There is more to being healthy than focusing just on "the food we eat". There is balance in our lives overall. That is the real trick. You can do all this awesome weight loss and even educate yourself on the food and go out and exercise more, but if you don't find inner peace, inner realization, inner acceptance, and spiritual balance (whatever that spirituality is) in your life-- all your work can unravel in one night, one event, or even just gradually erode leaving you right back where you started.
I look at certain women-- I call them the resilient ones-- and ask myself how they were able to become successful-- to make a difference not just to their immediate friends and family members, but to generations of others. They have what I call "the resiliency factor" and it has tempered them and strengthened them, yet at the same time it has exaggerated their sense of compassion. I give you two examples:
Oprah-- love her or hate her-- people listen-- people care what she thinks-- and most importantly-- she has done a lot to educate, to help others, and to bring certain issues or people to light. So what makes her different? What she did with the trials in her life is what made her different. She was raped and sexually abused more than once as a child. She bounced from mom to grandma to mom to aunts to dad and all over. Despite it all, she saved her education. She was reading when she started kindergarten and was twice advanced in elementary because she was so far ahead. This despite her home circumstances and poverty. At 14 she became pregnant and had a child who died shortly after he was born.
Again, she could have dropped out, but she didn't. She went on to excel at school and at speaking. She received scholarships and set high goals. She was more than a survivor, she was a fighter. There's the difference... some people survive... some don't.... some become fighters for a greater cause. Is she perfect? Obviously not. Do I always agree with her views? No. Do I respect what she's done despite the trials in her life? Absolutely. Am I surprised that she goes back and forth with her weight gain/loss? No. It's not just part of who you are... it's part of who you were. Don't ask people to forget who they were. Learn from it... move on.... yes. Forget? Not happening.
My second, but most prominent female role model-- Mother Teresa. What a saint... literally. :D It doesn't really matter what religion you are... you know her. Why? She's made a difference. Some people think "oh what a sweet little lady". They obviously know "of" her and not "about" her. Again, there is a story behind the making of this resilient spiritual giant. She too lacked a strong father figure in her life and her mother died when MT was young. She also faced poverty yet stood out to others at a young age. Some people think that she was just this humble, people-serving saint who wandered about helping the poor. She did far more than help the poor and she was not intimidated by anyone. While she was the picture of compassion-- she stood firm on topics that were not popular to stand firm on-- like abortion and homosexuality. In 1994.she was invited to be the speaker at the National Prayer Breakfast. President and First Lady Clinton were in attendance as were other dignitaries. This did not stop her from using the breakfast as an opportunity to speak her mind-- in front of the president-- about abortion. Here is an excerpt from that event:
“But I feel that the greatest destroyer of peace today is abortion, because Jesus said, ‘If you receive a little child, you receive me.’ So every abortion is the denial of receiving Jesus.”
After an awkward silence, the entire ballroom erupted in a standing ovation that seemed to last minutes. It felt even longer to the embarrassed Clintons (and Al and Tipper Gore), who remained seated and did not clap.
Undeterred by the Clintons’ coldness, the tiny, aged lady was only warming up. Abortion was, said Mother, “really a war against the child, and I hate the killing of the innocent child, murder by the mother herself. And if we accept that the mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill one another? … This is why the greatest destroyer of love and peace is abortion.”
http://douglawrence.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/mother-teresa-v-hilary-clinton-on-abortion-at-1994s-national-prayer-breakfast/
Another article in USA Today highlights this resilient woman's views that balanced compassion with backbone as I like to call it. http://www.usatoday.com/news/mothert/mother01.htm
"While recovering from her first heart attack in 1989, doctors told Mother Teresa to give up her hectic work schedule. She never did.
"The other day I dreamed that I was at the gates of heaven. And St. Peter said, 'Go back to Earth, there are no slums up here." Mother Teresa was quoted as telling Prince Michael of Greece in 1996.
To millions of people of all faiths and stations in life, Mother Teresa radiated pure, selfless goodness. In a world too often darkened by genocide, war and cruel indifference, she was a beacon of light and hope.
When told, in 1979, she had won the Nobel Peace Prize for bringing hope and dignity to millions of unwanted people, she said: "I am unworthy."
Even some admirers were unhappy that Mother Teresa objected to artificial birth control despite the serious problems caused in India and elsewhere by overpopulation. She constantly condemned abortion as a "the greatest destroyer of peace." She said it is better for women to be "handmaids of the Lord" than to become priests. But she also brought traditional Catholic views intolerant of homosexuality."
Mother Teresa cared little about conforming to the world's views. Did she struggle with her health? She died of a massive heart attack. Her passion and compassion was so pronounced in her life that she did not balance care for herself with care for others.
So what does all this have to do with food? Food is part of the balance we have to find in our life, but we also have to find balance with life in general. Not everyone can be or should be a leader like these two ladies. We need all types. Even these notable women struggled/struggle with balance. But what we do with the cards we are dealt is perhaps the biggest challenge this life offers us. How are we doing with that challenge? How are we making our trials our strengths? How are we helping each other? Oprah had people who helped her during vital times that could make or break her and so did Mother Teresa. These women also dug down though and survived it "anyway". They were resilient.
We each face our own trials. What we ate today is an insignificant part of who we are in the big picture of things, but it is part of the telling. I am sure if we delved deep into the lives of obese or overweight people, we would uncover trials that they encountered when no one was there to help them through it OR we would find that they simply do not have the same internal resiliency as others. When I reflect on my weight gain that most notably started four years ago, I can clearly see (NOW) what it was all about. It was a combination and accumulation of things. As I have shed the pounds, I have also exposed the layers (internally) that got me there.
And you just wanted to know what I ate today.......
Okay.... here it is.
BREAKFAST: Banana (90)
SNACK: 16 Almond Wheatables (140)
LUNCH: ½ tuna fish sandwich on whole wheat (180)
SNACK: Apple (90)
DINNER: (Another neighbor brought us dinner)
½ cup of corn (70 cal.)
1 Homemade Chicken Enchilada (230-275)
1 cup Green Salad w/low fat ranch (60)
2 no-bake cookies (small) 55-135 ea
TOTAL CALORIES TODAY=1200
No comments:
Post a Comment