Let It Go

I’m still truckin’ along on my journey to better health, but the past couple of months have been a struggle. Winter has become a heavy, wet, wool blanket draped on my shoulders, weighing me down. Although I’ve kept my exercise routine up, and my eating hasn’t gone totally off the rails, the scale is hardly moving. One week, I’ll lose a pound, then the next week, I’ll gain 0.8 pounds, and up and down I go.

My mood and emotions around it all have been just, meh. While I’ve certainly been frustrated at the stagnancy, it feels more like an emotional plateau than a physical one. I could be much more careful about my food choices to get things moving again, but I don’t want to.

As each week passes, I get more annoyed with the stalemate, until, finally, I decide to dig into it. Because it clearly feels more emotional than physical, I bring it up to my therapist and we have a great conversation about it.

“Kerri, you’ve lost more than 70 pounds. That’s a huge accomplishment. How about being ok with just hanging out there for a while? Revel in that success instead of focusing on what’s not happening right now.”

Sounds obvious, right? Well, it wasn’t to me. My old thinking had resurfaced: The thinking that tells me I have to be fed up with my situation before I’ll make a change. The thinking that blocks me from remembering that my greatest progress happens when I surrender and accept where I’m at, in any aspect of my life.

I share this conversation with my sister while we’re out walking, and we decide to do some tapping on it (“tapping” is using the Emotional Freedom Technique). Although we only do a couple of quick rounds, I can feel my body release just a bit.

Today, as I step on the scale for my weekly weigh-in, I expect another small shift; a small loss, and I’m totally ready to be thrilled with that. Imagine my surprise when she says, “You’re down 3.4 pounds!” Holy shit! I wasn’t expecting that. My food and exercise log certainly don’t indicate that kind of success, so I’d say I had a big energetic weight loss this week.

I guess it’s true what they say: “What we resist, persists.” I was resisting being where I was. I wasn’t allowing myself to see the success in maintaining my weight over a tough, cold, long winter. But once I did, things shifted.

So what are you resisting? The truth of your financial situation? Your weight? Your marriage? Your career? How might you let go and be with what is, so you can get to where you’re meant to be? Please join the conversation in the comments section below.

Until next week, keep taking those small steps to Live Out Loud.