Choice Not Chance

"It's choice, not chance, that determines your destiny" was a quote I heard at our Weight Watchers meeting this morning. Some things in life are beyond our control but other things, and especially weight loss, is something we control by the choices we make. 

The topic of the meeting was new beginnings. We talked about our past failures and successes and what we want to take into the new year with us. At first my old way of thinking set in, and I only saw my failures over the past year. Then I started to reflect on the positive things:

1. I gained some weight back due to out-of-control emotional eating, but I didn't gain back all I lost. I'm still way ahead of where I was when I first started Weight Watchers. 

2. I haven't quit, not once. Many times I was tempted to cancel my monthly pass. I would think of other things I could do with 39 dollars each month. Every time I decided to cancel, something nudged me on, and I just couldn't bring myself to do it. That was a huge success for me personally, because many times in the past I would just quit a weight loss program and give up. This time I've persevered, not perfectly by any means, but I never gave up. 

3. I completed the Writing Essentials and Apprentice level writing courses through Christian Writers Guild, which combined was a year-long commitment. I finished in spite of health problems and living on the emotional roller coaster brought about by separation and my husband continuing to verbally abuse me every chance he gets. 

4. I've grown spiritually through the hard times, and now when looking back over the past year, I don't see a big fat failure staring back at me. I see a woman who was wounded, betrayed, and hurt slowly being healed, regaining a sense of self-worth, and being molded into a new creation.

  Looking back at how far I’ve come has spurred me on to do better at tracking and getting serious about my health. As the new year starts, why not chose to focus on what you did right in the past and move forward with a new sense of determination for 2012? I'm feeling a new excitement about reaching my weight loss goals. How about you?

Another inspiring thought from today's meeting-- Our leader said when she was losing her weight someone asked her if she always wanted to be her "before" picture or if she wanted to be the "after" picture. She said she was determined to become the "after" picture and she did. She asked us to get out a photo of ourselves at our heaviest weight to keep in the front of our weekly tracker as a reminder that wise choices, not chance, will send us on our way to becoming our "after" picture.