Choose your hard
It is New Year’s Day, 2023. I have chosen as my motto for this year, choose your hard. This inspiration came from a Facebook post I saw some time ago and went something like this. Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard. Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard. Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard. Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard. Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Pick wisely.
Not my words, but a theme I am going to take with me into this new year. In 2021 I disciplined myself and began the Keto diet, losing 17 kg in all. By Christmas this year I had gained all of those kilos back. I am not happy with my weight but I am not sure if I want the discipline of Keto all over again. I missed my fruit, and that sugar addiction rears its ugly head all too often. But I shall choose my hard. For me, losing weight is hard, but living with the heavier body is also hard. Cutting out sugar is hard, but the threat of diabetes is hard too. Walking and doing regular exercise is hard and so is the sluggishness from an unfit body. Not fitting my clothes is hard. The mental discipline to do something about it is equally hard. I will choose my hards wisely this year.
As one can deduce from reading this, my weight issues and sugar addiction are my hard. I am an emotional eater but the sugar addiction is real. It is no different to an alcohol or drug addiction. When I gave up cigarettes in my 20s, I knew I could never have another again or I would become addicted once more. I have given up sugar many times. The first few days are hard but after that it is relatively easy. And I have gone months without it. So why do I once again start eating it? Usually, it is something like: I used to like that, I don’t crave it anymore. I should be right to have a bit now. But perhaps it is something bigger. I have carried out healings and hypnosis around this issue. From my other work, I know that when I heal the need for emotional eating, I should no longer emotionally eat. So, I guess there is still some aspect needing attention. Or maybe, like the cigarettes, I need to give up sugar forever and not have that just one.
Then there is the other train of thought, that one needs to love one’s body in order to lose weight. This one kind of makes the most sense. Love is the most powerful force in this universe, so ultimately, love has the power to conquer everything. But here is another hard, it is hard to love one’s body when it is obese. So, I guess I could say, it is hard to love one’s body but it is also hard dealing with the constant yoyoing of an unloved body.
Yes, this year, I need to choose my hards wisely.