As much as I want to focus on just one thing at a time, it never seems to happen that way. In the blink of an eye, many things are happening all at once. Sometimes I do not even notice what type of COMBINATION is occurring.
In chess, a tactical approach of forced moves to exploit a player’s POSITION in order to gain an ADVANTAGE is called a COMBINATION.
I often Refract on two major stages of my life: Pre-TOPS and TOPS-Now. Nowadays I can see that as much as I tried to stick just to one thing, it takes a COMBINATION of efforts to achieve the goal of getting the upper hand on the battle against obesity.
Pre-TOPS, I would just try to exercise to lose weight, but eat anything I wanted. After all, I thought that because I was moving more, my body would burn those extra calories. When that did not work well, I would cut way back on calories, but would just sit there and not exercise. Moderate and unsustainable success did occur, but it really was not a great STRATEGY.
The TOPS-Now stage showed me that true success goes beyond a simple COMBINATION of portion control and increased physical activity. It is not just “eat less, move more.” With so many things happening all at once, it requires a thoughtful COMBINATION of right moves to fight the good fight.
Many factors can blend into our lives that can affect our weight. Genetics, stress, emotions, sleep issues, fads, work, play, illness and crazy schedules all can seem to happen in a small period of time. Think about the circus performer who has mastered plate spinning. While it is difficult to keep all the plates spinning at once, he has learned how many items he can keep going to avoid having any crashes. This is how I need to approach my STRATEGY.
A planned COMBINATION of items that I can manage will give me an ADVANTAGE against the ones that are truly out of my control. My frustration comes from the fact that the right COMBINATION works for a time, then I start to struggle again. Just like the plate spinner, you have to learn and adjust how many items you need to keep in your COMBINATION.
Your words, Mr. Danforth are spot on!! Thanks for sharing your unique prospective.