THIN Thinking

Many years ago I was out for coffee with a coworker. We finished our coffees and she said she was going to get another and asked if I wanted one. Being a coffee addict I was not about to say no so I replied "Sure, large with 2 cream". She literally stopped in her tracks and looked at me with a mix of humour and disbelief. "Your kidding right?" she asked. I was confused. "OK medium with double cream please". She said "You use CREAM in your coffee instead of milk?????". She couldn't believe that I would make that choice. To her, she drank a lot of coffee so of course she would use milk instead of cream. It was that sort of thinking that set us apart. It was that sort of thinking that kept her THIN.

Now to this day I still use cream in my coffee but I learned something that day. It was the first time I really consciously realized that thin people are thin because they work at it. Of course there are those exceptions, those people who can't put weight on if their life depended on it. But in my lifetime I think I have met about 6 of those people.....6. The rest of the people I know with a healthy body weight are that way because every day and every meal they make decisions that encourage that outcome. They are not perfect all the time, no one is, but the majority of the time they are conscious about what they put in their mouth. Walk into any gym and you will see that 80% of the people there are in good shape. Walk into a HOTEL gym and about 100% will be thin. No fat person in their right mind would workout while on a vacation. I am on vacation for god sakes! Eat healthy on vacation? Are you kidding me? I have planned whole trips around restaurants we wanted to visit! Now I am not saying that thin people don't indulge while on vacation but their mind is wired differently than mine. In most cases those skinny psychos working out in the hotel gym are doing that so that they can enjoy an amazing dinner guilt free later on. They are countering the damage in advance instead of my thinking which is GO BIG OR GO HOME (and then deal with the consequences)!

Until a few years ago I had spent my whole life looking at thin people and thinking "You don't know how lucky you are!" meanwhile luck had nothing to do with it. They work at being thin as much as I work at being fat.

WHAT?? Work at being fat??? That makes no sense. Why would I work at something I don't want for myself? If I am brutally honest with myself, and you know I am, I work DAMN hard to maintain this ample figure of mine. Just living with an extra 100 plus pounds is difficult enough but things that should be simple are much more difficult when you are obese. Flying in an airplane, walking around a new city, fitting in a restaurant booth, finding winter boots that fit over your cankles! That is the not so pretty truth about reality for someone like me. A reality I created by the decisions I made every day and every meal. Is it more work to throw together a quick stir-fry or go pick up takeout? Well as I proved Friday night, it is much quicker to cook the damn stir-fry. By the time you decide what you want to eat, order it, go pick it up and come home you could have cooked a nutritious meal. Another example is running to the store. I live very close to a grocery store, 10 minute walk max, yet I usually drive to pick something up. By the time I clear the snow off the car, drive over and park I could have easily walked and saved myself some gas. My decisions to be constantly on (or off) a diet. That is a lot of work spent in planning instead of just executing better habits on a regular basis. You see, I WORK at this. You could even say I have mastered it!

So this week I am going to keep an eye on all those skinny wenches in my life (whom I love so dearly) and see how they make decisions that keep them in the great shape they are in. I will report back next Sunday with my findings. Who knows? Maybe I will even master the art of "Thinking Thin" by the end of this year. Using the treadmill on my next vacation? I wouldn't put money on it if I were you!