Chewing the Fat on Skinny: Living with Intention

What if you woke up this morning and decided to take control of your choices? What would happen if you set the intention of your day to be well? What would your day look like? What would you need to do to make it a reality?

For years I was stuck in a self-imposed rut. I had many MANY excuses and blamed many MANY people and circumstances, but looking back it was all on me. There were years (and I mean years) that I could not get the scale to budge. I was even going to a weekly Weight Watchers meeting at the time with a friend. The scale would go down, and then back up, then down a bit and then back up. And I just could not figure it out!!! For a while there I blamed a bunch of things…hormones…certain medications (not that these can’t be valid at times)…slow metabolism…my busy schedule…my family history of obesity……I got mad at a lot of things, including myself for being such a gosh-darned failure.

Yet it was really none of those things. It was my victim mentality, my piss poor attitude and my woes me state of mind that was getting in the way. When I look back, I really wasn’t working on my wellness, I was half-a$$ing it. You know what I mean if you’ve been there. I’d get good and angry that the scale wasn’t moving but truth be told, I was only eating well some of the time and I definitely wasn’t exercising as much as I should have. Yet I’d shake an angry fist at the scale and be in such an emotional funk when I did have a gain that I’d just quit- and that my friends was a vicious cycle.

I was convinced at that time in my 30’s that I was having some hormonal or metabolic issues because my tummy was bloated and I just couldn’t get the scale to move. This conviction was also false. Not that there aren’t people with real medical issues but my issue was the food I was putting in my body. Now that I’m making good food choices, my digestion is on point and no more belly bloat.

Another excuse I had was my busy schedule. Pardon the rant here, but busyness is one of the biggest excuses I hear from people who want to be well and don’t make the time to do so. Granted I was a young Mom of two young kids in multiple activities. I worked full time, had a commute, and volunteered. But once again, if I was really truly seriously about being well, I could have carved out some time for me. Busyness was another excuse in my arsenal that I used to stay angry at myself and to remain unproductive. I know people that work full time, have families, responsibilities, go to school at night and they still make time to be well. This busyness thing, it’s an epidemic; I could write pages about it, pages! When my husband and I went through Financial Peace University, they taught us that being financially responsible is about the choices you make (they call it telling your money where to go). Being well is also about the choices we make. It’s a conscious choice that we have to make daily, over and over again. This means having to say NO to some things and people and YES to other things and people to make ourselves a priority.

Side rant here…if you’re a parent and you’re reading this…think about being a role model for your kids, no matter how young or old they are. Self-care is not selfish. It shows our kids that we value who we are and that they should do the same. When we make excuses that get in the way of our wellness, it’s almost like we’re saying “I’m not important/valuable enough to invest in myself”. Rant over (for now).

“Optimizing yourself tends to enhance those around you. People are contagious.” Dr. Daniel Amen

Lastly, I used my family history as an excuse. I have obesity on both sides of my family. I was an overweight child and that meant I was bound to be an overweight adult, right? Wrong! What this does mean is that I need to work harder than folks who are not prone to being overweight. This was a really lame-o excuse. It was me giving the power to my family and family history instead of taking control. I control my choices. Sure, we all have certain friends and family who make it harder for us to pursue wellness. They might cook in unhealthy ways, be food pushers, skinny-shamers, you name it. We may live in environments that make it harder to be healthy. But ultimately it is we who control our actions and choices, every single day.

Today I encourage you to think about the thoughts that you think and evaluate your belief system. Write them down. Take a good, hard, honest look. What is getting in the way of you taking that first step to be well? What actions do you need to take to start moving forward?

Start every day with the intention to be well. Make choices that support that intention.