Sometimes it just ain’t enough to want to lose the weight to fit into skinny jeans or to get back at your office coworker who stole your boy friend. Sometimes the siren call of the fruity pastry overrides the obvious fact that corn syrup and wheat and lard together are a bad, bad combination.
Sometimes you need someone to get into your face. To get real. To bring it.
I want you to think about this:
1. Imagine that you have cancer and you know that to starve it you need to cut the sugar and the glutens or the cancer will spread. How would you live your life?
2. Imagine you have just been diagnosed with diabetes, the disease known for limb amputations, blindness, coma and death. How would you live your life?
3. Imagine you would suffer from immediate bodily shock and die if you accidentally ingested gluten. How would you live your life?
Sometimes it’s not enough to want ‘skinny’. Those of us who’ve been around the block, chased the Good Humor Man and have a restraining order need more than just “Someday you’ll be skinny.”
Sometimes we need to hear, “If you don’t do this, you’re going to die.”
Die. Dead. As in kicking buckets. Buying farms. Pushing up daisies.
If you knew your cancer would spread if you ate gluten and sugar, or that your diabetes would worsen, would you change your life? Would you cherish your days more? Would you get up and move and embrace life?
Would you live a lifestyle that focused on health with incidental weight loss as the added benefit?
Try this if you’re at the end of your rope. On a large, white sheet of paper, print the words: I have cancer. Place it wherever the tempting foods are hidden. Let those words slap you in the face. Role play mentally. You. have. cancer. Scared? If not, you should be.
Look up “Diabetes leg sores” and print some of those images in color. Place them as a daily reminder of infection and pain. Disgusted at the possibilities? If not, you should be. This is serious stuff. And it hurts.
Put a blindfold over your eyes and listen to the tv. Have a friend take you for a drive. Miss the fall hues of the aspens and seeing the vivid, fun colors of your favorite shoes? If not, you should.
Use the potentiality for these conditions to move more, love more and live more– while making educated food choices.
The result: If you can’t definitely beat off or avoid those diseases, you can manage them. You’ll be better off than you would have been otherwise.
So live in the “I have a disease. I have it now.” mindset and treat those possibilities as eventualities. This is the fight of your life. Go out there swinging.
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