Hey YOU! CHEATER!

I’m feeling chatty today. It’s Friday, so shoot me!

 

Ok so “cheating." Taking a sip of a drink with your food. Eating a cookie. Having a solid meal when you are supposed to be on liquids.

 

Besides the obvious rhetoric that we toss around about this not being a diet but a lifestyle (at three years out I can say this is SO true), I would like to point out one other thing.

 

If you are “cheating" you are only “cheating" yourself. Not your surgeon. Not your husband or your wife or your kids or anybody else. YOU.

 

If you’re not following your plan, YOU put YOURSELF at risk for not doing as well as you can.

 

If you’re not doing the head work YOU are less likely to overcome your food demons.

 

If you’re not taking advantage of your magic window YOU are the one who will be the most severely disappointed if you don’t get the results you’d planned for.

 

I point this out because I see questions about “cheating" as if we are participating in illicit behavior and that we’re going to get “caught" by somebody. There is nobody to get caught by but YOU. Yes, your surgeon has requirements but those requirements are in place to support YOU to do the work YOU need to do so that YOU can get healthier.

There is no judge and jury. There is only you. And if you care about you (which I think you do having gone through this whole process and all) you will do for you what you know you should do for you so that you can be the best you that you can be.

 

(Damn! If I could get a dollar for every instance of “you" in this post I’d be rich)

 

Stepping off my soap box now.

Love ya Nik!

Martha

BRAVO, Nik, VERY well said...

I am printing this and putting it on my fridge......

OH really needs a "Like it" button! Until then....... 

Nik- I like your use of YOU.  It's even  worse to encourage others to also hurt themselves.

Pup

Right on the spot, Nik. You are so honest and sensible. I think I love you - in fact I know I do.
Hugs,
Lana

Great post. Thanks for the reminder that it really is all about me.

No...its all about ME!

Kidding.

Yes, just as the rewards belong to us, so does the responsibility. But you have everything in you needed to be wonderfully successful, so work it!

I think I may print this and take it to my support group for those 18+ months out. Geez. It's nothing but negative people who complain about not having the results they want yet if you ask if they're following requirements -- nope.

And yes, it is a HUGELY good read for newbies, too, but the lesson doesn't change regardless of how far out we are.

You know how *I* learned this lesson.

I was doing something I often do, standing at the fridge with the door open. And I noticed that if I munch on something at that point I tend to lean over so you can't see me from the other side of the fridge door.

One day my common sense (or the Lord...I'm not sure) kicked in and said, "Nik? Hun? You pay the bills up in here. You buy the food. Who the HELL are you hiding from?" (In my world, God sometimes curses at me when warranted).

That was an aha! moment for me. In the end I'm only responsible to myself. Having realized that, the behavior wasn't taboo anymore and thus my desire to do it diminished.

Funny how the brain works that way.