Cultivating

We started with a “Couch to 5K” walking and running program, and we began charting the foods we ate.

I was to use an online application on my phone to chart my food choices. Easy, I thought, until I realized I wasn’t eating two cookies, as the suggested serving said, but eight cookies. And this is the honest truth; though I know I’ve explained what a liar I am, I lied to the online food chart, looking around to make sure no one was watching me enter erroneous data, and I told it I’d eaten four cookies. The compromise.

I broke out in a sweat. In that moment, when I entered invalid calorie consumption into a smarter-than-me phone app, I realized just how many lies I’d been telling myself.

The light bulb went on right over my head. If I kept lying to myself, I wasn’t proving my initial points but rather proving I didn’t know what I was talking about—at all!

It took a little time, about ten months total, but I lost forty pounds. I re-learned the value in honestly counting all calories and their nutritional importance.

I learned that you lose weight by not overeating. I learned I did not have to be obese if I did not want to be. I learned that exercise leads to strength and energy.

I completed three half-marathons. Mind you, I did not win any races, but I completed them.

I learned that women of a certain age have more power and determination than they think they do, and that age and heredity and genes may contribute to healthiness, but they are not the only determinants.

I learned that just because I can carry something well, doesn’t mean I should be toting it. Nope. Not at all. I relearned the truth that no matter how sincerely I believe a lie, it’s still a lie.

Living honestly, especially when no one is peering over your shoulder, takes courage. And a good friend or two. I may add my lost forty pounds back over time, but I know I can send them packing again, if I really want to.

“To thine own self be true,” is only part of the quote. Shakespeare added, “And it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.” Not even to yourself.

What lies are you telling yourself?

What one thing can you do to cultivate better health?