Wake up thin?
 

A friend of mine also working on weight loss wrote:
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What fun would it be if you woke up one morning and were thin? Let me think about that. I think it would be a lot of fun.
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Boy that got me to thinking. Here was my reply. I thought it was an intriguing idea and wanted to share my response and see what other people thought.


Great write up man. The one line above really got me to thinking. I have been working on getting fit and health - this is my 26th month. It has been a long road. There were many times I so wished I would just wake up fit and health. As I get closer to my goal - I have about 35 pounds to go still - 305 down, 35 more to go - the more the whole lifestyle aspect of this change has really struck home for me.

If you were like me - at the beginning - it sounds like just rhetoric. Yada yada yada lifestyle diet - whatever - I just want this fat gone and the scale to read a "normal" weight. I think when that light finally goes off in your head - it is like a revelation. It is so much more than about your weight. It really gets down to who you are, who you want to be and how you choose to live your life. It is so empowering to know with 100% certainty that we all have the power to change. We all have the power to reach our goals.

I picked a quote about 18 months ago that I keep everywhere. It is on my goals page at work and at home. When I picked it, I liked it but I did not really on a gut level "get" it. I get it now.

"The future is not some place we are going, but one we create. The paths are not found, but made, and the activity of making them changes both the maker and the destination."
John Schaar

I can honestly say now that even if it were possible to wake up thin - I would not want to. The journey to fitness is one without end. It is a skill set we have to learn and make a part of who we are. If I woke up with Adonises body - without going through the process, I would not know how to keep it.

It is a process and the process has taught me more about myself that I could have ever imagined. I would not trade that insight into who I am and what I can be for the hottest body on the planet.

Great great post man - it really made me think!

I wish you the very best.

Charles--interesting question. I have a couple of things to say.

This thought is one that I have recently "got in my gut". I knew on paper that I believed these things, but recently (May 24th--I know the date!) I had to put my beliefs out there for everyone to see. I ALSO, on may 24, had to face the fact that the way I was living my life was not in conjunction with what I believed. Talking the talk but not walking the walk, effectively. This brought about much change, and 1/3 of the weight I've lost in 51 weeks has been in the last 8. Gee, think something clicked? :dizzy:

My other thought is an answer to the question: no, I would not want to wake up and be thin tomorrow. This last year has taught me a lot, about myself and how to deal with food. It's also, though, taught me about relating to people, dealing with new situations, and how to stand up for myself and what I believe. If I were to wake up thin tomorrow, I wouldn't have any of those skills. Quite frankly, I don't think I'd be able to maintain the loss, and I'd go through the **** of regain. No, thank you. I'd rather do it slow and steady, and learn along the way the things that I need to know to take care of myself without food as a crutch.

That is a very healthy attitude, Charles. ...and not just healthy, but the RIGHT attitude. Thank you for your insights. Having sooooo far to go until I reach my goal, yeah...sometimes I think how nice it would be to suddenly be slim. Sometimes looking up the mountain you are trying to climb can be daunting. But you have really made me think. Really think. Would I REALLY want to wake up skinny? Hmmm...the BEING slim part would be great. But...would I be able to maintain it??? really maintain it??? Would I start to develope an attitude? I think of people that get millions of dollars instantly (isn't being fit kind of like getting millions of dollars? ;) ). Are they really happy? There is that immediate illation, but I have read about many people that win the lotto or publishers clearing house or something like that. It seems that once the innitial excitement wears off, they have all kinds of problems to deal with that they wouldn't have had if they had slowly worked their way up to the millions by working for it. Weird, huh? Makes me think. Maybe NOTHING (not just getting millions of $$$$ fast) is worth getting overnight (except your FedEx package). Would mountain climbing be as exulting if you just suddenly *poof* are at the top? Sure...the scenery would be pretty, but wouldn't you be FAR more elated to look back over a mountain side that you struggled up and be able to say "I conquered that mountain!!!"
You know...I have heard about how when you plant fruits or veggies outside they are far more sweeter and richer than if you planted them inside. The natural struggles of nature (weather, etc) make the fruit richer and sweeter. I am thinking we must be that way in a sense. Looking at your attitude...you can just tell by reading your posts that you are 'seasoned' and have 'climbed a mountain'. Do you see it in yourself as well? Can you look back over the past years and see a personal growth? If that is the case, then I would have to say that, YES!!!...I too would rather have to struggle to lose this weight than to just wake up and be skinny. Hmmmm...can't believe I could say that! I can't wait to be standing up on top of that mountain with all the rest of you who have lost so much and to be able to know that I had conquered it!!!

Thank you for your post.

I would not want to wake and up be at my goal...for one thing a huge part of my goal is fitness and it takes discipline to get where I want to go. For another thing, weight is simply an obvious symptom (for me anyway) of a terrible, horrible, awful diet (I know some people eat really well and have wt problems, not me! Years of shoving junk through my pie-hole show themselves on my thighs, stomach, and butt)...and eating like that causes problems way way worse than just weight...heart problems, high cholesterol, strokes, colon and breast cancer...Being at goal weight will be great...but not just for how I look or what size clothes I can wear. Being at goal weight, for me, will be one more demonstration of how my life journey, with a focus on eating for health and moving for fitness, is treating my body with respect.

I believe that I am so fortunate. My choices can shape and mold my body on the outside where I can see improvement....while decreasing my risk for bad things happening on the inside, where I cannot see improvements.

If I could be at goal weight overnight, I would never have thought about and addressed the damage a diet of crap has been doing to my insides for the past several years.

Great thread, Charles.

Charles -- Like you and mousie, I'm realizing now that I'm on this journey, just how important the journey IS to this process. I think I knew that going in, but now I really "Grok" it (to throw in a Heinlein-ism) -- that is, I am internalizing it.

It might be great to wake up thin, but if I had, I wouldn't have had the tools in hand to stay thin -- to maintain that weight. Through this journey, I am picking up those tools along the way. Feels like one of those video games where you pick up objects along the way that will be used later on -- and if you know how to use them and when, you advance.

It might have been great to wake up thin (especially if there had been nice clothes in the closet), but I know I wouldn't have stayed thin. Now, when I get there, I may have a fighting chance.

Great post, as usual!

Wow -- 2 others posted as I was posting. Don't think I said it any better than they did...

LOL well, I just have to say you win major cool points for quoting Heinlein :D

Hmmm....Good post, got me thinking.

I think that although I would still love to wake up at 122lbs, you have brought up many valid points that make me appreciate my 23month (thus far) journey. Firstly, I have worked so hard to lose the weight and am very aware of how much it has taken to do this (so, congrats to me and all you other losers). Secondly, the knowledge that this hard work (heathy eating and exercise and what that means for me and my body) has gained for me is priceless, I will be able to live the rest of me life with the insights and accomplishments that I have earned on this weightloss odyssey.

For me, it has nothing to do with the journey....

If I woke up at 200lbs tomorrow, I would be an alien in my own skin. I would not know who that person is nor would I know how to act. I would be stripped of my identity - kind of like a person released from prision after serving 50 years, not only is life on the outside quite different from the past, but you just don't know how to fit in and how to go on.
I couldn't function as a thin person because I don't know how.
So maybe in some way it is about the journey, in that you have to learn to be thin, learn really who you are deep down - the real you that weight shouldn't affect.

YAY! Someone appreciated the Heinlein reference! :)

Some mornings I do wake up thin.

I know, I know, but hear me out for a second. This is not my first weight-loss attempt by any means (as I'm sure a lot of us can relate to), but it's the first time it's really clicked and the first time that I know it's for real. The fact that I'm *enjoying* exercise (most of the time) is a big indicator of that. And the fact that some mornings I wake up feeling incredible, lighter on my feet and feeling the subtle differences in my body without having to rely on a number on the scale -- that really does make me feel like I've 'woken up thin'.

Granted, the feeling doesn't always last long (sometimes not even a few hours), but it's great while it does, and gives me motivation to keep going on the days when I'm not feeling so great, like today. So maybe we don't ever 'wake up thin', but sometimes we get a little preview of waking up healthy and fit, and that's awesome.

I have a long way to go and some days it seems like I will never get where I'm going. But this thread has reminded me that the word 'goal' shouldn't be my focus, because this is just the start of the rest of my life, and there's no real final destination. So thanks for the reminder, and the incentive to go work out even though I don't really feel like it.

Last night as I was doing my laps while swimming I realized that the first 10 lengths are the hardest for me to get through. I start thinking when is this going to be over, when am I going to be done, then as I continue to swim I stop thinking about that and I think about how much I am enjoying the swim, and clearing my mind. While I am swimming I am just swimming. I started thinking about that and started thinking about our weight loss goals. I think when we first start all we can see is the end and when are we going to get there. When we are at the end what are we going to do? Are we going to get there and say yay I am done no more? (If we do that we will be in the same spot) or are we going to say "I am healthy, I am like this always." To truly succeed we need to have gone on the journy, we need to be the person that is always healthy not the person that sees the finish line. I have a sister that has always been thin and in great shape. People have asked me if I am jealous of her. I have always said (even at my fattest) no. She works so hard, she works out every day and she always eats right. She was not just "blessed with good genes" she makes herself that way. There is no finish line, there is only healthy from now on. We do not learn that overnight.

So my answer to Charles question is an emphatic NO!!!! I want the journey, I just wish it would not have taken me this long to figure out. Everything that we experience in life makes us who we are today. So reach for tomorrow and make todays experiences something positive for tomorrow.

Sorry about the novel, but this really touched on what I have been thinking lateley. Thanks for the post Charles.

Trish

:wave: Since you are all passing on it - I'd be very happy to wake up thin!!! See you tomorrow!! :D

Ha ha. Great thread Charles. Very insightful.

Wow thank you all for the great insights offered by many of you! I needed this. I especially liked when you said your sister has worked for this. I so often feel not fair. But when in reality they are wise and I have made poor oh such poor choices. Great wake up call for me!

OK, I'm going to be totally unpopular and say "Yes." If I could wake up rich tomorrow, I would. If I could wake up single tomorrow, I would. And if I could wake up thin tomorrow, I would.

Rich: There is nothing in my life which is made better by being deeper in debt every single day. The $$ would allow me to buy my way out of the prison I live in that keeps m hundreds of miles from my family, friends and all that is dear to me. I've always worked for everything and earned it, but when literally every cent earned is taken away just as quickly, what's the point, other than to pay daily for the mistakes I've made?

Single: There is nothing in my life that would be enriched (except perhaps my bank acct) by going through a divorce. In no way would I be a better person for having to go through that ****, so I live in that isolated cage and pay daily for the mistakes I've made.

Thin: While I definately agree that if I hadn't had to come this far on this journey, I would never have learned how to take care of myself, eat right and maintain my health, I don't agree that it's necessary to suffer through the next couple years to finish teaching me a lesson. If I woke up tomorrow thin, I could do the things I used to that give me joy in life. You would barely be able to get me home from the barn to eat at all. I would live on the backs of horses, coaching lessons, learning the things I don't know and sharing my passion with like minds. ****, yes! If I could wake up tomorrow thin, I would! I wouldn't waste any more years of my life sitting on the sidelines wishing I were part of real life.

But then again, I have to pay for the mistakes I've made. Broke, far from home, and still fat. At least the fat part is the one thing in my life I CAN control, and I'm working on it.