One Hit Wonders

A New Year provides the chance for a new perspective.

Wow. That was profound. I almost don't dare continue writing. Oh, okay. I will anyway.

Actually, to be entirely fair, the new perspective didn't arrive in the New Year. I just chose not to implement it until after the Christmas holidays so that I could blissfully enjoy things like onion rings, chocolate dipped pretzels and pie. I love pie. I think we've discussed my love of pie before.

Wait. This post is not about pie. Honestly...

This summer I was mere pounds away from a milestone; it was exciting and terrifying at the same time. Unfortunately, terror won out for a good five months and the scale began a very gradual shift in the wrong direction. I began to wonder (for the umpteenth time) whether I was kidding myself... I knew my previous track record. My hope was fading that I had the ability to change it once and for all.

One day, however, as I was pondering what a deep fried Oreo might taste like, I remembered that way back in my past (ten or more years ago) there was a record of me not only passing said milestone, but blowing past it with gusto.

That realization made me drop my Oreo and ponder something a bit more productive.

We all have tapes in our heads. If we're honest with ourselves, we could fill a sheet of paper with the negative thoughts that have become the background music to our thoughts.

You're not _______ enough.

You can't do it.

You've failed too many times.

Our memory is a disloyal fiend when it comes to these tapes. As the negative thoughts swell and gain volume and we reach for that third slice of pie, the memory juts out its foot to make us fall. Soon we're only remembering failure, weakness and disappointment. Any hard work, good choices, or positive breakthroughs are shoved back into a tiny box marked 'One Hit Wonders' and stowed away at the back of a very dark closet.

But it's there, still... that box of wonder. And every so often, the memory takes a nap and truth bubbles to the surface. Once upon a time I smashed that milestone in two and danced triumphantly upon the rubble. Once upon a time I was a mere 16 pounds away from what is now my goal weight. And the girl of once upon a time?

She didn't know then what I know now.

No, she didn't make it to her goal weight.
No, she didn't manage to prevent packing those (and more!) pounds back on.

But she is proof that it is possible.

Sometimes we need that proof, don't we? During those times when we're hauling out the oil and wondering what we how to coat the Oreo before deep frying it, we need something tangible to remind ourselves that we are more than just 'not enough'. To remind ourselves we can do it, that we've done it before.

And so, a new perspective... I'm no longer using the 'Fat Girl 101' label, replacing it instead with 'Girl Gone Healthy'. Even though I've always believed I would retain a 'fat girl' mentality, I'm choosing to believe instead that God can heal those emotional scars too.

And health, really, isn't at all about a number but a state of well-being: strong, free, focused, well-rounded.

Dig out that box of One Hit Wonders today and find yourself some proof.
Remember that hard work, those good choices, that time when it went right and you proved to yourself you could do whatever it was your put your mind to.

We've done it before. Even if it was the smallest act... we've done it before.
Let's do it again.

How, you ask?

Check it out:

You, LORD, keep my lamp burning;
my God turns my darkness into light.
With your help I can advance against a troop;
with my God I can scale a wall. ~ Psalm 18:28 & 29

He'll turn your darkness to light.
He'll help you scale that wall.
Our God is the God of the impossible.

"For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength." ~ Philippians 4:13

Let's do it, girls.
Let's go healthy.