Hi!

I came across this article on our local NJ.com website and I found it very interesing and enlightening so I thought I would pass it along here since many of us struggle with our decisions before and after the surgery, wonder if it is worth it and struggle with food addiction. It's all about choice and I think this article really makes me think about my own behaviors and why I am doing this. For me, it really speaks volumes. Just thought I'd share.

It was written in the Hunterdon County Democrat Editorial board:

"Life can change on a dime. That’s what Debbie Hill thought after an “unknown virus” landed her in the hospital with perilously low blood sugar. Her gall bladder had to be removed and she was hospitalized for a week. But, during the year it took her to recover her health, Hill said she realized that her initial assessment was unfounded. What happened, she said, was the accumulation of a lifetime of choices and decisions. When she thought about it, many problems were rooted in habits, such as familiar foods, that lent comfort. “These so-called ‘comfort foods’ were actually making me sick,” she said.

Sound familiar?

Change came about when, instead of focusing on what she shouldn’t have, or “couldn’t” do, she made the effort to try new, healthier alternatives. She took her time, developing new habits, and reveling in what was new, instead of focusing on what she was giving up. Faced with an uncomfortable, or unfamiliar, situation, its easy to revert to comforting foods — which all too often are laden with unhealthy fats and sugars or salt — or time-fillers that interfere with change.

Or both: Who has time to take a walk when a favorite TV show and a post-dinner snack beckon?

In Hill’s case it was food, but others find comfort in the first cigarette of the morning, or settling in front of the computer to play Farmville instead of stopping at the gym.

Rather than think of it as giving up cigarettes, consider the vacation that could be enjoyed with the money saved by quitting. Replace a sedentary lifestyle with a more active one and there are whole new worlds to be shared, with friends, spouses, children and grandchildren.

Anyone who has hiked a national park can testify to the beauty and serenity of getting out of the car and off the paved trail.

Hill, who is now a counselor who helps others lead fuller lives, warns that sometimes the benefits of an improved lifestyle can take longer than we might like. In a microwave-quick society that can seem like an eternity.

On the other hand, the alternative really is."

Thanks for sharing!