Why I am NOT having surgery

When I began the year, I knew that focusing on my health was going to be priority #1. I have lost weight before, it isn't that I don't know how; but I gained it back every time. I thought that my will power was the issue, so after finding a nutritionist and specialist, we agreed that surgery was the best option. The journey continued on that path for several months.

Then a week before surgery I had an epiphany (you can read about it in an earlier post) that made me begin to look at myself and my thoughts in a whole new way. I was finally able to actually SEE and HEAR the problem. Some much needed soul searching later (also in another post), I came to the conclusion that it wasn't surgery I needed. It was a nutritionist and the simple word NO.

The plan, though, needs a few more details that that. The way my brain thought was this:

NORMALLY when you "start a diet" you remove items from your diet, feel deprived, lose weight, eventually rebound and then decide you don't have the willpower to be healthy.

REALITY can be this: Spend 10 days on the "shake" or "pre-surgery" diet. This means you drink up to 5 shakes a day (I like the GNC Total Lean chocolate or vanilla - add cold coffee to the vanilla for a latte!). You can also have non-starchy veggies. After 10 days on them, you've taken yourself to zero in terms of having the foods you are used to. That way, when you begin to add foods back in, you feel happy! You are ADDING, not subtracting!

If you just add in what is healthy, then you're set up for a lifetime of health! Before the 10 days, say goodbye to all the foods you love...have soda, have bread, have candy; have anything and everything that you love and enjoy the memory of having your last one ever.

Then when your 10 days is up, NEVER add them back in. Start fresh, like a baby, and add in only the foods you know are good for you. This can include "snack" foods as long as they are healthy and not something that you LOVE. If you ever feel yourself slip, just pop back onto the 10 days of shakes and reset again.

*You shouldn't LOVE a food. It's food. That's not what it's for. If you need it because you love it, you need a therapist, not surgery. If you disagree or become angry by that statement, focus on that thought. What is angry? Why? Is it not true? Why are you deriving pleasure from food? Why do you think that's normal or okay?

Now try this...tell that thought to leave you alone. Tell it that you do not accept it's pathetic attempt to gain pleasure from food and that life is much bigger, richer and more amazing than a cookie (or french fry, or chip, or cake...you decide). What did that cookie ever give you? Did it REALLY make you happy? Did one ever feel like enough?

You know what DOES feel like enough? Healthy foods! You can enjoy them, gain nutrients from them AND not crave them. It's the best of both worlds. You like what you're having, but you no longer love it so much you can't stop.

A friend of mine said to me not long ago, "But life isn't fun without soda!"

Do you feel that way? That life "isn't fun" without a cookie, or cake, or soda, or nachos, or 12 sugars in your coffee?

If you're feeling defensive, that's good! Listen to that...it's your will. THAT is your will. The part of you saying, "Leave me alone! I like it, that's normal, it's okay to want those things!"

Do you hear it? Now recognize the part of you that "hears" it.

Did you ever see the illustration of the devil and the angel on a persons' shoulders?

You just met them both.

Which one do YOU want to be a slave to?

You can only pick one.