Season Within a Season

Every now and then, I like to share some of my earliest blogs, written when I was in the early weeks of 5&1.  Since that's where many of you are right now, I hope that what I wrote a little over four years ago will be helpful to you today!

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It's looking a lot like autumn around my house, both inside and outside.  Outside, the trees are slowly but surely changing color and some leaves are beginning to fall.  I love to have my surroundings reflect the seasons, so last night I bought pumpkins and mums to join a stuffed scarecrow on my porch and put away all of the summer decorations around my house.  In their place are leaves, pumpkins, and spicy candles.  I am always amazed at how quickly one season turns into another, and realized that in just a few weeks all of my autumn decorations will be replaced by Christmas things.

When I was a young wife and mother, I remember hearing a speaker talk about the seasons in a woman's life.  It was a time in my life when I thought I had to do everything NOW and I was running in a hundred different directions, feeling very fragmented and frazzled.  The speaker urged women to embrace each season of our lives and not try to rush from one season to the other, because we would find in retrospect that they had passed very quickly indeed.  I remember thinking that I "couldn't wait until the baby was walking, or potty trained, or ready for preschool, etc.", and I also felt such a sense of urgency to keep a dozen balls in the air all at the same time.  The speaker's comments about viewing different stages as seasons really resonated with me and forced me to slow down and re-evaluate my priorities.  At the time, I was in the "young stay-at-home wife and mother" season, and, as she predicted, it all too soon turned into the "full-time working mom of adolescents/teenagers" season, making me wonder why I was in such a hurry for the first season to pass .  Now I'm in the peaceful season of the empty-nester, very much enjoying having my adult married daughters and families nearby and my son in college.

I'm finding that there are also "seasons-within-seasons."  This journey on Take Shape for Life/Medifast is a "season-within-a-season" in my life; viewing this as a season helps me to maintain perspective on some of my "I don't want to do this anymore" days.  Yes, I have stayed on plan 100% for 14 weeks, but there have been numerous times when all I could think was, "This is NOT fun anymore."  Going to a great potluck and turning down the cheesy potatoes and wonderful desserts wasn't easy, and there have been other times when I would have killed for a slice of pizza or hot yeast roll.  Then I remind myself that this is the season I have devoted to getting healthy - this is NOT the rest of my life (although I know and accept the fact that I will never again be able to eat like I once did).  For this season, I am choosing to stay on plan and focus on losing the weight I need to lose and just getting myself healthy.

So as I view the falling leaves and think about how quickly the seasons change, I am reminded that this season of dieting will also pass, unfolding to what I hope will be a very LONG season of enjoying my thin and healthy body!

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Reading this again four years later is a reminder to me of what an amazing journey this was - and is!  I am almost 3-1/2 years into the season called "Maintenance" and it's a lovely season indeed!  It's certainly not without its challenges, but getting to a healthy weight and maintaining is well worth any and all challenges.

My hope and prayer for you is that this "season within a season" will be short and that you will enjoy a thin and healthy body for many seasons to come!  You'll get there one day, one meal, and one choice at a time . . . choose wisely :-)