Habits

I have been trying my very best (or giving my very best effort) to lose weight, get fit, and become the healthiest person I can. The down side of this is that I am having to learn how to incorporate the time and effort into my daily schedule...I have yet to succeed at that!

I have been going to a gym in Clinton that is associated with a physical therapy group and who work extensively with people who have joint problems - that's me!!! It's only 16 miles away but between the travel time, the gym part, and the water aerobics class I am spending quite a bit of time each day.

It has been a month now and I have lost some pounds and inches. I have gained some flexability and balance. But, just like the "law of the harvest," this is going to take some time. Probably years. However, I don't feel discouraged at the moment, rather encouraged.

I keep thinking of the scripture in Alma 37:41 "Nevertheless, because those miracles were worked by small means it did show unto them marvelous works. They were slothful, and forgot to exercise their faith and diligence and then those marvelous works ceased, and they did not progress in their journey."

A number of years ago I lost quite a bit of weight and I was exercising daily. But I was never successful about getting down to my goal weight - because "life" happened. I got slothful, and didn't really believe that I could get there and I let other activities (and they were good things too - just not the things that would help me get to my best weight and health) supercede the committment to myself and my health. I didn't just "stop in my journey" - I reversed course completely! LOL

Today the health threats loom and my ability to "do" is severly hampered because of my weight. This isn't the way I want to live the rest of my life - and while I may never fully overcome the years of neglect nor the genetic predisposition for some ailments, I certainly can minimize them by doing what I should have been doing all of my life. The question remains though - how to put these habits into my life - so that the people and things that I love to do are not neglected. So far I haven't found a way to accomplish that - although I am just now trying to do that because I have felt that I wanted to get one thing going at a time - rather than my "all or nothing" mentality.

So - "Karen, be not weary in well-doing, for ye are laying the foundation of a great work. And out of small things preceedeth that which is great." Habits, hopes, faith, ideas, true principles, work - these are some of the small things that will ultimately help me succeed at this and anything else I undertake. Ironically we can change the past as we change the present - and the future is certain when we do. So let the journey continue!