The Ambition Shadow

As I was cleaning out my wallet the other day I came across a fortune I had saved from a fortune cookie once. It read:

"Do not let ambitions overshadow small success."

I felt it was a perfect response to my emotional moment the other day.

I have an ambition to reach my healthy weight, but if I'm not careful I can let that ambition and final goal overshadow and cast darkness on the small successes along the way. It's easy to look at the calendar and think how far I could've already been in my weight loss journey if I had gotten either my exercise or my eating in better order earlier on.

But wait.

What if I hadn't done anything at all? What if seeing 232 pounds on the scale last April would've saddened me, but I never did anything about it. What if hiding myself on purpose behind my kids in a photo wouldn't have embarrassed me enough to start doing something about my weight?

I wouldn't be where I am today.

• Noticing when I eat too much and learning why so I can change.
• Eating smaller portions.
• Choosing fruit to go along with meals.
• Drinking water throughout the day instead of soda or iced tea.
• Caring whether non-dairy powdered creamer has more or less calories than half-n-half.
• On week four of the Couch to 5K program and thinking how easy it is becoming for me to jog at 4.0 mph.
• Oh, and 24 pounds lighter. :)

No, at eight months into my weight loss journey I'm not even halfway to my goal of 140 pounds,heck I haven't even broken 200 pounds yet, but I have persevered and made many small successes along the way. I will not let the ambition to reach my goal weight steal the joy that each small victory has afforded me.