Let's Be Honest

To sum up my goal progress so far... I am clearly in the habit of thinking of myself too much because it has been hard to get myself to think of others first. That has got to change.

But instead of discussing that more I am going to change the topic. I've had something on my mind for a couple days and I feel like blogging about that. That topic is the hidden truth and what we're doing about it.

The Hidden Truth.

AKA
"Getting in shape"
"Losing weight"
"Toning up"
"Slimming down"

It's the hidden truth because often we say we want to be healthy when what we really mean is we want to get rid of the extra 5 or 50 or 100 pounds we're carrying around. No one wants to admit they are trying to work off those extra pounds. And because no one wants to admit it no one talks about it. And because no one talks about it no one knows how to do it. So when someone, who has something to sell I would add, does talk about it, we assume they must know what they're talking about because they're actually talking about it and so they convince us the only way to do it is follow some crazy diet where you can only eat potatoes on Tuesday, inject yourself with a magic potion on Wednesday, take a pill on Thursday, eat nothing the rest of the week and miraculously lose 20 pounds that month.

Ridiculous?
Um...yah!

But sadly it's all too easy to fall prey to the easy seller of do nothing and get something. You cannot, unfortunately, eat apples in the fall if you didn't plant the tree in the spring. That is an eternal principle. And applies to working off weight. Notice I didn't say lose weight. Losing implies no effort, quite by accident. That, again, would be akin to eating imaginary apples who's tree was never planted.

So, moral of the story #1... it takes effort, good hard work, to

"Get in shape"
"Lose- scratch that- work off weight"
"Tone up"
"Slim down"

You may, justifiably, be thinking to yourself why take advice from someone who is currently 60 pounds overweight.

Completely understandable.

But I do have some life experience to pull from as I've actually worked off 50 pounds. Yes, 10 came back after delivering the baby, but I've since worked off another 6. Yes, I still have 60 to go. (I said I knew how to work it off, but I said nothing about it being easy.) But the way I see it is I've got to say what I know, what I've experienced because I am in the same boat and if I can keep someone from falling prey to some crazy diet scheme that will really do more harm than good, well then, I'll consider myself successful.