One day my son Kyle came into my office and asked if he thought if he should take a break from his study and go to the park. It was a beautiful fall afternoon and the park was calling his name. Now this is not as simple a decision as it might sound. You never know what a park or picnic might hold. Both my father and I met our wives as at church picnics so you want to think twice before you stay home with your head in a thick textbook on “Environment, Humanities and the Race to Save the Planet,” while some other guy is hangin’ out with all the pretty girls. Anyway he wanted to know what to do and the advice I gave him is relevant to all who would achieve goals of any kind, including weight management goals.
Here is what I said, “If a yes is big enough you have to be willing to say a thousand “no’s” to get to it.” In other words if you want to be able to say yes to a bachelor’s degree all you have to do is say “no” about a thousand times. You have to say no to some trips to the park. You have to say no to some weekend camping trips. You have to say no to watching videos with your friends some. You have to say no to some shopping and some conversations and some phone calls and some money-making jobs. You have to say no to other good opportunities that maybe someday you will say yes to, but to get to the yes that you especially value you have to say a lot of no’s.
If you want to say yes to good health, reasonable weight, low cholesterol, and a healthy heart, you have to say know to hundreds of servings of pies and cake and rich treats and large portions and fat, fat, fat things covered in fat things cooked in fat things and served with fat things. You just plain have to say no hundreds and hundreds of times. You have to get good at saying no. You have to make saying no a habit.
When you are sitting beside a steaming cup of black coffee early in the morning reading your Bible and the camp cook slides hot and fresh from the oven her patented, coveted, celebrated cinnamon roll the size of a small continent slathered in rich white frosting you just plain have to say no to that. Or if you really want to you can just say yes to being huge (one big cinnamon roll) the rest of your life…if your willing to risk it being a short life.
