Wednesday 13 February 2013

Being inspirated

I admit it. I am a fan of the My Kitchen Rules show. The premise of the show is to create a restaurant in your own home and cook for two judges (well regarded chefs) and your fellow contestants, one from each state in Australia. Its a brutal show. You get a time clock for shopping, and one for cooking. You have to make everything from scratch. You have to decorate your place to a theme. And you get scored by the judges and by your 'peers' who want to win themselves, so often have the knife out ready to stab you in the back. It has angst, emotion, intrigue and drama. That is why I like it. And I am very glad I'm not a contestant. Kind of like that car crash you drive by, and are so happy its not you.

One of the contestants, who is, shall we say, a little academically challenged, was saying to her fellow dinner guests that she thought their Wonderland theme was beautiful, and she felt "Inspirated" by it. She was ridiculed both at the table, and in virtual twitter/facebook land today. The word even made the serious newspapers. However, I was quite taken by that word. It had a certain flavour to it, a bit of pizazz and interest.  Hence, I have been thinking all day how to Inspirate myself in this journey of weight shifting that I am on as I have felt decidedly flat and uninterested by it all of late.

So. The word Inspirated looks to me like this.

It means to revisit and reinvent.

So I took down my vision board that I had already created, and made two - one for revisiting and one for reinventing. Inspirated is a big word after all, and needs some room to move.

To revisit, I put up photos of all the running and sports events I have already participated in over the last few months. Four in total over six months. I had never been in a fun run or anything similar ever in my entire adult life for fear of being ridiculed or singled out. What a big shift. I also put up photos that people have taken of me over this journey. And even I can see the difference. I am noticeably lighter and so much happier and more confident. Revisiting has made me feel proud and reinvigorated. Definitely Inspirated.

To reinvent, a concept I have been struggling with as I battle my urge to return to old habits and give up on my goals, I  put up key quotes that I really value, along with pictures of people I laugh with, and play with. They tend to be the same people who light me up and keep me strong and supported. I have also created a space for printing my little graph of progress from the 12wbt transformation page, so that I can see how far I have already come, so that when the late-night chocolate is calling, I can quickly reference my fantastic (!) work so far. Reinventing has made me feel fresh and ready to go. Most definitely Inspirated.

Who would have thought a throw away line of a mispronounced word could mean quite so much. I'm Inspirated enough to suggest the word for the next Macquarie Dictionary edition.