With diet and wellness with WLS we make an assumption that we should simply be able to get it right following a few written or verbal instructions. We assume that intuition, a little experience, and some instructions are all we need to get it right. We tend to measure our progress on an all-or-nothing scale. Listen to your self-talk. Do you hear yourself saying "I did really bad today" or "I did really good today?" When I leave things to chance, hoping to get by on luck and intuition, my end of the day critique usually starts with "I did really bad today."

As life-long dieters we have never been told that following a prescribed diet to manage health and weight requires practice. There is no amount of intuition, experience, or written instruction that will ever take the place of practice.

Consider the talented athlete or musician: No matter their natural ability, their intuition, their experience, or their education - one thing they all have in common - they practice their craft daily. They practice, observe, make changes and refinements. They follow coaching advice and they take ownership and responsibility for the improvements that lead to success. They do not define their performance in moral terms of good or bad. They evaluate their skill and the execution of their skills in terms of improved, needing improvement, or on the mark. They take the good with the bad using feedback for learning, never allowing a sub-standard performance to catapult them into a "to hell with it" downward spiral. They take the ups and downs in stride. Most athletes and musicians will say above all else they strive for consistency in their performance.

It would be hard to find a someone who is very good at what they do who does not engage in practice, evaluation and improvement. So it should be for us as we practice the art of health and weight management using surgery as an instrument of change.

~ Professional musicians practice 8 to 10 hours a day, every day, for life.

~ Olympic athletes practice their sport 7 days a week for 3 years and 50 weeks before each Olympic showdown.

~ Doctors, dentists, lawyers, nurses: they spend their career in practice.

~ Actors, singers, circus performers, writers, comedians all practice their craft no matter how many times they have performed.

Considering all this, doesn't it make sense that we should actively engage in practicing healthy habits that support our weight loss surgery? We don't need to get everything right on the day, we need to practice doing our best and making improvements. Imagine what we can accomplish when we release the burden of all-or-nothing-get-it-perfect in favor of practicing with a goal of improvement and ultimately winning the game of healthy living. Just imagine it - then practice it. 

Chanel that piano teacher or little league coach and remember their advice, "Practice practice practice". Please join me in practicing healthy WLS living today. Let's Go! The 5DPT is a great way to warm-up for a life-long session in practicing LivingAfterWLS.