The Best Holiday Gift is YOU

This week I'm writing about the best holiday gift you can give your family...of course that gift is a healthy YOU...by deciding to become healthy you will be around for your family and you will actually save money (refer to earlier posts if you want to see the logic about that)...

Today I want to focus on another gift that you will be giving by improving your health--that is FUN!

How much fun are you missing if you are struggling to keep up? Can you play with the kids in the park if you can't catch your breath? It is hard to play musical chairs if you don't fit, or you are afraid you might actually break one!

Having fun, being joyful, that is a part of leading a full, fulfilled life...and that is definitely a gift--to yourself as well as your friends and family.

If you have trouble moving around it sets up a vicious cycle...you tend to go out less, to withdraw more...and guess what? You tend to then eat more which just leads to having more trouble moving. Not a pretty picture.

I used to worry if I would be comfortable at the theater...would I fit into the seat okay? Would I impact my "neighbor" because of my size? I still went out...but I fretted about it, and made sure whenever possible that I was on the aisle...so I could get up and step into the aisle if someone needed to be seated further in. If I couldn't get into the aisle I knew that no one would be able to get by me...and I couldn't get by anyone else either. That definitely made my experience less pleasurable.

I was pretty active for someone in the 300 pound range...but I often wondered if I would be able to keep up. Frequently people had to slow down so that I didn't fall behind. I definitely felt like I slowed the group down because of my extra weight.

These may not seem like big stresses, but they can definitely impact having fun...and even little stressor can impact your health...and having fun is about reducing stress, not adding to it!

Get out and enjoy life...have fun...that is one of the steps to having weight loss success...and when you do, you are setting up a delicious cycle of health! The more fun you have being out, the more you will do things...the more you do things, the more fun you will have.

You deserve to have fun...and your family and friends will love it, too!

Come back tomorrow to learn how giving the gift of a healthy you to your family gives them a big bonus gift!