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What is Impressive?

No, this won't be a long post, but I really wanted to talk for a moment about losing weight.  Yeah, that's surprising, huh?  Talking about losing weight on a blog that has weight loss as a main element...

Well, there's another moment that happened over the weekend that I wanted to talk about.  One of my brother's friends was talking to me about my weight loss.  He said, "That's amazing.  140 pounds lost?  That's way better than the 70 pounds I lost...before I gained most of it back."

I don't want to talk about the fact that he gained most of it back--that's a conversation for another day...maybe tomorrow.

No, I want to talk about the fact that he was so impressed with my loss (so far) and not with the fact that he had lost 70 pounds.  It seems like there is some evil (yes, it truly is evil) heirarchy in the weight-loss arena.  And it's in the blogs and it's in the world.  It's almost as if people feel like they haven't accomplished much unless they've hit x pounds lost.  Or that if others have lost more weight our weight loss isn't as impressive.  And I have succomed to that thinking, too.  I think most of us have.

But that's a damned lie.

Any amount of weight loss is impressive. 

Heck, just starting a weight loss journey is impressive.  I don't care if you've lost 5 pounds or 500.  It's an amazing thing.  You know?  And even if you're working on weight loss and haven't been able to get too far--but you're still working out and still working on it--that's incredible.  It really gets to me when people diminish others' accomplishments.  But it frustrates me even more when people diminish their own accomplishments.  If you trust in yourself and value your own accomplishements, then no matter what anyone else says, you know you've done something great--others can't take that away from you.  Ever.

So if there's anything I can wish for you, it's that you'd be proud of how far you've come--and excited about where you're going.

Tuesday:
18 minutes on stair stepper
25 minutes on exercise bike
4 miles ran
prayed
read the bible
read my devotion

Total:
15 minutes on elliptical
30 minutes on stair stepper
40 minutes on exercise bike
4 miles walked/ran
pray daily
read the bible daily
read my devotion daily

Remaining:
45 minutes on elliptical
30 minutes on stair stepper
30 minutes on exercise bike
11 miles walked/ran
15 miles biked
pray daily
read the bible daily
read my devotion daily
fast
date with Anna

4 comments:

  Chad

August 18, 2010 at 11:02 AM

Great post, BJ. I like the old saying that there are little white lies, lies, and damn lies! You're right, the idea that one weight loss is more impressive than another is a damn lie!

  SeattleRunnerGirl

August 18, 2010 at 12:40 PM

Amen!

That's all I got.

  South Beach Steve

August 20, 2010 at 10:53 AM

It is so very hard not to fall into this trap though. While I think the weight-loss/healthy eating blogging community is a very supportive community, this is a weakness. The "big" successes get far more credibility, when in reality, it is a real decision to lose ten pounds.

  Shelli Belly

August 22, 2010 at 3:47 PM

I LOVE this post!!!

Let's rejoice in each other's victories. Its not a competition. We have no idea the lessons learned with each pound that was lost. Five pounds lost just might have an even more significant story than 30 lost.

What makes us compete in this area or even judge?

Words well said Beej. Thanks for the reminder.