I was reading an article about healthy lifestyles and something in the article triggered a thought about how we tend to compare ourselves to others and measure our own success (or failures) on how others who are on the same journey are doing. For some people, this can be a form of motivation, but for others it can be a source of frustration and end up becoming more of a negative than a positive.
A lesson that I’ve recently learned is that just because someone else may be on the same journey to better health and to shed the pounds that I am, doesn’t mean that they will have the same results that I do. Every human body is different, and I’ve honestly had to learn to let go of that competitiveness that ends up creating negative thoughts within my mind.
It’s obvious that I’m not going to lose weight as fast as someone who is younger than me. It’s also obvious that I’m not going to lose weight as fast as someone who has had surgery to help them do so. I also am not looking for the quick fix and I have needed to remind myself of that a gazillion times. Our ‘diet’ and ‘instant gratification’ mentalities has us thinking that we need everything- yesterday and we don’t have the patience to wait to get that pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
I’m an emotional eater. More often than not, I keep it at bay- but sometimes I don’t. I’ve learned to stop beating myself up about it, and feeding myself the negativity, and instead try to ask myself what’s really going on and get to the root of the issue. We are our own worst enemies and I know in my case, once I break this cycle of feeding myself negativity (we all do it and are far too hard on ourselves) then I know something BIG is going to happen. I’m getting close, but I’m not there quite yet.
In the meantime- the only competition that I have, is that with myself- We are all in this journey together- not in a race to see who can cross the finish line first.