I've blogged about this before - the power of positive thinking. But this morning as I was getting ready for work I heard a segment on a new study by the Cleveland Clinic that notes that "those who are generally optimistic about their health are more likely to follow treatment recommendations. "
This study was particular about Coronary Artery Disease, but it doesn't take much to see how this could apply to any health situation - particularly those of us trying to loose weight, and those of us who have lost it and are trying to keep it off.
There is still a great deal of people who view any type of weight loss surgery with disdain. I used to be one of them. I knew people who had gastric bypass surgery and who had gained the weight back. I knew people who had awful complications as a result of the surgery. And still today there are a bunch of people who in general poo-poo those of us who "did it the easy way". That is a discussion for another time - this is so not the easy way.
What I'm trying to get at is the power of the positive thinking. If you go into this journey with pessimism - you may not get out of it what you want and/or need to get out of it. If you go in doubting your own success - why should you be successful at all? But if you go into this with a positive or optimistic attitude that you can do this - that you can succeed ... maybe you will be more successful than those that don't? Not that we should go into this pooting rainbows and butterflies - we absolutely need to go into it with eyes WIDE open - this is a serious surgery with serious ramifications to your health and long term implications. Absolutely. BUT ... it can also be the tool that helps you live a longer and healthier and happier life ... if you want it to.
It would be so easy for me to succumb to the negativity that I have experienced with the rare complications that I have encountered over the past year. To be depressed and to decide that because of these complications I should just give up.
But I can't. I have to CHOOSE to be positive. CHOOSE to take hold of what I believe is mine ... a new life without all the weight. I CHOOSE to be healthier. I CHOOSE to be a runner. I CHOOSE to be the example to my children that I want.
What do you CHOOSE?
