The difference between "maintenance" and "permanent"

Recently I've become less tolerant of this idea that I'm "maintaining" my weight loss. So much so that my blog description exchanges this idea of "maintenance" to one of "permanence". I will never be fat again. I will never be that unhealthy again. I will never be unfit again...I just will never be those things, ever again.....period. If that is not permanent then I don't know what is!

I am not the same person I once was. And let me point out something....there was nothing "wrong" with me before. I needed what I needed, when I needed it.....but now I need something else....I've moved on. Part of my evolution is deciding what it is that I need, and want now.

I'm so lucky. I'm so lucky because I know I'm lucky! Lucky is fun!

What I need and want now is "space". Space to expand my potential. My original blog had, I think, three title changes, the first I can't remember at this moment! The second was "Rediscovering Strength" and the 3rd, "Living My Physical Potential". It was the best I could come up with at each transition to describe what I was feeling at the time.

This blog has gone through it's own changes, the last just recently updated about 1-2 months ago, and who knows how many changes will take place in the future. The point is that things change whether you want them to or not. Life moves. You can chose to be a victim of what life deals out to you, or you can chose to be the dealer....

I'm in charge now! I'm in charge of not making excuses, and I'm in charge of only expecting the best of myself.....and it doesn't feel "hard". It feels exhilarating! As I clear the physical space around me I expand my physical possibilities, and this is how everything I do in my life relates to being my best.

Think of "thriving", instead of "surviving". We did not come here (in our physical bodies) to "survive". We came here to thrive. I'm not maintaining being my best, and I'm not surviving being my "worst". I am permanently hooked on being and feeling my best, and I know the difference! This doesn't mean that I never "react" to old habits, it just means that I recognize them for what they are.....old habits!

I am a different person than I was 10 years ago, and 10 years before that, and 10 years before that.... I am not "maintaining" the old me, I'm living the "new improved" me! Permanently!

Pictures above....could this be the same woman? Left side picture, Oct 2011 taken with my BFF Fawn Friday in St Paul MN. Right side picture, Easter 2004, over 250lbs, at a family reunion, Moorpark Ca.