On yesterday, I received a message from a very dear friend that sent me into an emotional cyclone. I kept trying to identify why the message sparked such emotion. Was it because I love this friend so much and my heart ached because she is currently in a tough place? Was it because I felt honored that she would share such intimate details with me and her message reminded of the value of friendship and trust? Or was it because her closing sentiments reminded me of what I am passionate about and of how we never really know who is watching, who we are inspiring and who we are motivating … all without knowing? My resolution was that it’s all of the above. When I woke up this morning still thinking about our exchange yesterday, I decided to write about it – my way to release (or capture) this experience.
My friend’s message was directly and indirectly about so much more, but one of the elements was around weight loss. For those of you who follow and read my blog regularly, you know that I have been on a journey this year to recommit to my health and wellness. Being out on summer break has given me the time and energy to kick things into a completely different gear with more focus on eating whole foods, balancing nutrition and incorporating more challenging workouts more days a week.
BUT I also acknowledge that this is so much more than a declaration to “eat well and exercise.” For many of us, the commitment to maintain a healthy lifestyle is a daily choice – and for some a daily struggle. Some of us will continue to focus on this for the rest of our lives and may never feel like this is just natural for me. Some of us will have to break-up with food and find new relationships with non-food related practices that allow us to celebrate, handle stress, engage in recreational activities, catch up with friends and curb cravings. Some of us will work through body image issues and revisit childhood norms that helped to lodge us in the places we currently reside in re diet and exercise. Some of us will have to revisit former and current relationships that aided in us feeling less than worthy of being the best “me” or added so much to our plate that we failed to make time to take care of ourselves. Some of us will garner the courage to come face to face with our endless excuses of why we are overweight and/or don’t exercise OR why we think just because we are thin, we are healthy – with little to no care in what we eat, how often we eat and our lack of physical activity.
Some of us will realize that this journey is so much more than just food and exercise. Some of us will do the hard work to get to the bottom of our habits. And along the way we will realize that just as others have motivated us to get off our as!?*& to make a life change, there is someone who is also watching … gleaming … hoping … moving right along because we have become a source of inspiration for them. Some of us will learn somewhere along the way that it is so much more …