33,000 Calories

Tonight on Discovery Health I watched " I Eat 30,000 Calories a Day." and I have to say I was both amazed and nearly tearful.  It kind of amazed me in the way that someone can actually consume that number of calories a day.  I can hardly grasp those numbers and what it entails to eat them, even if I think back to my life pre-WLS.  Could I have ever wound up there, weighing at 600 or 700 pounds?  I would hate to think so but anything can happen.  I never expected to weigh 315 pounds either.  I used to measure myself against other people and think "As long as I never allow myself to get that big."  But then I would gain weight and the standard by which I measured that would have to change.  It's funny the things we try to do to make ourselves feel better or at least not as bad as "that person over there".

But more than anything in watching this program I felt such empathy for most of them.  One man I think took a second mortgage on his house to pay for some repairs and used half the money on food.  Now he is struggling to lose about 140 pounds so he can have RNY and he has social services helping him.  I just want to go visit him and cheer him on and tell him he can do it...but he is in England.  He was one of the two (there were four people they featured who were morbidly obese) who seemed like he wanted to change.  They say these individuals are addicted to food and this man said something that struck me.  He said if he was surrounded by empty whiskey bottles people would believe he had a problem. 

When it is a food addiction, people just expect you to stop eating but in reality for these people it is not that easy.  And eventually, when addicted to food to the point that you become bed-bound, what else is there to bring happiness other than eating?  It's a deadly and vicious cycle, and one that few people look at with any kind of sympathy. 

I followed that show by watching "The 650 Pound Virgin" about a guy who lost 400 pounds through diet and exercise because he was courageous enough to approach a young personal trainer and ask for help.  And the trainer was more than willing and now the two are best buds.  But it a morbidly obese man having the guts after living a childhood of ridicule asking for the help and it took the compassion of another man to say yes.  It could have been easy for the other man to laugh or say "dude, just stop eating" but thank God for his maturity and wisdom. 

Those are the things that have the power to change the obesity epidemic: maturity, compassion, wisdom, courage.  Ridicule and laughter in the face of someone else's pain is never going to change the world. 

Total Addict

I have apparently become addicted to all shows, articles, news briefs, etc on weight loss. 

Can't seem to stop watching The Biggest Loser, even the old ones on FLN (I think that is the channel.  F something anyway).  I watch these things and I cry and get angry at the people who are more interested in playing the game than getting healthy.  I know it's a game, but the health part of it is so much more important and despite it being a game, they are teaching these contestants how to eat better and exercise.  As Jillian Michaels (my girl crush. I love her.  I'll take her over Bob any day of the week, though I do like him too.  I just love the way she works to get the heart of each person's issues with food, weight, etc) said on an episode, TBL is like the Olympics of weight loss.  How fast they can do it so someone can win.  But they also have contestants work at home, to show that it can be done without being on the ranch. 

Dr. Phil was finally back yesterday with his Ultimate Weight Loss Solution/Race and we got to check in with those folks.  The game is much like TBL, even with eliminations, but I am just cheering on all these people, so wanting them to succeed.

On the flip side of that, and I wish I had the article with me, I got my new issue of "Health" magazine yesterday and one reader wrote in about how she had been considering gastric bypass surgery and then she read an article in the magazine about how some woman lost over 100 pounds by diet and exercise, so now the writer was going to focus on losing weight "the right way" instead of the "quick fix".  Nice. 

I just don't get people like that.  Is there only one "right" way to quit smoking, or drinking?  I am all for someone being able to lose weight by diet and exercise alone, but does that work for every single person?  If there was only one "right" way to do anything, then the world would be monotonous and many more people would be out of jobs.

It's like telling an anorexic or bulimic to "just eat" or "don't barf". Ah, if only it were that simple for those people!  But each individual is as complex as each disorder or addiction and what might work for one will not work for another.  If diets and exercise alone worked for many of us, I would not have spent half my life at the size I was!  Believe me, I dieted and exercised my way to 315 pounds.  Of course, the judgers would simply say I was doing it wrong, because they are unable to see past what works for them. 

I get so angry and frustrated with intolerance over anything.  As an obese person, I was faced with daily intolerance because of my size.  I could go to a gym and hear snide remarks being made behind my back, though there I was trying to do something about my size and still to those that judge, that wasn't good enough.  Then when we take control of our lives, doing what works for us, we are faced with a whole 'nother level of judgment.  We didn't do it "right".  What gives any other human being the right to decide that for anyone else?  Have they walked in my shoes or led my life?  Have they made my attempts for me?  Do they know that I cheated or gave up or didn't give it my all?  Of course they don't because they don't know me.  They just read that we had RNY and they immediately turn their noses up and condemn us for not doing things the "right way". 

They don't have that right.  They think they do, but they don't.  I have no shame for what I did.  People battling weight issues at 25, 50, 100 or 400 pounds overweight should hold no shame.  Obesity is a disease and in my opinion it is the only disease that still has zero tolerance in the public eye.  The obese population are targets to so many people; to make fun of, to scoff, to whisper about.  How do those things motivate anyone?  How do those things show compassion or even sympathy? 

The problem is that obese people are easily spotted in public.  If you are a drug addict, or an alcoholic, you can hide that to an extent, but obesity you cannot disguise.  It is there for all the world to see and to apparently comment upon as there are people who feel it is their right.  Problem is, when the walking obese hear the comments and the intolerance, so many of them turn back to their constant friend, the one who doesn't judge them.  Food.  So those doing the mocking are contributing to the disease in my opinion.  Even many people who don't have weight issues, turn to food for comfort, so why would it be any different for those struggling with their weight?

Wake up, people!  Yes, there is an obesity problem in this country, but stop contributing to it by your constant judgments.  When you are the one battling something do you want people to condemn you?  Of course you don't; no one does.  It's completely inhumane.

So though TBL may indeed by the "olympics of weight loss" it works for some people (see me trying to tie these thoughts in together?  I went off on a tangent and now am trying to work out how I got from point A to point B!).  Isn't that what really matters?  That each individual takes control and does what works best for them?