The Choices we make do have consequences.

I just have to share this for many reasons. Mainly, I hope it can make us think and help us to make the best choices for ourselves. Two, to help us see the consequences of our choices, and three it has really been bothering me and I need to get it out. I had an appointment Friday at my doctor's office. I walked in and the one lady who is usually at the check in desk was not there. I saw someone else who usually works in the back. She greeted me and she commented on my weight loss (which of course made me feel really good) I began talking to her about Spark people. She told me she was doing Nutra systems to lose some weight. I said I thought that was fantastic and I was happy for her. I told her about all the great articles, tips, and all around help she can get here. I told her about the wonderful people who all support one another and that it was great going through this with others who were all going through the same thing. I told her the success I had here was the only thing that had worked for me in many years. Anyway she seemed interested and so I gave her the web site information. Then I asked where the lady was that normally greets the patients. She said oh she has been out for the last 6 weeks. She went on to tell me she had emergency heart bypass surgery. She had a quintuple bypass. I felt so sad to hear this. The lady was always so sweet and such a wonderful people person. She was a heavy person who was clearly in danger because of the extra weight she carried. She went on to tell me how ruff the surgery was for her and how her family was so very worried that she may not survive it. I said I can imagine how scared she must have been. That is a very serious surgery to have. She went on to tell me that she had 4 arteries that were nearly completely blocked. Of course the arteries can be blocked by fatty foods and just bad eating habits in general. The lady said yes she was a ticking time bomb. But, her being so heavy never seemed to scare her. She eats a lot of fast foods and all the junk that is bad for us all. I said I bet she feels differently about that now. I bet she will be making healthy food choices from now on. I was floored when she replied oh no, she was complaining about the hospital food and she had her husband go out and bring her McDonald's. I said WHAT? She went on to tell me that the nurse was livid with her for eating that. They really lectured her on what those bad choices will do to her. The nurse told her she was lucky to have made it thru this surgery and told her she should really learn a lesson from this and make better choices for her health. The lady that was telling me this story said to me that what happened to her co worker really did scare her and that is why she started Nutra systems for herself. She said she never wanted to have to go through that kind of surgery/ She had lost 10 pounds already and looked good. I was so happy for her and wished her much success. I have thought so much about the lady that went through the surgery. How can she still be in any kind of denial about her health issues due to her weight? Why didn't she learn from this? Does she have a death wish? It disturbed me so much, I thought about her all weekend . I decided to blog about it in part as a way to get it off my mind. I hope you will feel as I do. That is, SO GRATEFUL to have made a decision to get healthy and make good choices for myself. It really is all about the choices we make in the end. We all have the power to say I want to be a healthier person and do something about it. We also have the power to say I am going to eat anything I want and to heck with what it does to my health. It really is all up to us. No one can do it for us and no one but us can make a difference in how healthy we eat. We can decide to be like the lady who had the bypass as a result of her bad choices or we can decide to be like the co worker who as a result of her friends situation, is doing something to improve her health and to lose weight. It really is all up to us. It really is all about our choices. I am so happy I made the choice to be here and that you are all here with me. If I get in a place where I may feel weak and am in danger of making a bad choice for myself, I will think of the bypass surgery this lady had and that will snap me back into the reality of what a bad choice can do.