Recently I was telling someone about a post that I wrote over a year ago. As I was telling her about it, I realized how current it is for me, so I decided to re-post it.
Yesterday (well, actually a year and 3 months ago…) my boys and I went for a hike so they could throw rocks into a stream. What is it about boys and throwing rocks???? Anyway, we went to a spot that we’ve gone to before, but it was quite awhile ago. About 1/10th of a mile into our walk, son #2 found a spot that he thought was good. The trail is about 10 feet above the water line, but at this spot there was a small path that led down to the water. There was about 3 feet of “beach” and a few rocks lying around. My oldest son didn’t even give it a glance, but kept on walking. He knew where he wanted to go.
It took some convincing, but I got son #2 to keep going. Every so often, he would find another path and declare it to be “the spot”. He’d then get frustrated as son #1 just kept walking. I’d tell him, no, we’re not there yet.
“But this spot looks good,” he’d reply.
“But the one up ahead is better.” I’d answer.
All the while, my oldest kept walking, very focused and determined. He rarely even glanced around as he walked. He knew where he was going. And my “indoor kid” as he likes to call himself, was walking at a pace that my youngest, son #3, had a hard time keeping up with. But up ahead, about a mile into our hike, we saw him take the right turn, off the path, towards the creek. The other 2 started running to catch up to him.
Their smiles were huge, their eyes big as they were taking in the “Mecca” of locations for stream stone throwing. We were on an all stone peninsula. The stream was wide at this spot, and there was a waterfall. Right away, they were grabbing all sorts of stones and throwing them in the water. I found a spot to sit down and watched as they spent the next 40 minutes enjoying themselves.
And as we walked back, son #2 no longer had any desire to take the paths down to the 3 foot beaches with a handful of stones. They lost their appeal when compared to where we were.
As we continued to walk, I thought about my weight loss journey. Right now, I’m 178 pounds (yep, I broke the 180 barrier last week!). (Actually right now, 9/17, I’m 151.5 pounds) Compared to 224, I feel great. Clothes look better on me. I don’t have to shop in the plus sized clothes anymore. I’m getting lots of compliments. I can run 3 miles (now I can run 10 miles) , and I do so 3-5 times a week (maybe not 10 miles 3-5 times a week 🙂). I feel good about myself. But right now, I’m fighting the urge to just “sit” here at this weight. Fighting the thoughts that this is “good enough” and it would be OK to just maintain. Fighting to keep pressing on.
Because even though 178 (151.5), when compared to 224, is amazing, it’s not where I should be. I’m still considered obese (overweight). My thighs still rub together when I run. My belly and my arms still have a lot of “jiggle” to them. I’m still in double-digit clothes (size 10, but some 8’s!). My “Mii” on Wii Fit is still fat! (Not sure about this one, haven’t played Wii Fit in a while) So I know I can’t stop here.
I thought about how son #2 was content to stop 1/10th of the way into a walk and stand on a tiny beach with only a few rocks. He didn’t want to keep going. To him that was good enough. But in reality, it didn’t come close to comparing with the destination son #1 and I had in mind. And I decided that I was not going to be content to stop here on my health journey. I’m going to keep pressing on.
Pressing on together,
♥Becki
