A Nasty Birthday Surprise

21/10/2007

Still a working expat, I recently turned 62. My expat experience has been hard at times, but ultimately enriching, and I was optimistic and happy in the run-up to this birthday. However, a nasty surprise awaited me. I slipped a disc and had to contemplate my prospects from a prone position. New facts seemed to float into view from that angle, and they radically challenged my optimism.

A loss of mobility is a terrible handicap. Mine was temporary, but a real wake-up call. My employers may not renew my contract if they think my health is about to become troublesome, and in that case, the scope of my life and the choices I have would be diminished. I was possessed by a sense of disaster – was my freedom gone? Was I powerless?

One of the answers that came to me was that I’d been reckless and irresponsible about the one thing I could control – my weight. With the help of my life coach, I’d lost seven kilograms, but I needed to lose another 15. I was ignoring the plateau I’d reached, reconciled to my size in a mindless sort of way. Suddenly, that changed. I found myself changing my eating patterns so fundamentally that I lost another five kilograms amazingly fast, even though I was getting no exercise flat on my back.

I’ve learnt that a deep realization of the importance of weight loss for good health was crucial to my “willpower.” I had a choice. So, I made the lack of exercise my friend by appreciating the fact that my appetite was not being stimulated by physical activity. I also decided that hunger was my friend. I welcomed it, thinking, “Ah, that’s burning the fat away – good!” I simply dropped my old, neurotic reaction to hunger, which was something like, “Hunger! Panic! Perhaps you’ll die! Eat now!”

The simple fact that thinner people live longer, healthier lives became a personal issue, and all the old excuses vanished. I have another ten kilograms to lose and I know with absolute certainty that I will. Why couldn’t I do this years ago? For the simple reason that I hadn’t taken my own wish to be slim, or the medical advice I received, to heart, not really. It has taken a serious scare to do that, and I have already lost plenty of mobility and time that I could have secured. I was a fool.

I’m lucky to be mobile and much better, but the biggest blessing is that I have had an epiphany. I’m on my way to a healthy weight and that’s wonderful knowledge. Don’t wait for a birthday scare – believe that you can do it and believe in the value of your lovely, slim body!

Submitted by Melanie Steyn, author, educator  and friend.