I am so excited! I received an email yesterday from Women’s Health that proclaimed, “Get perfect in just eight weeks.” FINALLY…PERFECTION. I have waited quite a long time to be “perfect”. Although I am not quite sure what that would mean to me as I have good health, my family is well and my life is generally quite nice. But let’s face it, perfection is the ultimate. It is what we strive toward and if it is an option that will only take eight weeks to accomplish I am going for it.

Who knew that the solution to my imperfections would come inside an email with a subject line that read, “Drop Stubborn Pounds with the Ultimate Weight Loss Plan‏”? I normally wouldn’t even open such an email as it has a dampening effect on my donut enjoyment, but it did proclaim that it was the “ultimate” plan and that piqued my curiosity.

The ultimate weight loss plan – hmmm – eat right and exercise I am thinking. What else could it be? There is no magic pill that melts the pounds off while you eat bon bons on the couch. There is no undiscovered phenomenon that eating only from the dessert food group (that is one of the food groups right?) will trigger sudden dramatic weight loss. Isn’t this weight loss discussion pretty much summed up? Eat right and exercise – it doesn’t get any harder or easier than that.

The goal of the email was to sell two books, The Perfect Body Diet and The Perfect Body Workout. But they said right there at the top, “Get perfect in just eight weeks.” So I take from their email message that having a perfect body equates with perfection in totality – SWEET. If I had known this long ago I would have been eating broccoli hourly instead of twice annually.

I am not exactly sure what perfect would equate to these days for me. What makes for perfection?   I must tell you the thought stumps me. I am going to have to look up the definition right now on the handy-dandy online dictionary site…just give me a minute.

Thanks for waiting and sit down…here is what I found (if in doubt, see http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/perfection):

1 : the quality or state of being perfect: as a : freedom from fault or defect : flawlessness b : maturity c : the quality or state of being saintly
2 a : an exemplification of supreme excellence b : an unsurpassable degree of accuracy or excellence
3 : the act or process of perfecting

So tell me…did you see it? I am shocked – stunned – delighted…could it be true? The definition of perfection notes that maturity is a way in which one reaches the quality or state of being perfect. OMG! Stop the presses – how has this escaped me all these years? Just by maturing I have moved toward perfection? All these years of striving for it only to settle for the recognition that I am perfectly imperfect and here the truth is buried in the middle of the dictionary all along – amazing! Clearly I do not need to buy either book they are selling to be perfect I am automatically moving toward perfection already.

I must say that is a relief. I really don’t like broccoli and we are having donuts at the Expo this week. Now that I know that I am getting close to perfection I may just have two.

Day seventy-eight of the new forty – obla di obla da

CC