I am always amazed when I see
someone who as absolutely transformed their life by transforming their
health. The tool of TSFL is SO powerful, the effect it can have on a
life if it is used as directed.
In my community of peeps it isn't
uncommon at all to see these successes documented every single day.
The excitement of another successful empowering week. The non-scale
victories that are reported every single day. It truly is contagious.
And the things all of these success stories have in common, as I have
observed them, are quite simple.
I am about to divulge the secret of success. Are you listening? Are you ready to receive it? There are four of them.
OK.
1) Follow the directions
2) Do the work
3) Never give up
4) Keep focusing on optimal health
If
you have it "in you" to do these four things, you can have the kind of
success that will utterly transform your entire life. And guess what?
There is no expiration date on reaching your goal because the goal IS
optimal health, and we never "stop" reaching out for it.
A number
on a scale is not a goal. Well, it was for me the first time I did
Medifast. But that time I did not seek to develop a fit and healthy
mind along with my healthy BMI. I was just seeking a number on a scale,
and when I "arrived" that meant I was "done" and I could "relax" and
"have whatever I wanted". So it was fleeting, it didn't last.
The
power that seeking optimal health has had on MY life amazes me. I feel
free, I feel transformed, and catch this because it is a BIG ONE:
I
am NOT WORRIED about GAINING MY WEIGHT BACK because I FEEL IT IN MY GUT
and KNOW WITH ALL MY HEART that I will NOT EVER allow myself to slip
back EVER into the "diet" mentality.
You see, the "diet"
mentality almost REQUIRES me to gain it back because if I measure my
success by "losing weight" all of the time, then the ONLY way I can
CONTINUE to feel successful is to always be LOSING WEIGHT.
If I
am addicted to that DROP on the scale to measure my self worth, then I
will always create a situation whereby I NEED to drop weight so that I
can necessarily feel good about myself again. In order to do that, I
HAVE to always gain weight so I can LOSE it again.
When I
realized that I had been exhibiting that kind of behavior since I was in
elementary school on my first formal "program" ever, it shocked me. I
had the biggest "A-HA" moment I have ever had. Realizing that I was a
scale junkie and that I allowed that beast of a thing to dictate to me
my value for the day/week/month/year was like waking up out of a fog and
realizing that there is SO much more to life than the scale. I also
realized that I was addicted.....TO LOSING WEIGHT. I was
entrapped.....BY MY SCALE. It had never, up until I began my TSFL
journey in July of 2010, been about HEALTH. Let alone OPTIMAL HEALTH.
It
had been about that blasted scale and whether I was losing or gaining,
because I was always caught in that oscillating cycle of
lose-gain-repent-repeat.
What changed? Me. How? Because I made a decision to change.
"But
Stacy, you make it sound so easy! You make it sound like anyone can do
it, that it just takes a decision, and how can that possibly by because
if it were that easy then everyone could do it."
Exactly.
Everyone can do it. I will never waver from being absolutely convinced
that everyone can do it. But not everyone does.
CAN everyone
brush their teeth? Yes. DOES everyone brush their teeth? Perhaps
not. CAN everyone pursue happiness in their lives? Yes. DOES everyone
pursue happiness in their lives? No. CAN everyone strive for Optimal
Health? Yes. DOES everyone strive for Optimal Health? No. One lap
around Costco on Sample-Sundays will dispel any notion that EVERYONE
strives for optimal health.
And I was once one of those
super-obese individuals lining up for the cheesecake samples. I had
given up that I had it in me to strive for health. I was not in a
scooter on oxygen yet, but at 40 years old my knees were to the point
where I walked occasionally with a cane. I still have the cane. I kept
it. I woke up every day wondering how in the world this fat suit came
to dwell on my body. I felt completely detached from my body, like I
was observing this massive lumbering entity straining to get in and out
of her car, like an out-of-body experience. My son called my "Sully"
after the big blue monster on Monsters Inc. Yes. Did I have a reason
to be depressed? Yes, but it was a reason of my own making. I did that
to myself. Me. And when I took FULL responsibility for the poor
health choices I had made up until that point, when I at the same time
FORGAVE myself for doing that to myself, when I realized that I was a
VALUABLE person no matter what my size, coupled with the HOPE that I
truly had a tool to be able to accomplish what had eluded me for SO
LONG......
Health.
When I was ready to decide, the decision took about as much time as a heart beat.
The decision to wake up every day and strive for optimal health.
The
decision to keep a short record of my failings, to forgive myself
often, to love myself and to value myself as worthy of the effort.
The
decision to stop, challenge, and choose on a daily and hourly basis
only those things that would take me closer to my goal of optimal
health.
Was I perfect? No. Is anyone? Perhaps, but I was not.
What I WAS was DETERMINED and PERSISTENT. I was a bull-dog. If I
stumbled I would pick myself right back up move along toward health
again.
Pity? Self loathing? Martyr mentality? Nope. Nope. Nope.
Entitlement? Perfection Mentality? All-or-nothing mindset? Killing myself at the gym? Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
What, then?
Accountability.
Support. Incorporating Dr. A's Habits of Health into my life
incrementally, sustainably, daily. Making the decision to be a master
of my body, not the other way around. Self-Mastery. This is a concept
which was foreign to me until I learned it. That I was actually able to
be a master of my body, and not always live as a slave to it.
This
has been a long blog. Kudos to you if you are still here. It really
is just me typing out my thoughts as I go. Sort of as a record for
myself. Thanks for listening.
Rinse and Repeat!
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