Sunday, April 22, 2012

"i can't get all the oil out of the tuna"

Every once in a while, something you over hear in a meeting room or read online hits you, and when it does it hits you HARD. 

This happened to me a couple of weeks ago in my meeting room.  We were discussing the upcoming Easter dinners and the struggles that we might encounter, and one of our beloved members, Stephanie, raised her hand with a comment. 

Back story on this woman: She's fabulous in every sense of the word.  She's honest.  She's a New Yorker, and she owns the accent (which I love).  She's funny.  She's open like a book.  I truly am grateful that she's in my meeting. 

So as we discussed all of the problems we might face (hard boiled eggs, chocolates, honey ham, etc), Stephanie pipes up with this amazing note.  She said, "When I joined Weight Watchers for the first time 40 years ago, we had to eat a lot of tuna on the plan and they didn't make water packed tuna, only oil packed.  One woman actually said in the meeting that she wasn't losing any weight because she couldn't squeeze all of the oil out of the tuna!"  

I sat there in sort of a stupor for a moment as I took this in, it didn't seem incredibly far fetched for me, but then Stephanie pointed out the obvious: It isn't one little thing like oil in our lives that prevents us from losing weight

BINGO! 

This is the absolute truth. 

It isn't Easter that prevents me from losing weight.  It isn't Christmas or Thanksgiving either!  Now I'm a mathematical person, so bear with me.  If you counted up all of the holidays and birthdays that my family and I celebrate, that means that we celebrate less than 5% of the total year. 

It is the other 95% of the time that is my downfall! 

Skinny people celebrate holidays.  Skinny people celebrate birthdays.  Skinny people indulge. 

But not all the time. 

It isn't necessarily the holidays or celebations that I need to watch out for, it's the rest of the time.  It's the lazy day when I grab pizza.  It's the night I skipped my workout to have some adult beverages with friends.  It's the day I said I'd have two beers, but I never outlined how big that they'd be. 

If I can cut down on those moments of weakness, I will become stronger in the long run. 

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