Perspective and Pounds

While sitting down today, I caught sight of myself in a mirror. Belly rolls galore. Three of them, in fact. I poked the largest with an index finger. My finger squished in the fat, making its expected indent before plopping back out. I sighed. The unsightly bane of my physical existence — my belly rolls.

I stepped on the scale and saw that it had gone up a pound from yesterday. Probably because of those donuts I ate. Shame on me. I need to get back on my healthy eating routine.

Let us pause this self-berating narration for a moment to place this one-pound gain into perspective. In the past 8 weeks, I have gained and lost the “Quarantine 15” (or in my case, 10), as well as an additional 7 pounds. Shut up! That’s amazing. Way to go, me! Or how about the fact that over the past two years, I have lost 55lbs? Yessss! How awesome is THAT!

But as I stood on the scale, my mind was not immediately jumping to those major victories. It was focused on this. A tiny, small, insignificant pound.

Choices form our day, and our most important choice is made when we open our eyes. We can choose to see the good, or we can choose to allow the bad to consume us.

Is the sky partly cloudy? Or partly sunny?

Is the glass half empty? Or half full?

It may be an old cliché, but what you choose to focus on matters. I could choose to focus on that one pound gained. I could criticize my choices. I could scrutinize my figure and focus on my perceived flaws. Or I can choose to look at the scale, think “Hello there, Extra Pound! Welcome to my body today. Enjoy your stay. Check out is tomorrow at 11:00 AM.” Then I can look in the mirror, give my much-slimmer-than-two-years-ago reflection a thumbs up, give my booty a good morning “atta girl” slap, and march on about my day, confident in myself and proud of my appearance.

Every day is a choice.

“Today, I choose to remember my victories, even if I face defeat.”