Archive for May 18th, 2009
You Can Always Sail Back “Home”
“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.” – Marcel Proust.
Though I love to travel and see new landscapes … it’s one of my absolute favorite quotes.
In fact, this past winter, I used it in reference to going back to D.C. (I moved here to Michigan from there about three years ago).
But today, I am using it to announce that after months of agonizing and journaling solely on Sparkpeople, I am going back to my beloved Weight Watchers Points system (which more or less worked for me for the past four and a half years … any weight gain wasn’t the fault of the program but rather my lack of adherence to it).
On paper, it’s a generous program and it never made me feel like I was dieting, honestly. The disordered eating behaviors began long into maintenance; I don’t blame Weight Watchers for that.
The program taught me about portion sizes, making good choices … all things permanently ingrained in my head.
And yet even with this knowledge, I’ve been abusing my food intake on Sparkpeople … so I decided it’s time to go back to familiar territory. Especially with the newer program Weight Watchers came out with, Momentum. (more…)
11 comments May 18, 2009
Chicken and Egg
I’m almost done with Monica Seles’s book, Getting a Grip, and a review will be coming later this week. I will say this: I’ve had a very hard time putting it down; it’s that good.
One of the lines that really resonated was when, during one of the lowest moments in Monica’s struggle with her weight, her coach tells her, “It’s not your game, it’s your head that needs work.”
Oh boy, can I relate … I think many of us probably can, even if weight or recovery isn’t your challenge, all too often our mental state impedes our ability to make progress or change.
Monica writes, “I knew that once my head was screwed on straight, the pounds would fall off and I’d be back in top form. But I couldn’t get my head clear unless my size-ten clothes felt loose. It was a chicken and egg dilemma. Did my self-confidence need to return before my body got back to its ideal level or was my self-confidence a result of feeling like I looked great in my tennis skirt?”
How often do we feel this way, feel this struggle between the chicken and the egg — be it weight loss, recovery, winning a game, earning a job, opening a business, finding the man/woman of our dreams … anything really: which comes first, the confidence, or the sensation of confidence that allows us to reach for our goals or our dreams?
Or do we need to “fake it til we make it?” (more…)
7 comments May 18, 2009
