To remain healthy and vital you must take care of yourself, it is a responsibility that you owe to yourself.
This story of two patients who have different views on being responsible for their health by being responsible for their weight and it's consequences illustrates this point.
A Tale Of Two Patients.
Carol, was the best of patients, and Frank was the worst of patients.
There was a time of relief and stability, but also a time of frustration and sorrow, of acceptance and resentment.
Carol had accepted her overweight condition and excess body weight as being a consequence of her stress related snacking and late night emotional eating. She wanted to lose weight, so she decided to use Attenuate to decrease her hunger and curb her cravings during periods of agitation, stress and anxiety.
Changing her long ingrained eating behaviors was neither quick nor easy, but possible, and she took the steps to make it happen. However, Frank had always expected there would be no need to change any of his eating habits. He was convinced, since he felt fine and had his usual energy, that nothing bad was going to happen and there was no need to worry, his health would continue to be fine.
Carol accepted her weight, not with resignation and frustration, but with a sense of dedicated commitment and took the needed positive actions for change. She worked with her physician to make certain that there were no metabolic causes for weight gain. She was assured that her thyroid function was normal and not the cause of her weight gain, and that her adrenal glands were not fatigued or burnt out. However her Hgb A1c was in the prediabetic range and changes were needed to prevent her from becoming diabetic. So, she changed her weight gaining behavioral patterns and choices, to not snacking or eating between meals and drinking less alcohol, and eating smaller portions, less frequently and less quickly.
She used Attenuate as a substitute for snacking and as a reminder that she was not actually hungry but bored and anxious. Using Attenuate reinforced the concept that her emotional eating and snacking would not solve any problems, but only make her heavier and unhappier. In a relatively short time she saw the results of her changes, her waist size became smaller and her clothes became looser as her weight decreased. Her fatigue faded and soon vanished, her HgbA1c normalized as her blood sugar levels dropped and her stamina increased. She never thought of her changes to be difficult or hard, but rather possible to achieve. With her persistence, and guidance and inspiration from her physician and those who cared about her, she continued to enjoy the evening walks with her husband, traveled to those places that they had dreamed of, and saw her grandchildren graduate and move on.
But Frank could never accept that his excess weight came about as a result of his own doing and his lifestyle choices. He never felt that his between meals snacking or his TV movie 'beer and chips treats' were a problem. Nor did he feel that he needed to have any medical testing or even discuss his weight with his physician. Besides, he felt that his physician was too busy to talk to him about his extra weight, and what consequences might come from it. He always felt that he had things, especially his weight under good control, and could attend to it later.
Yet he continued to disregard his growing tiredness, blurry vision and mild tingling in his toes. But unfortunately, over time some of his early minor problems grew worse. His once perfect vision continued to deteriorate and then fail because of his blindness, the result from his progressive diabetic retinopathy. His feet had a constant burning sensation, felt numb, and lost their sense of feeling. His walk started to become unsteady and wobbly. His increased abdominal weight and the associated type 2 diabetes soon kept him wheelchair bound and tied to the boring ritual of regular, but required, kidney dialysis treatments.
He had seen no reason take any of the medications prescribed to him, thinking that it was unnecessary for him, as he thought of himself as a man of strength and conviction. After all, the medications were expensive and had troubling side effects. And how was he to know that they could shield his kidneys, nerves and eyes from the relentless destruction brought on by his uncontrolled and elevated blood sugars.
Frank felt that his physician never took the time to engage in a conversation with him to discuss the urgent need for weight loss. Nor did the doctor ever adequately discuss the need for and the benefits of medications that could help Frank with his diabetes and weight. Frank's world became progressively darker and he came to resent his fate and a medical system that he felt had let him down and failed him. His was a desolate world, the light had long ago faded from his life.
Two different worlds, the result of two different choices and courses of action. Sometimes life, with it's many twists and turns happens this way, but then who really is responsible for your way?