Building a Strong Infrastructure

About four hours north of where I live in Michigan, the Mackinac Bridge links the upper and lower peninsula of our state.  The Discovery Channel's program, "Dirty Jobs," did a story a while back about a man who is an industrial painter on the Mackinac Bridge.  He paints the inside of the bridge, a job that nobody sees - a job that doesn't at first glance appear to be very important.

However, this man understands the importance of what he does because the paint he carefully applies to the inside of the bridge ensures that the steel of this wonderful suspended bridge won't rust from the inside out, which would compromise the integrity and safety of the structure.

It's hard to do something, day after day, when the results may not always be visible.  The scale doesn't always move as fast or as often as we'd like.  People may not notice that we've lost weight.  It can get discouraging!  There were weeks when I only lost a pound, and I had several weeks when I didn't lose anything, even though I stayed on plan.  It wasn't until I'd lost 30 pounds that a co-worker finally commented that my face looked a little thinner; after losing 60 pounds, a couple of people wanted to know if I'd changed my hairstyle.  Finally, after losing close to 100 pounds, everybody finally starting commenting that it looked like I'd lost some weight :-).  Feedback, either from the scale or others, just wasn't always there for me, and it may not always be there for you, either.

Moral of story?  Hang in there!  Stay on plan and do it, even if the scale is temporarily stuck (I say "temporarily stuck" because it WILL move, I promise).  Stay on plan and do it, even if nobody notices.  Eventually they will (I promise). As you're waiting for the affirmation you want (from the scale and others), you're building a strong infrastructure that won't rust out on you! 

And while you're waiting, choose wisely :-)