Picture courtesy of the fabulous Jodee Rose http://jodee.deviantart.com
I got a Facebook message from a blog reader who gave me permission to share this anonymously:
My mom passed away today after a long fight with cancer. She was dieting literally right up to the end, still putting things off until she was thin. It made me think about how my life could have been if I hadn’t found blogs like yours. I’d love for you to share this with your readers so that maybe my mom’s passing can help someone.
I’ve completely been there. I wasted years of my life with one simple thought:
“I need to concentrate on losing weight right now. I’ll [do things I want to do] when I reach my goal weight.”
Days, weeks, and months and years, that I will never get back, tracking every bit of food, calculating points, eating nasty pre-packaged food, giving up sugar, wheat, dairy, meat, drinking weight loss shakes, no popcorn at the movies, no cake on my birthday, punishing my body at the gym.
Believing that everyone who tries hard enough becomes thin, that thin was something that it was important to be, and that being thin is the golden ticket to everything, believing in magical weight loss thinking – that I was just x pounds from everything I could ever want. Believing that I should sacrifice my current life for my future thin self.
Looking back, I could easily have ended up like my reader’s Mom, still trying to lose weight on my deathbed – I’m not criticizing her mom – she made decisions for her and I have no idea how she felt about her life. For me, though, it’s scary and sad to think of the life I would have had if I hadn’t made the decision to stop dieting and starting living.
So, of course, I’m not trying to tell anyone how to live. I’m just suggesting that it might be worth thinking about – whatever you’re dreaming of doing when you’ve lost x pounds, or when you’re thin, what if you just did it now?
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