Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Quest to not have food as the center of my life.

Today was another milestone! A very good friend of mine swung through Nephi to take me to lunch on his way to St. George. He’s been following my blog and actually making and keeping his fitness goals ever since. Knowing we were both on board with the whole “healthily living concept”, I suggested we hit Subway for a “Jared Special”. We both ordered heart-healthy 12 inch sandwiches, determined to eat half now and save half for our next meal. This is something I’ve planned to do a hundred times in the past but more often than not, I’ve found that a half sandwich only wakes my appetite up and then doesn’t have enough staying power to bed it back down. Today was different. I opened the wrapper, took out my half and immediately sacked the leftovers up. Brad did the same. Out of site out of mind! During the meal, we both seemed to naturally focus on the conversation and the pleasure of seeing each again rather than the meal itself. I noticed Brad even set his sandwich down between bits and I ate mine so slow that I almost forgot what kind of sandwich it even was. It took us an hour to eat and though the sandwiches were delicious, the camaraderie was the best part of the meal. It was a huge step forward in my quest to not have food as the center of my life.
As we grazed (I say grazed because the sandwich toppings were more shrubbery than chicken), Brad taught me a principle that I thought was worth repeating here. In a nutshell, he said that it’s not what you know, but how you feel about what you know. Medical doctors that are overweight may be experts in the science of nutrition; they have seen firsthand the life threatening consequences of being too heavy, but evidently they don’t feel very strongly about what they know. As an overweight layperson, I know plenty about it too, but until I felt strongly enough about what I knew to actually do something about it, I was never going to change. Maybe because reading is so much easier than using the Stairmaster, when we fail at losing weight, we think we need to read more diet books when we really need to just pick a good one and live by that sucker. This concept is the same for any act that we commit despite our knowing better. When I don’t do what I know I should, I certainly don’t need more knowledge, what I need is a working testimony of what I already have. Without the right kind of conviction, all the knowledge in the world will not be enough to constitute positive change in anyone.

4 comments:

  1. JUST REMEMBER BE YOUR BIGGEST CRITIC. ALWAYS LOOK IN THE MIRROR BEFORE YOU POINT THE FINGER. NEVER FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF BECAUSE THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEONE EATING A BIGGER SHIT SANDWICH THAN YOU. NEVER FEEL SORRY FOR YOURSELF, TAKE ACTION TO FIX IT (YOU ARE). PMA POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE. DISCIPLINE, MOTIVATION, LOYALTY, DEDICATION. THE LIST GOES ON AND ON. SEMPER FI!

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  2. Boz, I went out to eat the other night and ordered a salad. It was freakin huge! I ate enough to satisfy my appetite and took it home. I took the rest to work the next day and shared it with my coworker and we were both full! Portion sizes do make a difference!
    Christina

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  3. Ryan, Spoken like a true Marine! HU-rrah!

    Christina, Way to go!

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