Living is a gift.

 Living is a gift. No matter what god you pray to, or what scientific theory  you believe of how us humans came to be; life is a gift, but more importantly it is a privilege.

 

Life is a gift that most of us take for granted. We go about our normal lives, our  day-to-day lives and yet most of us have no regard of what a privilege life is. We don’t realize how amazing it is, how much of a gift it is to see others that we love live their lives.

 

It is only when something happens to us that challenges this notion of life that makes us appreciate how privileged we are to be living, and to be surrounded by others doing the same simple thing, Living their lives.

 

Death is something that no one talks about, and something that no one truly respects. The notion of Death is something that lives somewhere buried in our subconscious, it is something that don’t want to think about. Death takes life away, it essentially takes this gift away. I have had many people in my 26 years of living  pass away, I have had to deal with Death, face that part of our existence head on. My own mortality has been tested a few times, I have come close to death, come close to that final frontier, that final step to our existence. I will tell you this, it was far more easier being faced with death myself than to watch others I love come close to it, or die themselves.

 

Our gift of life was given to us long ago, as our bipedal human legs stretched across that African Savannah about 2 million years ago. The gift of life is something that we all take for granted. We do not realize just how fast that gift can be taken away, how in one single moment it can be taken from the grips of our hands, and how fast it can be taken from the people that we love.

 

We are in the end blind. We are blind not only to our own mortality but the mortality of people around us. Even with all of our knowledge that our society has obtained throughout our evolutionary history, and even with fantastic medical breakthroughs that we hold in our hands, we and people around us  cannot stop Death.

 

To this I say Live your life. Live if not only for yourself but for the people who love you. Don’t take meaningless chances with your life; respect the gift that you have been given. We should all be holding our lives in our hand as if we were holding fine 18^th century china. We need to cherish not only our own lives but the lives of people around you. Don’t argue with people over pointless things, don’t start arguments that are meaningless. Don’t ever leave your loved ones without letting them know that you love them, and how much they mean to you.

 

I now more then ever appreciate the gift that was given to me long ago. I appreciate life. I appreciate the joy that it brings.  I am gifted with this appreciation in the same way that I was gifted with my own life.

 

Oink, Oink My friends…..

Deny yourself the battle to win the war.

“The true nature of a man is determined in the battle between his conscious and subconscious mind, and that the evil that exists in your subconscious mind is sometimes too strong to resist. The only way to win is to deny it battle.”

This quote sums up weight loss. There is nothing that I could say; nothing that I could write  could sum up your impending battle with weight as well as this quote can. You right now, at this moment in your life are going through the same processes as people who battle drug, mental and other addictions. You are no different. Your battle is no different.

That quote is the only truth that I can offer you right now. You will face a great many battles in your journey and each one will take you further away from your current negative lifestyle. You will have to battle negative people, you will have to distance yourself from a previous comfortable lifestyle, you will essentially have to let go of the previous you. More importantly  though, you will have to find a new you, to move forward you must change yourself and your image in which you see  yourself, not only on the outside but on the inside as well.

I can’t tell you how, I can’t tell you when, I can only tell you that you must. In order to move forward you must change the old you, you must change the way you think about you.

The old piggy.

I was my greatest barrier to losing weight, I didn’t realize it then but looking back I do realize it now. The reason why I had failed so many times was because of myself, I can blame no one else for this. My mind was my greatest barrier, until I decided that I would no longer allow it to consume me.  Throughout my life I would  over think everything. I would constantly care about what people thought about me. I would  consume myself with caring how other people viewed me. I allowed myself, my mind to battle itself. I  and no one else allowed the battle to happen, I essentially fired the first shot. If I had not cared what other people thought, my journey through weight loss would have been easier. I consumed myself with over thinking and over analyzing  what negative people thought about me, I would not want to work out in public because I would think people would be saying “why is that fatty working out”, I would not want to go shopping because I would be fearful of the glares that other people would give me as I stepped out of the change room with all of my fat showing.  I would think every moment of every day of my fat life that I was not good enough, that I was sub-standard because of my fat. In reality these negative people didn’t care, this battle that I chose to fight with them was all in my mind. It was a process that I chose to under go, a battle that I chose to fight, until one day I refused to care what  other people another thought about me. I refused the battle, turned around and walked away.

    

     Piggys Advice

     My advice comes from someone who has been where you are. My words come from someone who has battled my mind my whole life. If you deny yourself the battle, if you place this energy towards something else, something positive you will win your own war. You will be denying yourself a battle that is in the end pointless to fight. There are no winners in the battle of the mind. There is no good outcome. Just stop caring what other people think of you, stop caring what others want you to be. Consume yourself with positive thoughts; force your mind to focus on the good things, the positive things. The more positive you are the more, the bitterness that you choose to let go of, the more you will prevail.

 

     This blog is an example of how I deny my mind this battle. I piss people off on a daily basis with this blog, for whatever reason some people find my bluntness, my honesty sometimes offense. Perhaps it is because I am slapping them in the face with a reality that they did not want to face. Or perhaps they are offended with me because I am saying things that people never say, I am calling them out on their crap. This blog  is a direct reflection of how I no longer care what people think. I no longer care if people will get offended, it makes me laugh, makes me smile that I am capable of evoking that much emotion out of someone. Now don’t get me wrong there were causalities along the way, there were friends that I have “lost” because they couldn’t deal with the new me. I could have fought for them, made this blog a little bit nicer so that everyone would be happy, so that I would be liked. But to do this would give in to a battle that I promised myself long ago I wouldn’t fight.

Here’s the key my pudgy friends…………..

The more you battle, the more you let the thoughts of others consume you and your mind; the more of yourself you will loose, and the harder it will be to find the true you, the awesome you, the real you.

 

Oink, Oink my friends….

 

 

Original entry found at:  https://jbingham82.wordpress.com

 

The need to look great in my “Birthday Suit”

 

I want to look good naked.

 

What?!?!?!?

 

What did you just say?!?!??!!?

 

Yup.

 

I- WANT- TO- LOOK- GOOD- NAKED.

 

      When I started my weight loss journey I wanted to get healthier, then when I was taken off my heart, blood pressure, and cholesterol medication then after that I wanted to get fitter and to be able to run a Half marathon properly. Now, at the end of my journey I just want one simple thing, to look good naked. When I say naked I mean  but-ass, birthday suit, “I feel a draft” NAKED.

 

     Now I am not saying that I want to have abs of steal, or even buns that would crush a rock, just that I want to stand in front of my mirror in my bedroom and say “Yup, I would DO me.” I don’t know why all of a sudden I want this, I am in a great relationship where I am respected and appreciated regardless of my size or shape, but I just want to do this for me.

 

My problem area

 

        Now everyone has there problem area, or as I like to call them “wobbly bits” that they hate. Some people hate their ass, while others think they have army tanks for thighs. For me it has, is, and always will be my stomach. All the women in my family tend to carry their weight in their stomachs, and although I have lost a substantial amount of weight and inches around my waist (12inches/ 1 foot has shrunk around my waist) I am still a little bit self-conscious about this area of my body. This is where ALL of my last 15 pounds live, I am fine with every other part of my body except for this one; my stomach, my flabby, fat, stomach.

     Let’s face facts; you can’t hate the way that your whole body looks. THERE IS PARTS OF YOUR BODY YOU DO LIKE. You need to find these parts, embrace these parts before you can fix your problem area. You must realize that some of you is fat, but that some other parts of you are great. For example, I have a great rack, (large boobs) and an (so I have been told) nice ass. I know this, so I don’t feel like I am a complete ugly fatty. Even though I have made major strides in self-confidence  with the “I am awesome attitude” I do realize that certain people don’t think this way about themselves and I respect that. But you need to find it, you need to take a good look at yourself and find the things that you like.

          

What you see VS. What is reality.

 

  Many people suffer from “body warping” meaning that they are one thing, and yet they see another. For example, my stomach. Every shirt that I wear I see it even though it is not as noticeable in all of them. I see my stomach larger than it actually is, I see myself larger than I actually am. To get over this I recommend that you do this;  Get out a washable marker, and stand against a white door. Stand there naked or in tight clothes and get someone to draw your ACTUAL outline on the door. Step back and take a look at it. Take a look at what you actually are, then draw with another color marker what you would like to fix  essentially draw  your new shape, draw your goal. You will be amazed how big or small you actually are. Just like you faced the numbers on the scale face this, accept this, and then move on.

 

 

I WANT TO STOP HIDING.

 

Yes, let those words ring out my friends. I don’t know about you but this piggy wants to stop hiding. I want to stop hiding behind baggy clothes, I want to stop hiding behind jackets. In the end I want to stand in front of my mirror and look good, actually no, GREAT naked. I want to look at myself, at every curve, every mark, every inch of me and feel great. This is by far the hardest part of my journey. It is the most frustrating part. I am lucky, I have surrounded myself with people who want to see me be achieve my best, I have essentially surrounded myself with people who are  pushing me towards this new goal.

 

Oink, Oink my friends…………..

 

When a mile takes an hour.

 I am privileged to know a girl , actually a women, about 40ish. She is un-like most people, she is a genuinely  kind person. Like most people her age, she has  children who has recently left her nest. She was left with herself,  an apartment, and a dog. She however, was and still continues to be, an inspiration to myself and anyone else who will read this.

 

Her story:

               She was a fellow fatty, like me but a bit heavier, she was bubbly on the outside and hurting on the inside. Like most fat people she was great at hiding her sorrow, she buried it within the fat. Then one day, about 2 years ago I noticed that she was getting a little bit smaller. Then months after that she had shrunk more, until one day she was about half her original size. She had over come a negative lifestyle and had embraced a positive one. She did not diet. She did not follow any “fad” exercise regime. She just simply moved her pudgy body, until it was no more.

               Her physical changes were great, she was looking better and because of this (or so I could only assume) her attitude changed. The laughter that was generated from her, the smiles that now consumed the majority part of her face was real. Don’t ask me how I know this, Don’t ask me what the difference in her was but I can only tell you that she WAS now different, she was now better, she was now real.

              I am a person that talks and talks and talks and talks (thus the blog) and one day while chatting with this friend, I told her about the Half marathon that I was training for, we began talking about it.  I filled her in, how great it was to stand with my fellow runners and walkers and do what only a select few people can do. I told her about that crazy part of society that pushes their bodies to the limits all for a t-shirt and a metal at the end. I also shared with her that indescribable feeling of crossing the finish line, the sense of accomplishment you are given at the end, your real reward for running or walking the 21 km. She then looked at me “Piggy, I couldn’t run it” I then looked at back at her “ Then walk it” She then got excited, I could see it,  a fire was now lit underneath her, she now had a goal to work towards.

 

       She now walks to work, with arm weights in her back pack and every time I see her leave work, she is leaving with a smile. A smile that was generated for herself by herself. She is doing what most people don’t do, she has what most people don’t have, she is her own gift, she is her own accomplishment.

 

     She plans to walk the 21km and wants to complete it in 3 hours, but to her I say this…..Even if One mile takes you an hour to complete, even if you crawl across that finish line on May 3^rd , no matter where life takes you or what new goals you set for yourself,  you will always be 21km  ahead of everyone else.

 

    

 

Oink, Oink my friends……..

 

 

Building your own support system.

Losing weight is going to be one of the toughest things you will have to do in your life time.

It is a struggle of the mind, and body, and although you need to do it for yourself, and by yourself, you also need some type of support system to help you over come the various hurtles that you will face during this new time in your life.

Your Friends.

                             – We have already talked about how to, and what to do with Negative friends so I wont go in depth here about them. Just realize that your friends in every capacity are part of your support system. Most good  friends can read your face and tell if you are just a  little bit down. They are the people at the finish line of a race you have decided to run they essentially support you and your weight loss goals. Make sure that you have good friends. Make sure that they truley support you and your new lifestyle. They are the biggest part of any support system, and unlike your family you get to choose who you are friends with so choose wisley my friends, choose wisley.

 

Your Family.

                             -Families come like us they come in all shapes and sizes. Some are quite large, while others are very small. Either way your family is a very large part of your support system. This piggy has a great family, a mom who understands my weight loss struggle because she has had to go through it, A step-dad that does not put “junk” food into the house anymore because he knows it will tempt me too much, and a Sister who has always supported me in everything that I have done. I am basically lucky, and I realize  for whatever reason some people are not as lucky as I am, they lack that closeness with their family. You will need them though, so it’s time to get over whatever issues are keeping them at a distance from you and accept them back into you lives. Some of you may have children of various ages. They need to realize that just as they have leaned on you for the duration of their lives, you will find times in which you will now have to lean on them. If they live with you just remember that not only are you changing your own life, you are essentially changeing theirs. They must realize that no longer will there be late night runs to the local fast food joint, no longer will there be  a high amount of junk food in the house, they will have to realize that the old you is gone. The new you is here to stay, and that they, just like you, must embrace these postivie lifestyle changes for good, because they, like you  are not going away.

Your “Siggnificant Other”

                              -Your Husband, Wife, Boyfriend, Girlfriend, and Fiannces will all play A MAJOR ROLE in your weight loss success. I have heard so many excuses from wives, they say that their husbands are “allready thin so he can eat whatever he wants, when he wants it, so  I still buy him ‘his’ foods.” Let me knock some sense into that fat head of yours, being thin does not equal healthy. Some of these wives will do most of the grocery shopping (yes, I am being stero-typical right now), and will buy great foods for themselves, but will also buy junk food for their husbands. Ummmmm ?????????????????????? Are you kidding me? If you do this, you will fail. YOU WILL FAIL. The problem here is not that your husband dosen’t care, the problem here is that you don’t communicate with each other.  You have probably not told your husband or wife what it is that you are doing, what this means to you, they married you so therefore they love you, hell they even love the fat you. Communication is the key people. If you are not married and have a boyfriend or girlfriend make sure that they are aware of your struggles and how they can help you. In the end your siggnificant other should understand, respect, but most of all support you through your weight loss journey.

 

In the end you are changing yourself, so therefore your friends, family, and siggnificant others must change with you or at the very least respect the changes you want to make.

 

Oink, Oink my friends……….