Silencing "The Voice"

Day 2



Thanks to everyone who responded to my blog appearing on Facebook yesterday. It was very encouraging to hear from so many friends! I hope everyone who reads it can take something away for his or her own use.



As I said yesterday, I'm not exactly sure what all I want to include here. The main motivation was to post my progress (kind of like a diary) with weight loss. Another area of my life that is actually very much intertwined with weight is my faith life. Over the years it has been true for me that when I am disciplined in my spiritual life (prayer, Bible reading, etc.), it is much easier to stick to a good eating and exercise plan. When one of these areas breaks down, the other is quick to follow. By no means do I want to set myself up as any kind of teacher/lecturer on the topics of weight and faith, but these are two areas that will definitely be covered. Please feel free to let me know if I'm getting too big for my britches!



This morning while responding to encouraging words from a friend I came to a dead stop because I realized that I was getting ready to write something that was a put down to myself. Unfortunately, those come very easily. It was a real effort not to put it in there.



Almost as soon as I posted yesterday's blog "The Voice", as Geneen Roth writes about in her book Women, Food and God, started in. The tirade goes something like this: "Who do you think will read your blog? What makes you think you can do this? What if something goes wrong and you pick up and spread some kind of virus? How full of yourself can you be to write about yourself as if anyone else will care about your weight loss? How are you going to look when, just like every other time you've started out with high hopes, you give up and gain it all back?" I've never been much of a risk taker. Playing it safe could be the motto for my life. If I don't step out and take a risk, I can't fail. And not failing, above all else, is what's important. There is no room for that kind of thinking anymore. A huge part of the job of losing this weight will be to risk failure and silence The Voice.