Word of the day Wednesday: Tolerance

I love drama!



Ok, wait... I like to see/read the whole dramatic changes that people go through when they make the decision to turn their lives around, be it losing weight, getting out of debt, cleaning the heck out of their house, totally changing careers, etc. It's powerful, uplifting stuff... till you come across something that makes you wanna smack the person.

Case in point (note: quotes are my own paraphrasing, but it's part of the usual vocabulary for change ;): I was reading about a woman's "transformation". Her "after" photo was amazing! She looked sooo hawt! Musckles popping out. Strong. The picture of health at 125#! I'm reading about her struggle, how she'd "let herself go", and she decided that "enough was enough." She drew that invisible line in the sand and said "No more!" Through trials and tribulations, she saw the path to good health and took it.

I was hearing angels singing and a halo forming around this woman's head... then I read the clincher... at her heaviest weight (it was italicised for extra emphasis on her hugeness) she was (ready for it?) 142 pounds!!!

Oh the humanity!

Wait. What?

Seriously? There's a big part of me that gets really indignant when I read stories like that. I mean, really, 142?! That's it?!?! What does she know about weight struggles? That's less than my goal weight! I've topped out at 218 (at least the highest that I actually saw on a scale...who knows how much heavier I was before that) and would dream of being 'only' 142... that same "shameful" number of this woman.

It then hit me. You can be a "skinny fat" person who starts out wanting to get rid of those stubborn 15#, or you can be a "fit fat" person, who needs to shed 50, 100, 200#. Does it really matter where you start from as long as you get started? Does it really matter what size you are if it makes you feel uncomfortable with yourself and in your own skin?

So instead of getting all uppity, I got the message to step back and put it in perspective. Numbers are just numbers. Where I am now is not quite where I want to be, but to someone else, I may be at their goal weight/look.

It's not about begrudging someone else's success, it's about taking the bits of the message of how they changed their life and incorporating it into mine, and creating my own success story.

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

--Reinhold Niebuhr

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