My Journey With Weight Loss – Paying It Forward

Yesterday was my walk with the senior’s group. We have finally picked a route for a good walk that has relatively little traffic meaning we can have conversations along the way. This week I had remembered to buy some wild bird food as near the end of our walk we go through a park area that has a pond and there are always ducks in the pond. It was so much fun watching as the dozen or so ducks realized food was been tossed towards them and eventually they had all come over to me. The problem was I gave that first group all the food not remembering that there are 2 other small ponds in that park. I can already see that next week I’ll be taking way more bird food.

My husband has been taking my lead and greeting people as we go on our walks together. He agrees that it makes you feel good to smile and say hello. He also has been paying attention when I talk about the running community being so supportive and now when he sees a runner he calls out to them. He told me, you are right, they always thank you when you encourage them.

Tuesday we went for a walk along the promenade. It was a beautiful afternoon so we decided to walk out to the end of the pier as well. Just as we were back at the promenade I saw a young women sprinting hard. I saw myself in her, trying to get fit and pushing as hard as she could. As she approached us she stopped running and you could see from the look on her face that she had done a hard workout. I shouted out good job! It was such a good feeling watching her face change from hard concentration to pride. Because I have been there I know that those 2 words of encouragement can mean so much when you are working hard to improve yourself.

There’s a woman who I would occasionally see when I was out walking the dog in our neighbourhood. She was a bit overweight and while she was running, like me when I started out, she was slow. Every time I saw her I would shout out good job! The first few times she seemed confused but then she understood I wasn’t mocking or being sarcastic, I was trying to be encouraging. After a few more shout outs she started shouting back how far she was running. I think she realized I too am a runner and only wanted to help.

I do this because especially when I first started doing full runs it was that encouragement that sometimes kept me going when I was talking myself into quitting. Now, I want to be the one helping to lift people up and let them know that they can do this. I know they can, because I can.