Life’s a Puzzle

One of my real non-food related guilty pleasure is playing jigsaw puzzles.  I say playing rather than the more conventional “working” a puzzle because I don’t know anyone who gets paid to put together jigsaws and it can only be work if someone, somewhere gets paid.

While doing some Christmas shopping I came upon two 1000 piece puzzles that were severally marked down so I gave them to myself.  I had to be particularly restrained not to break one out during the holiday, but I knew in the back of my head as soon as Christmas was cleaned up and put away I could reward myself with some puzzle time.

Last week when I was finally well enough to do more than lie in bed, but not so well that I wanted to leave the house I decided it was the perfect time for mindless puzzle play.  As I flipped the pieces over, spreading them out on the game table in the living room, looking for edges it dawned on me that doing a puzzle is very similar to trying to get a better body.

The easy part is the beginning.  In puzzle making I look for corners and the edges, studying the picture on the box I begin to form the outline.  It goes fairly quickly and I have some quick success.  But then I usually hit a bump in the road when I can’t quite complete the whole perimeter.  I search through all the pieces I have designated as non-edges looking for those missing few.

Eventually I get a tape measure out to see how far off the dimensions I am.  I then run my fingers along the edge of the pieces I have put together looking for any slight imperfections which might indicate I have mistakenly attached two together that don’t belong.  The quick wins of the beginning slow to a snails pace and I feel I am not making any progress.  Eventually I find my mistake and begin to work into the middle doing something easy, like words.

I often find that in order to have the most success I have to not make assumptions about exactly the piece I am looking for.  Puzzle makers love to cut shapes that disguise the identity of an adjoining piece.  Even if I think the white shape is continuing and I search and search for a piece with some white I may be wrong and the white might end right where the piece was divided from it’s mate.  Giving up on one area when I hit a roadblock and moving to another is my best strategy for whittling down the giant pile of unattached pieces and getting a feeling of accomplishment.

Here is how puzzle making is like dieting.  The beginning is easy.  You hardly have to work very hard to lose some weight, just like looking for edge pieces.  But eventually forward progress slows down to a snails pace and frustration sets in.  In dieting, like puzzle solving you have to change up how you are working something to kick start progress.  Looking at the situation differently sometimes brings success.  Walking away and coming back can give you a new perspective.  Not giving up is the real key to success.

So when eating the same combinations of food or same amount or number of calories stops working I have to try something new to get a different result.

Just like doing a puzzle the satisfaction comes with every piece that finds it right home like every pound that is lost is a win of its own.  You don’t have to wait until you have completed the whole picture or reached your eventual goal weight to feel happy about your progress.  It is the journey and not the final product where you find gratification.  Isn’t life one big puzzle after all?