Patience

Some people seem to be born with a patient disposition. I am not one of those people. Patience is one of those virtues that still needs some work in my life, and unfortunately it only comes as I have opportunity to practice it. Like now.

The first few days after I injured my leg last week, I had a pretty good attitude about the whole thing. Even in the emergency room, I was thankful that I was there for a workout-related injury instead of an obesity-related health crisis. I was thankful that it was a fracture and not torn ligaments. I was thankful that I didn't need surgery or a cast - just an immobilizer.

The thankful attitude has been harder to come by the past couple of days because, frankly, I'm ready to be done with this. I'm tired of sitting with my leg up, I'm tired of not being able to drive, I'm tired of it hurting, I'm tired of wearing the immobilizer, which is hot and heavy and sometimes uncomfortable. Blah blah blah . . . the whining could go on and on.

I realized this morning that the reason I'm feeling more whiney is because I want this to be over. The doctor told me it would be 4-6 weeks, so my expectation that somehow things would be all better now are quite unrealistic. My unrealistic expectations are fueling my discontent and frustration . . . time to adjust my expectations and take a deep breath, I guess!

My guess is that unrealistic expectations and a lack of patience have tripped up more than a few of us at one point or another in our lives, and they may be threatening to trip us up on our weight loss journey. Even though we know we didn't gain the weight overnight, and even though we've seen good progress so far, we may reach the point where we just want to be done, and we want to be done NOW. All of the excitement we had when we started the program has dissipated and we may feel really bogged down in the sameness of it all. Instead of taking a look back to see (and celebrate) how far we've come, we look ahead and it feels like it will be an eternity before we're at goal.

We get frustrated because we've only lost one or two pounds in the past week and we think we should be losing four or five. We compare ourselves to others who seem to be making faster progress and that comparison fuels our own impatience with the process. We're just ready to be done so we can get on with the rest of our lives.

So what do we do? One thing I realize this morning is that wishing things to be different doesn't make them so, but that attitude will make me miserable (and miserable to be around) in the process. I have to choose to either embrace this time and learn from it, or not. I can either choose to be patient and look for things to be thankful for, or not.

In a few weeks, I know that things WILL be back to normal for me. I also know that in a few weeks, or a few months, you'll be at your goal. Our challenge is to choose our attitude for the time between now and then. No matter what is going on in our lives today, there are things to be thankful for - we just have to look for them! Choosing our attitude will determine whether we experience joy on our journey or not. The choice is ours . . . let's choose wisely :-)