Hope is Better Than a Pill

A few months ago I mentioned to my Dad that my cholesterol has always been a little on the high side. He responded by asking whether I was on Lipitor. I not only said no, I said, “Of course not!” He takes Lipitor and I think he was offended at my response. It's not that I am against prescription medication. I am a fan; just not necessarily for myself at least not yet, in this situation. My theory is that there are a few things I would change about the way I live before I'd start on a pill. I could eat differently, drink less wine, and/or exercise more. Before I'd get on a pill I hope I'd make some changes. Of course it's hard to make these kinds of changes but that is what I hope I would do. 

And it occurs to me that it's a good time for hope. Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years Eve are coming, and a big part of the holiday season is about hope. Families hope they will share the holidays with family and friends. They hope the holidays will be full of good food, good conversation, and laughter. Children hope they will be visited by Santa and maybe catch a glimpse. Parents hope they can make that magic happen. And every year, people hope they can change their life for the better. Millions of people make new years resolutions, join gyms, start diets, buy cook books to become better cooks, buy self-help books, and vow to learn something new. Whether they actually make changes or just read about making changes they hope they can make changes. And it makes sense that people who make new years resolutions are more likely to reach their goals than those who do not make resolutions.  From Proactive Change:

 While a lot of people who make new years resolutions do break them, research shows that making resolutions is useful. People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't explicitly make resolutions:

New Year's resolvers (sample = 159) and comparable nonresolvers interested in changing a problem later (sample = 123) were followed for six months via telephone interviews. Resolvers reported higher rates of success than nonresolvers; at six months, 46% of the resolvers were continuously successful compared to 4% of the nonresolvers.

 Almost every year my neighbor decides she is going to start sewing and or knitting again. She loves to sew doll clothes, so she asks if we have any Barbies or dolls our kids no longer use. Based on history, we imagine that she won't start sewing, but the truth is that I am always happy to hear the call for Barbies, because she still has hope that she will. I will be sad when she doesn't have hope.

The most important thing you can do for your diet is to have hope that you can get from there from here, wherever here is. You'll have set backs, and in order to get back on the proverbial wagon, you have to have hope you can succeed.  Even if you jump start your weight loss plan with something like gastric bypass surgery, after the surgery you will still need to adjust the way you think about eating.  Probably the surgery will be effective, however some studies show that a pretty high percent of people who have gastric bypass operations gain a significant amount of the weight back.  Doesn't matter.  It's a process, not an event.

I'll take pills if I need to, but I think what we really need is to have hope.