Good Morning Friends!!
Almost 31 years ago mom and dad dropped me off at the Senior Citizens Center in Bowie for my first every Weight Watchers meeting. I was 12 years old, and little did I know at the time that it was the beginning of a lifelong battle against weight loss.
My parents have always supported me in my weight loss journey. My mom would help me check the boxes in those early days of Weight Watchers. She would prepare meals for me and figure out the proteins, fats, carbs, and all the fun stuff that goes along with Weight Watchers. Through the years my parents supported me through all the various diets from Weight Watchers, to ‘The Soup Diet’, to ‘The 7 Day Fast Diet’, to ‘The Mayo Clinic Diet’, and so many more.
In my junior year of high school my dad would drive us over to a little town called Bonham about 90 minutes away each month where we would see a doctor and he would prescribe us a diet pill. The diet pill up to that point was the most success I had ever had in my weight loss attempts. I lost 60lbs my junior year and into my senior year of high school.
Like all good things, it came to an end, and after high school all the weight came back. I was even able to add some weight putting me at my highest weight up to that point. Through the years I continued different diet and exercise plans searching for the magical plan that would cure me of my lifelong affliction of obesity.
In those early days my expectation was that I would find the quick fix that would turn my life around. I kept jumping from plan to plan looking for the right one that would help me lose weight fast. When it wasn’t going fast enough I would jump to the next plan. My expectations were never realistic or possible with any plan.
We far to often start diet and exercise plans with unrealistic expectations. We expect to lose 20lbs in two weeks or expect to add 10lbs of muscle in a month. We want results now not later.
Did you gain those 30lbs overnight? Did you lose all of your muscle tone overnight? Did you get out of shape overnight? The answer to all of these is no. So why do we expect results overnight or in a week or in a month?
We must enter into our health and wellness journey with realistic expectations. On this journey we will take a wrong turn, we will have to back up and go a different way, we will run into obstacles, we will come to a stop before we can go again, and we will realize there are no shortcuts. Your journey will be challenging, it will take you out of your comfort zone, it will take daily commitment, it will take focus, and most of all it will take a never quit attitude.
31 years later after my experience entering my first Weight Watchers meeting at the Bowie Senior Citizens Center I am still fighting to cure my lifelong affliction. Today, I have realistic expectations of my journey and realize that this is a battle I will fight for the rest of my life. I show up every day ready for battle with a realistic expectation of what needs to be accomplished each day so that obesity does not ruin my life.
I challenge each of us to show up each day with realistic expectations of the journey. All of our journeys look different so show up to your journey with your own realistic expectations.
Your Friend,
Aaron