I'm in Houston with my brother while he recovers from Cancer surgery. He is now cancer-free and we are so thankful. He has had a long year of chemo and radiation treatments which culminated in his successful surgery. My brother is fortunate in that his insurance has allowed him to be treated at this mega-specialty hospital in Houston. People from all over the world come here. On the day he had surgery there were 59 other surgeries performed. His ward only services people with cancers associated with digestive organs. And even though his surgery was extremely difficult, it is routinely done here.
His surgeon commented to me that one of the things that helped Damon was the fact that he was healthy and strong before the chemotherapy began. Because he was able to withstand this rigorous treatment, they were able to shrink the tumor enough for it to be surgically removed. Had he been obese or diabetic things would have been much more difficult.
A few days after we learned that the surgery had been successful, my host family here in Houston attended their Weight Watchers meeting and invited me to join them. They were signing up again as part of a New Year's commitment to healthy living. I had never been to a Weight Watchers meeting so I was happy to tag along.
I found it very inspiring. The leader, Betty Jo, did an excellent job of facilitating. There were about 100 people there and she knew how to work the room in a folksy kind of way. There was a lot of interaction as people shared their struggles and their triumphs. Betty Jo offered a lot of encouragement and gave practical tips about how to manage yourself while you are on the Program. The word "diet" was never used. Weight Watchers is a life-style.
I thought about this after I got home- the life-style change that happens when you are constantly aware.
Weight Watchers requires that you track every single morsel of food that enters your mouth. There is a point system and you only have so many points per day. Fortunately, most all fruits and veggies are zero points, so they are encouraged. Which was a great thing for me as I have continued my "Green till 3" Daniel Fast since being here and introduced green smoothies, to my hosts. They LOVE them.
This constant awareness is the same thing that is asked of those who go to AA meetings. The basis of the Twelve Step program is awareness. You have to monitor yourself and slowly over time, with the help of your new community, change the thinking and reasoning that led to drinking.
Constant awareness is also the basis of a spiritual practice. Just being aware of your thoughts and habits is necessary in order to be God-centered. Just like it's easy to be too busy or too stressed or too tired to monitor your points or go to your AA meetings, it is sometimes not so easy to be in constant communication with God all day through out the day- to "pray without ceasing".
However, imagine if every morsel of food was a reminder to lift up a short little prayer. It would be like God Watching and Weight Watching combined. By God Watching AND Weight Watching maybe more people would stick to the program. If more people stuck to the program then they would not be obese. When people are not obese they are healthier and less likely to have diabetes, hypertension or heart disease. If people are healthier then if some bad disease does happen they will be more resilient.
That's what I got out of going to Weight Watchers.
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