What we tell ourselves and What we know

Hi Spark Friends,
Weigh in today shows I am at an official standstill for now. At least last week and this week. That is okay with me because I knew this could happen at some point. I am just going to begin sneaking up on my body and exercising a bit different now to move that ticker of mine. Hey, I am not going to complain because I know this happens to most all of us and I am grateful for the progress I have made. I will keep on trucking a long, (wow," trucking" that dates me!)LOL until it moves again.
I went to the orthodontist office today with my daughter and a tech there said to me "you've really lost a lot of weight" Then asked me how I did it. This morning I had an appointment with the lovely gynie (being sarcastic here) and the nurse said basically the same thing to me and asked the same question. Of course I give the entire spark people information out and spill all my enthusiasm out over how much I love this site and all the wonderful people here. I then just say I eat healthier and exercise. It really has made a huge difference for me. The support and encouragement and continued motivation come from all of you here. Then I listen closely to the responses. One said oh I can't eat this or that or I don't like this and I hate that ( All referring to healthy foods). The other said well I am eating less but eating whatever I want to. I can't give up my cake or my gravy and bacon and I hate exercise. Well guess what that said to me. It said they were not serious or ready to change to a healthy lifestyle and become healthier people. I know because I used to make those same comments. I was not only ready to make the changes but I lived in denial and lied to myself. I convinced myself that I had sleep apnea because it was a health problem a lot of people have and had nothing to do with my weight. In reality how many thin and healthy people do you actually know that have this condition? Probably none. It was a lie I told myself. Just like the one where I told myself my knees and back and joints hurt because I had something else wrong. It could not be my weight. Well I do have back issues and have had previous surgery for them. However guess what? When I lost a big portion of my weight, my back hurt less, my knees no longer hurt at all. The aches and pains I felt was my poor body screaming at me to please take that extra weight off of it. We all have a way of telling ourselves what we want to hear. It is sometimes easier to continue the abuse of ourselves if we don't acknowledge it. The only time I would acknowledge it would be when a warm day came and I would be all bummed out thinking oh no summer is here and I am so big I am embarrassed. Then maybe for a day, two or sometimes a week or two, I would make a few changes thinking I was really going to get thin. However, when it didn't work in my short time frame or I got bored or tired of the changes. I simply went back to lying to myself again. Making excuses, and living in my little world of denial. All the while torturing my body with all the extra weight and getting more and more unhealthy and out of energy. I now know that no matter how you get there or why you get there, you have to be ready and serious enough to commit to becoming a healthier person. You have to really want to be the best you can be and mean it. You have to do it for yourself. It took me many years to finally get to that point but I finally made it there and could not be happier or feel better. As enthusiastic as I am over this site (and I am), I am a thousand more times enthusiastic for all my spark friends to make this change happen for yourselves and to realize you are the ONLY one who can get it done. Imagine all your summers no longer worrying about being overweight, a ton of energy, feeling good about yourself and your appearance. But most importantly, being a healthy person. So many of you have made such AMAZING progress and I could not be happier for you. You WILL succeed! Those of you just starting out or those of you having second thoughts about this process, PLEASE, hang in there and continue moving forward towards your goal. Don't go backwards don't go back to living in denial and living with all that extra weight on your body. You deserve better! Your body deserves to be treated better and YOU are the only one that can do that. So I am going to continue rooting for you all and cheering you on as we all continue our journeys to become the best we can be . I want to share something with you that I will never forget and that means a lot to me. My dad passed on two years ago. He had surgery at one point and had to go to cardiac rehab. I used to think he was so cute in his little workout shirt they gave him at rehab. He wore it every time he went. I would pick him up and he would be in his shirt that all his fellow rehabers wore in the class. I'd say dad you look so cute in your t shirt and remember you gotta live by those words. He'd say to me, then why don't you wear it and go in my place. We would both laugh and continue on. When he passed on my mom gave me his shirt. She knew I loved seeing him in it. I loved what it said on the back and always said those words to him when he complained about going. That shirt means so much to me now and I can finally actually fit in it. I sleep in it a lot and always think of my dad when I take it out to put it on. I feel closer to him in it and it is a wonderful memory of a little fun we had about it and time we shared. I want to share the words on the back of the shirt he wore with you. Those words really inspire me and are actually key to what we are all doing here. The back of his shirt said:
"You've got to move to Improve"

So please let's not tell ourselves only what we want to hear but realize what we know and that is that we need to be healthier and that only YOU can make it happen!

Have a wonderful spark filled week my friends.