"Life is what happens when you're busy making other plans"

I am quoting John Lennon in my title but not happy about doing so.  Last Wednesday I swerved on my stairs to avoid stepping on my dog, Charlie, and broke my ankle.  Surgery last Sunday, home on Monday to my two-storey place.  Can't put any weight on my right leg for six weeks and limited mobility for another six weeks.  

As a result, I am taking three weeks off from seeing clients until the pain settles (not much, surprisingly) and I get more mobile on crutches.  It was indeed a shock to the system.

What does any of this have to do with eating, weight and emotions you might ask?  I spent three days in hospital, surrounded by injured, sick and dying people.  My problems are small fry compared to much of what goes on in a large, public hospital every day. (By the way, kudos to The Alfred Hospital - they do a lot with not a lot of money.)  But think about this:

• We tend to coast along through life taking for granted the things that are so important to us - health, mobility, access to our own home and so on.  

• We are frequently careless with our health and well-being, or we postpone the changes that will improve these essentials in our life.  

• We often go through each day without feeling any gratitude for what we have, just misery about what we don't have. 

• We generally live in a state of self-hatred about our perceived flaws (excess weight, binge eating behaviour, flabby thighs etc) 

To those of you recognise that you do any of the above actions, STOP RIGHT NOW!  Life is too short and our health too fragile to take for granted.

If you need to act differently, do so.  Get help for the bingeing.  Find better ways to deal with your emotions accept the discomfort of changing to a BETTER way of eating.  Put yourself first.  Be as compassionate and kind to yourself as you are to other people.

When I told a good friend of mine about the broken ankle, she said to me that "everything happens for a reason".  I'm trying that on for size at the moment, don't know yet how I feel about it.  But if that is the case, perhaps the reason is to appreciate health, appreciate life, appreciate daily ordinary things that are often taken for granted, and appreciate myself more with compassion and kindness.

Why don't you try that on for size, too?