It's A Marathon

January 7:
I weigh myself every day. It’s not easy, but it is necessary. You could call it “self-monitoring” or you could call it “accountability.” I mostly call it humbling.

Now, context is important. I am 42 pounds lighter than I was at my heaviest so by that measure I would have to say that I am moving in the right direction. But the big picture is often overshadowed by the moment. I may be a long-term success, but I am most often a day-by-day failure. When I step on the scale in the morning I have a tendency to forget the larger context. All that really matters are those three little numbers.

Over the years I have learned that there are no quick fixes, no magic pills, no easy systems. Weight loss is, like many things in life, a marathon not a sprint. But, sprints are over quickly which means that success is measured in bursts of effort. Marathons take a long time and long after the sprinter has finished and is sitting on the sidelines with a cold Gatorade the marathoner is still pounding it out. I’d rather have the Gatorade. I’d like to be a sprinter. But I’ve tried sprinting and I always fall about 26 miles short of where I really want to be.

I’ve used this image before. Life is like dieting. If I intend to be the best that I can be then somehow in the process I have to be held accountable. There has to be a measure for my success or failure in order for me to know which direction my life is taking. But, the problem with life (like dieting) is that I don’t like accountability. It makes me feel bad and I don’t like to feel bad. I want to be “better” and “healthier” but those things take way too much time and require way too much effort. What I want are all the benefits of a marathon without having to do anything more than sprint once in a while.

And here’s the spiritual piece. Every so often, I hear someone try to bring God into this discussion. It goes something like this. , “God wouldn’t want me to feel bad,” they say. “God loves me and that means that he would want me to be happy.” It’s great strategy, it’s just really lousy theology and even lousier self-care. Let’s face it, “good” is hard, “great” is even harder and God wants us to be great. To get there we have to be willing to step on the scale from time to time. What we will probably find, when we do, is that we still have a ways to go. That’s OK. Just remember, it’s a marathon.