I spend several hours each day telling people what to eat, how much to drink, how to be in control of food, why they shouldn't eat dinner at 10pm and why they shouldn't skip breakfast. Every day is a new chapter for me in the vast book of how to lose weight and I have barely touched all the reasons to why people became overweight to begin with. Everyone's story is different. Everyone has their challenges. I am not there to judge them. I am their friend, their teacher and their motivator. It is what I do and I love every minute of it!
My clients work so hard to lose weight. I tell them how proud I am of their progress. They may think I am just saying that because it is my job, but secretly I have a deep desire to do everything I can to help them reach their goal. If they succeed, then I succeed. If they fail, then I have failed them. I know they look at my 125 lb frame and think to themselves that I must have so much more self control than they do. Maybe I do or maybe not. Maybe I am just one of the lucky ones.
But today, I spent 15 minutes staring at the packages of various Little Debbie Cakes at Wal-Mart. I compared the nutrition info hoping to find a reason to buy just one box. I hoped I could take home a swiss cake roll, ding dongs or anything with chocolate. The man stocking bread next to me must see at least 100 ladies just like me every week. I was still sweaty from running for an hour at the track so surely I deserved one box. But I knew I could not eat just one and neither could my family. One box of cakes would be too much temptation for all of us. So I just walked away and headed to the produce section. Yes, that is great control for me. Two months ago, I would not have thought twice about it. In fact, I would have bought 2 boxes of cakes and not given it a second thought. But that was before I became a weight loss counselor. Now, I feel the guilt of my hypocrisy. If I lecture my clients about not eating junk food then I need to resist the urge too. I have to walk a mile in their shoes. It's not easy for me, but we are all in this together and together we will lose those pounds.