Jane Olson > Quotes

“Comparison is the thief of joy – If you’re always comparing yourself to others, you’ll never see yourself as the unique and awesome person that you are.”
― Jane Olson, Counting Calories: A True Story From An Average Jane Who Lost Over 120 Pounds In Less Than 6 Months

“Having low self-esteem and a shield of lard are not guarantees of safety. Having a warrior spirit, high self worth (most people are assaulted by someone they know, so if you think you're only worthy of hanging out with controlling low-life's, that's who you'll attract into your circle) and the ability to run, hit, kick and holler loudly are far more effective weapons against victimization.”
― Jane Olson, Counting Calories: A True Story From An Average Jane Who Lost Over 120 Pounds In Less Than 6 Months

“It's not enough to say you want to lose fifty, seventy, or a hundred and twenty pounds. Because once you hit those magic numbers, what happens then?
Where is the motivation to continue with this new lifestyle you've created for yourself? I think you'll find that you need to stand for something, or you risk collapsing like a house of cards. You need to give yourself a reason to fight fat and to keep on fighting.”
― Jane Olson, Counting Calories: A True Story From An Average Jane Who Lost Over 120 Pounds In Less Than 6 Months

“There are a lot of valid reasons for wanting to feel safer. But hiding from pain or perceived threats behind a wall of weight is not the way to go about it. First of all, being a fat adult will never change the circumstances of anyone's childhood. The past is past. All you'll gain is more misery and low self-worth in your life now.”
― Jane Olson, Counting Calories: A True Story From An Average Jane Who Lost Over 120 Pounds In Less Than 6 Months

“Comfort foods they may have been, but helpful foods they most definitely were not. By merging my identity with certain foods and thinking of them as old friends, I found myself in the food equivalent of a co-dependent, destructive relationship. I was allowing food to have the power of defining me as a person. And those foods had defined me, all right; they'd defined me as fat, miserable, out of breath, lacking in energy and self-worth, and looking terrible in sweat pants. If I was going to insist on relating to food as a friend, then clearly I needed new friends.”
― Jane Olson, Counting Calories: A True Story From An Average Jane Who Lost Over 120 Pounds In Less Than 6 Months