Atrophy

Welcome to June! It's hard to believe that this is the sixth month of the year already! For those of you who've been on the program for a while, I hope that the new, healthier habits you've been developing are becoming more and more established in your life.

When I was on Take Shape for Life/Medifast 5&1, I often said that I was getting a lot of practice exercising my "no thank you muscle." I reasoned that learning to say "no thank you" to things while I was losing weight would strengthen my ability to say "no thank you" once I was in Maintenance. I understood that some of my old favorites would not, could not, be an ongoing part of a thin and healthy life, so it was important to have a strong "no thank you muscle."

The funny thing about muscles is that they have a tendency to either grow stronger or atrophy, depending on whether or not we use them. One definition for atrophy is " A wasting or decrease in size of a body organ, tissue, or part owing to disease, injury, or lack of use." I've noticed a definite weakening in my right leg over the past two weeks as it's been encased in a knee immobilizer and been elevated most of the time. I have spent very little time on my feet, and when I'm doing any walking at all, the immobilizer is providing support for my leg, even as it limits my movement. When I take the immobilizer off, I'm amazed to see how much weaker my leg is. Once I get the all-clear from my orthopedist, I know it will take a little bit of time and some focused effort to regain strength in that leg. It's truly a "use it or lose it" scenario when it comes to our muscles.

The same is true for our "no thank you muscle" :-). The more we practice it now, the stronger it will be and the better it will serve us on the other side of 5&1, which is the rest of our lives. There are so many reasons why it makes sense to stay on plan, and this is just one of them. Every time we choose to stay on plan, every time we turn down something that we'd really like to eat, choosing to stay focused on what we REALLY want, we grow a bit stronger. We learn that we CAN say no (that's something that came as a bit of a surprise to me!), we learn that we really CAN have a good time even though we aren't eating what everyone else is eating. And as we learn that, we grow stronger.

Are you ready to do a little muscle building today? The choice is yours . . . choose wisely :-)