Thursday, April 30, 2009

No (wo)man is an island

I'm the Lone Ranger in many aspects of life. I like to plan things myself, work by myself, meet challenges on my own and then take the credit. Much of the time, it works out just fine. Sometimes, it doesn't.

I'm in one of those situations now, I think. Regular readers will know how I struggle with my weight. In the past, I've always been able to take off the weight when I've put my mind to it. The thing is, there's usually been some sort of external motivation -- like wanting to get a man, or wanting to further my singing career -- and by keeping that goal in mind, I've been able to stay on the path, lose weight, get in shape and stay there.

Now I find myself in a different stage of life. I've got the man. My professional aspirations don't require me to list my weight on my resume. Sure, I'd like to be thinner, and therefore healthier, but I'm not desperate enough to achieve another goal, perhaps, to stick with healthy habits that will make it happen.

So I've decided that maybe what I need is to be held accountable. I've enlisted the help of a few friends to keep me on the straight and narrow, to tell me to put the cookies down and encourage me to go to the gym. One of them -- dear Diana, my hairdresser -- gave the whole project another angle when she told me to invest in an hour of self-care every day.

I started that today, by taking a walk in the sunshine, to get some exercise and have some nice time by myself. It wasn't an hour, but it was a start. I've hidden the chocolate chip cookies I made yesterday in the microwave. I'm planning on a salad with chicken for dinner. I think I may even paint my toenails before I teach.

Here's to the support and encouragement of friends. Knowing they're pulling for me makes it easier to resist the behaviors that will let them down. So far.

1 comment:

cmmoore said...

Self care is so hard, but so important. We spend our days taking care of others, and we really need to carve time out to take care of ourselves, too.

Hang in there. Everything is a process, right?