Progress Report: Halfway There!

Circumstances. Oh if we could only know what life is going to throw at us at any given moment. Every time I tackle this beast in my life I learn new things. One of the important lessons I have learned on this particular journey is my trigger, and my trigger is stress. I can even pinpoint the time in my life that food became my go-t0 when life just wasn't working out the way I had planned it.  I kind of wish back then I had turned to a better friend, maybe Gym or Exercise would have been wiser choices?! Oh wait, I know an ever better one...God. Yes that would be the one that would have fixed my problems, given me true healing.

I think upon deeper reflection over the past couple of weeks I have be forced to really look at things in my life, and to decide if I really want to get better. The more I reflect the more I am faced with the reality that losing weight is only a fraction of this process.
So since I can't change that stress is inevitable in life, the only thing I have control over is how I handle it. Habits are hard to break, the longer we have certain patterns in our lives the harder it is to change them. There are plenty of unforeseen curve balls that life is bound to throw at me, but some of the stress in my life is self inflicted and completely avoidable. One of my biggest personality flaws and a huge source of my daily stress is my personal aversion to being on task. I'm the queen of procrastination. There are humans in my life; my mom, my husband, and my baby sister who are procrastinations worst enemy. If only science could develop whatever chemical make-up is in these people and put it in a pill for the less driven. An example of how truly different the mind works in the overachievers vs. the underachievers: Upon returning from a long trip and the car is teeming with things that need to be unloaded I would be more apt to say, "eh it'll be there tomorrow!" my husband on the other hand would realize the soaked snow clothes that are sealed in a plastic bag will have plenty of time to mold and that it won't really be any funner tomorrow to unload, and lets face it...it isn't in him to put off till tomorrow what needs to be done today.

Since there is no magic Vitamin Type A I imagine this is just one of those things that I have to recognize and consciously make an effort to change. I can assume my stress levels will decrease impressively when I am not always feeling overwhelmed by the things I have let accumulate. I know that my son Aiden has inherited many of my personality traits...I can see it when he is asked to clean his room. He goes in there and starts playing, organizing, and avoiding. He will spend his entire day trying to get out of cleaning his room and making us both miserable in the process. My daughter Charlee is more like her daddy, she will get in there and get it done so she has the rest of the day to do the things she wants to do. For Aiden's sake I most certainly need to set the example on how to maintain a healthy balance when you are NOT blessed with the overachiever genes.
As for the unavoidable stresses that seep into our lives...usually this is the hardest. This past week was a doozy for my family, and the hits just keep on coming. Those are the hardest times to not want to retreat back into what is familiar. I'll admit the past few days I did exactly that. I drowned my sorrows in take out, nothing heals a broken heart like mozzarella sticks and chicken pad thai right? WRONG. Instead of feeling better I was greeted with guilt and a bad case of heartburn. I'm still learning...hopefully next time I am faced with a sucker punch from life I will make a better choice, and certainly get a better outcome. Old habits die hard.

So to sum up my ramblings? I'm halfway there. Halfway where you ask? Halfway to the first of many goals. When I started this I didn't think it would take me over a month to lose the first ten pounds, but I refuse to disparage progress.