From Cocoon to butterfly

Even the woodpecker owes his success to the fact that he uses his head and keeps pecking away until he finishes the job he starts. — Coleman Cox 

This is a good quote. I really like this. Makes me think about history, wars to be exact. So many of us know the big battles that it took to “win” the war but in fact, I feel that it wasn’t the big battle that won the war, it was all the little battles that happened before that set the stage for the victory for the last war. It is the little steps that matter, not the one last big step. It is the little steps that prepare us to win that one last battle toward victory. It is the little battles that teach the generals how to fight, what the weaknesses and strengths of the enemy is, where to fitgt and so on. Many of us start this plan with enormous pride and arrogance, yep, we are goin to do it, we are going to get this weight off. Much like the confederets during the war, they were very cocky, yep, we are going to win this war, we are going to beat back the northerners and so on. But they did this without using their heads, without thinking about the weaknesses and strengths the enemy would be using. The north won in the end. We are the same. Anyone can use their heart but it will only last so long, The passion will slowly die away in the face of that pie or chocolate. We have to be a general to our body. Ok, we want to lose wieght and we have to be in it for the long haul. Did General Sherman just up and quit when he lost a few battles? Nope, he learned from his mistakes and fought better. General Lee the same thing. Yes, we will make mistakes but we have to learn our enemy from this mistake. We have to learn how to fight those urges and cravings. Our body is our enemy at times, our mind is the battlefield and we have to be ready to go in there to win! Ok, how did I go from woodpecker to war? I guess it is much of the same concept. What makes a woodpecker choose a particular tree? The size of it? The height? Or just the color? No, he is looking for bugs, he can detect them and  starts to go after them. He knows he will not have the success right away. Those bugs burrow in that tree and are hard to catch but he keeps at it, using his head. We know where our bugs are, bugs of chocolate, cheesecake or just late night eating /stress eating. We must whittle away at the defenses and get rid of that bug. We can’t quit when tims get rough as they will but we have to keep going. Weight is the same thing. I occasionally peruse through some of the boards around here and I will see a common theme come up among some, why am I not losing fast enough, why is it taking so long and so on. We have to keep pecking away. No one even noticed my weight loss till I lost about 80 pounds! It doesn’t matter, what matters is to k3eep going! Never stopping till it is done. The woodpecke4r doesn’;t use an axe to chop the tree down, he slowly chps at it It seems to take a long time but time doesn’t mattr to him becxause he is on a quest and he is going to do it, there is no doubt in his mind that he will do it. We have to be the same way. There is no magic pill nor food we can eat that will “chop” the weight off of us. We have to chip away. Sure, the beginning seems like it takes forever but by and by, it does add up. When I first started, having my avi8 at “on my way” which means, 0 lose. It killed me but chipping away at it, little by little, it has slowly added up the pile of wood chips till they now number over 95, that is pecking away. No matter what, keep it in front of you, you will get to it!