This Life

General Conference Day Two

In the laity address, one of the speakers talked about his personal health transformation.  He is a doctor and he said that his patients did not take him seriously about his advice on diet and exercise as they saw that he was not living it himself.  But once he lost the weight and totally remade his health habits, he noted that his patients began asking him what he was doing.  He didn’t need to preach, just embody the change for change to happen.

I can relate to that.  I underwent my own health transformation, losing 75 pounds, and maintaining my healthy way of life for close to two years now.  What has surprised me the most is how many people have told me that I have been an inspiration to them and they started on their own journey as well.  Now, I have not kept my story a secrett, but neither was I preaching to everyone I meet about why they need to exercise and practice portion control.  The visible changes in my life spoke for itself.

So what I have learned about this process of transformation is that it is hard work and a daily discipline.  I got the sense as people asked me what I did to lose the weight, they were looking for some secret that would change everything for them.  I simply said I ate less and exercised more, and I did it as a way of life.  They seemed disappointed with my answer.  They already knew that, but for some reason, were not ready or able to commit to it.  There is no quick fix to transformation.  It is choosing to do different things and to do them everyday.  And that was my biggest aha as I moved into maintenance.  I could not go back to the way it was before.  I had to keep doing what I had done to lose the weight to keep it off.  I had to choose these habits for my life…which is why I was out running at 6am this morning even when we have 13 hour days here.

So here is the connection to General Conference.  We are hearing messages of needing to change, and how the disciples went to follow Jesus immediately.  And then we spent hours debating the rules of the general conference, only to finally adopt them as printed.  We are preaching one message, but our daily habits suggest that we really don’t have a desire to do things differently.  So how possiible is transformation really?