Learning from Magicians

Well, our Project Transformation experience has formally come to a close. Tomorrow night we have our farewell party, and officially fly out of the nest. We have all taken our final tests, received our final results, met with our trainers who have sent us on our way with instructions, met to prepare and eat Breakfast for Performance, received recipes and learned what our bod pod results were. Some of us will continue at CHLI, and some of us will go to other gyms, hike and walk on our own, join classes in yoga and dance, and do other healthy things.
But for myself, while I am flying solo, I will be thinking of the magic that this program has wrought on not only me but all of us. I can't imagine that any of us are going to walk out of the hotel tomorrow night feeling like the same person we were when we walked in. My son-in-law reminded me on Saturday how ambivalent I was as I entered the contest. Not about how good an experience it would be, but whether I would be up to it. I think we all walked in with doubts about ourselves, and I think that I can detect that our physical muscles were not the only ones that were built in the course of the program. In mulling over what I have learned, in addition to the obvious instruction in nutrition and physical training, I have learned, as I told Dr Barr, to say both "yes" and "no". I have learned that when I am offered some water by someone who will go and get it and bring it to me, there is nothing wrong with saying "yes, thanks". There is nothing selfish about letting someone else take good care of you, and then you can return the favor sometime. There is nothing wrong with being pampered, with feeling good, with looking good, and with feeling the power of accomplishment. There is also the important "no" that I have learned. Saying no to overload, or overwhelm, or overcommitment is good for neither the body, nor the psyche, nor the job that needs to get done well.
When we started, I was in a place where I never said no. One of the reasons I stated about wanting to be chosen was that I wanted it to be my turn for a change. I had always felt that it was as if I were in a line, and as the people in the line had their needs met, they stepped to the back and waited for their turn to come again, but when I got to the front, someone else always seemed to have a more urgent need than mine, and I stepped to the rear without ever having my needs met. Project Transformation was a way to get my most important needs met, the way to learn to take really good care of myself, and --surprise!--in doing that to take really good care of the people in my life. From what we have discussed briefly, the other people in the program had similar experiences. Some families are eating at home more, have jettisoned fast food from their diets, are incorporating more exercise into their days, and are more aware of what they eat, what's in it, and how it will help or hurt their goals for themselves.
So all that I can say is that the Magicians of Project Transformation have waved their magic wands, and given us gifts that will stay with us all our lives, hopefully now that will be all of our healthy lives, and the magic dust that has fallen on us was so generous and plentiful, that others have benefited as well.
We have been given the gifts of SMART goals, Kaizen Steps, learning the value of restful sleep and breakfast, label reading, and portion control. Is there any way to say 'Thank you' to magicians, except to be ambassadors of living well and healthily, to being living examples of all that has been taught and given to us so generously?
And one more thing, and not a small thing at that. The Four Seasons hotel has made us welcome with smiles and greetings and feelings of welcome from the beginning, from the door personnel, to the locker room attendants and the pool personnel. Each thing that we have experienced, from the Spa, the massages, the healing sessions with Barbara, and the makeovers with Billy has been more (dare I say?) icing on a very lavish and amazing cake.
I hope to continue my blog and keep my readers apprised of what I am doing and how I have taken the lessons of Project Transformation and use them in my everyday life. I pledge to keep everyone informed as to my progress. It will be one of the many forms of accountability that I will be working into my daily program of self improvement.
To my faithful readers, thanks for sticking with me. Hope you have enjoyed the journey as much as I have. It's far from over.
And to the Magicians at CHLI and the Four Seasons hotel, Thanks for the ride.