Success each day should be judged by the seeds sown,not the harvest reaped. John C Maxwell
John C Maxwell has written more than a handful of books, his primary focus is on leadership. So much of the insight and wisdom shares pertains to life. When you choose to live healthy, you can apply so many nuggets of his wisdom.
Each day we make goals. If we aren’t actively making goals, you are choosing a goal of just surviving. With so many people wearing step counters, often we judge our day’s success on 10,000 steps. Maybe you are like me and that goal is easy, look at your miles and strive for more mileage. Maybe you work a desk job with a long commute, look at how long you sit, and try to get up and around more frequently. Hitting 10,000 steps is not the most important part of your harvest.
The number you see on the scale isn’t the ultimate factor in how you are doing, how you are living. Weight loss is such a focus in America, when really it needs to be a side effect. Love yourself enough to want the best for yourself. The best will cause you to say No to the diet soda, added sugars, overeating, and a lack of veggies. You’ll feel so good, and move so much better. Moving will help you relish the calm and stillness in meditation.
Once you consistently make choices reaffirming our decision to be healthy, you’ll see inches decreasing everywhere. If you don’t, and honestly are giving it your all, see a doctor to have a blood panel done. You may have an underlying issue that needs to be addressed.
Think about all the work you put into gaining the weigh you have to work even harder to change your current homeostasis. Some of you can look back to childhood and see the changes you have made. So of you have been perfecting your unhealthy habits since childhood. In college, I danced anywhere from 3 to 8 hours a day. I was no longer playing outside, I was still walking to and from classes everyday, vitamin D affects your mood and energy. I was active in my church, so my mind was finding stillness. Then I graduated and stopped a lot. When I realized I needed to change my ways, I was 40 pounds heavier, unhappy, tired. I was drinking often, eating 1 meal a day, and almost always eating out, I was doing no exercise, I went to church but wasn’t an active participant, and I was always too busy to be outside. On my weight loss portion of my health journey, I couldn’t focus on the scale. My daily seeds sown had me sleeping regularly, exercising daily, eating every 3 hours, no alcohol, and no eating out/ordering in food. I didn’t even correlate at the time, but I started walking my son to the park every day. I was doing it for him, but I was benefitting from the sun too. I was still just going to services at church each Sunday, but I picked up journaling.
I will be the first to tell you that I don’t work like the average Joe. I turned my world upside down and changed everything at once. I picked the guidelines I’d follow, for 3 months, and re-evaluate and change from there. All you need to change is one small choice you are making each day, and continue building as you improve.
What seeds will you sow today?