Good to be back, but what's the point of continuing?

Hi everybody,

As some of you know I have been fairly busy over the past couple of weeks completing a commission which proved to be a larger project than the one I was expecting.

The commission was to write a set of 24 piano pieces one in each of the twelve major and minor keys in a romantic minimalist style with a rage of difficulty from the grade five level to a diploma level. The completed project consists of 140 pages of piano score and when played from beginning to end the pieces in total have a duration of just under two hours. I have so far played several of them in public at Killerton house, a national trust property just a few miles north of Exeter that proudly possesses a very nice concert Bechstein piano that members of the public who can play are allowed to do so. Six of the new pieces I performed there were met very enthusiastically by an unsuspecting public who until they asked me had no idea that I had written them. Jane and my three children were also there mixing with members of the public whilst I was performing them getting general opinions, listening to their comments and they all seemed to be very favourable. This has in due course added more confidence for me in these pieces so part of me knows they should be warmly received when they are delivered.

I have had many nights working to three and four in the morning getting this task competed and consequently have not managed to get into here in order to see how things have been going. Until this project took over I had been in here virtually every day since the beginning of September so you can imagine I have really quite missed you all. The messages I have received from you all have been lovely and encouraging as well as caring and supportive and for this I cannot thank you all enough.

Also today has been the 1st of March and it marks a year since I started doing something physically about my weight loss. Now admittedly my weight has plateaued since Christmas and it feels as if I have not made any progress since then it can be very easy to begin to think negatively about things not working any more and then thinking "What's the point of continuing?" Having plateaued for this long it is a question I have had to keep on dealing with almost every day, especially when after another week I know things have yet again not changed for the better.

As I have now been on this for a year I feel I have now got a somewhat bigger picture and when I look at that picture and compare how I am today to how I was this time last year then the improvements in my life give me every reason to have every point to want to continue this.

Even if I go another year plateauing the quality of the health I have today is so much better than it was a year ago.

A year ago - I weighed 90 pounds more than I do today.

A year ago - My waist was 12 inches larger than it is today.

A year ago - I got out of breath walking upstairs at home - today I can run up my stairs.

A year ago - My knees hurt when I walked down stairs, today my knees are fine.

A year ago - Owing to my sweet tooth Strawberries tasted bitter, today they are very sweet.

A year ago - My shirt size was 19.5, it is a size 17 today.

A year ago - I could only buy clothes in oversized shops - I can shop anywhere today.

A year ago - I was ashamed of my appearance - today I am rather happy with it.

A year ago - My diabetic risk was very high, today it is moderate to low.

A year ago - I needed seat-belt extensions when I flew anywhere - today I don't

This is just ten - but I could easily extend this list to over a hundred without thinking too hard about it.

I no doubt some of you from time to time have asked yourself "What's the point of continuing?"

If you have I can highly recommend you do what I have done and look at the bigger picture. No matter how slow things move at times never take your eye off where you could have been if you never started to try to make a difference from the way you were in the first place. Owing to a decision you have made in the past to improve your situation you are today in a better situation than you were then, not only physically in your body, but mentally within your mind.

Now I am back in here I look forward to commenting on a lot of your blogs that I have not done over the past two weeks and getting back with you all and catching up with everybody.

Cheers and special love to you all,

Trev