What's Your "Eager Meter" Setting?

I have a question for you today, one you've probably never been asked before.  Ready?  What's the current setting on your eager meter when it comes to being on this program?

I have to be honest and tell you that until attending a workshop a while back, I didn't even know I HAD an eager meter, let alone have a clue to what it was set on.  The speaker at the workshop posed that question, then explained the difference between being willing and being eager.  Back when I was still working at the hospital, "willing" is what I was about 7:00 AM every Monday morning when my alarm would go off announcing the start of a new work week.  I was willing to head to the office, but I wouldn't have described my attitude as "eager."  "Eager" would have described me as I locked my office door at 4:30 on a Friday afternoon when I was looking forward to a fun weekend :-).

The workshop speaker stated that we have 100% control over our "eager meters" and have the ability to switch from "willing" to "eager" whenever we choose to do so.  The difference between being willing to be on this program and being eager can make all the difference in whether this journey is drudgery and something to be endured or whether you find joy in the journey and wake up most days excited to be a day closer to your goal.

Please understand that I did NOT wake up every single morning excited to face another day of five Medifast meals and a simple lean and green.  There were certainly days when I inwardly groaned at the very thought of opening another little white packet and had to focus on just taking it a meal at a time.  However, I realized that I was going to be on the program for the better part of a year and I didn't want to spend that time living in a semi-miserable state, so I tried hard to adopt an attitude of gratitude and anticipation.

While I certainly celebrated each time the scale showed another drop, I also looked for and celebrated all of the non-scale victories along the way - things like dropping a size or being able to cross my legs or walk up a flight of stairs without huffing and puffing.  Looking for these kinds of things helped me keep my "eager meter" running.

Choosing our attitude is one of the choices we get to make while we're on our weight loss journey, and we can choose to be willing to be on program or we can choose to be eager about getting healthy.  The choice is always ours to make . . . choose wisely :-)