Accepting responsibility for your weight
2
Do you think healthcare professionals should take more responsibility for their patients’ weight problems? What are your thoughts on individual responsibility and weight control?
- Health hub/
- Weight management/
- Accepting responsibility for your weight
A very overweight man was recently awarded a payout because his doctor failed to recommend lap-band surgery, or refer him to a weight loss program. The doctor has since successfully appealed the decision. Without going into any specifics of the case, or the precedence it may set, it does beg the question- who is ultimately responsible for weight gain, and who is responsible for losing it?
A healthcare professionals’ involvement in your weight loss journey is important, but there has to be some level of individual responsibility. In a free society, it's the individual who is responsible for their thoughts, feelings and actions (or inactions). Only you can choose your priorities and goals.
Maintaining your current level of body fat is a choice. That's right; you may actually choose to stay fat. It may not feel like a choice, but you are choosing (by not doing anything) to reduce the quality and quantity of your life. For example:
- When you choose to watch television instead of going for walk.
- When you choose to drink four glasses of wine instead of one.
- When you choose to get takeaway instead of making a quick stir fry.
- When you choose a slab of your friend’s birthday cake instead of a slither.
- When you choose to make excuses for not to exercising instead of finding solutions.
- When you choose to put off improving your health instead of starting today.
I'm not saying it's easy, and it’s important to acknowledge any anger, hostility,and pessimism, anxiety, past hurts, pains, abuse, mistreatment and misdirection you have experienced. But ultimately, you are in control, and you make the decision to change. The choice is yours to take action. The choice is yours to change the way you eat, to exercise more, or maybe push yourself a little harder when you do exercise. Knowing that you have the power within yourself to make these changes is a big step towards a healthier future.
Do you think healthcare professionals should take more responsibility for their patients’ weight problems? What are your thoughts on individual responsibility and weight control?
We accept
