A personal journey of losing a 100lbs. Chapter Three, leaving the comfort zone, page one

Chapter Three: leave the comfort zone

Choosing to make healthy life style changes is going to be uncomfortable at first. It all depends on how bad you want to enjoy a healthy body. Think of making healthy life style choices as a fresh start.

 

everyone needs a fresh start, sometimes

 It might involve changing jobs, friends, and some family members. It all depends on how important it is to you to be healthy and to focus on only the actions that will lead you to a healthy body. This involves learning new food options, and portions and how to handle celebrations. This entails education on how to handle every aspect of your life when it comes to oral consumption. At first this will not be easy and it will feel uncomfortable.

starting a new way of eating can feel up hill and difficult

What is to be gained by never leaving a comfort zone?

Choosing to serve the elderly first in daily activities and later as a nursing home nurse and finally as a hospice nurse, I have seen the early results of lazy, cowardly, and low self esteem choices, and what they have done to people’s bodies. So many nursing homes are full of chronically ill people who are on Medicaid and are in their mid fifties. Scores of these illnesses were avoidable if they had simply chosen to perform healthy life styles; they dive into the comfort zone of the victim role. In the end they still lost their jobs, homes, and for the most part their self respect, plus living with the burden on being overweight and chronically ill.

lazy fat couch potato

A true story

 58 year old man who bathed in the role of being the victim. He has lost the ability to walk, he is being counseled on losing his left leg to gout and he is on numerous medications, for kidney, heart, blood pressure, gout, and diabetes. He was told to stop eating processed, salty, starchy, fatty foods. When I ran into him at the supermarket he was on the frozen food isle browsing the frozen dinners. He had borrowed the stores electric scooter and the front basket was full of food. One box of saltine white crackers, a loaf of white sliced bread, several cans of pork sausage, a couple packages of the cheapest hot dogs were all easily seen at first glance. After I asked him to look at the ingredients of his food choices; he looked up into my eyes with a sad puppy dog face and said “well, what am I going to eat, if I can’t eat this stuff?” To him not being able to eat food he considered normal was in human.  My thoughts on this poor attitude are “stop eating like a kid.” All of the food he had in his basket was elementary cafeteria food. As adults, we have to leave the comfort zone of our childhood eats and start eating like an adult. Most adults pass on dessert. Most adults avoid candy. Most adults limit portions. As a grownup we are no longer growing we are maintaining and rebuilding which takes minimal daily calories. An adult body has one choice when consuming the same foods and calories as a growing child and that is to grow outward which is fat. He was not willing to leave this comfort zone; and as a result, his body will continue to slowly deteriorate. His victim attitude cheated him out of the remaining years of his life.

 Chapter Three: leave the comfort zone, end of page 1