I could be the poster child for diet and exercise. Over the past 30+ years I have tried everything that has come on the market with even an inkling of credibility. The problem was that I never tried to find out why I had gotten so out of control as to gain over 100 lbs of fat. Six months ago I was ready to try one more time to loose the weight. I watched an episode of Oprah when she had guests on that had gone through gastric bypass. Many people believe that gastric bypass is the easy way to loose weight, but Oprah's guests pointed out that it is still a long hard journey. Everyone of them said that when they had to give up their addiction to food, they found they had adopted a new addiction, some to alcohol, some to sex, some to shopping. The new addictions may have varied, but the fact that they all replaced one addiction with another was across the board. This is when I decided that before I started another program I would have to find out why I was addicted to food. For me it was a spiritual journey through Bible study that I learned some deep truths about myself. Once I knew why, I then began to work on healing those issues before I ever started dieting (no I didn't do gastric bypass, it wasn't a healthy choice for me). Six months later and 60 lbs lighter I am over half way through my weight loss journey. I no longer feel like I'm on a diet, because I simply eat to live now. I no longer crave any food of any kind and I can also tell you that I have not become addicted to anything else to replace the food.
I knew from the beginning of this journey that I would have to add exercise into my program, and I will confess I have been avoiding it like the plague! I simply hate exercise! Well, 2 weeks ago things changed. The owner of my company has come up with a program to reward and encourage healthy living. We get points for things like loosing weight, exercising, yearly checkups with our doctors, and participating in events like "Walk for Life". At the end of each year we turn in all our points for either cash or paid time off! I can remember saying years ago, I could exercise if someone would pay me. Well, the time has come to act on those words. Two weeks ago I began my exercise program. I started by briskly walking 30 minutes per day either on my lunch hour or when I first get home in the evenings.
Of course the owner of my company wants to make living a healthy lifestyle as easy for each of us as possible, so yesterday I signed up on the company program for a gym membership. A large group go to the gym together at lunch time, and when I hinted that I needed to add weight training to my week, they all jumped in and asked me to join them. Monday will be my first day, and I'm actually looking forward to it. Of course if my blog is super short next week, it may be because I'm too sore to type!
Let me encourage all of you as you graduate and head into the work force to find companies with great benefits like mine. Benefits like good health insurance, healthy lifestyle encouragement, gym memberships, can be much more beneficial in the long run that just a high salary, because with these benefits, you'll feel like enjoying that high salary!
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