I have been enjoying my bicycle since I have pretty much recovered from my knee surgery almost 2 months ago. I got in 6 1/2 miles today, and it took me about 42 minutes. And I went uphill...both ways! Well, I did have a few hills. And I did breathe hard and I got a little sweaty. So that means that I did good, right?
Seriously though, I do enjoy my bike. I like to go fast. If I'm going to be exercising I like the sensation of the earth moving past me at a decent clip. It somehow seems more laborious to me if the road moves slowly under my feet...or even worse, walking on a treadmill. You get nowhere on those things! And I have to think I'm getting somewhere...and the faster the better. (And yes I do have a bit of a lead foot in the car, more's the pity).
But losing weight is not something I can speed up. There is no quick, easy version to switch to in order to make the road to thinness whip by me, hair floating in the breeze. At times it is a slog--a slough. It is sometimes a thankless, monotonous task that seems to go nowhere fast. I know that persistence is the key here, but it is so hard to keep going against along a slow, tortuous meandering slushy way...dropping a pound here...a few ounces there, gain a few ounces at times for no explicable reason, lose a little more the next week. You really have to take the long view and do your best to not think about the pace. It is what it is. Might as well accept it.
That has been one of the areas of weakness for me over the years. I lose momentum and cannot content myself with minuscule losses, or pauses, or even reversals when I am doing everything right! So I give up, gain weight, and then have to tackle it at a later date. Ah the insanity!
And that is how it seems to be for me now. I have dropped maybe two pounds over the past week. I say maybe, because sometimes it goes up a pound and sometimes down. But I do weigh a little less. It is just that since I don't see the scale moving steadily downward, I'm tempted to think this is not working! After all, I've given it all this TIME. I've been good...where's the instant, constant and steady payback?
But losing weight or overcoming any hurdle in life is somethings that needs HOPE to feed it. Faith. You have to believe, in spite of current evidence, that making sane, healthy changes in the way you eat and move will make things change for the better in time. That even if it is slow, so very slow, it will come.
I have to work on building my hope. To discard the negative voices and have the boundless faith of a child again. How do I do that?
