A Time to Begin

Hello friends,

In the past, I have promised more information to help diabetics and dieters. While I've spoken of heart changes, I've not said much about health changes. So, today is the day for a heart to heart on where to begin, right where you are.

Those of us who would rather buy the magazine with the chocolate fudge cake on the cover, often find ourselves defeated by that large salad sitting on the table in front of us. While I like French Dressing as well as the tall, skinny model at the next table, let's face it. Cake is not salad, and salad is not cake. It annoys me to watch a weight-loss guru on T.V., who looks like she runs twelve miles a day, and lives on spring water. There she is, starving her way towards serious osteoporosis in her later years, but now she's telling me about food! Does she really think I don't know what food is? I'm seriously wondering if SHE knows what food is.

So, now that I've rattled the cages of the ultra-thin, good-stiff-wind-would-blow-you-over crowd, I want to share with you how to begin to be more healthy. Change one thing. Change one thing today. And make it healthy. Don't leap from peanut butter banana sandwiches to plain salad, and think you are going to be successful. Just change one thing. Switch from sugar to Splenda. Switch from sugary cola to sugar-free. I had a friend who did nothing more than a switch, and in six months she lost forty pounds.

Don't look ahead. Don't look further than where you are. Just change one thing. And walk. I'm not talking about a mile or two. I'm not talking about power walking. I'm talking about making it to the end of the block. I began, after a long illness, years ago, with that walk to the end of the block. When I arrived, my husband drove the car down to meet me, and he drove me home.

Beginning is the most important thing you can do. Every change begins with one choice, and every mile begins with one step. Today, after a year of neurological problems, I began again. Back up on the treadmill, very slowly, and because of my prior walking, I was able to walk a mile. You don't have to start there. Take it easy, and take that first step. Slow, persistent forward motion will bring you to a place that you never thought you'd reach. Remember the tortoise and the hare (the turtle and the rabbit). Even the Bible tells us, in Ecclesiastes 9:11a, "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong..."

So, be weak, and lean on the One who has said that His power is made strong in weakness. Start where you are, and let God carry you over the finish line. God be with you!

With love,
Jaye Lewis
www.entertainingangels.org
http://entertainingangelsencouragingwords.blogspot.com/