Loosing Weight is like paddling a ROW BOAT!

[goin2befit]

Hope everyone had a happy 4th of July. Yesterday I had a true "short" term experience of how hard loosing weight is. We had went to a state park for a cookout and we also took out a row boat into the lake.

Last year we went to another park and I was over the weight limit almost all by myself... I was 417 at that point. So I let DH and my daughter(for her first time) go out on the boat all alone while I stayed back and watched/cried/you know... so anyways atleast I am down this year... 361-362ish..

So we get the row boat and DH gets in first with oldest DD, then I'm have littlest DD hand and I go to get in, loose my balance, boat moves away from dock and I manage to fall on my butt on the dock.. safe landing atleast. So anyways to my point...

Dh rowed us out, but he has a very bad shoulder problem so I rowed us in. Now I stayed rowing for about what felt like forever, and I was still in the same spot on the water or drifted out a little farther then we were...

Then I FOCUSED really hard and had him help guide me (you sit with your back to the direction you are going for anyone who doesn't know). I would start going good and feel I'm getting somewhere only to look and realize I'm still beside the same landmark. So I would try again, and again, until finally I started getting somewhere... however, every time I looked I still felt in the same spot. You know looking at the same tree just from a different angle. Then I realized okay I'm getting somewhere only for me to get confussed and would move the left paddle instead of the right and start to turn again sideways... I mean it took so much consitration just to get the boat straight and keep it that way. The smallest moment of loosing focus and I was headed in the wrong way again... Finally I did make it back and when I was sitting out in the middle of the water surrounded by beauty of this earth so much reflection happened.

So many times I fail b/c I'm not patient enough with myself. I feel the scale doesn't move fast enough, I feel that even if I loose that pound every week or 2 weeks, that I'm not going to make it, I'm never going to get there, but really that is not the truth. There will always be so many different bumps and turns along the way, but if you just remember again what you are doing and why you will find yourself back on track again. It is that CONSTANT effort that will make a difference. Even if you don't make goal today, tomorrow, next month, or for some of us even next year, just knowing and realizing every day that me make that effort, every day that we stay focused and committed, then we will make it there and we will succeed.

Just wanted to share.

[imagood1]

Yes it's hard to loose weight...it's one of the hardest things you will do. What has helped me is to understand this isn't a diet...it's the way I choose to eat now. When people are sitting around me gorging on foods I don't eat it doesn't bother me because they have a choice and I have a choice also. I chose to eat that way for years and because of it I look, feel and have the medical problems I have now because of it. I also can contribute all the bad to sitting around feeling sorry for myself and eating more to make the bad feelings go away. I'm not going to lie to you and say it's fun because it isn't - I AM happy with the way I feel now because it's so much better than before.

When you get up every morning find the strength to eat the right foods, exercise (the rowing did you a world of good wether you know it or not), drink all the water you can (at least 64 ounces of pure water). Do everything you can do within your power to succeed. No one can do this for you -- this is a very lonely thing to do.

You have children and a husband who depend on you -- but unless you can depend on yourself to loose the weight and get healthy you can't do the best for them. This was the hardest thing for me to come to terms with -- my ailing mother and husband with heart problems live with me...I am the only driver in the household so no one goes anywhere without my help. So, in a way it's like having 2 small children who need me .... like your children need you.

If you need to talk there are so many people here -- we are all in the same boat as you...all struggling to loose our weight, the ones who have lost are trying to maintain their loss. It's a long hard struggle but have some faith in yourself. Give yourself time to loose this weight. Stay off the scales - take your measurements - live the plan and it will work for you.

Good luck!!!

[SunnySmile501]

Beautiful analogy. I believe many things in life are like learning to row a boat. It takes work and practice and the will not to give up when the going gets tough, but if you persist, you will get to your goal in the end. You will appreciate it more since you had to work at it.

Congratulations on your success thus far. Keep up the good work. It will feel so good when you reach goal.

[chinadoll]

I agree, great post, Amanda