Over the past 4-5 days, three significant events have occurred in my life….
1. Sunday, March 4th, I ran in the Little Rock Half Marathon (13.1 miles). This was my 6th half marathon that I have run in. This race was not easy for me as I was having “female issues” (ladies, you know what I am talking about). I actually started out pretty fast in the race for the first six miles, but slowed down around mile seven. It was up and down from mile seven to mile 13.1. But I ENDURED that 13.1 miles for 2 hours and 19 minutes and finished, receiving a pretty silver and purple metal.
2. The second significant thing that happened for me is that I stepped on the scale on Tuesday, March 6th, and saw that I have lost 13 pounds since January. This is huge for me as I had been struggling with trying to lose weight for at least a year. But I have to admit, Weight Watchers is a wonderful program. This is the program I have been doing since January (in addition to intense training to run in the half marathon). The difference in this program is that weight loss is slow. I didn’t like that at first. Some weeks I only loss .2-.6 pounds. Other weeks , I loss 1-2 pounds. This is actually the healthiest way to lose weight, but it takes ENDURANCE; because it is difficult to keep going when you are not seeing immediate results. But I will keep going through this process. I have 7 more pounds I want to lose. I am so close, so I will continue to ENDURE. In all honesty, my biggest goal is not to just lose the weight. My biggest goal is to maintain the weight loss. That will be the biggest challenge, but I believe I am finally up for it because I know how to ENDURE...
3. The last significant thing that occurred yesterday (March 7th) was that after close to three years of coursework, oral and written examinations, teaching 8 weeks of a nutrition education intervention, writing a 214 page doctoral dissertation, and defending the dissertation in front of my committee yesterday, I PASSED IT! I ENDURED close to three years of this process. This was one of the biggest challenges of my life. It caused more anxiety than almost anything I have ever experienced. But I passed it…by the grace of God. I will be graduating May 11th, with a PhD in nutrition. I ENDURED and finished well.
In all three of these situations, it took training, and most importantly, endurance, which we may also term patience (read Heady’s blog on patience (it is really good) http://www.helloheady.com/the-best-tool-to-have-is-patience/) ). I had to train my mind and body for each situation. I had to have patience to endure the process, whether it was the 6 months of training I did before the half marathon, the 2 hours and 19 minutes in the half marathon, the 3 years of doctorate work, and the two months of Weight Watchers. In each situation, the time was different, but the principle was the same. I had to wait and endure the process, knowing that the end result would come soon. If you keep these principles in mind, you will not be so quick to quit when you don’t immediately see results in different areas of your life. In areas of your life like even weight loss and moving towards a healthy lifestyle, change does not come overnight. There is a process, and the key is that you ENDURE….
Until next time….
-Jenelle N. Robinson
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