Diving into a healthier summer

By Sonia Salfity
Desperate Dieter

If you’ve ever watched the Olympic Diving team, then you understand how precise the athletes have to be.

It is not enough that they know exactly when to push off the diving board, but they must keep a perfect form and enter the water without making a big splash.

I’ve always found it fascinating to observe the minute details that play into this sport. There are so many factors in play that would not be evident to the average viewer like you and me. Unless you were one of the judges, you wouldn’t know what details to look out for. What may look perfect to you may actually have many flaws.

Diving into our daily lives

I like to apply this concept to our own efforts to be healthy. After all, we desperate dieters have been training all our lives in this category. Sometimes I think we should get a gold medal for never giving up!

We dive into our daily lives with good intentions and good form. We have the right equipment on hand whether it’s healthy food in our kitchen pantry or a treadmill in our gym or living room. We start off like any athlete with all the desire in our hearts to do our best and hopefully reach our goal. We begin the process so encouraged that we even dare to go for the gold and not just the silver or bronze medals. Yet, like any athlete, without the mental focus, we will never reach our goals.

Mental focus

The older I get, the more I appreciate how essential mental focus is. It can make or break us, and like any good athlete, we learn from our failures more than from our successes. This means failure is part of the journey. It’s part of what makes us more resilient human beings who are willing to get back up on our feet only to find ourselves stronger than our previous attempts.

Keep moving on

It is during this cycle that we discover that we actually do have the grit it takes to keep moving forward and never giving up. The only difference is we are competing with our own selves. We each have a choice as we listen to our inner critic. We either get crushed when failures are revealed or we use the experience to learn from our mistakes. That’s the only way we could ever improve. 

Keep in mind that judges normally assign their numbers to many different categories and higher numbers are given to the more difficult athletic routines thus giving the athlete a higher ranking.

This means that when we observe our own efforts, we too need to look at all the different categories and understand that the harder the effort we make, the bigger the reward we receive.

For example, I might get a 10 out of 10 as far as eating within my daily caloric range, but I might get a five out of 10 for my efforts to drink enough water. I might get a nine for getting my cardio workout in and a seven for fitting in my weight-bearing exercises. I might give myself a six for getting enough greens in my daily intake, but not enough servings to make it a 10 out of 10. 

A quest to live healthier

The reason I like to separate these categories in my quest to live healthier is because it shows me that at any given time there are many moving parts. These parts are always fluctuating and ever so often I’ll get a 10 in each category, but the reality is that none of us can be perfect most of the time.

We slip. We fall. We cry. We get back up on our feet and fight like any good athlete. We are in this for the long haul so we’d better get used to brushing the dust off and trying over and over again. With each time, it will get easier because our bodies are resilient when our minds are focused.

The resilient mind

The opposite is also true. Our minds are resilient when our bodies are focused. When we eat healthier and move our bodies we notice the mental clarity that replaces the mental fog. If you don’t know what I’m talking about then you’re probably not a desperate dieter! All it takes is to eat some junk food and not only will you feel zoned out, but your brain will hardly focus on anything and your body will feel sluggish and as slow as a turtle.

No disrespect to turtles, as I love these precious creatures! Speaking of turtles, I believe it was the tortoise that won the race against the hare. Yep! The slow turtle never gave up while the rabbit thought it would take a nap since its opponent was as slow as they come. I’ve always loved that children’s story because the older I get the more I feel like that turtle.

Advancement on the scale or in my wardrobe department seems to progress ever so slowly. It’s like watching a movie in slow motion! But friends, as long as we’re making improvements in the right direction, then let’s keep going regardless of how excruciatingly slow the process can be. Here’s to a stronger, more resilient you and to the grit it takes to be in this journey for the long haul!

Reprinted with permission from Family Flavours magazine