I'm going to attempt to really go through each of the steps that I gave you to start with in detail. I feel like a schizophrenic writing this because I have been everywhere, but I was starting about 4 things at once and now I am trying to get them all in some kind of order.
#1 What is your wake up call?
So I happen to believe that you cannot just one day wake up and decide that you are going to be healthier. I mean, it really isn't that easy. When I weighed 200 pounds I woke up many times and said that I was going to be healthier. I did that at 220 and 250 and 280 and I certainly did it the day I saw the scale tip 300. That was a bad day. A very, bad day. I cried, I mourned, I went and bought a pint of Ben & Jerry's and ate the whole thing because you know, what was it going to hurt at this point?
I said a million times that I was going to better. I tried a million different diets, I did all the things that seem popular. Nothing helped. Oh, it may have worked for a while, but then I missed bread or all of the wonderful things that diets like that tell you that you can't eat.
But this time was different.
This time I had a real wake up call. I can't say that it was anything in particular. But I weighed 320 pounds, I was miserable. I felt like crap, I always felt sick and tired and, well I was sick and tired of feeling sick and tired! I realized that there was so much in my life that I was missing out on and I was certainly not making anyone proud.
Let me take you back a couple years to just before my Mamaw (my Dad's mom) passed away. You know when you imagine your grandparents dying, because even though you don't want them to you know that they will, you imagine them saying something profound and revealing to you. Something that will give you a little insight into the meaning of life. Not my Mamaw. No, Mamaw, who was always, who never had a mouth filter, looks at me standing there by her bed and said, "I sure had some fat grandchildren." I think I said, "I love you too Mamaw" and then we left.
The fact is my Dad's side of the family is big. We just are. We are part Native American (Cherokee) and we have that hunter gatherer body. Wide hips (even the men) broad shoulders, tall (I may not be tall to you, but compared to my Mom's side of the family I am). We have big feet and butts. It's In my genes. Mamaw, even though she had gotten more frail in her age, was still broad as the side of a barn in her bottom half (like the rest of us).
I never forgot that. I think that my wake up call was like in A Christmas Story when Ralphie has just mindlessly said yes to the football from Santa and then screams to himself "WAKE UP STUPID!!" That's what happened to me. I finally yelled for myself to wake up. I haven't decided if I ever want to have children, but I know that my age is starting to decide for me and I sure wasn't going to let my weight decide for me! If I did have kids I wanted to be able to run and play and ride rides at theme parks with them. I wanted to set a good example for them. I wanted to be strong and I wanted to feel good and I was so very, very tired of there being such a dichotomy between what I saw in my mind as myself and what I saw in my mirror as myself. What I saw in my mirror in NO WAY reflected the person inside and it was high time I did something about that shizz.
What is your wake up call?
If you have already started on your weightloss journey, what made you start? Please take a moment to share what your wake up call was! This blog is as much about me sharing and passing on what works for me as it is about you sharing what works for you! Everyone will do better when you have encouragement. By putting your motivator out there you are holding yourself accountable! So I want to see those comments!
Did you have a health scare? Did you become a grandmother or grandfather? An aunt or uncle? Did you get engaged or start college or finish college? Were you refused to get on a ride at Dollywood? What was your wake up call?
My wake up call was the day that I woke up and decided that I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. It was the year that I was about to turn 31 and I realized that I was miserable. There were few, if any, things about my life that I could say that I was happy about and the lot of it stemmed from my weight issues. Well, not so much my weight issues, but my health issues. I wasn't healthy and I knew it because I felt like doodie all the time. No one wants that! So I yelled at myself that I couldn't go on feeling this way. I had to do better. I had to be able to ride the rides with the kids and run and play and I had to be able to make people proud, I had to live my best life, I had to be who I knew in my heart and soul that I was meant to me and this fat, unhealthy person I saw was not it.
Listen for your wake up call. A wake up call isn't wanting to be a size this or that. A wake up call is life changing, a wake up call helps you make a comeback in every way!
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