Lens Adjustment/Container Cracked

Monday, yes. Weekend is behind me with mixed results.  I need to ALWAYS remember to line up weekend activities BEFORE Friday. Because I didn't, Friday found me without friends. Stayed late at the office working on memorizing "Q" words that don't require "U" and also "Z" words.What a dork! Getting a bit competitive with Scrabble these days. Then I decided to go to Schaller's by myself to sing and support Bobby, but wow, that was a mistake! Turns out he forgot microphones - singing in that long noisy bar with no amplification took a terrible toll on my voice. Ended up leaving early, going home, downloading those two evil games on my cell phone and spending the rest of the evening with my new friends, "Tigersmom", "Cellgirl", "Aspasia" and "Goodforyou". Wee hours found me curled up in my bed playing game after game of Hanging With Friends and Words With Friends. At one point I had in excess of twenty games going at once, and of course, being Princess Xena Cell Phone Game Warrior, I won most of the games. So, yeah, the container cracked, and the following day, found me glued to the phone and not walking my 10K steps, feeling bereft and enervated.

Rallied on Sunday and got the home office crap sorted through. Made a little "store" for the girls and friends to "shop: for stuff (free) - the rest went out on the curb. Mother's day was a non-event. Finally after years of being disappointed on Mother's Day, I am at peace with the day - I have no expectations. My girls love me but they're not planners so the day usually finds them clueless and scrambling. I expressed a desire for them to come to the house and grill - they interpreted that as I would cook dinner for them! Clarification on my part - "I was hoping you would shop and cook the meal for me - I've been cleaning all day."  Response, "No money for food," so 6PM found me at Whole Foods with C. picking out food (that I bought) which wouldn't then be ready to eat until close to 9PM. Arg....I was so hungry and crabby, but I held my temper and endured - I was determined to give them the gift of being OK with whatever the day offered, whatever they offered. I love them dearly and I'm learning to just "roll". But...you know what would have put me into an instant great mood? A martini and a plate of pasta. I would have been happy, fun, bubbly Mom and everyone would have been grateful for a gushingly happy Sarah. But my container held - it's the promises we make and keep to ourselves that give us true currency in this world. I all but passed out from hunger and my mood was black with the disorganized effort but I stayed within my WW points and drank nothing, knowing it was just a day that would soon be over. Most importantly I found pleasure in the day, subdued my discomfort and my grateful lens was in sharp focus.  I was mostly proud of myself (grumpiness only leaked out a few times).

Lens adjustment. Putting on the right glasses to begin with and then making adjustments as needed - that's what I want to talk about today. Saturday was two weeks since my last WW meeting because of party prep last week. I was, I thought, exemplary in those two weeks and was looking forward to a 4-5 pound weight loss. Got on their scale - down one pound in two weeks! 'Twas then I remembered why I had fallen off the program last fall. Week after week I heard, "stayed the same", "down .4 pounds (be sure to read that as "point" 4),etc. I remembering being really discouraged and angry and thinking it just wasn't worth it. So here we are again, a 1 lb. loss in two weeks! What to do with that?  This:

Did you know there is this really great eating plan you can go on that will provide the following results: First off, you can eat anything you want - you just have to budget for it and watch portions. Secondly, it's designed for optimal health, not just weight loss, so even if you're losing weight to look good, you'll also reap the benefit of great bloodwork, healthy joints, great sleep, beautiful skin and hair, and more! Eating this way will lengthen your life and improve your sex drive. It will flood your body with anti-oxidants to fight disease. It will give you an appreciation of nature's bounty and you'll find yourself haunting farmer's markets and the produce section in search of foods that are in their simplest form - one step removed from sunshine. You will learn to be a great cook, using healthy cooking techniques and your friends will look forward to dinner at your house because the food is delicious. In time, your body will trust you - you will shed years of accumulated baggage. You will never be hungry - most fruits and vegetables can be eaten in unlimited quantities. And here's the best part! You get ALL these benefits and you can look forward to losing anywhere from 1/2 to a full pound a week - in a year you can expect to have shed 30-50 pounds! "Wow," I can hear you saying, "I can actually lose 1/2 pound a week and not suffer? Where do I sign up?"

And that is the lens change that needs to happen if you are my age and on a sensible, slow food plan like WW. You need to be amazed that you can eat in such a wonderfully long term sustaining way - the way everyone should eat regardless of size - AND lose weight. If I had adjusted my expectations back in the fall as I'm doing now, I'd have lost an additional 15-20 pounds between then and now.  But I showed them!  I got pissed off and ended up gaining about that much instead!

Challenge today is adjusting the lens, redefining expectations, making course corrections. Is there a goal you have that eludes you? Maybe you made a New Year's resolution to be well on your way with something by now and it's just poking along. Maybe you took up guitar with the hope that by now you would be able to join a band but you're still struggling learning all the chords. Maybe you hoped you'd be further along in your career by 2012 - you made a five year plan in 2009 and you're behind schedule. Maybe the reason your progress has stalled is because you're discouraged - it's just taking too long - you're comparing your efforts to others and thinking the progress just isn't good enough.

It's times like this we need to remember success comes to those who show up day after day. In my Weight Watcher daily tracker, there is a motivational saying - this morning, perfectly timed. "People who reach their goals are people who just refuse to quit."  Think about it!  Goal reaching is NOT about being the smartest, the fastest, or even the hardest working. It's simply about staying the course and not giving up. Time passes. For those who persist, many goals are reached with small daily efforts. So, even if I lose 1/4 pound per week, that would mean in about four years I will have achieved my goal without suffering at all and also enjoy wonderful health. Like I said, lens adjustment.

Peace,
Sarah

PS.  This morning, container in good shape thanks to some super glue. I erased the evil games from my phone, did my elliptical, restored order to my house and now I'll put in a good effort at the office. Life is good, even if not easy.