In for a Penny, in for a Pound...

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nickdemarco
nickdemarco Posts: 61 Member
Consider the lowly penny. Nobody wants this copper-hued circle of meaningless weight to burden their pocket or pocketbook. We go out of our way to rid ourselves of these obsolescent coins at every turn. A few of these can buy... really nothing in today's day and age. Arguably, the penny isn't even worth one cent anymore.

Grab a penny, if one's close by. Stare at it. There's Lincoln, no matter which side you look at it (at least on the traditional late 20th century pennies). Seems worthless, right?

Now, consider assigning a new meaning to the pennies you encounter in the course of your life. If you have weight to lose, allocate and assign a penny to each pound you must lose. Lincoln freed the slaves, and arguably we're slaves to our extra pounds...

Perhaps place a small pile of them into a "Lose a Pound, Take a Penny, Gain a Pound, Add a Penny" dish or ashtray somewhere in your home. Every time you successfully shed an unwanted pound, remove a penny from the dish. If you gain weight, you'll be honor-bound to throw a penny into the pile for each added pound.

Don't even start with a lot. Ask any bank for a roll of pennies. It'll cost you 50 cents, and you'll get... 50 pennies. Lose those, or even less than that, to start. (Don't worry, the mint will make more...)

If you wish, make this part of your support group or a motivational tool among your small group of fellow weight watchers. Put out a coin dish with a "Take a Penny/Leave a Penny" sign at your meeting for all to participate. You can even make a game of it. Invent rules like: For each pound (penny) lost, set aside $5 to buy an extravagance, such as a dream vacation or new music CD, but for each pound gained, donate $5 to the American Diabetes Association. Get creative, make it fun.

Most importantly, each time we see the lowly penny, it will now represent our efforts to rid ourselves of the excess pounds that take up needless space on our bodies, annoy us, and weigh us down, but that don't really serve much other purpose...

...Just like a penny!

There. I've put my two cents in... Good luck!

Nick

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