What I learned this past week:
1) I am blessed with the best friends anyone could ever hope for. Dad had his surgery on March 1, this past Monday. Though the surgery went fine, complications set in and we came far too close far too many times to losing him. Nearly instantaneously friends --some I've neve
r met, some I haven't seen for more than 30 years-- dropped to their knees and prayed. And they didn't stop. They haven't stopped even now. Dad is home from the hospital, but he has recovery yet to go. And Mom is exhausted. So more prayer is needed, and these dear friends of mine are still at it and will be until we cross the finish line. And good heavens, some even have been with me every step of the way via Facebook and text messages on the cell phone nearly 24/7. I hope God has set aside a special place in Heaven for them to reward them for the blessing they are to me. I can certainly never, ever thank them enough.2) I tend to be underestimated. My dear cousin-in-law was certain things with my dad were not as bad as I was making them sound, that I was overreacting and not understanding the situation. But I have spent considerable time in the hospital, having scoliosis and severe asthma myself and a son with special needs who has been to over 20 doctors, had 10 operations, and years of physical therapy. I am no stranger to the medical community, and I was not intimidated by the medical surroundings this past week. If anything it was the opposite -- I knew enough to be more scared than most people would have been, I knew how serious things really were. I was underestimated. It's not the first time. Throughout my life people have underestimated me. But that's not the worst of it. The really bad thing is that I have tended throughout my life to underestimate myself. I'm afraid I won't measure up. I'm afraid I will fail. I'm just plain afraid. And I think that has contributed to why I am fat. This week was a reminder that I am strong and capable. Not because I am Wonder Woman or anything special at all. In fact, I am quite weak on my own. But I am strong and capable because I have a God who loves me and because I have family and friends who hold me aloft when my knees begin to buckle. It was that way when my son was going through his many medical issues, and it was that way again this past week. No one should underestimate me when I have my God, myself, and my family and friends to carry me through ANY situation--we're an awesome team. And so I need to quit underestimating myself.
3) Weight loss really can be a lifestyle change instead of just a diet. I was in one of the least natural settings this past week, and I still made sensible choices regarding my eating and fitness. I feel like I did great this week. I felt empowered. I felt in control. I looked at the available choices, and I made selections that were good. It seemed like it was the only thing I did have control over. Rather than being restrictive like a diet would have been, this was liberating and therapeutic.
4) You never know what is ahead in life, so it's better to get in shape NOW. When I began A New Suit in September, I had no idea Dad's surgery was coming up. But thank God I had been walking and doing the weight work with my arms and getting generally in better health. If not, I would never have been able to handle this past week. I would never have been able to wheel Mom around in her walker thingie with a seat (hard to describe, but it's a walker with a chair and wheels, and she weighs 120 pounds -- and I pushed it with her in it as we went from waiting room to Dad's room on Monday, and then made the occasional trip to the cafeteria).
I would never have been able to carry my tote bag with my bottles of water, my pillow, my purse, and my personal care items. I slept wherever there was space -- sometimes in the main lobby on two chairs pushed together (which I couldn't have fit on 50 pounds ago), sometimes in a side waiting room on a couch, sometimes in a room upstairs in a chair, and I always had to have my things with me. I could never had carried all that before I began this journey. I could never have walked all over the hospital as I looked for a place to sleep, trekked from Dad's room to the cafeteria, ran errands for Mom, went back and forth multiple times a night from whatever waiting room I was sleeping in to Dad's room during the worst of his complications. I'm so glad I had been "in training" for this for those months ahead of time. I don't know what else lies ahead in my life; I'm going to keep working on this fitness journey so I can always be ready for both the good times and the challenges.5) Life is too precious to piss away. Dad struggled this week to come back from some perilous situations. And he has made it through this storm. Being morbidly obese is certainly a perilous situation, too. But far too many times people don't take it as seriously. But it will kill you just as certainly as anything my dad faced. Maybe just a bit slower. But it WILL kill you. I do NOT have a death wish. I will keep on this journey for the rest of my life, for the BEST of my life. And I'm not going to procrastinate because time is tick-tocking away. It seems like my parents were my age only yesterday. And now they are old and some days quite frail. I want to get fit and vibrant and stay that way as long as I can. How about you?
No comments:
Post a Comment