July 30, 2011
No, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth. I'm still around, still very busy and still neglecting my website terribly, evidently! I find it hard to believe that the last time I wrote anything was January, but there it is. Well, I'm going to attempt to remedy that right now.I ran across an interesting quote this past week that struck me and really made me stop and think. I hope it gives you some food for thought as well:
"It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan." ~Eleanor Roosevelt
How many times have we said, "I wish..." to ourselves? Have you ever said that in reference to something you passionately wanted? Did you ever stop to consider that the energy you were pouring into the longing could be spent developing a plan to achieve the wish instead? In thinking back over my life, I've said, "I wish..." many more hundreds of thousands of times than I can possibly count. But I do remember that there were a few overriding themes to my wishing: "I wish I had a horse." "I wish I could lose weight." "I wish I had a maid." "I wish I was thinner." "I wish I had a million dollars!" Well, a couple of those are just not going to happen because they aren't very realistic, but from the time I was 12, it seems like wishing I weighed less was a continual undercurrent to my life (except for a few years in my 20s when I was sick and actually needed to gain weight; but that's another story).
Maybe you have a few big "life wishes" that you can identify. Are they something remotely realistic? Can you take that wishing energy and redirect it into planning instead? What if your wishes aren't quite as big as all that, but you still find yourself wishing the same wishes over and over again. "I wish I was more organized." "I wish I had more energy." "I wish...." Listen carefully to your inner dialogue! The next time you find yourself saying, "I wish..." stop and think a minute. Is that wishing energy better spent actually planning instead? Can you really make those wishes happen? What will it take? How many changes will you have to make? Can you really live the dream?
In 2007, I realized something had to change. I had to stop wishing to be thinner and lose weight, and I had to start making it happen. Was it hard? Yes, sometimes it felt impossible but I kept doing the best I could at the time. Sometimes it felt really achievable, and those times helped me keep moving forward. Did I have to make a lot of changes? Yes, but not all right away. Small changes, small successes, helped me build up momentum to keep moving forward no matter what. Was it worth it? OH, YES!!! It was worth every drop of sweat left at the gym, every rejected slice of pizza and refused bite of cake, every minute spent looking up points values for food and writing down every bite I ate. My life today looks and feels vastly different than it did in 2006, and I am grateful that I had the opportunity to take that wish, that dream, and make it real.
What wishes are you going to stop wishing for and start planning for instead?
(All pictures were taken on our nine day road trip to Colorado and back in June 2011. There was lots of driving, lots of hiking, lots of fun, and lots of really good food. Getting back to reality at the end of vacation meant having to get a few pounds off again. But that's okay, because there is no way I would have been able to do as much as I did before I lost the weight. It is worth the fight to stay at Goal because I can do fun things like hiking in the mountains. I can live my life.)
June 2011
192 pounds
Rocky Mountain National Park
Standing in snow at Bear Lake
Rocky Mountain National Park
Hiking back from Alberta Falls
Jubilation in Rocky Mountain National Park
Almost at the continental divide, 41F (cold!)
