Fitness Friday: Influence
When you first start trying to lose weight, it feels like no one really believes that you’re going to stick it out. Ya know, based on past histories if you have them, like me.
At first there’s resistance. You get a lot of questions. A lot of tests. “Mom, can we buy those cookies? Honey, do you want to go to our favorite pizzaplace mexicanrestaurant chinesetakeout place for date night? How bout our favorite ice cream place? Just this once? Surely you can have just one piece of cake!” And my favorite, “What, are you on a diet or something?” Even the supportive people don’t even know they do this.
It feels like sabotage is lurking in every corner and at first, your weight-loss efforts are kind of a Debbie Downer for everyone. You feel like kind of a burden. Someone may have lost their “eating buddy” or mom’s not caving to buying all the junk anymore. You’re not eating out as much anymore and you’re making different kinds of meals and sometimes even bringing your own “approved” meals to gatherings. You don’t really want to go to those great restaurants with your friends or husband because you can’t really get all that ooey gooeyness that you used to get. It takes some getting used to by everyone and for a while, you kind of feel like the bad guy. That’s a lot to weather! No wonder we have a million false starts before something finally sticks!
But then people start seeing your progress and things start to look up. They see that whatever you’re doing is working. They start to appreciate your new (and improved!) meals. They start to appreciate your willpower and your strength (and they even feel bad for tempting you!) They start to see you doing things you hadn’t done before because you’re becoming comfortable in your own skin. Like taking a new class or doing that DVD in front of everyone in the living room. Signing up for a race.
After a while, you’re whooping it up with the kids, running and playing around with them (and your husband and/or wife -hubba hubba!) because of all your new-found comfort and energy and before you know it, they’re actually getting involved! Because some people just have to just see it to believe it in order to make changes. And they realize that the end goal is worth the work and it even looks kind of fun and has built some excitement into all of your lives and what do you know? They learned that from you!
There are eyes watching you everywhere. Little ones and big ones. They’re scrutinizing your every move, even when you don’t know they are. Friends and strangers are even watching, like other moms at the preschool, extended family via Facebook, the neighbors who see you jogging around the neighborhood. When you make changes, it feels like everyone seems to notice.
What you probably don’t know is that even though you may feel like one person in a million, you’re not as invisible as you think. Your influence is obvious within your four walls, but it reaches far beyond that! It reaches people you don’t even know.
You may inspire your almost 60-year-old dad to start running and to run his first race. You may inspire your neighbor to start riding again. Someone in one of your classes at the gym might just keep on going because they’ve seen you shrink. Your husband might decide to train for a marathon. And your kids? Your influence is the most valuable thing in this great big world. They are your little sponges and they soak up everything you are and everything you tell them.
And they carry it with them forever.
It sounds like a tall order, (well, it kind of is) but when hear your three-year-old ask you if “McDonalds is helfy,” it just confirms that they are following your lead.
You’re not just changing your life, your changing other people’s lives. They just don’t know it yet.
I never knew how powerful my influence could be until people started coming out of the woodwork telling me so. Because when I became comfortable with doing things I never would have done before, it was like I (unknowingly) gave others a license to do the same. Hell, if she could do it, why couldn’t I? Other people see you breaking down those self-made barriers and they start to do the same!
You’re not just giving yourself a gift by living a healthy life, you’re giving others that very same gift!
One day my 3 year old son started running around the house in circles and I asked him what he was doing. He exclaimed, ”I’m running a race!” (And people scoffed at me for waking them up at 6 a.m. to meet me at the finish line!) I love my parents dearly, but I never knew that this world of “races” even existed. But more importantly, I never knew they existed for me. The non-competitive non-runner. But it does. And it exists for him too. I’m glad he knows that. By the time I got the video camera, he’d already done a few laps. I thought it was hilarious that he had converted our house into a track, but I felt so proud that he did that because of me. (Click that linky thing below that says “Racing” to watch and please excuse the pigstye and piles of dishes in my sink.)
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FmPk83f1NME
So tell us, how do you influence your family? Has anyone told you you’ve helped them change some habits or inspired them to do something? Have you been inspired by friends, family or even strangers?
Category: Calorie Counting, Christie O., Fitness, Fitness Friday, Food Victory, LOSE IT, Rethink Your Shrink
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