Fortitude and Happy Vegetables

I just finished researching FORTITUDE, the d-day deception that led the Germans to believe that the true amphibious landing would take place at Pas-de-Calais instead of Normandy. The topic of my research was "lessons learned" for large scale deception operations and whether or not these lessons had been integrated into our current military deception doctrine. (yes, I know my life SEEMS exciting, I make it that way on purpose)

So, with my brain filled with double agents, enigma machines, and effective centralized planning and operations, I let my brain wander to the wordv FORTITUDE and whether or not I could successfully employ it as a SparkPeople blog topic and thus earn three SparkPoints.

Well, after much research and pondering, I've come to the conclusion that the word itself is overkill for my weight loss efforts...

Fortitude : strength of mind that enables a person to encounter danger or bear pain or adversity with courage

I would love to think that it takes fortitude and that I have it.

The strength of mind part is good, but this new diet/lifestyle doesn't seem to be dangerous, really isn't that painful, and isn't causing much adversity. The more I think of it, it is difficult just because people (like me) don't like to change. It requires less force not to change course. So if I just apply enough force to go into the right direction (eating the right things, exercising, drinking water) I should be able to continue in that direction, with little pain, little adversity, and little need for very much fortitude.

I did find a useful quote though. It does make the word fortitude sound like something I need, and better yet, it references ... vegetables!



“People need trouble -- a little frustration to sharpen the spirit on, toughen it. Artists do; I don't mean you need to live in a rat hole or gutter, but you have to learn FORTITUDE, endurance. Only vegetables are happy.” --William Faulkner