Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Turning the Ship About

I'm going to the doctor in 15 minutes, and I've been thinking about how to approach losing weight at midlife. It's not about looks or anything (I'm actually pretty happy with that), it's that I can literally feel it weighing on me. 
(And why not? Weight does weigh on one.)

For instance, I wouldn't want to walk the Camino again just for that one reason: I wouldn't want to carry the extra 20 pounds. (There are other reasons too.)

And yet... I also don't want to skip a beer tonight, or not put lots of milk in my coffee tomorrow morning.

Grumble, grumble. It's worrisome, any which way I look at it. 
Change is hard.
I look for comfort and cheer and useful advice.

Does it sound flippant to quote Sojourner Truth on the matter of midlife health changes? I hope not, because I'm going to:
 

To a friend who was impatient with Lincoln's slow movement toward ending slavery], Truth said,
Oh, wait, child! have patience! 
It takes a great while to turn about this great ship of State.

5 comments:

bink said...

Yessssss. Great quote... and very apropos.

Fresca said...

Yes, you know of whence I come, ol' Age Mate, eh?

Zhoen said...

Too bad the quote turned out to be too optimistic. I've used the same metaphor for myself, in the midst of great change. Sometimes I think it's better when the change is rapid and complete, everyone having to deal with a new Normal all at once.

This is not meant as criticism, merely musing.

Frex said...

ZHOEN: It's still turning... or is that the movement of getting sucked into a maelstrom?

Frex said...

P.S. I was referring to race relations in the USA, of course.

The thing with making changes in *eating* is that there is no way to do it all at once, complete and rapid, (unlike quitting drinking alcohol), there is only choosing how I eat at every meal, every day....
So it is a matter for patience, endless patience as I try, try, try again.