Picture it …the 1985 and highly impressionable version of me in my sweetly naive ‘I’ve got life by the tail’ repose. Vital stats at the time: 100-lb. weightloss, check! Golden tan, check! Approval from the world, check! Self-esteem…M.I.A.

Fixing the external only is meaningless. Internally, I was unsatisfied, adrift, confused, and in utter shock that dropping the weight didn’t magically bestow happiness upon me as had been the implication. Backsliding, bewilderment, regaining the weight plus more, feeling like a royal screw-up, and diving back into destructive eating patterns were inevitable. How else could have I found the real way to health and balance? 

Unbeknownst to me, that fateful August afternoon, there were many lessons to be lived. As I let the cascade of compliments from everyone around me bounce off my inner-turmoil, I knew I had only just begun to tap into the Truth.

Appearances can be deceiving…