One Shovel at a Time

With much of the southeast buried under a rare snow storm, I thought I'd repost a blog I wrote almost two years ago.  I hope all of my down south friends stay safe and that life will soon return to normal for you!

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I recently read a story about a little boy with a small shovel, which he was using to try and clear a pathway through deep, new-fallen snow in front of his house.  A man stopped to watch the little boy for a couple of minutes and then asked the boy how on earth he expected to finish such a big task with such a small shovel.  "Little by little, that's how!" was the response, and the boy kept shoveling.

The story didn't reveal whether or not the boy finished shoveling the pathway, but I'd like to believe he did :-).

Some of us may feel like we have tackled an enormous task with the smallest of shovels, and it can feel overwhelming sometimes.  I know that the prospect of losing 120 pounds seemed impossible to me, which is one of the reasons I was researching weight loss surgery options when I found information about Take Shape for Life/Medifast.  I mistakenly thought that having surgery would be the "easy way" to lose weight, and also the only way.  It was only because the surgery wasn't a covered benefit under my insurance plan that I even decided to give Take Shape for Life/Medifast a try.

I approached my first day much like the boy with the small shovel.  I faced an enormous challenge and my resources were puny at best.  I couldn't tackle the entire pile in a single shovel, but every Medifast meal that I ate was taking one more small shovelful and tossing it aside.  Each meal on its own seemed pretty insignificant, and each day seemed pretty inconsequential as well, but those meals and those days added up, until that enormous pile was finally gone.

There are days when it gets tiring, and there are days when staying on plan isn't much fun.  I tell people all the time that I did NOT wake up every single morning joyful that I faced another on-plan day :-).  But the thought of not reaching my goal, and my desire to put over two decades of morbid obesity behind me once and for all kept me at it, one Medifast meal at a time.

The other part of the story that interested me was the man who stopped to question the boy and tried to raise doubts in the child's mind.  We all have those people in our lives, and some of us even live with them - people who raise questions, who have their doubts about whether or not we will really do it this time, people who have seen us try and fail over the years and fully expect us to fail once again.  There are naysayers everywhere and they can quickly discourage us - if we allow them to.  I think the little boy's attitude is exactly what ours needs to be - he just kept on shoveling! 

When it all boils down, we have to do this for ourselves.  Different people will have different opinions about what we're doing and I can promise you that not everyone will be supportive.  It can be hard to ignore the naysayers and keep on keeping on, but that's exactly how we'll reach our goal!

Choose wisely :-)