Temorary Insanity????

Even after losing 75 kilos, I need to stay constantly on guard. 
   Lately I have been walking a bit less, and also eating more. (I can blame that on the "shavuous" holiday, but I just used the holiday as an excuse to over-indulge in my favorite food, cheesecake...)
    I need to face the fact that I am making unhealthy choices, which, if continued, will lead to weight gain. For the last two weeks I have been choosing to ignore what I know to be true, to ignore my need to put limits and draw the line.
     Tonight I am simply facing the truth of what I am choosing, and where I want to be 10 years from now.

    Dang....I will KEEP that excess weight off. NNNOOO WWWAAAYYY am I going back to the life I had before losing. NO FOOD is worth that!! Not even cheesecake.

   So back to the grind... which really isn't a grind. I ENJOY being healthy, I enjoy exercise. I won't even miss that cheesecake if I say "No" to myself. 

    I just wish that I could figure out WHY I let "holidays" be an excuse for TWO weeks instead of 2 days. Temporary insanity???

Postscript: Actually, the fact that I have been exercising less, and sleeping less in probably a significant factor in my over-extending my holiday "allowance". It all ties in together. Keeping good habits encourages other good habits as well.....

"Mother's Day" and Ricki (and the rest of my kids, even more!!)

[image: another mosaic on Ricki's grave, this time a bird (who flew away....).]

 Originally, I planned to visit Ricki's grave last Thursday, a month or so since my last visit. However, certain things cropped up, and I didn't manage, so I went today. (Even today I toyed with the idea of pushing the visit off another week or so, as I had other things I wanted to get done as well. However, I DID want to go, AND I felt as well an obligation to not put the visit off too long.)  As I was walking to her grave (it's only about a ten minute walk from the bus stop), I remembered that it's "mother's day".

    Now, I am not a big advocate of "mother's day", feeling that I need to tell my mom more than once a year that I appreciate her, and not, certainly, because someone reminded me. But with all that aside, I was struck by the irony that I was going to Ricki's grave exactly on "mother's day". 

   You see, I am still very much Ricki's mom. I think about her often, and the fact that she was my daughter is such a big part of my existence.Being a parent doesn't stop when our children grow up and move away, get married, and find jobs. We are still concerned about them--- and their families as well. We pray for them, we enjoy them,  and we sometimes even risk inserting our two cents of an opinion.

    And our offspring, in turn, often sweeten our lives by showing the  maturity that once we were never sure would take root and sprout. We see them raising their children, and interacting with their nephews, and we are touched by the similarities between this, and how they were raised, and grateful for those things they do better. 

    So happy mother's day to all you moms.... and let's try and be the moms we hope our kids will one day be. 

The Decision/Choices

   Today I saw this photo posted on the facebook page "Amber's Journey from 400 lbs to Healthy"

[image with caption: "Hey you, weight loss and a healthy life is not a fairytale. If you want it, get off your a** and work for it."]

   I LOVE it and HATE it. Why?

    I love it because it contains a very pertinent truth: Weight loss comes not from a magic Chinese tea, not from a fad diet, but from an honest-to-goodness evaluation of what is keeping you from living in a healthy way, and then making the choices that are needed to get there.

   I hate it because the forever-thin population is unlikely to know just how hard weight loss can be. I can see them smugly throwing this line to every obese person they know. And they may have no idea of just how difficult the journey can be.

     [ I have written previously on this topic HERE in a similar vein, including Jewish sources.]

    Thin people often think that the overweight person just has to "make up their mind" in order to lose the excess poundage. But in reality, true weight loss is not caused by a one-time decision, but by a 1001 choices, moment-by-moment, day-by-day. The slim population needs to realize that keeping that type of extended commitment to weight loss is an accomplishment akin to the success of a marathon runner: you only are going to achieve results with a consistent, sustained change in the way one views food and living.

   And those who are overweight need to  grasp that each individual choice is not that difficult. It is doable, and even enjoyable. If you take the journey step-by-step, you will arrive at your goal eventually.

   So to make life more fun, I have created two poster-pictures:

[image of trail sign with caption "Weight loss is not from a one-time decision. It's a series of choices, moment by moment, day by day."]

And:

[image with caption: "People who are thin don't know how hard weight-loss is. People who are overweight don't know how doable it is…..."]