Everyone's Journey

Well our Food Challenge was fun! A week is a long time to photograph the food that you eat and get it into a blog post. But I think it's a challenge that more people should try. Why? Well, reading and thinking about something never work as well as when you actually DO something.

The reason that I started this challenge was mainly some ideas. I sometimes feel like I am stuck in a rut when it comes to the food that I eat and so I thought it would be fun and inspiring to see what my cohorts go-to foods really are.

Well that wasn't the biggest thing I took away from this challenge. Yes, I did get some ideas (loved the parfaits, and I think I should really start enjoying the process and relaxation of sitting down to a cup of tea during my day.)

But the more surprising lessons came from putting my own food up for people to see.

One of the biggest thing's I knew before, but hit me in a new and inspiring way is that eating healthy is something we all must do. It's not a fat vs. thin thing. It's not some trial that I must trudge through because I have a weight problem. I don't get to look at the person beside me and ruefully wish that I had her metabolism so I didn't have to eat healthy. Because it's not about eating less so that I weigh less. But the work of eating healthy is universal across the fat to thin spectrum. Looking at my cohort's posts, they were purposing to put healthy foods into their mouths just as much as I was. Which bring me to lesson number two.

Eating healthy is work! That challenge was sure fun the 1st few days. It was exciting to take pretty pictures, the preparation was part of the fun, eating the dutifully prepared and pretty food was yummy. But somewhere around mid-week (probably right around that post of my sandwich in the car) it became a chore.

It's the same in life. It's fun at first! But when the newness wears off it becomes a chore. This challenge was a great micro-experiment, though, of the push to keep going even when you don't feel like it. Because, obviously, if my battle buddies and I are anything like the rest of the population. It get's old quick. Which leads me to my next point...

Why did we keep going? Because we had accountability. Accountability is SO key! It picks you up when you feel like faltering. It dusts you off and sets you back on that path when you have. It intimidates you from even flirting with that path of failure. And it propels you farther and faster, when your willing to just idle. I've said before that I'm a die hard Weight Watcher and that's the reason why.

So anyway, this challenge has reminded me, a new, of what it really takes to succeed. I'm not doomed to failure. I don't have a tougher road because of my propensity to eat too much. Everyone, thick or thin, should eat healthy. Everyone who does, has to work at it. And everyone needs some accountability to keep going strong. I'm not part of an unfortunate club the rest of the world doesn't need to join. This is not just my trial or even a trial at all. It's a journey, for me and everyone else.