"Only"

WARNING!!! I'm now putting on my nutrition/fitness hat. I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about the use of the word "only" and what a negative meaning that 4-letter word can have or imply.
"I only lost 2 pounds." "I was only able to get a 20 minute workout in today."

How depressing and deflating those statements can be. Since I have been providing some help and guidance (hopefully encouragement too) to an online diet group, members have been reporting in their individual weight losses and I must say they've been doing GREAT! But it saddens me when I see the "I only lost x pounds". ONLY? No it should be emphatically "I LOST X POUNDS!" Woman beat themselves up enough as it is and unfairly compare themselves to others that maybe the "only" comes in response to not feeling as successful as the others that may have lost more. One of the members of the group, provided a great visual when she said she likes to look at the weight loss in sticks of butter. 4 sticks of butter = 1 pound of weight. Awesome way to look at it! Next time you "only" lose 5 pounds, go buy a 5# bag of potatoes and carry them around for an hour. How do you feel about the 5 pounds now? There is no belittling the weight loss, rejoice in every ounce that is gone and consider it banished!

Only a 20 minute workout? Well that's a heck of a lot better than zero minutes! Don't diminish the work put into the workout with an "if only" kind of a statement. Positive outlooks and thoughts will produce positive results with the desire to keep on keeping on!