Interlude: Friend-Making Monday

So, one of the blogs I follow intermittantly is Kenzie's at All the Weigh. And although I rarely talk here about weight loss- I have been slowly trying to work on changing my eating habits to lose weight. It's either that or go clothes shopping, and we all know how I hate to shop for clothes! Bleh! So I've lost a bit over ten pounds in the last year, which is incredibly slow, but I'm more concerned about yo-yo-ing due to too-rapid loss than taking it slowly. Anyway, this morning Kenzie asked a great question on her regular Friend-Making Monday post, and I decided to play.

Was there a defining moment in which you realized that you needed to lose weight? If so, will you elaborate? (If you experienced this moment in some other area of your life, please feel free to share that too!)

So I don't have a real watershed moment with regards to weight. It was creeping up, I decided it had to be dealt with. But my confidence that it *could* be dealt with goes back a ways and had to do with exercise. I’ve always been klutzy and not good at sports. But in my twenties I was living near the mountains in a small town with few opportunities for a social life–but near lots of ski areas. So I figured I’d give it a try. I took some lessons in downhill skiing, and practiced, and it was fun, and I took some more lessons…and finally realized that I wasn’t bad at sports- probably more average. I’d just never liked a sport well enough to practice it before. Skiing, like other sports, is a skill and skills can be learned. And they get better with practice.

And that was a huge life lesson, and turned out to apply to so many more things than exercise. So now I’m practicing portion control and healthier eating. I need to work harder at the exercise part- I now have plenty of exercise that I enjoy, but it’s getting the time for it into my schedule that’s the challenge. Time management remains a skill that needs additional practice!

And when I tackle something new- say, installing drywall to patch the hole in the ceiling of my garage (I'm still plotting my approach, but Real Soon Now) or tackling a new knitting technique...or when a non-knitter says, 'you're so talented, I could never do that'...I remember making my first parallel turns on a ski slope and know that my first attempt might not work out, but the next one will be better. It's not a talent or a gift, it's a skill. Skills can be learned. Skills improve with practice. Skills are not about getting something for nothing or finding the magic answer that fixes things overnight. Skills are about taking a smaller portion, eating the salad instead of the fries (at least most of the time) and about pulling one loop of yarn though another until the sweater happens.

So how about you? Did you have a memorable "I can do this!" moment? Feel free to share- and head over to Kenzie's blog and leave her a link...she's eager to hear all the stories.