For Today: August 18th

To take what there is, and use it, without waiting forever in vain for the preconceived---to dig deep into the actual and get something out of that----this doubtless is the way to live.

Henry James

Life offers me treasures beyond imagining, here and now.  They are there for me to take and use with the God-given talents and skills and energy I possess today.

My enthusiasm is the digging tool. I dig into the actual for the sheer love of digging; therefore, the fact that there may be something better tomorrow is irrelevant.  I will be here, digging into life and getting something out of it today.  Nothing can beat that.

For Today:  The right way to live is to live as fully as I can today; to take what possibilities there are and make of them what I can.

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As a practicing compulsive overeater, I lived for tomorrow.  Tomorrow was when life would be great & perfect, when I would be thin, when all my dreams would come true.

Trouble was, those ‘dreams’ were unrealistic; those dreams were fantasies.  The life I wanted wasn’t within my grasp because I refused to DO the footwork to GET that life.

Smoke and mirrors and illusions are contained in Tomorrow.

All I have is TODAY and I refuse to live in the past or in the future.  NOW is where it’s at.

For a great many years, I HAD to have something to look forward to………..you know that old expression?  Mainly, I used excess food & elaborate recipes as something to look forward to.  A reward after a long day at work or relief from the boredom of having nothing to do.

I used food as a REWARD.  And wow what a PRIZE it was!  I rewarded myself for all the indignities of life I suffered (usually at someone else’s hand………….) by ballooning up to 225 lbs, giving myself high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chronic health issues of all kinds and a general lethargy that would NOT quit.

Some reward, eh?

Nowadays, I recognize the REAL reward of abstinence & a controlled food intake.  The new reward is that I can look forward to a brand new day every morning when I wake up, NOT knowing exactly what it will bring, but having the knowledge that SOMETHING fantastic will happen! The new reward is good health with NO medications, a lovely small sized wardrobe that makes me feel BEAUTIFUL to wear; the relief from obsession with food, the simple JOY of being alive!