"I like my,,,"

Last week I had a patient who had a difficult week and he professed that one of his roadblocks is : "I like my beer." I started thinking about the things that most people like and if you ask anyone that question.."What do you like?, you will get lots of common answers and lots of unique ones. On the food side, you are going to hear lots of high calorie "likes". On the activity side, you are going to hear lots of sedenary "likes" (such as "I like to watch football")

However, the answers that you will not hear much will be these "likes".."I like to live for a long time in a healthy state"...or ..."I like to feel proud of my appearance" or.."I like to feel high self-esteem". These are the type of "likes" that drive people to pick up the phone and call us for help in losing weight or motivate them to do something about their weight on their own.

One of the problems is that some of our "likes" conflict with others.....such as the beer and the desire to live healthy and play with your grandchildren. I guess the issue is that we truly cannot "have it all" and choices must be made. For the gentleman who "likes my beer", he cannot drink 2-3 every nite and expect to live a long healthy life with his obesity. He has to make a choice.

I suggest that you explore all of your own "likes", make a priority list, and decide which of your "likes" are most important to you. This will guide you on how aggressive you want to be about your weight issue.