Another edition of Memory Mondays....
Last November is when a lot of people started noticing that I was losing weight. My coworker, Matt, said something to me about it one day. I responded casually, "Yeah, I've lost about 40 pounds."
He was appropriately astonished and impressed, so I followed it up with, "Yeah, but I want to lose 100 pounds." His response: "You lose a hundred pounds -- you should write a book."
It was said with a bit of skepticism and a bit of "that'd be really impressive," so I took it as a challenge. I thought, "We'll just wait and see." Now it's almost 60 pounds later, and I know I'm going to do it. I'm so close, I can almost mark the date on a calendar when I will achieve this life goal of mine.
I'm not going to write a book. There's really nothing revolutionary about what I've done. As author and runner John Bingham said (and I'm paraphrasing), "The book I write on weight loss could be summed up in the title 'Eat Less, Move More.'"
The revolutionary part comes through the perseverance. Sticking with it for 16 months through good days and bad days, stressful times, sickness, holidays, birthdays and summer seems almost unbelievable. I didn't do it all on my own strength, but with the support and love of my friends, family and God.
If you're wanting to lose weight, you can do it. I know you can, because I did and I'm almost sure you don't have as much to lose as I did. It's just the perseverance that is the tricky part. It's hard to stick with it when you're fighting cravings or the scale or busyness or emotions or lazyness. You just need to figure out where your difficulties lie, come up with a plan, and tell a friend or two to help you stick with it. Don't wait to start. Don't think about the fact that Thanksgiving is coming up and then Christmas and use that as an excuse. Throw out (or give away) the unhealthy foods from your pantry now, if you want to change. If you get thrown off track, don't let that keep you down. Be like a buoy, always bobbing to the surface.
I need to get serious about paying off my college loans. I need to stop eating out, stop drinking starbucks and start practicing self-discipline. Although our goals are different, I am super inspired by you. Inspired to persevere through my cravings, the holidays and my laziness which so often leads to overspending.
ReplyDeleteI love you.
3rd sentence from the end :)
ReplyDeleteand
"So do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere, so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."
Hebrews 10:35-36
(I'll teach you the song for that verse when I see you next, if you would like.)
LOVE!
~
Amie, I wish I had a more tangible way to help you, but I am not great at saving either. This is what I do, though. I have it set up so that the amount I need to save, is directly taken from my checking account to my savings account the day my paycheck is deposited. Then I don't ever see it and don't touch it. Maybe something like that would work with your student loans?
ReplyDeleteAbi- I love that verse. I'm going to put it on a notecard where I can see it regularly.
I am going to write a book... And just today I thought of the title: Character Lessons from Harry Potter.
ReplyDeleteDoes that sound too pious? Would a kid read that? Maybe it really isn't for kids? I guess those are all things I need to work out first.
: )
Let's just say it doesn't sound like a lot of fun. But we could work on that title.
ReplyDelete