Sometimes change happens "almost overnight"

It’s a beautiful spring afternoon in Northern Michigan….cloudy with rain in the forecast, but 60 degrees! I cooked a big Sunday dinner today and I just came in from a walk. I cooked pork strips in the crock pot and had an ear of sweet corn (with non-calorie butter spray), part of a baked sweet potato (sweetened up a bit with cinnamon and Splenda), carrots, and a sliced cucumber in a sugar-free vinaigrette dressing. All of these things are acceptable for me to eat, but I certainly was full when I left the table: hence, the extra-long walk! Also, we have snow in the forecast for this week so I wanted to get out and enjoy the weather why I can.

While I was walking, I couldn’t help but think about the change in the weather this week. I only saw a little bit of remaining snow in the ditches, and the frogs were singing non-stop in the swamp in the backyard and along the road where I walked. Spring is definitely in the air!  Most of the afternoon and all through the night last night we had thunderstorms and very heavy rain. When I woke up this morning, the yard, ditches, flower beds, etc. were under water, it was thundering and lightning like crazy, but to my surprise, when daylight arrived, the grass in my backyard was nearly green; not a “pull out the mower tomorrow” green just yet, but certainly not the dead brown that was peeking through the snow all week. I even have some tulips and daffodils poking up through the ground!  It was almost as if spring arrived “All at once.” After weeks of complaining and whining, shivering and shoveling, with very little evidence of spring, it arrived “just like that.”  

This sudden change got me thinking about my/our journey and how sometimes we experience those periods…..sometimes lasting weeks…..when it appears that “nothing is happening” and “we are never going to reach that first (or next) goal, or we are never going to fit into the next smaller size……or worse yet…..nobody IS EVER going to notice that we have lost/are losing weight.  We may lose a ½ pound one week…..nothing the next….maybe a pound the next….and so on…..and everyone keeps telling us to “be patient’ or “stick with it”…..and we do….but still…..hardly any progress.  Sort of like the late arrival of spring in northern Michigan.

 But THEN…..almost overnight…..”We see progress!”  “Just like that”……”all at once”……We can zip those pants!  After weeks of virtually no movement on the scale…..we lose 3 or 4 pounds…we carry in the groceries and not need a nap afterwards…...we can be in the same room with someone who is smoking a cigarette or having a drink…… someone says, “wow, you look great” or we finally have to retire that pair of pants that have gotten so baggy that they fall off (YES, it happened to me…..more than once!).  It’s those moments that give us the energy to keep going, to keep trying, to keep believing in our miracle, much like days like today give me hope that spring is definitely on the way!

 Don’t lose hope…..keep plugging away…..keep doing things right and sticking to your plan….Even when, (no not even when, ESPECIALLY WHEN) you don’t see progress. Have faith….it will happen!  Unlike the weather, which we can do absolutely NOTHING to control, WE HAVE THE POWER within to make success happen……maybe not “all at once”…..but little-by-little, day-by-day…….ONE THOUGHT…..ONE STEP…..ONE MEAL at a time!   Keep with it!