Monday, September 1, 2014

The Best Gift Ever....



Well, time has been slipping away from me again. What was intended to be a 4th of July post is finally complete almost 2 months late. The last 2 times I have posted to this blog I have been sharing about my friend Ashley who through diet changes and exercise has had remarkable results.  

Ashley’s journey over the past 4 years, a very brief time, has had some ups and downs, but it has also changed her life. When I look back over my journey of the past nearly 35 years, I remember how as an obese young man I somehow realized that at 260 +/- pounds I needed to learn a new way to eat that didn’t result in excess weight.  Please be sure, I have also had many ups and downs over the years and the learning continues to this day.

I have recently been thinking about what my life might have been like had I not put forth the effort to change compared to how it has been over all these years. I guess what I was really doing was trying to determine if it had been worth it to struggle off and on for over 30 years to maintain a healthy weight, sometimes with more success than others.

I concluded that it is simply beyond comprehension how profound the difference would be between 30 years of life as a morbidly obese adult and the same 30 years of life as a healthy weight adult. Virtually no area of life would be unaffected. Family, relationships, work, play, health, friends and attitude, I could go on endlessly.

One of the questions I asked Ashley was if the effort to change has been worth it. I really think that of all her comments her response to this question is when she became most passionate. She said that now she experiences life by the many things she can do, literally anything she wants to do, including riding a zipline over a rainforest in Honduras, as opposed to sitting on the couch with the television on and watching life pass her by.

For Ashley, all the searching for answers, digging through those cookbooks, meal planning, hours at the gym, the scheduling of all her time and of course the hundreds of miles of running was never a sacrifice. While the result has been more than she ever dreamed possible, the change in her life is the best gift she could have ever given to herself, her family and those who care about her. At some point during the past four years, this journey she is on stopped being about a number on a scale but instead about healthy living and being the woman she wants to be.  

I continue to see Ashley almost weekly and even though she has returned to school she continues with the work that brought her better health. In the short time I have known Ashley she has inspired me with her incredible determination. I am sure she has been and will continue to be an inspiration to countless others as she continues on this journey of self-discovery and change.

While I could continue to write about Ashley for at least a couple more months I want to change the subject with the next post and write a little about a food plan that is designed to help us thrive. So, until I weigh in again at Fear No Scale I wish all, happiness and health eating.