My best friend and I were having lunch today. Two forty-somethings, enjoying a lovely al fresco dining experience at Chipotle. We spent much of our time talking about how we'd like to lose ten pounds. This is not an unusual conversation for us. We have it almost every time we have lunch together (yes, I see the irony). The difference this time around, however, was that we have finally come to the conclusion that we now MUST lose ten pounds. Not because we want to look sexy in our summer shorts. We're beyond that. I think our bodies are beyond that, by about ten years or so (okay, okay, twenty years). No, we no longer WANT to lose ten pounds. We MUST lose ten pounds. We SHOULD lose ten pounds.We NEED to lose ten pounds.
We are at the age, we have decided, that needing to drop some weight is not solely about vanity anymore. It's about health. It's about longevity. It's about being able to physically do what you want to do. It's about staying injury-free, surgery free, and medication-free for as long as we possibly can.
So there we were, having resolutely decided that yes, it was time, and we WOULD lose the weight. And soon. We have running shoes. We have the time to take walks/runs in the morning. We know what healthy food looks like. We just needed one more thing: will power.
We weren't quite sure where we were going to find that. We had some ideas to get us started.
Perhaps we might find will power in our minds. If we could just summon the inner motivation, channel it with some positive thinking, and visualize our success, we would have no problems achieving our goal. Sadly, we've been trying to do this for eons, and it doesn't seem to be working for us (we should probably stop trying to do this over coconut crunch mochas--just sayin'). Next...
Or maybe we might find will power by looking to the triumph of others in their pursuit of weight loss. Possibly we might be inspired to stick to it by some feel-good stories of other women just like ourselves who overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles (such as Starbucks on every corner) and now wear pants two sizes smaller. Unfortunately, when confronted with women like ourselves who have lost weight and now look fabulous, we mostly just get snarky and hypothesize about how they probably don't have jobs, have time and money to kill, and have private trainers and meal plans (we know they probably don't, but it makes us feel better). Moving on...
So it didn't seem likely that we were going to find the will power we were looking for in any of these places. We had looked there before with no luck and even less results.
So where does a girl go to get some will power these days? I decided that I think maybe we can find will power in the grocery store (I'm still not sure on which aisle). That sounds odd, I know, but getting healthy has to start with what you put into your body. And you get the stuff you put into your body at the supermarket.
The problem is that the good stuff you put into your body is surrounded by all the other crap that you really, really want to put into your body (but shouldn't). The hard part is that somehow you must summon your will power and pass up all the goodies (hello, Cadbury Eggs and jelly beans...) in favor of the good-for-you's (yeah, I see you spinach and broccoli).
And how do you do that?
That's not a rhetorical question. I'm really asking. How do you do that? What's the secret?
Did you think I had an answer? Cause I don't. If I did I'd have marketed it, sold it, and be ridiculously wealthy. And I would be thinner. And probably have a personal trainer. And a meal plan.
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