Anyone who follows my blog as sporadically as I write on it knows that I always write about my life and my family. Most of the posts have been inspired by a book of questions prepared for me when my daughter created the blog for me as a birthday gift. I enjoy writing; just don't take the time to do it often enough.
1973
At my thinnest, shortly
after high school graduation
Today, I'm not using a topic from my book, but rather from an assignment. To provide a little bit of background, I've fought my weight my whole life. My first humiliating memory about my weight was when I was just 8-years-old. We had moved from the city of Aurora to a farm in Wisconsin and my daddy bought me a pony! Feeling the need to be properly outfitted, I got a cowboy hat and my folks took me into town to get a pair of cowboy boots! The woman measured my foot, came back with my chosen boots and slid them onto my feet. As I stood up to walk and see how they felt, the saleslady looked up at my folks and said, "She has a good, sturdy pair of legs, doesn't she?" I didn't really understand what she meant at the time, but her tone made it very plain that it wasn't a compliment. From that point on, all through high school, college, marriage and divorce, my weight was like a roller coaster with a series of diets and giving up. In the '90s, Richard Simmons became my weight-loss guru along with chubbies all over the country. The amazing thing was, his Deal-a-Meal and Sweatin' to the Oldies provided a weight loss plan I could stick to, enjoy, lose and maintain the loss. I lost 80 pounds and kept it off for a little over two years until the day I broke my ankle while my marriage was falling apart. I wasn't able to "Sweat" on my broken leg and depression was setting in, getting worse as the pounds found their way back much quicker than they left. From that time on, I made some lame attempts at weight loss, but quickly became discouraged, lacking the motivation Richard Simmons had helped me find.
After 20+ years of gaining more and more, I felt more and more defeated as grandchildren came and my ability to play with them decreased. I developed high blood pressure and needed a knee replacement. I still couldn't find the motivation I needed to find a diet and stick to it, because they always felt like a punishment; prohibiting the foods that were my standard became my punishment for all the years of not taking care of myself. I was doomed to fail before I got started!
July, 2019
Me close to my heaviest weight
with 5 of my reasons to get healthier
Then, the end of June, I decided to complete a questionnaire I saw online for Noom. I had heard of it before and thought maybe I should try it, but decided it would just be another waste of money for another failed program. After completing the questionnaire and taking advantage of the trial period, I realized I could DO Noom! Reminiscent of Deal-a-Meal, it let me eat whatever I wanted to eat, but it held me accountable to myself for my choices. A program based on psychology (my academic love, second only to math), and way less expensive than any diet program I subscribed to, it taught me to think about what I was eating, why I was eating it and how I could make some alternate, healthier choices to the foods I normally eat and crave. Essentially, it has created for me, not only a way to lose the weight, but the confidence that I'll be able to maintain the weight once I get it off. From my heaviest, post-Covid weight, I am down 31 pounds; 25 of them in the two months I've been following Noom! Granted, I still have a LOOONG way to go and I've set stairstep goals to give myself a reward through sense of accomplishment, but I really believe I can do it this time; just like I did with Richard Simmons.
So what does all this have to do with my blog post? Along with following the meal plan, drinking water and exercising MY way, Noom provides 9-12 minutes worth of inspirational/educational lessons to do each day. Sometimes those lessons provide challenges or assignments. Today's "assignment" is to write in my diary, journal or on a piece of paper five qualities that I am proud of having. Since my blog is the closest thing I have to a journal, here we go:
5 Qualities I'm Proud of Having:
- Faith, Trust & Charity: They all go together and count as one to me. I have been blessed with a deep faith and trust, not just in my Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ, but also in my fellow man. While it has backfired on me on occasion, I have faith in and trust everyone, until they give me a reason not to through a betrayal of that trust. Tied directly to that faith and trust is charity, defined as the pure love of Christ. I find people easy to love and I'm happy to be able to tell them so and let them know someone does indeed love them for who they are; no strings. Because of the world we live in, because of the way society generally interprets "love," I may initially make some people uncomfortable, but as they get to know me and realize my sincerity, it becomes a solid foundation for good, strong relationships, of which I have been blessed with many, all over this great country of ours.
- Understanding & Compassion: These two also go together as one to my way of thinking. As an introvert, with my love of psychology, I spend a lot of time watching and listening to people. The knowledge I gain as I sit back and observe, provide me an understanding of people, their personalities and what drives them. The better I understand people and their different personalities, the better able I am to be compassionate to their situations and, perhaps, even offer advice.
- Teaching: Teaching has always been my passion. I love teaching others and have often been told I'm good at it. Nothing gives me more joy than seeing lightbulbs turn on when someone grasps a concept I've been explaining or when I see someone I've taught, put into practice something with which I have helped them. Occasionally, my teaching is based on selfish reasons, knowing that if I can teach someone else how to do something I'm responsible for, it's one less thing I have to do myself. A precursor to the fine art of delegation, if you will.
- Organization & Leadership: Anyone who knew the quiet introvert from high school, would not have thought me capable of such skills, but between college sorority opportunities and responsibilities put upon my through church and work, I have been able to develop these skills and find myself stepping into these roles automatically when someone needs to take charge. Oddly enough, however, I don't seek out such opportunities and if another steps up to the occasion, I am a content follower.
- Writing: From the time I won my first writing award in 8th grade, I have loved to write. From the early '90s, I wanted to be the original J.K. Rowling! As my children approached their teens, I saw a need for books written with that audience in mind. Lacking the courage and imagination Ms Rowling possessed, she beat me to it. As friends and family have read some of my work and my blog through the years and become familiar with many of my life experiences, I am constantly encouraged to use the skill God has blessed me with to write a book. A challenge Noom presented to me last week was to choose the quest I .need to conquer to accomplish my own "hero" status. So, my commitment to myself is to work toward that end. Now I'm faced with choosing my storyline as I have three or four different ideas in mind. First step on my journey is the purchase of a four subject notebook, one section for each of my ideas, in which I'll begin to write down all the thoughts I've had on each plot. As I continue to add notes, the goal will be to, one day soon, determine which of these books is the one begging to be written.
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