lord didn't bring me here just so I can wear a size 6 and be decoration. He helped me do what I did for a purpose.

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