"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
8 comments:
I love this quote!!! Pretty much sums up my definition of success.
@Rob... that is an AWESOME story. Congratulations on what sounds like a true physical transformation!
Would you mind if I made your comments an actual post to share with all the students? And do you have a picture that you would like to share?
Yes or No is fine. Just let me know. If you are willing to share the picture, you can email it to strykermartialarts@gmail.com
Again, thanks for making a difference! Wow!
6 months before my wedding, my mother passed away at the age of 58. She never got to meet my daughter - who turned 2 yesterday. She was a smoker (her horrible condition inspired me to quit smoking 4 1/2 years ago) who died a painful, slow death from emphysema. In a 10 day span, I watched her life deteriorate to being sedated for pain and attached to a respirator that breathed for her. While we slept on either side of her hospital bed, she died with my hand in her left hand and my sister's in her right. November 1 will be 4 years - I weighed 235 lbs at that time.
I know that I want to see my children begin their own lives and start their own families and to be able to participate in their lives and be able to play with my grandchildren someday. Most importantly, I know that I don't want to die as a result of something that I did to myself, or more correctly, I don't want to die because I didn't do anything to take care of myself.
As it usually does, time went by with no change in my daily habits. I got married in May 2008 and, although I told myself that I wanted to weigh 190 lbs, I weighed 215 lbs. Another 9 months passed, still with no change of habit. I started a new job in NY City - a job that put me in a train seat for 3 hours a day and a desk chair for 8 more. Unless 11 hours of sitting burns calories in a way that I haven't learned, this wasn't a step towards that long, healthy life that I wanted.
Jump to 2 years later - February 2011 - I was 218 lbs and full of 'reasons' why I hadn't yet or wasn't able to get myself into shape: Work is busy, I commute 3 hrs each day so there's no time, gym memberships are expensive and not close enough to my house, I'm not in that bad of shape (I had trouble tying my shoes), I prefer to spend time with my family instead of working out, I walk to the train station - that's a daily workout, I'll start jogging when the weather gets nice, etc. We've all been there. Nothing but excuses and lame excuses at that!
I realized that my ducks were never going be in a row (BTW, have you ever seen ducks in a row?). I knew that if I was going to force - yes, FORCE - a change that there was NEVER going to be a perfect time where everything lined up. I had to do something NOW and I had to MAKE it work.
So I did what I could within the constraints of my daily life. I had a lot of help from an application for my iPhone. As I didn't really have any nutritional training other than "If it tastes good, it's probably no good for you," I learned from the app that I was eating the wrong foods and too much of them.
Within the app, I was able to choose a goal - to lose 2 lbs per week. The app allowed me to track everything I ate and showed me how many calories each meal or snack contained. Furthermore, it let me see how many calories I ate for the day and how many I had left. This was the most useful aspect of the app because it made me be more responsible with what I chose to eat. I began to think of food as nothing more than fuel for my body.
I immediately began to drop weight which further encouraged me to continue. The app even has a graph that tracks your weight loss and seeing that line go down was even more encouragement. I lost close to 20 lbs the first month! My clothes that were buried in the closet and hadn't fit in years began to fit again. Another month, another 15 lbs. I incorporated jogging 2-3 days and softball to my weekly activities. Another month, another 10 lbs gone. I actually had to go out and buy smaller clothes and get my suits altered to fit my new slimmer body. The best part, I wasn't embarrassed to take my shirt off at the beach. I even began to make plans with my family to go the beach every weekend - something that I NEVER did while I was out of shape and something that surprised all of my family!
I started kickboxing at SMA about a month ago because I wanted to continue to lose weight and add some muscle tone. Since doing so, I've lost another 5 lbs and bottomed out on my weight loss. I suppose this is because I'm adding muscle mass. I'm down to 170 lbs - a loss of 48 lbs since February. I've dropped down from a size 38 to a waist size of 32. I've donated all of my XL sized clothes to charity - I don't plan on ever needing them again - and have had to buy all new smaller clothes. Nothing is more rewarding than that.
The lesson that I'd like to share with anyone who might read this is that I have been able to do all of this and so can you. I didn't find a way to add more hours to my day. Many of my excuses stemmed from thinking that there wasn't enough time in my 'busy' day. That's BS! I revamped my schedule to incorporate these things into my schedule because these are what are important! The truth is, "If it is to be, then is up to me." Once the mindset is there, everything else will follow. And though my mom is not here today and I miss her and think about her everyday, it was her early death that was my true inspiration to not make the same mistakes that she made. Though it may have taken a while for me to apply that inspiration, the fact that I finally did is all that matters.
Favorite quote. So beautiful. I would totally marry Ralph Waldo Emerson if he wasn't dead and unattractive.
Ahahahaaa, Dawn you are awesome.
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