Look, the Fat Girl is Eating a Salad....

If you walked into a restaurant 3 years ago, when I was just beginning my "second" journey, and saw me sitting alone and eating a salad with no croutons or cheese, and dressing on the side, you may have made the assumption "Oh, look, that fat lady is on a diet. She is eating that salad, I'll bet she WANTED to order something else but she's being SO GOOD!".

If you walked into a restaurant today and saw me (after losing 140 pounds) sitting alone eating a salad with no croutons or cheese, and dressing on the side, your internal dialog MAY be, instead, "Oh look at that fit and healthy lady eating that healthy salad! Of course she wanted that, look at her, that is what she probably eats all the time!".

Same me. Same food. Different assumptions based on what I look like.

But three years ago, I wasn't ordering the salad because I was on a DIET. I was ordering the salad because I WANTED it. It was the fit and healthy food that fit and healthy people eat, and because I was on a journey to become fit and healthy, it is what I WANTED to order.

Three years ago, I decided to go on the journey of a lifetime.  I decided to create optimal health in my own life. 

I didn't decide to "go on a diet".

And it has made all the difference in the world.  For me and for my family.  I wouldn't trade this new "me" for the entire world.

And continuing on the theme of assumptions, fat bias is prevalent in our culture, isn't it?  I mean we all tend to form "first impressions" when we see someone for the first time, or we judge them somewhat even if we KNOW them, based on what we know ABOUT them. 

You never know where someone is on their journey.  Three years ago, I was a fit and healthy girl in the inside, just wanting my outsides to reflect my insides.  I did the seemingly small actions every day which added up to stunning results.  But I have not been on a "diet".  I have been on a quest to create optimal health in my life. 

Our outsides always catch up to our insides.  Are you in a diet mentality?  Odds are that if you ARE, your outsides WILL catch up with your insides, and if your insides are screaming "deprivation, deprivation, can't wait 'til I'm off this thing", then your transformation will likely be ONLY external and ONLY temporary, and you will bounce back in an oscillating yo-yo pattern of "Lose-Gain-Repent-Repeat". 

But if you truly change your insides, if you truly adopt this as a lifestyle, from a position of hope and optimism, if you truly adopt the Habits of Health and practice them daily, if you choose to CREATE health in your own life, then if you are obese right now, your outsides will eventually catch up to your insides and that is an AWESOME thing!  I wish this all for you!

Rinse and Repeat!