Missed Opportunity

Last night, once again, I had to rush to my water aerobics class or I would be late. Can't seem to get there on time!!

Anyway, in my mad dash to get my clothes changed, I heard a conversation with two friends who had not seen each other for a while. One gal was commenting on the weight loss of the other.



Here's how it went....

Gal #1 (Lets call her Sally) says, "You look great how much weight have you lost?

Gal #2 (Lets call her Millie) says, "I've been at it for a while, I've lost 35 pounds."

Sally says, "That awesome! How did you do it?"

Millie says, "I've just been watching what I eat. I'm not really dieting, just eating good healthy food and counting my calories."

Sally says, "That's it, that's all you've been doing?"


Millie says, "Well that and I've been exercising too. I do a lot of things in the gym and I come to water aerobics several times each week."

Then Sally says, "I used to come to this class, but I stopped a couple of months ago. You see my daughter...and I'm looking for a job... and my mom...and of course you know...blah blah blah...."


As soon as Sally said that she had been to the class before. I looked up and for the first time I really looked at her. I recognized her from a class we attended together last May. At that time we chatted, just getting to know each other and she told me her story.


She had just moved to the area, had a daughter and they were on their own. She had not found a job yet and had been looking for quite some time. Money was tight, but they were hanging on. She told me that she had a lot of spare time on her hands during the day when her daughter was at school and said she wanted to do something to lose weight. She had a lot of weight to lose!!

Sally asked me how I was losing weight and I told her that I'm, "Watching what I eat. I'm not really dieting, just eating good healthy food, counting my calories, drinking water and exercising." (Sounds just like what her friend shared with her last night.)

She said that sounded great, so we talked a little more about some of the other things I'm doing ~ journeling food, working with the nutritionist and the personal trainer etc.

When we started to leave, she said that she was excited to get on with her journey, thanked me for the tips and said, "I'll see you next week."

Sadly I did not see her the next week or the weeks after. I was really disappointed and nervous that maybe, in my enthusiasm, I had pushed her too hard, gave too much information and/or scared her away. Maybe she did not want to be told what to do, or maybe she did not want to be accountable to anyone or have anyone watching what's she's doing. I don't know. All I can say is, I spent some time after this encounter to really beat myself up, because I felt like she quit because of me. I don't ever want to be the one to hinder someone's weight loss goals - Geez like I have that much influence - Get over yourself Joy!!

She had her reasons for not showing up ~ I can't take responsibility for that!! I get that now!


Anyway....fast forward to last night. Sadly Sally looked heavier than she did in May. As I was watching her I could see anxiety in her face. As she was talking to her friend, she sounded excited but looked very disappointed. She may have been thinking that she could have been where her friend was, if she had not stopped her journey. She missed her opportunity to reach her goals!

How many times have you been in Sally's shoes. You stopped your journey, gained the weight back and then some? You quit and missed your opportunity to succeed!!

Why are some of us unwilling or unable to continue on the journey to success?

I don't ever want to be that women! I don't ever want to miss my opportunity to get healthy and lose this weight!


I don't want to, ever again, stand before a friend that I had not seen for a while and give excuses as to why I could not make it to my goal.

I don't ever want to start over again, weighing more than ever!

I don't ever want to praise someone for making their goal, while I'm dying on the inside because I gave up instead of, doing the work and reaching for success!!

I am making this happen. I'm not going to miss this opportunity. How about you?

Hugs!