For instance, one of the questions in the lesson asks, "How does making right choices help us make more right choices?" The little answer I wrote in for myself (word-for-word) was, "Strengthens our willpower for overcome Satan (desserts!)" It is so much easier to say no to desserts the second time or the third time or the fourth time than when we have to do it for the very first time. And by the time we've said no for the one hundred and fourth time the words come out more as a reflex than as the result of a tough choice we just had to make. Don't you think?
The other question from the lesson that got me thinking about healthy living, along with the answers I wrote in for myself, were, "What are some examples of actions that limit our choices?" My answer: "If I eat junk food I won't fit into my clothes or have a healthy body." And then, "What are some examples of actions that give us more freedom?" You can basically guess my answer here, but what I wrote down was, "If I eat healthy food I am able to do more and wear more of my clothes." These are such little, trivial things, but they stem from this great principle of agency.
The moral of the story? We have agency. We are free to choose for ourselves. However, we are not free to choose our consequences. We can have our cake, but we cannot free ourselves from the effects it will have on our bodies.
Speaking of cake, I'd like to close by sharing this thought with you. My friend Megan sent me this e-mail this morning:
So my sister made me start Weight Watchers with her. I'm still reluctant, but I think I am slowly gaining more motivation day by day. Anyways, the other day I was complaining about wanting to eat some of her birthday cake and she said, "No food tastes as good as being thin feels."
Now I don't know what Megan's sister was doing convincing her to get on Weight Watchers and then baking cake to taunt her with, but she makes a great point. May we all be successful this week in making healthy choices so that we can feel that superior kind of good.
4 comments:
I love the consequences of exercise - it feels to good to be healthy and to be able to get outdoors and move!
To clarify, it was both my sister's and my nephew's birthdays this week, so it was partly my fault since I made his cake, and bought her a coldstone cake......bah. Skinny feels good, skinny feels good, skinny feels good. (I didn't eat any of the cake, although I made it look like the moon with buzz lightyear cuz I'm awesome.....and I have only had 2 pieces of her cake....on different days........
I believe that is a quote from model Kate Moss...that nothing tastes as good as skinny. And it is true mostly because skinny lasts a lot longer than anything you put in your mouth! :)
Choose the right!
This is just a beautiful post. Thank you for sharing your thought process and relating it so well to the goals we have to be healthy.
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