The Choices We Face

I love Facebook and often get inspiration for my blogs from reading the posts from my friends.  One of my friends posted a status update that absolutely inspired me - here's what she posted:  "I can eat what I want or I can wear what I want!  I can't do both.  Life is a choice.  I choose not to be obese ever again!" 

My friend nailed it!  Life is all about choices and as much as we wish we could "have the cake and eat it, too," the reality is that we can't.  Every choice we make has a consequence, good or bad.  

There may be a few fortunate people in the world who can eat whatever they want and stay thin (although I have learned that there is a vast difference between being thin and healthy - the two are not necessarily synonymous!), but let's face it.  The fact that we're here - and I do mean WE - means that we aren't one of those fortunate few.  Regardless of whether we started this program to lose 10 or 15 stubborn pounds or whether we needed to lose well over 100 pounds, we're all here because we simply can't eat what we want and still be at a healthy weight and in the size we want to be.

We can bemoan the reality of our existence, which will basically get us no where other than depressed at our situation and terribly envious of those fortunate few, or we can accept the fact that we will always have to make choices.

It's been over five years since I reached my goal, losing 126 pounds in less than a year, and I still have to make choices every day.  Those of you who've read my blogs for a while know I haven't done Maintenance perfectly and there are still days when I struggle to make the choices I need to make.  There have been times when I've made the decision to go back on 5&1 for a while to once again rein things in.  Part of my long-term strategy, still in process, is to make enough wise choices enough of the time so that I can maintain without having to resort to a mini-Medifast blitz.

That said, what I am realizing is that more and more my everyday choices are supporting my long-term goal of truly living in optimal health.  I know that I have to choose whether to eat whatever I want or to be able to wear whatever I want.  More important than my wardrobe selection, of course, is that I also have to choose whether I am going to eat whatever I want or choose to be healthy.  I choose healthy!

I can never go back to being 268 pounds.  I can never go back to the despair I felt at that weight.  I can never again put myself in a position due to my obesity and poor eating habits to reintroduce type 2 diabetes into my life.  

So I choose to eat healthy and to do the things I need to do to stay healthy.  I don't look at the fried, high-fat, high-sugar foods I used to inhale and think "I can't have those anymore."  Instead I think, "I can have them if I want, but I am choosing something healthy instead because I am choosing to be healthy."  There's no deprivation in that, just the recognition that I am making the choices that will get me what I really want.

You have the same choices facing you everyday, too.  Choose wisely :-)