Pages

Monday, March 22, 2010

Live Life Love...

There was a question on the Calorie King Forums over the weekend, a young girl nervous about going to Melbourne to visit her family, worried she may succumb to unhealthy food choices and no exercise. 

The consensus was that she should go, use the time to put into practice the lessons she's learnt, use the free family babysitting as an opportunity to get out and exercise.

Then there was devil's advocate who stated if she was that worried she should not go until she had reached her goal.  This struck a nerve with me and let me tell you why....

As a chronic, (ex) yo-yo dieter I have spent the majority of my life putting stuff off, or dreaming about how great my life will be when I reach my goal.  I've spent years not going on family vacations to the snow, no longer horse riding, avoiding dating, among many other things hiding myself away from the world. 

Here's the thing, firstly your life will likely be very similar when you reach goal, but you will be lighter and healthier.  Here's the kicker losing weight won't make your problems go away, BUT developing a more positive outlook on life will likely make these things easier to deal with, they WILL likely still be there though.  I say this because I've seen quite a few people lose weight only to put it back on because their problems didn't disappear with their weight, or their life didn't change into a perfect fairytale. 

Secondly, though, in all seriousness, LIVE YOUR LIFE.  I'm only about two-thirds of my way to my goal, but if I continued to wait until I reached goal these are the things I would have missed out on, boot camp (because seriously I never would have joined up), a trip to Queensland, running in my first fun run, going to the snow this year, horse-riding again, a trip to Melbourne, the Mother's Day Classic, the City to Surf, dating, going out more with friends, enjoying wearing clothes that fit, watching myself actually grow into a happier person.

I'm not gonna lie to you, we all have bad days, feel nervous, worry about changes in our routine, but guess what!?  Life is full of change, stuff happens, you have to learn to roll with it, or you won't survive maintanence.  It took 7 months to the day of diagnosis for my mum to succumb to her cancer, life is too short, I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and my legacy would be well there was all this stuff I was gonna do when I got to goal, but oops I died first?  Really?  Because I guarantee if you haven't learnt how to cope with changes and trips and all the things life throw at you along your journey your maintenance will last about a week and that weight will be back on before you know it.  Why?  Because it's a lifestyle change, waiting intimates that you are dieting, you know it does, and really what a miserable life holed up in your house not going anywhere or doing anything because it might interfere with you routine.... sound familiar?  Frankly that's exactly what I was doing that got me to 130kg in the first place. 

Embrace change, live your life, your goal will come when it comes, don't stop living in the meantime.  Personally I think that's a miserable exsistence I've lived that life, and I will take this life I have now full of excitement and change and if I get hit by a bus tomorrow at least I know I've embraced my life, I might not be my goal weight yet but at least I've been living!

1 comment:

  1. "oops I died first?"

    I'm really sorry, but that made me giggle.

    But you're right.
    I think things like that need to be added to the excuses list!

    ReplyDelete