Reaching for the switch

 

For the record my mother bought me this light switch for Christmas several years ago. She giggled when I unwrapped the present, “Its art,” she proclaimed.

If you have seen the Joy Fit Club, one of the consistent questions that is asked of the participants is what was their Ah-ha moment. You know the one minute in time that the switch is finally turned on and you finally realize that your existence is in jeopardy if you don’t do something to make your health a priority.

My Ah-ha moment:

Looking back at that one minute in time is very clear to me even 5 years later. It was just a speck of time in my life but one that forever changed my existence. 

I hadn’t traveled much for a few years and I pushed myself out of my comfortable, overweight cocoon and went to visit friends from college that lived in Washington, DC. I had moved there right out of college and this merry band of friends is closely tied to the best times of my life.

When the snapshot came in the mail, I couldn’t wait to see the lasting images from my weekend trip. I was totally unprepared to see myself in comparison to my friends. We were all hamming it up for the camera like we had done so many times in the past but I seemed a stranger in that photograph.

Who was that woman in the back with the white dress?

Then it happened. The switch went on in my head. I sat there with the photos in my hand wanting to tear them up because I didn’t like what I saw. Not my friends but me. Who was that woman and how did she get to be so large? I knew the answers but it was that moment in time when I finally took action.

I finally admitted to myself that I had a problem and I needed to go about solving it. It was time to make myself a priority. It was time for me to fix me.

I was morbidly obese and the photos that I held in my hand were proof of that.

I needed to do something. I needed to finally stop ignoring my undeniable problem with food and confront it and myself.

Now people ask me all the time how I lost nearly 200 pounds, and I look them in the eye and tell to put down their fork and start moving their butts. Unfortunately that is when some turn off the switch and tune me out. They want quick solutions but there aren’t any. I am sorry.

But there are plenty of small steps that you can take to make your health a number one priority. Yes, making time for you. Time that is spent making sure that you have healthy, properly portioned meals. Time spent taking that walk that you always talk about taking. Time spent reading about good nutrition and time spent getting the right amount of sleep.

It’s New Years Day, time for new beginnings, time for you to make your health a number one priority this year.