I Can Be My Worse Enemy...

Oh my mind, what a mind! I really like myself and I would not trade myself with no one else. I like the way I reason things out, I love the way I love. I think I have a fairly, good outlook on life and I know I could hang out with a person like me. Yet sometimes when I allow my negative thoughts to get the best of me, it can be damaging. Let me share something with all of you.

I came home from Brookhaven (Rehab) the end of June and when I left, I weighed myself as we did each week. Two weeks later, I paid a visit back to Brookhaven and of course, I weighed myself and had lost a couple of pounds. That was good. Unfortunately, I have not been able to return to “My Brookhaven Family” since then. I have had all kinds of reasons and stupid little problems but one of them is I think in the back of my head I thought I might be gaining weight. Why? No logical reason for this thought pattern. No reason, except for my sick mind. You see when you are in Brookhaven (or at least when I am in Brookhaven) you eat three meals a day. Three meals that are planned for you, prepared for you and then served to you. If I ate between meals, it would be a piece of fruit or a cereal (portion-controlled cereal) that I would bum from someone and that would be it. Since I have been home, I have not binged. I have not eaten bread, or pastas, or pizza or a lot of meat. Rarely do I eat a slice of beef or pork, I have had no cold cuts or cheese. I eat many veggies and fruits, salads, some chicken and tuna fish packed in water. Yet I find myself picking sometimes on an extra cracker or pretzel or a 90-calorie, Quacker snack bar. My mind right away says that is cheating, you are doing the wrong thing, “bad Michael”! In the past, I would then turn around and punish myself by turning that snack into a 50-pound weight gain. I do not do that any more, at least not for now!

I fight my mind making me wrong and looking for the opportunity to turn a snack into a reason to binge. My mind wins sometimes, and how it did this time is by telling me I am gaining weight. Even though my clothes say I am not, my family says I am not. I am getting around more, and I dance with my grandson a little. We play hide and seek, of course, he hides in the same places all the time and I pretend not to see him, then he jumps out and scares me. Why do I still after all these years allow myself to listen sometimes to that voice that says to me “you are getting heavier, you are not doing well”!

Well let me share with you and the world that voice is a liar!!! I had to go to my Doctor’s office this past week and I with fear in my heart I knew I had to face the demons and get on that scale. Well I have lost 27 pounds since I have been home! Twenty-seven pounds, I am so pleased. It is not any world record and that is fine I have “been there, done that” before! It is coming off slowly but it is coming off! All I know is that with God’s help I will soon be out of the 400’s. The thought of me in the 300’s a number I have not seen for over 15 years.

We cannot let our negative thoughts rule us. We must push on, past those thoughts and reinforce the positive things we do for ourselves. We cannot let fear rule us. I knew I had to get on that scale and whatever the results would be I had to go on and fight. “Every day in every way, I am getting better and better” and this is what I have to live by! My program, my life is too important to be ruled by what the scale says. We know in our hearts what we are doing, I have to allow my heart help me more and for my mind to but out sometimes.

Good luck my friends and never give up!

With love and respect

Mike

What a Great Day!

What a great day! I like to start each day by saying just those words, “What a great day”. Some days it really takes work to make those words have the right meaning and then other days those words seam so obvious. Everyday is not the same, life deals different hands and often on a daily basis. Some days things are just going great for me. First, I wake up and that in itself is a miracle. Then I see my wife, a little later I get to see my son when he will stop by and say good morning. Then the real miracle happens and such a blessing, my dear daughter-in-law will come down and in the background I will hear a little voice say “hi grandpa”… emmm what else could I want. Me, hearing those words “hi grandpa”, never did I ever think I would hear it. I barely have gotten use to being a daddy (30 years) and now its grandpa. The best part of getting older is to see things like that.
Speaking of getting older, many of my friends and family have such a thing about getting older and “God forbid” mentioning their ages. So what, I am going to be 55 years old and God willing in 5 years I will be 60 years old. What is the difference as long as I am around to say all that. Thank God, I can say I am going to be 55 years old. It is just a number. I have friends who couldn’t say “I am 17 years old or 27 years old or 45 years old” and why can’t they say that because the died at 16, 26, and 44. Did my 16 year old friend think he would drown the day he went into that lake, did my 26 year old 1,000 pound friend think he would die just that day or so on? No! They expected that there would be many tomorrows, but there were none for them. No one knows how many tomorrows there will be for any of us, which is one very important reason why today “is a great day”!
It is a great day for me; yes, I am a little lonely today. My dear wife is out of town for the next two days and nights. My family is out doing their own things, I get a little lonely, and worse than that, I get “bored”! Boredom can be my worse enemy. When I am bored, I find myself looking too much for something to munch on. Yet I have to remind myself how important not giving into that desire to munch. Eating healthy and being 60years old has a direct relationship in my life. I have things that I want to do, that I want to see done. Living life is more than eating food, I know this! I believe it!
Today and everyday I can say it is a “Great Day”! If I have to work a little harder some days to make sure it turns out to be a great day, the so be it! I have the power in my life to make my day the “Great Day” it deserves to be!

Feel free to share your thoughts and feeling about anything I have written or anything on your mind. I would love to hear from you!
Be well and remember “all things are possible if you believe” believe in something. Believe in something as beautiful as God and/or as beautiful as today and tomorrow.

Love you
Mike