Obesity as a life-style?

[stevenhogg]

What I've noticed about the two people I've seen who had the surgery is that they did lose weight,
look less healthy than when they were heavier, and now eat smaller portions of their pre-surgical diet of junk food.

Imagine trying to get proper nutrition with a reduced path on what was an unhealthy GI tract to begin with.

I read this comment on WebMD:

Gastric bypass surgeries may cause dumping syndrome. This occurs when food moves too quickly through the stomach
and intestines. It causes nausea, weakness, sweating, faintness, and possibly diarrhea soon after eating. These symptoms are
made worse by eating highly refined, high-calorie foods (like sweets). (emphasis mine) In some cases you may become so weak
that you have to lie down until the symptoms pass.

So if you continue with a poor diet you are setting yourself up for major health problems.
I'm not surprised that they (and probably many others) ended up disabled.

Would you agree that,oddly enough, the very thing that may have prevented the need for surgery
in the first place is also what they HAVE to do now to stay alive - eat healthy.

Oh the things we do to ourselves through ignorance and stubborness.

[Kathryn Woodall]

Is the by-pass surgery a reversible procedure?

The situation Jarlo described does sometimes happen. There are also different types of bypass and at least one of them is reversible because it is a band which can be tightened or loosened without classic surgery (a patient had hers loosened so that she could "more fully enjoy" a cruise she was going on and then had it tightened again upon returning), or removed fully with surgery.

I found the button statement to be interesting because if it were truly an option, my bet is that there would be people who in the end were unwilling to push it. Just as the cause of headaches can range from tumor to stress, obesity has many causes. Those for whom it is a protective mechanism sometimes rage against it and feel safe because of it all at the same time. To them, it is a constant (often unconscious) battle against which risk of harm is more threatening. Feeling as though the choice is self harm or outside harm, many of them pick self harm. It would probably surprise even them, but if there were a button they may not push it unless there was also a button to return them to their current state.

I've met a lot of overweight people who choose to be overweight via their lifestyle choices. I've also met some severely obese people who stopped choosing that lifestyle and yet can't drop the pounds because other factors are now at play. Is it still a choice? Ultimately, yes. But the solution also isn't as cut and dry for the second group as it is for the first. With enough time, understanding of why it is different, and consistently making good choices based upon that understanding, things can reverse for most of the second group too...but the time frame needed to see those results is often much different.

I find this patently frightening. Let's be thankful we in this community are from a distinctly different mind-set.

I can understand how you might be frightened by it. How have we failed so deeply as a society that people no longer know the bliss that pain-free, healthy living is...that they have so little faith in their own ability to transform that they can't even see how to begin to try? When did we decide that teaching people to love themselves and to care for themselves wasn't likely to be effective because it would take too many sacrifices?

Like Cody, I'm immensely thankful to be part of this community which is doing all that it can to begin correcting that failure while offering hope, techniques, and support from people who have 'been down a similar road' - a community that understands that what is being sacrificed is small beans compared to the rewards which can be reaped.

[Aengus]

I don't know if my perspective is any diffent than anyone else's but(and I have permission to tell this) my wife contemplated having gastric-bypass surgry. The SCA is full of folks who are overweight. Many morbidly so. We are a slice of everyday life. We have folks folk of everywalk of life but possibley a higher percentage of techno-geeks and gamers. It kills me that for many of these people that I call friends, putting on an extra 50+ pound of armour is exercise.
Anyway my wife and I know quite a few of these folks who have had "the Surgery" most have kept the weight off but admit that they have had to change the way they eat. On the other hand, a few of my friends have put the weight back on my eating constintly. Not a lot mind yo but almost all the time. I know it's related to emotional issues but if they want face them.....

Anyway, my wife saw all this and thought that GBP was for her. She looked for docs that would tell the insurane that she needed the surgury. This was while I was deployed as well mind you but we had this discussion before I left and I did all but put my foot down and if you know any stubborn women, wel you know how well that would have went.
Fortuantly, the Good Lord was watching out for her and insurance compmanies kept putting her off and stalling until I got home. ONe night on a long road trip where we were both captive audiances, I laid my case out to he of my misgivings about the surgury. My side was that she didn't eat right and even if she did, she didn't exercise. All the surgury would do was jump her ahead 6 months. The Doctors would still make sure that she ate right and in correct portions and that she exercised. Why not save the money and just do that for six months and see where she was at?
Her arguents ere that she has struggled with her weight all her life and she was tired of the fight. I told her then she should just get ready to die because that's the only way you want have to watch your weight. We all strugle with our weight either we weigh too much or not enough.
Then it was what if I lose the weight and I put it back on like last time? To which I replied,"what if you don't? There is no finish line when it comes to good health. yeah we all screw up and fal off the wagon but we just chace it down and get back on it. That's what life is. A series of struggles of two steps forward and one step back.
Anyway, after about 6 hours of my lovely and caring bedside manner she agreed to give it 9 months to lose the weight and then we'll discuss it again. She later found a site called Sparkpeople that has a caloric counter and support groups. Teresa called FatSpace. Myspae for Fatfolks. But after a nine months and religiously(almost) logging in her food everyday and devleoping a good support system along with many of her SCA friend on it, by Christmas she had lost 65 pounds but counting calories and walking.

Now some of the food choices aren'twhat I would pick and I'm still working on her and she confesses she struggles with wanting chuck the whole can of whipped cream at one time or eating ALL the desserte but She's getting there even though the tempation of the surgury still looms in the back of her mind.
I think she got so caught up emotionally in the downawrd spiral that that was her only option but I was fortunate enough to pull her out.
We still have friends who want the surgery after seeing Teresa's weight los and they al use the excues that they don't have the will power. Sometime I think it's they don't have friends or family who care enough to slap them back into reality.

Just my two cents worth.
Sorry about the speling and grammer. I did to to school in Mississippi.

[Cody Fielding]

Great comments all.

Information as presented in the article tends to give people permission to continue to not take responsibility for their actions ("they'll find a pill to fix it"). On some level it makes me think of how we as a general population used to think that the earth, the oceans etc, were an endless dumping ground.

"I'll throw my cigarette but out the car window, cuz somehow it will get dispersed & won't really be littering."

or

"I just put my trash out and it disappears" without regard for the resources it takes to create, where it will end up or what impact that might have.

It would seem we've all gotten an education this last decade on taking personal responsibility for these matters.

With any luck RMAX and others will be able to propagate the personal responsibility for personal care and health to the broader population.

I know we're all doing this on a personal, local, client level wherever we can and that IS encouraging.

C-

[stevenhogg]

But after a nine months and religiously(almost) logging in her food everyday and devleoping a good support system along with many of her SCA friend on it, by Christmas she had lost 65 pounds but counting calories and walking.

Dale, congrats to your wife. My wife has just about made her target weight of 135, she's lost over 70 lbs. through eating more protein and unprocessed stuff and portion control (Weight Watchers helped alot).

[Kathryn Woodall]

Dale and Steven,

Congrats to your wives!

[Aengus]

Kathryn, Steve,
Thanks, it's been a rough but fun ride and although it was tough to get back with the program after the holidays, the attitudes are still good.

[stevenhogg]

although it was tough to get back with the program after the holidays, the attitudes are still good.

We have noticed that those who have support do the best. When someone is trying to transition to a healthier lifestyle and the rest of the family is not, the road gets a lot steeper.

For Wanda and I, this year, eating sensibly was much easier. The holidays passed without the normal desire, guilt, and consequences of the over eating and eat poorly double whammy. As many have noted in past threads; the longer you are consistently making good choices the more dramatic the effects are when you cheat. This tends to help you make the right choice.

Where Weight Watchers really helped Wanda was in the portion control area. They gave her a certain amount of points, based upon her current weight, and as she lost weight the points went down accordingly.

The area where they don't help was in choosing what type of foods those points consist of. This is where this forum really helped. Gleaning info on the proper consumption of protein, fat, and carbohydrates and the reasons for removing refined foods and sugars has been invaluable. We read thru "Potatoes not Prozac" and the “Retraining your cells to burn fat instead of sugar” post, to name a couple, and started to better understand where cravings can come from and how a diet that is high in calories can still be a diet that does not satisfy our bodies needs.

We still have a lot to learn, but it is whole lot more fun to do it together, than to go it alone.

[Coach Gostnell]

Just to chime in with a two more success stories - a couple other people that I work with have spent the last six+ months doing "food" work either in conjuction with or similar to "Potatoes Not Prozac", one independently, one with medical advice.

They've also incrementally built up exercise programs, mostly walking and yoga.

Both report something similar to what Steven wrote:

The holidays passed without the normal desire, guilt, and consequences of the over eating and eat poorly double whammy.

They report thay they're not "suffering" or white-knuckling it while denying themselves the old guilty pleasures. It appears that at least one of the families is also benefitting: There was a birthday cake and family party. Everyone enjoyed a piece that night, but two days later, no one was eating the cake and my friend tossed it, with no regrets.

Both my co-workers have lost significant weight but better than that, they are glowing with health and brimming with energy and good spirits!