It finally happened...

I've been waiting for this day ever since I started my journey to rid myself of my excess body fat and get my body as healthy as possible.

It's something that I was expecting, anticipating, and dreading.

Nope, not a plateau. Not some record setting loss on the scale. Not a personal best time on the treadmill or with lifting some awesome amount of weight.

None of that.

I got: The Comment.

::flop::

What is The Comment, you ask?

It's the comment that follows close on the heels of the comments of admiration and encouragement: the "You look great!" and "How much have you lost?!?!"

The Comment is: "You're getting too thin."

Seriously?!

This is a conversation I just had:

Co-Worker: Wow, you're starting to get really thin. You should be careful - maybe slow down. Don't want to lose /too/ much weight.

Me: (attempting to make light of it) Oh don't worry, I have still have plenty of fat that's hanging on.

Co-worker: Still, be careful. You don't want to get too thin.

Me: (getting mildly annoyed) No worry of that.

Co-worker: That's good. I hope you're able to maintain it once you go back to eating normally.

What I actually said after I got over being stunned by the idiocy of the statement: Think I have it under control, thanks... gotta get back to work.

What I /WANTED/ to say was: Who says I'm not eating "normally" now?! I eat more by lunch than most people eat all day! And unless I am becoming literal skin and bones with no muscle tone to speak of, let ME figure out what weight *I* am happy at. Just because you're uncomfortable with me continuing to succeed doesn't mean that I need to be.

Ok, now that I'm off my soap box, I do find it very interesting how quickly people's actions and behaviors change.

There's the phase of "we all know how heavy you are, we just won't talk about it."

Once you start actually making progress other people move into the encouragement phase. They're excited for you and you're excited for yourself. It's the point when most people's motivation is at the highest, and it can start to wear off on the people around you.

Then something happens. It's like a switch gets flipped. For some, it happens in their own mind and for some reason they just stop, then we go back to the first phase of, "That was nice, now we won't talk about it." Or they keep going, and it truly becomes a LIFEstyle.

This is the time when other people get really uncomfortable. They expect it to be temporary, because that's easier to deal with. They are realizing that you really have changed, and their hopes of you reverting back to who they think you should be are slowly destroyed.

This is the time when you start getting The Comments, The Questions (Are you sure this is healthy? Why do you want to do this? Why don't you do/eat [fill in the blank] like you used to?), The Blow Offs (I would invite you to dinner but I just don't know what you eat anymore) and The Sabotaging (Oh for crying out loud, and extra serving/missing one workout won't kill you!).

Remember: This is a test. This is only a test.

Are you happy with your progress? Are you happy with yourself? Have you built healthy habits that are sustainable for a lifetime? Then you're doing the right thing for YOU.

Living your life in a way that makes you the best you possible can only benefit the important people in your life.

Stay calm. Resist using the out loud voice. Be confident in your decisions. Be flexible.

Lead by example, and gradually you will affect the change you want to see in the world.

Technorati : life, motivation, sparkpeople, thoughts