Determined To Succeed

Have you guys ever heard the phrase “if wishes were fishes?” Throughout my adult life I’ve heard that phrase, albeit it in this abbreviated form. Now, carried through to it’s first-line conclusion – “if wishes were fishes then beggars would eat.” It’s meaning becomes more plain especially when it comes to weight loss.

As I’ve come to learn the phrase actually comes or was borrowed from the not so common used, but much more original nursery rhyme from Scotland;

If wishes were horses then beggars would ride,

If turnips were swords I’d have one by my side.

If ‘ifs’ and ‘ands’ were pots and pans

There would be no need for tinkers hands!

So why am I quoting Scottish and English proverbs so late on a Saturday morning? Because of what they mean to weight loss. Both versions suggest that it is useless to wish and better results will be achieved through action. And ain’t that the truth. Because it’s pointless to wish there’d be no weight repercussions from eating such calorie-rich food, like the foods yours truly did yesterday.

Now, to be fair, I brought this on myself. There isn’t any way on this earth I could eat what is know in the south as a cracklin’ (basically a “fresher,” if there is such a thing, version of a pork rind), pulled BBQ pork, pie and five-way chili without repercussions. But dammit! Why can’t we just wish calories and extra weight away? I’d love to be able to eat my favorite foods, or experience new ones (I have nooooo idea how many of those Food Network stars stay so thin – they must go to work then work out when the cameras shut off), without gaining weight? I’d love to be able to eat like a teenager again and not have to worry about what this piece of bread or that piece of pie would do to this flabby arm or this right thigh.

Hey, I’m a poet and didn’t know it.

So as I get such a late start to this Saturday I am going to step out of the land of make believe and not ”wish like fish,” even though I did come up with my own version:

While it is fun to wish sometimes, Samuel L. Jackson says it best in “Pulp Fiction,” “That s–t ain’t the truth.” Weight loss is a constant thing we do and have to keep doing. We simply can’t wish extra pounds away. If we could do that we’d all be thin and have the perfect bodies we all want. We’d all not have to rely on will power, counting calories, portion control and exercise to keep weight off. We’d just wish it away into some other time and place leaving ourselves free of the after-effects of such a bad food journey.

But today (sigh) I will forgive myself the extra pounds from this weekend (and the subsequent food hangover that usually accompanies it) and I will (WILL) get back to being “this/close” to fighting the weight loss “Battle of the Final Ten.” I will, I tell you, because I’d rather have the rewards of hard work and determination than fish any day.