Action

This week I enrolled in the Pound Plunge 2009 for Salina. This is a 12 week concentrated effort of a group of people to lose weight and begin a healthier lifestyle. They had their 1st Pound Plunge last year. The main sponsor is the YMCA. Last year they had 1,828 participants register with 1,275 of them being active and 871 of them actually completing the 12 weeks and losing 9,581 pounds total for those 871 people. Wow!!! What an accomplishment! This year there is approximately 1,800 people registered. It will be great to see what we can do!

Last year it was based on teams. I did not participate last year. I felt I was at an unfair advantage to the other participants. Just having surgery I felt I had a tool that would enhance my abilities to lose weight and that would be unfair. Also I am a very solo type person. I did not want to be part of a team. I don't like to rely on others and I hate to have others rely on me in this type of situation. I would hate to let anyone down.

Well this year they have the team enrollment, but they also have an individual enrollment. So I thought it through and I know I no longer have the unfair advantage. The surgery has run its course and I am now just like the "normal" weight loss person. I have to work it all on my own using the tool of my pouch and the tools IWLS has provided me via knowledge. As has been evident in the last month or so I have needed some type of inspiration. I am hoping this year's Pound Plunge is the ticket to that inspiration. I can challenge myself and work the program with the weekly weigh-ins. There is also the incentive of prizes with the Pound Plunge itself. My employer is also providing some prize incentives as well. For me all the prizes are just an added benefit. I want to use the weigh-ins as an official monitor to keep me in check and keep me focused. Something has got to kick in. I need to use a new motto: “When I stumble I will forgive myself and try again.” “Begin again right now. Don’t wait for tomorrow.”

"In the midst of winter, I finally learned there was in me an invincible summer."
~Albert Camus~

This saying is what I am concentrating on. My winter has been the last few months of being frustrated and letting my motivation get stagnant. I am moving into the invincible summer. I am ready to move forward and get back into the healthy mind frame. I am trying to find and establish a “garden” of safety within my being. I need to reconnect with God and give him the control of my self, my actions, my thoughts and my motives. I need to be able to close my eyes and transport myself to that special place I have built with God. A spot I can go to and harmonize with Jesus and get the strength I need to face the demons of old habits, old tapes and old comforts that are not healthy or in my best interest. I need to rely on him to pass up the urge to eat the sweets and the carbs and the too large food portions. I need to reach for his hand to pull me out of bed to exercise, guide me to the other side of the room when I want to stand next to the temptations of the past and the comforts of the emotions I know and understand. I have to grasp his hand as I try to handle the things I can’t overcome; the cravings, the emotional eating, the negative thoughts and negative attitudes of daily life. I need to see the sunshine of every situation. I need to harmonize!

So I will plunge into the 12 week program of Pound Plunge and plunge into the personal program of becoming reliant on God and not on myself. I will train myself to remember the only person who has control of me is me. I pray to give that control to God and allow him to lead me from this day forward. I pray you look into your life and figure out what you need to plunge into. “If you’re breathing, there is still hope.”

The difference between being inspired and struggling with inspiration is one simple thing... ACTION.