Friday Quote Day

I usually find a quote during the week that I think will work for Friday Quote Day. I've never ended up on Friday morning scrambling around for something more appropriate. Here's what I thought would work for today:

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.
~ Dwight D. Eisenhower

But it just doesn't feel true after what I've been reading.

The good doctors Roizen and Oz are telling me I don't have to fight the good fight. They're suggesting a more elegant solution, a way to work with my body instead of against it.

Jonathan wisely reminded me yesterday to beware of those "never" statements I quoted from the book's introduction. And you know, Jonathan, I thought about that all afternoon and evening.

[Jonathan also wrote this brilliant statement in this post:

“… if I’m getting out of life the things I really want, I’m less likely to be stuffing myself with food as a means of compensation for repressed anger, guilt, frustration, etc.”
~ Jack Sprat

Which is pretty much what the book is telling me, as well.

I guess I'm tired of the fight and desperate for an answer, and what these doctors are telling me, in their cutesy, simile-laden way [I'm starting to edit the similes out as I'm reading, that's how tiresome they are!] is that I can lay my weapons down.

And that's very appealing.

To make the Eisenhower quote meaningful for today, planning still is essential on the YOAD program. You can't have a soup-and-salad lunch when the crisper is empty. A daily 30-minute walk [as you all know, I'm doing way more than that, but that's the minimum YOAD recommendation] has to be worked into the schedule, somehow.

We plan for the other parts of our lives: work, children, school, pets, spouses, friends, meetings – all our activities and relationships are important and vital, and we make appointments – plans – for the events that make life meaningful.

My life would be even more meaningful if I didn't constantly have the weight of my weight hanging over me.

So I'm still working this all out. Are they good marketing men, getting me to believe that I don't have to fight with myself any longer? I used to work in advertising; I'd like to believe I'm not that gullible.

It's hard to argue with success. As they suggest, I've been taking a waist measurement every day since I started following the plan. [And I will reiterate – I am loosely following the plan. I still don't have all the recommended foods, and I still love wheat saltines far, far too much.] Three days – an inch and a half smaller. Pretty incredible.

Seventy-one days until race day.