weight loss and old behaviors

I had a medical patient come in last night who was "fired" by his endocrinologist because the doctor was really upset at the patient for not doing self-home glucose monitoring. The patient has pretty poorly controlled diabetes mellitus and is morbidly obese. Previous attempts at weight loss, including our program, failed to achieve significant weight loss for him.

I had not seen him in awhile, as his diabetic care was being taken care of by the endocrinologist. We started discussing some of the issues involved with his poor compliance with self monitoring and it became apparent that he has a pattern of behaviors that are "routine"...skipping of breakfast..snacking on carbs...not focusing on a high proterin high vegetable/low carb low fruit intake...no exercise etc. Clearly the behavior patterns are fixed and unwavering. Obviously I tried to convince him that this behavior pattern, as comfortable as this is for him, will most certainly either prematurely kill or maim him.

If you are in a weight losing mode, I would ask you to examine your own "routine behavior" patterns and take a step back and explore which of these behaviors may hurt you, and then make a conscience effort to change that behavior permanently. This is not an easy task, but a neccesary one to become happier and healthier.