Taking Care of YOU!

Have you ever heard the saying that when you help someone or serve them in some way, that it will make you feel better about yourself? I find this to be very true as I love doing things for others and reaching out to make someone’s day a little brighter, but I have also learned in the course of losing weight and getting healthy that one of those people needed to be myself. I don’t mean that in a selfish way by any means. I mean it in a way that you need to not only build others up but also build up yourself. This was something I was never good at until I learned that my self-worth was worth nurturing and taking care of, just like anyone else’s. In fact, for years I think I often times would think I was making myself feel better by doing one of three things: doing something nice for someone else, lounging around not doing much of anything, or eating things I knew I shouldn’t on a regular basis. These three things were my medication of sorts. This was how I dealt with being overweight. In fact, aside from doing something nice for someone else, it was easier to be a hermit than to get outside the walls of my home. 

In the process of trying to make a change, here are some of the things I’ve learned:

It’s not always easy to step away from the family and get to the gym, but I know I need to do it.

It’s not always easy to pay the expense of using a personal trainer, but the tools that are added to my basket on a weekly basis are tools of nutrition and health. Success is on being educated not on losing weight. 

It’s not always easy to make yourself go to bed early because our bodies need rest.

It’s not always easy to occasionally have to eat something different than your family.

It’s not always easy to go spend money on new clothes when for so many years you have put yourself last in line on the shopping list.

It’s not always easy to say “no” to the junk food put in front of you.

It’s not always easy to have to discipline yourself but the fact of the matter is, we all need boundaries. 

It’s not always easy to stretch yourself and try new things, but you turn out to be a better person when you do.

It’s not always easy to push yourself hard and through the impossible, but it’s worth it.

I have had to work at these things, but one of the greatest things I have learned on this journey is the fact that I am just as important to serve and love as anyone else. In fact, the more I have learned to serve myself and love who I have become, the more I want to serve others (funny how things work that way).  It’s never easy being overweight and insecure with the body you live in. I wish in my heart I could change that thinking in the lives of others but just like anything else, the only way to really gain a testimony of it is to experience it and go through it yourself. The process is often times painful, but in the end the joy and new set on life is worth it all. 

Looking back, I honestly wouldn’t change being overweight the majority of my life for anything. Sure, it would have been nice to have been skinny sooner or for more years than I was fat, but I also can say that if it wasn’t for being as overweight as I had become, I wouldn’t be the person I have become today. Someone who can do what others think is the impossible, someone who believes in herself, someone who is finally living a life for years she had only dreamed of.