Choices

Life is a series of choices.   I made choices in my life that took me to a whopping 330 pounds on the scales.  I made choices that maintained that weight.  I didn’t get there because someone force fed me.  I made choices.  On the flip side, I made a choice to start a weight loss journey and each day I made a choice (many choices) that carried me along that weight loss journey and toward my ultimate goals.

It is a hard pill to swallow but I made choices in my life that brought me to that point when I stared at the scales and saw a number that I did not like.  It was actually a multitude of choices over many years.  That day I looked at that number and I made a different choice.  I decided to choose health.  I decided to change my life.  I made a new choice.   Changing isn’t easy, but it is necessary if you do not like the path that your life is currently taking.

I was satisfied with the change that I had made for quite some time.  I was proud of myself.  I had accomplished some amazing success and even though I had regained I figured my ‘choice was made.’  It wasn’t until I recommitted to this journey that I realized that I have to actively make a choice time and time again.  Multiple times a day I have a choice to make and each time I choose one thing over there other it will have a direct effect on my health.

But you see , everything we do is based on a choice.  We make a choice about where we are going to work.  We make a choice each and every day when we decide to get up and go to work.  You may say “that’s not a choice….I have to go to work.” But do you really?  You could call off sick?  You could quit?  You could go in late or you can chose to go into work on time.  I choose to go to work every day not because I HAVE to and I don’t’ have a choice.  I go because I am an adult and I know that for myself, the proper choice is to go to work so that I can afford to live the life that I have CHOSEN!      I CHOOSE to brush my teeth…sure it’s a good habit and is beneficial to me, but I MAKE that choice each day.   I choose to do laundry.  I choose what outfit I’m wearing.  I choose  to put gas in my car…..sure, my car needs it but I don’t HAVE to do it….it is a CHOICE that I make.  I also choose what I’m going to eat for my meals.  I choose what activity I am going to be doing.  EVERYTHING is a choice.   

This revelation came to me years after I first started my weight loss journey.   All of a sudden it hit me.  This journey isn’t easy…but it is all about choices.  What do I want more?  Do I want to be thin and say no to a food or do I want to indulge and stay the same and be overweight?     Do I want to be fit and healthy and go for that bike ride or do I want to allow my muscles to disintegrate to a place where I stuggle to even walk.    This really is my choice.  What do I want more?  Do I want to be thin or do I want to eat that super high calorie treat?  Do I want to be fit and healthy or do I want to sit on my couch and watch TV?   What choice am I going to make?

We have a choice about our future.  Now let me preface this paragraph by saying that we are all going to die.  But we have choices that may affect how we meet our end.  We could not take care of ourselves and we could die at the age of 55 (Right around the corner for me) when we are confined to using an electric scooter because our health has degnerated so badly that we can't walk and can barely breathe.  We might be riding on our Lark or Hover-round and ride off a curb and break our neck and die.  Death by lark while we struggle to survive...which is not living.  OR we can make the choices to be healthy and maybe just maybe we will be 99 years of age and climbing some amazing mountain and die in an avalanche....living life!  It's a choice that we can make to better the odds!

There is a crazy thing about making choices.  You see, today you may sit back and say “No way, I am NOT having that food, I want to be thin more than I want that treat! If I splurge today it will hurt my efforts”   That is an awesome choice for sure.  But you know what?  Tomorrow you may look at that same treat and say “I can manage to eat that today.  I am strong enough.  I’ve got enough calories left in my day.  I’ve worked out enough….I can do it today.”  It is a choice.  If I decide to splurge each and every day then I am choosing to not lose weight.  I am choosing the life that the constant splurges will bring to me.  I have made the choice.

So how can we make a wise choice when we are staring at that sweet treat? How can we override the salivation that occurs when we think of the deliciousness?   I won’t lie to you, it’s not easy.  One of the things that I started to do was to make myself wait at least a half hour before making my final decision.  For example if the thought popped into my head to have a Reece’s Cup at  7PM, I don’t just  run to the kitchen and grab the candy, gobble it up and say,  “By golly yes, I’ve been good and I have a few extra calories today.”   I make myself wait.  I wait for at least a half an hour.  Sometimes the thought passes and I honestly forget that I was even contemplating the sweet treat.  Other times I find that by waiting my mind catches up and I am no longer hungry.  (It takes a while after you eat for your body to actually recognize that it is full/satisfied).    As the time rolls by, if the urge to splurge is still there, I will look at my food intake for the day (and expenditure if I exercised) and I try to decide if I have enough calories or how it may work into my plan and goals.  Sometimes realizing that I don’t have the calories available is enough deterrent.  There are times though that during the half hour wait that I decide that it’s not as important as my end term goal, but sometimes I do decide that I can splurge.    Each day is a different and new choice.

Those months where I splurge and splurge and splurge (or even binge). I was still making a choice.  I was just making a choice and I didn’t care about my weight.  The weeks surrounding my dad’s death I didn’t care.  I made choices to eat.  Sure, I reaped the consequences, but there was absolutely no motivation to lose weight for me….and my choices reflected that.   And do you know what?  That is ok too.  But If you want to lose the weight bad enough you will make the choices that will bring about change!

Weight loss is all a choice.  Do I want this or do I want that!   Make the choices that reflect what you want and your life will reflect that in your fitness levels and in the size of your clothes and the numbers on the scales.