If it hurts, stop doing it.
-- Cynthia Copeland Lewis, ““Really Important Stuff My Kids Have Taught Me”

Potato chips! That’s your favorite thing. You could eat them at anytime and with anything; and there’s NO way you could eat just one. However, your doctor’s report cited exorbitant levels of trans-fat flowing through your bloodstream as the main culprit that made your cholesterol so high it caused your arteries to narrow and impede the supply of nutrients and oxygen to your heart. One (or two and a few) more chip, your doctor confirmed, and you may create a blockage that results in a heart attack.

Your doctor also suggested that exercising more would not only help you lose the weight that heavily impacts your high blood pressure, fleeting heart muscles, low insulin production, and knee and ankle health, it would increase your metabolism so you could burn the unwanted fats in your body more quickly and evenly. She even went as far as recommending a specific medium-impact exercise routine, one that would get your heart rate pumping for at least 45 minutes, 4 times per week. She recommended a daily vitamin, increasing your intake of dark leafy greens and a variety of fruits, and drinking lots of water to replenish your body’s store of natural energy.

But what you wanted was a 16 ounce bag of chips, and a 16 ounce bag of chips is what you had while you kicked your swollen feet up on the couch.

Now, as you wonder whether the flashing lights are that of the ambulance carrying you to the hospital or of your life passing before your eyes as you take you last breaths, you vow to stop eating what you shouldn’t, eat what you should, and exercise for 2 hours each day. You promise the heavens that you’ll never ever again look at a bag of chips let alone anything that’s related to chips – potatoes, fries, even Irish people. You feel a sudden, violent jerk as you realize you’re being resuscitated, and you pray for one last chance as your heart beat gets slower and slower. You hear “clear!,” but your poor, suffocating heart has stopped. The flashing lights are replaced by a bright light. And all because of a bag of chips. You couldn’t stop eating even one. Time of death? Too soon to mention.

So, maybe it’s not as extreme as this, and maybe it’s not just a chip. Maybe it’s a diet full of fried and greasy foods followed by healthy doses of sweets and sodas, then a long sprawl onto the couch.

Or maybe your vice is overspending on immaterial items then having no money for left to pay the mortgage that’s 3 months behind and heading for foreclosure. Perhaps it’s living with a partner who mistreats and abuses you and your children when he/she is angry or simply feels like it; or maybe you repeatedly sleep around just to feel wanted, valuable, and loved and the results have now proven detrimental to your health, safety, and longevity. Whatever the thing is that’s hurting you, the thing that has the potential to put your health and life in jeopardy, seek counseling or medical assistance, process it to the core, accept the recommended solutions and direction, then, with as much effort as it takes, work through it.

If it hurts, stop doing it. Don’t pay the consequences that come with continuing to hurt yourself.

Sadiqqa © 2007