Self-Respect

I know an overweight lady who belongs to Curves. This is a fitness center for women only. Every once in a while they have diet challenge. They last a few weeks. I noticed that she was eating salads every day. She rolled her eyes one day and said she was on a diet challenge.

The other day, we were at a community potluck. I was able to find some nice vegetable soup, a whole wheat roll, and a salad. This lady found some other things that I am sure were not on the diet challenge. She got the dessert table and announced that this was on the diet but she HAD to have one. She picked up some cheesecake.

At that moment, I discovered something about myself. Whenever I choose to eat unhealthy food, I disrespect myself and cause others to do so as well. When this lady said she HAD to have a piece of cheesecake, I thought, "That's exactly what you don't need to have." At that moment, she became the fat person stereotype to everyone there. She had no self-control. She had no respect for herself. In turn, no one else respected her either.

I am not trying to denigrate her, nor do I think myself better than her. I had been taking the desserts for years (sans announcement). Only now, I realize what it said about myself and caused others to think of me. I had no respect for my body. My body is a gift from God, but I have shown it little respect. How can I expect others to respect me, if I don't respect myself.

This lady later quipped that she could not wait until the diet challenge was over. I thought, it already was. Even if she stuck to it perfectly, she was not looking at it as a positive step for her health. She looked at it as a drudgery. She was like a criminal waiting to be released from jail. Yesterday, she brought a heaping plate of nachos for lunch, filled with sour cream, liquid cheese, and greasy meat.

I hope this lesson sticks so that the next time I am tempted to eat that way again, I don't. When I was living such an unfit lifestyle, I wanted people to respect for who I was, not how much I weighed. I realize that I did not even respect myself.

Now, I respect myself even though I have a long ways to go to get to a healthy weight. Even though others assume I am eating nachos and desserts and being lazy, I still respect myself and this body. I know what I am doing even if others don't. One day, the respect I have for myself will reflect on how I look, how I act, and how I feel.

This leads me to the motto I finally came up with: Living fit is my #1 job. I know. It's not very catchy, but I realized that I have been saying this to myself daily to keep me motivated. This dovetails into my newly discovered priorities. I will talk about these in an upcoming post.

Living fit is my #1 job.