Check this out: a species of Chinese Bamboo that begins growing the minute you plant it. It continues to grow–underground. It takes years before it breaks through the surface of the soil. But once it does, it can grow up to 18 feet the first year! What a root system!
That’s exactly how we should think about repair of our bodies. If you made a resolution this year to do something about your health, or your weight, or you appearance, and you went strong in January, tapered off a bit in February, and now you’re just not so into it, consider this: We are constantly growing new cells to replace the dying cells in our system and in our structure. But it takes the body months to replace a system’s cells. About 90 days just to re-do your blood cells. Your skeleton? About 10 months.
So if you decide to get healthy or lose weight or change your jean’s size but become discouraged after only 2 or 3 months, you haven’t really given your body a fair chance to get it done. Permanent change, ie. adaptation, happens slowly. The good news is, we always adapt. The bad news is, we always adapt! The body doesn’t discriminate. It adapts to whatever you ask it to, the more slowly the better. If the change happens too rapidly, the adaptation isn’t going to “stick” because your body’s “root system” can’t support it.
The moral to the story? Patience. And perseverance. Those are probably good qualities to hone no matter what project you’re working on, but especially when you’re after a body makeover. When you finally break through, you’ll be glad you waited!
corematters