This morning I was on the phone with a friend and colleague. She lives in another state and I don’t get to see her nearly as often as I would like. After we got our work talk out of the way, I asked her about the exercise routine she’s recently started. (Her workouts are going well.)
I can’t remember which one of us first brought up the subject of this blog. We talked about yesterday’s post regarding someone who told me I was an inspiration. My friend told me she’s a regular reader and she’s getting a lot of inspiration here.
I had no idea she read my blog. I sent her the link a while back, but I’m not going to follow up and ask folks whether or not they are reading.
As I wrote yesterday, being told I inspire does not make me feel prideful as it once did. Rather, I feel grateful. I spent years of my life perpetually feeling restless, irritable and discontent. And I was selfish. I didn’t care about your weight loss, because I was self-centered. And competitive. I would not have wanted you to get into better shape than I was in.
I’m a different person now. While I have healthy boundaries (I’m not going to wrestle the Twinkie out of your hand if you choose to eat it), I really, really care about people who approach me for health/fitness advise, food plan recommendations, or recovery help. I want people to know the freedom from active addiction that I now enjoy one day at a time. And to those who don’t have addiction issues but just want to get in shape, I care about how they feel physically. Helping others equals giving service. And giving service keeps me on the right path.
To my friend I spoke with today: I bet you’ll be reading this. Thank you for the conversation and the affirmation. Thank you for another reminder to be grateful for what I have been given.
482gr8 