Beginning Again!!
On February 1, 2008, I reached an amazing goal of having lost 60 pounds. With a lifelong struggle to maintain a healthy weight while eating correctly, I never thought I'd be able to accomplish such a goal. I had never felt better, nor been more satisfied with the way I looked. As an avid hiker & biker, my ability to accomplish longer distances was another incentive to maintain the goal weight. Shortly after reaching my goal, I hiked a 12-miler in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park near my home. Believe me, that's NOT 12 miles of flat walking!!!
I was so proud & immediately reset the goal of hiking a 15-miler!!
I never in a million years thought I'd ever regain the weight. I was just too happy with what I'd accomplished. But as we all know & statistics prove, keeping it off is actually harder than taking it off. As a result, over the past 1 1/2 years, I've slowly added back just under 25 pounds. This is not acceptable & today is my new beginning. It would be easy to decide to "start" again on the anniversary of the original start, but NO, I'm not finding any excuses to gain any more. And, believe me, I could do a LOT of damage between now & October 1.
This morning during my devotional time as I was thinking about how much time & energy I spend thinking, worrying, & being frustrated with my weight issues, it occured to me that this is time & energy which needs to be spent in less self-consuming ways. Today's date (9/11) popped into my mind & I immediately reflected on all those people whose lives were forever changed on this date eight years ago. The families of those who died were not able to "choose" what day they would "start over" & for me to choose 10/1 to begin again when "today" works just as well seemed like nothing more than a silly excuse.
So today is the day of a new beginning. I will follow the same plan, unique as it is, that worked for me before. I will lose the weight I've gained & I will share my story in this journal in the hopes that it will inspire others.