The other day a coworker was talking how his daughter just got her driving permit. He said he took her out to the store, and once done said “now drive home" (which was two miles). She was in a panic and didn’t think she could do it. She DID do it, and without incident.

Yesterday in a support meeting a “newbie" to the bariatric world was there and had a lot of concerns about “being successful", and how one ever lives ‘normally’. You can tell she was both excited and nervous in her new lifestyle.

This morning on the way into work, I saw a minor accident. For some unknown reason that occurrence made me think of my friend’s daughter and the newbie’s concerns, and I thought of a new analogy (if you know me, I love analogies).

Let me try to compare the two.

One of the very first steps many of do is refer to a “driver’s manual" before we venture to do either one. We read books, on-line websites, web-pages to try to figure out the rules and regulations of the “road" (to success).

The next step many do prior to getting our license (having the operation) is to do some “test-driving". We practice what we’ve read. Some of us think it’s a breeze, while others have difficulty with some aspects (remember K-turn parking anyone??). However this is the best time to learn what we may need to work on prior to getting our “license".

Then we go and get our license (have the operation). When many first have the surgery, they are a lot like my friend’s daughter. They are scared and worried if they will ever be able to master this. We try to remember to follow all the rules we’ve been taught, and give special attention to those “problematic" matters.

After a while, we begin to feel “comfortable" in our abilities, and we may begin to become a little less stringent in following the rules. Example, when driving how many of us still adheres to the 9 to 3 (10 to 2) rule? If you’re anything like me, you probably have one hand on the wheel, while the other is resting on the window. Similarly, how many of us chew our food 30 times before swallowing, or wait 30-60 seconds before we swallow another piece of food?

Then comes the time when we get too over confident we know what we’re doing, and we disregard most of the rules we’ve been taught. We continue down the road, many times no obeying the "law of the road". We beleive we're in control, and know how to handle what we're doing.

If we remain in this state, eventually we will get into an “accident" (weight gain). Sometime is may be just a fender bender (a few pounds), sometimes it could be minor accident (10 to 20 percent of total weight loss), other times it’s a major accident (25 to 50 percent of total weight loss), and unfortunately there are those times when the accident is serious (over 50 percent of total weight loss). Now what do we do?!?!?!?!?!?

We need to contact our insurance man (the Bariatric Doctor/Nutritionists) to evaluate the cause of the accident. Sometimes the accident was no fault of ourselves, but a defect in the “vehicle" (device/operation choice). If that is determined, then our insurance person can make the determination to “totaling the vehicle", and then recommendation of either the same vehicle, similar vehicle or entirely new vehicle.

If the accident has been determined to be the fault of ourselves, then we’ll probably need to inspect the “policy" to see what is expected from us. We know we’ll have to pay some sort of ‘deductible’ (admit our fault), and ask the insurance person what we need to do, then proceed from there. Hopefully once we’re “behind the wheel" we’ll pay closer attention those “basic rules of the road".

So today while you're driving down that "road to success", stop and realize what type of driver you've become.  Are you the one who is obeying the rules, or one who knows what they are doing?

Tom "not the Food Police" Casola.