What's It Worth to You?

An article posted on the internet was alarming - and also very sad. According to a survey of British undergraduates, almost one-third of young women would trade at least a year of their lives to have a perfect body.  The survey found that 16 percent of young women queried said they'd trade a year of life for their ideal body weight and shape.  Ten percent were willing to trade two to five years, and 2 percent were willing to trade up to 10 years of life away.  One percent said they would give up 21 years or more.  The article stated that the research was based on a relatively small sample, so the results may not be representative of women in general.

I don't know about that . . . I remember how desperate I was just six years ago, wanting to lose weight and feeling hopeless to do so.  If someone would have offered me the opportunity to trade one year of my life in order to be at a healthy weight for the rest of my life, I think I would have seriously considered taking them up on their offer.  I wasn't even looking for a perfect body or a perfect shape, I just wanted to get back to a healthy weight and a smaller size. 

As it turned out, in a way I DID trade almost a year of my life to get to a healthy weight - it took me two days short of 11 months to reach my goal (my 5-year anniversary is coming up in less than a month!).  While the young women in the survey were willing to give up a year of living in exchange for an ideal body weight, I invested a year of my life to get healthy.  I didn't give up a thing, other than a few foods that I didn't eat for a while.  In the process, I got more than my life back because, with God's help, I ended up creating a new life for myself - one I couldn't have imagined.

The almost-year that I invested in getting healthy also resulted in many others also getting healthy, as my transformation inspired people around me to get healthy themselves.  My husband, my parents, my son, my son-in-law, many of my friends . . . then the friends and relatives of my friends . . . literally hundreds of people have gone on this program, lost weight and gotten healthy as a result of the decision I made to get to a healthy weight.  That amazes and humbles me beyond description!

The undergraduates in the British survey were willing to give up a year or more of their lives.  My question for you today is:  what are you willing to give up - temporarily - to get to a healthy weight?  You don't have to give up your life, just be willing to follow the protocols of a proven program for a few months.  Is getting healthy worth that to you?  I hope your answer is "yes!"  If so, then your journey begins, or continues, with the choices you make today.  Choose wisely :-)