dwelling in possibility...

Are you unable to get past circumstances in your life? Do you feel imprisoned in your own skin? Are you resigned that it is inevitable for you to be where you are?

If I flipped back the clock by 4 years, I would have told you that Heather would always live in a trailer in a bad neighborhood.

If I flipped back the clock by 2 years, I would have told you that I made my bed and intended to lie in it by staying married to an insanely controlling man who didn’t care for me one bit.

If I flipped back the clock by three months, I would tell you that I can’t lose weight because of the medications I’m on – that I can’t sleep without ambien – that I can’t breathe without steroids – etc.

Why do we stay where we are even when it’s a place of unhappiness? Why do we resign ourselves so easily to accept status quo? Why do we hide behind reasons and excuses for our inability to change? Why do we just let life happen to us instead of adjusting our sails to intentionally direct our path? Truly, there are some things that won’t change. There are some people in your life that just are who they are - and for whom, for the sake of sanity, you have to adjust your expectations. You, however…

Wait, let me make that a new paragraph…

YOU, however, are not one of those people. YOU always have control, if not over your circumstances, at least over your response to them. People control you only as much as you let them. Circumstances control you only as much as you let them.

There is a lovely young lady I met while doing theatre. She is in a wheelchair. Yet… she has pursued her every dream with a passion that few people know. She is beautiful, fit, social, and seems to be quite happy. If you’ve ever seen the *other insurance company* commercial about the lady in a wheelchair who tries to go vote but her car won’t start – and a series of other mishaps – that’s her. She had excuses… in real life and in the commercial… she had valid reasons… but she only let them be challenges, not roadblocks.

I’m not preaching, I’m just reminding myself. Keep breathing. Keep moving forward. Keep hope alive. There is always room for improvement.

This morning it took me three tries to get a breakfast that I wanted to eat. I tried steel cut oatmeal in the crock pot overnight… it was absolute mush this morning… watery gruel. Then I tried doing the eggbeaters in a wrap with avocado and tomato. The consistency of the egg was wrong. I couldn’t eat it. I ended up eating triscuits with sliced avocado. Probably not the most nutritionally balanced thing but at that point I was out of time.

My intention is to eat foods that are as basic as possible with the least amount of processing possible. I want to avoid sugar, white flour and bad fats. Biscuits are out. Toast – my usual last minute breakfast – especially with jelly – was out. The triscuits provide fiber… and I have learned that for me to lose weight I have to eat healthy fats, like avocado, salmon, nuts, etc. My metabolism will shut down without those healthy fats.

So far, I’m seeing scale results and I’m definitely feeling results in my energy level and ability to go to sleep at night. I’ll give a weight update and recap the good, bad and ugly of my first week “back” either tonight or tomorrow.

The wintry precipitation is coming. It’s going to start off as rain, which may be the worst possible scenario because that will form a sheet of ice on everything. We’d be better off with three inches of snow than a fraction of an inch of ice. Whatever comes won’t be until later this afternoon so I should make it home safely before any trouble starts. Lord willing!

I’ve got a ton of stuff to take care of around here… hope you have a Thankful Thursday! God bless!