Don’t Let Age Dictate Who You Are

A client came into me recently. Women in her 50’s who has reached her goal weight and has gotten down to a number she had never seen in her lifetime. Her new number of 125 lbs at 5’ 7” at 53 years old was beyond her belief. She looks amazing. She wasn’t too thin and she didn’t have a gaunt face and all the things you hear – simply not true. When you eat healthy and clean it’s a very healthy thin look you get in return. She looked absolutely gorgeous and young! As I always say, and it is clear to those who experience it – Being overweight doesn’t only make you feel older it makes you look older. To say the very least she has been over the top thrilled with her new body and weight. The journey is just as exciting for me as it is for the client. Watching someone transform and see week after week layers of fat disappear always result each week in beautiful features that were hidden by unhealthy eating and weight gain. Was it easy for her? Sometimes it was and sometimes it wasn’t. Like us all, she had good and bad days. And sometimes a good or bad week. But we always pulled her back on track and right back into eating healthy and eating for weight loss. My very important point is what she said to me when I spoke to her this week.   

 

She said “I am almost mad at myself that when I came in to see you for the first time at a 163 pounds that I was willing to settle for that. I was willing to settle for a number because I was older. Because I hit menopause, because I didn’t think I was capable of looking or feeling like I did when I was younger. And after going from 163 to 125 the truth is, I feel better and look better than I ever have. I don’t remember feeling or looking this way when I was in my 30s or 40s. I am beyond excited and happy and my age means nothing now compared to how I feel and look today.”  

 

I got very choked up because what got me the most about what she said was that she was “willing to settle”. She was willing to settle for unhappiness. She was older and heavier and she was going to let her age dictate who she was and how she felt. That would have been so sad if that happened. That would have been so wasteful had she not took that one last chance.   

 

Now I want you to see what I saw the last couple of months. Because what I see is the same as what the world sees. I first met her and she looked older, tired, uncomfortable, in a negative state because like most clients, she tried everything and was sure nothing would work. But most important she clearly wasn’t happy – she was sad that this is who she became. She no longer even felt young on the inside because the outside had clearly taken over. But each week she worked hard. She lost weight and continued to follow her program. There were times she struggled and other times it was effortless. She came in week after week and I would see cheekbones that weren’t there before and collarbones that were once hidden. A beautiful smile that I didn’t even know existed when I first met her. Every week her transformation went from little changes to big changes. In the last couple of months I have seen this sad, unhappy, unhealthy women transform from an “Eeyore” into a “Tigger” and it wasn’t only her body that transformed it was her life as well. She began living like a young woman and not an older lady. Every week she would get brighter and brighter. She started doing things that she once kept putting off because she didn’t feel good. Activities that she never considered because she overweight all of a sudden became part of her life. She started dressing younger, classy and stylish. She wore her clothes, her clothes did not wear her. When she first started she looked like she was ready to throw in the towel and live unhappy and now only a couple of months later it was clear that her life has just begun again. And I can’t help but think how sad if she settled. How sad that her life could have very well ended earlier than it should have. And by earlier I mean in spirit. Just because we are alive doesn’t mean we are living.  

 

So what I am asking you today on Monday morning…Do you want to settle for where you are? Will you let life’s excuses – age, school, work, family, friends, etc…dictate who you are and where you want to be? Or are you willing to make the changes, work hard, and even be a little uncomfortable if it’s going to get you to a place of joy, happiness, healthy and being thin? A place where you feel and look younger because you are younger than what you look and feel like today! A place where dressing in your clothes is effortless and enjoyable. Are you willing to work hard and make the changes so you have control of where you are going and where you will end up? This is the question I want you to ask yourself every day when you wake up. Are you willing to settle? Or are you willing to work hard to get back to where you were or even better place than you have ever been…Because what you want out of life is in your reach. What you put into your life is what you will get out of it. You just can’t give up and you can never settle.