Fat: it’s what makes our lives unhealthy.  But I’ve learned that there is fat in all our lives that doesn’t just pertain to the stuff that makes our pants a little tight.

I’ve always said if I ran for a political office my slogan would be “trim the fat” or run on the platform of cutting all that is useless and therefore dragging society down (I am copyrighting this slogan any political science minds!)

But the slogan to me, hits far beyond physical health advice and political slogans. To me it starts with the basis of our own personal lives and our own personal “fat.” That being the people or things that bring out the worst in us.

It never hurts to take a personal inventory of your life every once in a while and see who are the people that appreciate, understand and love you and who are the people that use you, lie to you, inconvenience you and judge you.  When you do this it is easy to see who are the people in your life that deserve to stay and who deserve to be trimmed away.

After graduating college I found such an amazing group of friends that lift each other up, support one another and genuinely wish each other well.  We have all managed to, even when separated after graduation, stay in contact and even more importantly stay involved with what is happening in our lives.

Those are the people that matter.  They are the ones who take the time. They are the ones who cheer you on.  They are the ones who pick you up when you fall, even when you want to keep your face buried in the dirt.  When we look hard enough it is easy to see the people who really bring out the best in us.

Sometimes it’s  just as easy to spot the negative people in our lives.  They are people who directly celebrate our mistakes, cast judgment and spread lies.  But what is the biggest danger of these people is letting them get to us.  When we allow ourselves to worry about what the nay-sayers are spreading, we are only allowing their toxic to destroy our own happiness.  Trimming them out of your life will allow you to put up a wall that keeps the love and peace in your heart and the hate much at bay.

Whenever I found someone to cast some type of fallacy about me, I always felt I had to stand up for myself and beat down the lies.  However, after a few experiences with this, I only learned that my preparation for battle only gave their negativity more life and light.  When I was able to trim the fat away, I found that their negativity died out awfully quick and I found myself stronger and not worried about who they were and what they were saying.

So trust me, you will find countless nay-sayers in your life.  The best thing to do is spot the smoke signal and walk in the opposite direction of the fire.  After all, trying to extinguish the fire just brings the possibility that you can burn yourself in the process.