To fall on your face means
 to fail or make a mistake in an embarrasing way.

The ony things in this world we can keep
are our thoughts and our actions.
Sometimes, to take action,
what we need is a change in our thoughts.
It can help to look at things in a new way.
Remember, when we fall short of our goals, it's okay.
No amount of personal mistakes will cause us to fall off the earth,
and no matter how stupid we look, we will still survive.

We are human.
We want approval for our actions.
We want shiny things, money, fame, a lean body, good health.

 But these rewards are not guaranteed,
AND they do not have the importance we give them.
Because none of them will ultimately hold off death,
not even good health.
Failing teaches us to accept ourselves more deeply.
When we fail, we can pick ourselves up again.

Realizing that we will always ultimately fail can free us.
It can make us free of the need to prove our ability;
free of the need to earn and hold on to rewards from others;
and free from everyone's definition of success but our own.

 i agree with Thomas Miller, who said:

"If you have one true friend, you have more than your share."

There are acquaintences, and there are friends.
These are not the same thing.

  What is friendship?

A friend is someone who you like, respect, and trust;
and who likes, respects and trusts you;
doesn’t always understand you;
but accepts and likes you as you are;
even as you grow and change.

A friend allows you the space to change, grow, make decisions, and even make mistakes;
listens to you and shares with you, both the good times and the bad times;
respects your need for confidentiality so you can tell them anything;
lets you freely express your feelings and emotions without judging, teasing, or criticizing.

A friend gives you good advice when you want and ask for it;
assists you in taking action that will help you feel better;
and works with you in difficult situations to figure out what to do next;
accepts your self-defined limitations and helps you to remove them.

A friend lets you help them when they need it.
You want to be with them,
but you aren’t obsessed about being with them.
A friend doesn’t ever take advantage of you.

Friendship is a continuing source of bonding, releasing, and creating
in yourself and with the other person. There is an emotional bond.
A good friend or supporter may or may not be your age or the same sex as you;
come from the same educational, cultural, or religious background;
or share interests that are similar to yours.

Friendships also have different depths;
some are closer to the heart, some more superficial
--but, whether they are real, true friends or merely acquaintances --
 all of these friend-type-relationships can be useful and good.

 How do you make friends? 
As Dale Carnegie said:

 "You can make more friends in two months
by becoming interested in other people, 
than you can in two years
by trying to get other people interested in you."

This relates to dieting, weight-loss, and maintenance of weight loss,
and every other activity in our lives as well.

The famous Russian dancer, Mikhail Baryshnikov, said: 

"I do not try to dance better than anyone else.
I only try to to dance better than myself."

Today is really all we have,
and we need to focus on living in it.

And yet ...at the same time...we need to remember
that the choices we make today
will affect our tomorrows.

                          

"The body stubbornly clings to what it knows."

I found this phrase in a June 8, 2011 New York Times article about barefoot running.
I am not a runner,
however, I have friends who are runners,
and this makes me interested in the subject.

The article said:

"Most of us grew up wearing shoes. Shoes alter how we move. An interesting review article published this year in The Journal of Foot and Ankle Research found that if you put young children in shoes, their steps become longer than when they are barefoot, and they land with more force on their heels.

Similarly, when Dr. Lieberman traveled recently to Kenya for a study published last year in Nature, he found that Kenyan schoolchildren who lived in the city and habitually wore shoes ran differently from those who lived in the country and were almost always barefoot. Asked to run over a force platform that measured how their feet struck the ground, a majority of the urban youngsters landed on their heels and generated significant ground reaction forces or, in layman’s terms, pounding. The barefoot runners typically landed closer to the front of their feet and lightly, without generating as much apparent force."

Going barefoot is only one behavior involving the body,
there are many others. 

I find the barefoot running example to be a good illustration of the way
the body adapts to what has always been its normal lifestyle pattern,
and how it "stubbornly" attempts to keep that as the status quo.

This is one of the biggest difficulties which must be dealt with
when working toward weight-loss and maintenance of weight-loss.