Persistence

“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “press on” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.” –Calvin Coolidge

“If you don’t require much of yourself in this area of self-monitoring, your ability to maintain your goal weight will be weakened considerably.”  Dr. Phil

Its nothin’ new, but hey, if Dr. Phil and a president said it, it must be true:  persistence pays off.  We all know it.  We say it to each other.  But its good to hear it again.  And from sources like that, who can argue.

I have to give credit to Loretta again.  She consistently shares great quotes.  And these two in particular have encouraged me the past couple of days.  You know, days of ‘feeling fat.’  Days of feeling sore and stiff.  Days where you just don’t want to do what you said you were going to do (count calories.)  Days of wanting to eat when you’re not hungry, and fighting it but being tired of fighting all the time.  Days where you know you’re never gonna lose another pound, and its getting kind of embarrassing to blog about it.

And then a blogger shares a great quote.  Or another one says in the comments ‘you have us.’  And another one encourages ‘you have all the tools you need to do this.‘  And another one shares a new veggie they tried, or a recipe that gets you excited again.  Or even a kids book that they think you might like.

So thanks guys, for being there.  Persistence.  It wasn’t really so much the personal training/exercising portion of losing Vicky that was worrying me.  It was the accountability/encouragement part of Vicky that I have been a little concerned about losing.

And just when I needed it, there was Loretta sharing an encouraging word (or two or three!)  Press on, mes amis.  The alternative is just not acceptable.

And now for the doggie update.  Here is Noah’s stick-of-the-day.

Mr. Monk looked particularly pensive tonight.  Perhaps pondering the future of the British Empire, PJ?

And I’m not sure why Sophie was laying this way.  Looks uncomfortable.  Probably trying to make me feel guilty for not having her on my lap.

Hey guys.  These darn pictures take a long time to load, so I am always doing other things in between.  And just now, when i was taking my shower, I had a revelation.  It was really bugging me that I wanted to eat in between meals today, because I have been eating ‘clean,’ and my meals were carefully planned to fuel me.  I thought maybe it was because I had to do a bunch of boring paperwork/computer stuff that I had been putting off (feels great to have this stuff done, BTW.)  But then all of a sudden it hit me.  There have been several truly tragic events in the past couple of days–a former patient (can’t talk about specifics) and the grandchild of one of my best friends was diagnosed with a terrible disease.  In addition, my dad’s health is not improving.  I am not in control of any of these things.  And you know how I feel about that.  But I can’t tell you how good it makes me feel to have identified why I was wanting to ‘stress-eat.’  I actually did pretty good keeping it under control.

Pressing on…