Default Future

This Week

In less than a month, I will be undergoing weight loss surgery.  As promised, I will occasionally update you on how I'm doing and some of the details of the experience.

Why am I doing this? There are many reasons. To tell all those reasons I need to take you on a journey of change.

I recently finished the book Change Anything by Kerry Patterson.  This ground-breaking work culminates years of research into effective change. It describes the tactics and learnings from people who achieve permanent and significant change in their lives, others lives and in the world at large.

Patterson sums up six sources or tactics of influencing change. Here is how they related to me as I read the book.

Change Anything by Kerry Patterson et al.
Easy read, excellent research.

1. I learned that change is not more willpower; that's the willpower trap, according to Patterson. It is a matter of skill.  Skill not will.
2. I also read about loving what you hate which is seeing past the problem to a better future. "Yay, " is what I say on this.
3. And I looked at my default future. That is what my future will be if I don't change. This is a huge one! It plays into my reasons for surgery. More on this below.
4. I saw how I need to tell the whole vivid story. Which is what I will do as time goes on here. In the story I need to really search myself and use value words. 
5. Patterson's research shows that to change you need to mark off achievements, make the change a game or somehow celebrate the small steps.
6. And finally he recommends you create a personal motivation statement, again with value words.

There is ample explanation of the six areas or tactics you can use to achieve change in the book.  I highly recommend Change Anything if there is something in your life that you want to change or if you just want to be a more effective person in your job or at home.

Back to my reasons. I looked at my default future.

I didn't imagine it either. I REALLY SAW what could happen to me if I do not modify my weight issue.

I have a former friend whose husband has lost both feet below the knee.  They had to be amputated due to diabetes.  This is truly scary. But there is more. This guy is a poster-boy for change.

• He did not and still does not control his food choices.
• He continues to drink sodas and eat sugar-laden processed food.
• He self-medicates with insulin and frequently ends up in the hospital due to coma, heart or breathing issues. 
• He has a trachea due to heart and lung implications of his diabetes.
• He sleeps on an air bed due to bed sores which won't heal, again due to diabetes.
• He is now experiencing neuropathy in his hands and arms. 
• He used a motorized wheel chair until recently. He is too weak to pull himself up to get into it any longer.
• He recently had his gall bladder out. Contrary to what we think is almost routine gall bladder surgery, his was high-risk because of all the other issues he also has, like high blood pressure.
• How old do you think this man is? He is 63 years old.

This is just a short list of his problems; however they all come back to food. At the start of his diabetes 30 years ago, he said he stayed around 300 lbs most of the time. I have talked to him and he believes he cannot change.  I pray for him and his wife, who is his caregiver.

How does this relate to me? Well it scares the pants right off of me. It's my reason for wanting this weight off.

I can see that is is MY default future if I can't find a solution. I am already borderline diabetic. I take blood pressure medication. What could be next? I don't know and I don't want to find out.

And that is one major reason why I want to have weight loss surgery. I am 57 now and I want to live a long and more importantly, healthy, life.  I hope Patterson would think that is a good personal motivation statement.

Let's Do The Numbers

Weight today - 258

Shot of me today.  I'll try to put a new photo up for each entry.

Have a great day!