Let's keep things in perspective...

Sorry unfortunately it has been a LONG time since I've posted here, I've had a lot going on and got to a place where I really didn't think I had anything to say that anyone would care to read (still might be true, I just don't care now lol). I originally posted this to my blog on MyFitnessPal, but I decided to cross-post it here since it applies to more than just weight-loss/getting fit issues.

I just had to remind myself of this fact this morning so I thought I'd share it...No matter where you are on this journey, whether you're buff or blob or somewhere in between, never forget that you are more than your weight or what your body looks like and especially more than what others see in your physical appearance (good or bad).

Who you are inside matters much more than all of this. So go easy on yourself if the scale jumps up a few (or even more than a few) pounds, or your clothes start getting a little snug because you've cheated some...if you've been good to those around you, helped out friends or strangers in need, and did your best to live as a person of honor and integrity, then the extra pounds aren't going to matter in the big picture...and if you haven't been a person like that, then your wonderful, muscled, buff body doesn't mean a hill of beans...in the end after it's all said and done, that buff body of yours is going to turn to dust just like the body of the 400 lbs person will. What will last, what will stay as your legacy, is how you've lived your life out and how you've treated those around you.

As some of you know, my dad passed away last year. He was an elder at his church so we naturally expected a decent amount of people at his memorial but nobody was prepared for the church to be completely packed out and having to bring in extra chairs. We weren't prepared for such a list of people wanting to talk about what he meant to them and actually had to cut it short. I say all that not to toot my dad's horn, but to mention that not one of them talked about the great shape he was in (and for a man in his mid-60s, he was in terrific shape before the cancer took hold). Time and time again, people would come up and tell how he helped them out. How he'd give them the shirt off his back if they needed it. How he would give up hours and even whole days to help out someone. How he lived with honor and integrity so that if he said he was going to do something, you could take it to the bank that if he was breathing, it was going to happen.


So while I do think working-out and eating right and getting fit are incredibly important, I just think it's important not to lose sight of the things that are a higher priority, of much greater importance. How you live your life out to others, how you treat others, the mark you leave on the world...for better or worse...that's what will live on, and that's what you should base your self-esteem and self-worth on.