I recently caught myself engaging in the dangerous past time of reminiscing. I know, you’re asking yourself, “how is reminiscing dangerous exactly?” But the truth of the matter is that it’s a very dangerous thing to do, to remember the good old day’s; the ones that only bring you down when reality smacks you in the side of the face with the cold hard truth that you just can’t do what you used to be able to do! In my particular reminiscing fiasco, I was looking at my slightly flabbier self, remembering that just a few short years ago I’d said goodbye to the very fat I was now sneering at once again. “Why didn’t you just stay gone you stupid fat!” I mumbled under my breath as I fought to button the pants that fit me just fine even a few months ago.
That led me to thinking about how I used to be able to run, not just walk or jog, but actually full out run, without needing to stop after 10 seconds. Deeper into the slumps of depression I fell. Finally, I realized that all that hard work and torture I’d subjected myself to in order to lose Mr. Fatty in the first place was all for nothing! See? Stupid reminiscing! In fact, it was just over a month ago, New Year’s Eve to be exact, that I’d joined in with millions of others and committed to lose some weight again. Here I am, a month later, reminiscing about my resolution made that short time ago, having made little if any progress at all. Reminiscing, at it again!
There’s probably a slew of other things that would be best to not reminisce about, but fortunately, I can’t think of them right now. So for today, I’ll just focus on the fat that wasn’t suppose to come back in the first place! But the more I think about it, it’s not so much the fat or the food or the lack of exercise that’s the real problem. No, the real culprit is the goal itself! I mean, why should I put myself through the endless torment that failure to lose weight brings? And this same principle goes for all goals that one might set for life I say! So maybe it’s the goals that just need to go?!
OK, you’re absolutely right. We can’t very well just forget about setting goals, even if they do only taunt us. The reality is that setting goals is a good thing that, even if they take some extra time, will help us to get from point A to point B. Now in the case of my prior weight loss experience, I was fortunate to be part of a competition that included a handsome cash prize at the end. So I suppose the real trick is to set goals and find a way to get someone else to pay you for reaching your goal, right?! Well, perhaps that’s another ‘work in progress’ theory, but my initial warning still stands, that reminiscing can definitely be a dangerous past time!