Many people struggle with weight issues, and I am among them. I have owned nearly every piece of exercise equipment the fitness gurus have come up with but I lack the motivation to exercise regularly.

Last year, I used Reiki to help myself lose 25 pounds. Over the next year, I gained 15 of those pounds back. The stresses of college took precedence over my health.

This week, I started remembering what it was like to be lean and thin, and healthy. By healthy I just mean able to walk across the parking lot loaded down with bags of groceries without getting winded. Although I would love to be able to do more than that, just being able to enter the apartment without gasping for air and then heading for the couch when the groceries are put away, would be a drastic improvement.

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

I remembered how much I loved to dance when I was younger. As I started thinking about it, I realized that I went dancing at least three nights a week, and danced around the house a bit too. Hmmm.

I record “Dancing With The Stars” so my daughter and I can watch it together as her busy schedule permits. So, I started – this week – playing the show every morning and DANCING along with them! It is so much fun! Mind you, I don’t dance LIKE them, I just dance WITH them. Also, I don’t last for very long, yet.

When the slow songs come on, I take advantage of yoga stretches which are more fun when set to music. I attempt to rekindle dances of ages past when the fast songs are playing, and luckily no one is home to see my performance.

It has been remarkable to watch the transformations of some of the dancing stars, such as Kirstie Alley, shown with her teacher, Maksim (my favorite!) in the photo on the right. You may be aware that Kirstie has tried and temporarily succeeded to lose weight using many different techniques, but dancing seems to be the one that has worked the longest.

I have HOPE that this is going to work for me, but this morning I realized I still needed to work on my cravings.

I found a wonderful article on food versus fuel, body image and self image, and health in general that resonated within me. There are a few practices one can do to fully understand their relationship with food and discover what the body – each individual body – really needs for fuel.

This information is shamanic elder wisdom provided by ThunderStrikes, and I encourage you to read the full article here.