Morbidly obese

Laying in bed last night, flipping through channels we came across a show on TLC on morbidly obese people. I have to admit that I have always held a little bit of a prejudice against those who are morbidly obese...not so much out of hatred, but more fear of how I could end up myself.

The first show was something about obese teens and it made me really angry...not at the teens themselves, but at their parents. How on earth could you allow your child to reach the point at 16 years old they need gastric bypass surgery just to survive? The one mother had such improper expectations of her 16 year old and babied him to such an awful extent (she had another child who had died) that you just couldn't imagine a way for this boy to ever have a normal life UNLESS he and his mother received counseling. He was in a situation in which he was almost bedridden. They cut off 70 lbs. of fat from his stomach when they did his bypass surgery. And instead of acting like a 16 year old, he acted like an 8 year old, and mother treated him like an 8 year old although he did not appear to have any intellectual defects that would cause that.

It is my opinion that social services need to step in in those circumstances and deal with that family so that a child does not die of obesity and so the parents stop enabling the child. And its interesting in ALL the cases shown the parents were overweight as well. Maybe not morbidly obese, but certainly at the point that they needed to lose 50+ lbs.

Then we watched Half Ton Mom. This woman weighed 900 lbs. and was bedridden. She was unable to roll over, care for herself, and basically her life existed in her bed. She had 2 beautiful children and her parents appeared to be of normal weight for their age and height. Her sister is overweight, but not morbidly so. Hearing her story made me think 2 things:

When she was hit by a drunk driver and confined to bed someone had to be the one bringing her food that lacked nutritional value. Perhaps if someone had stepped in earlier and fed her nutritional foods then she wouldn't have ballooned to the point where she weighed 900 lbs.

But she did posses a beautiful spirit and show courage when she opted for gastric bypass surgery knowing she may die from the surgery. She had little options as she either needed to lose the weight medically, risk and all, or she would die within the year from her weight. And so she had the surgery...and died 2 weeks later of a heart attack. Her story made me sad, especially for her daughters. And so I emailed them on myspace just a little bit ago (they showed her page on TLC).

This morning we watched The Biggest Loser: Family Edition. When the one daughter weighed LESS than I do currently I knew I really needed to get serious (as in her BEFORE weight was LESS than my current weight and then she lost 42 lbs). Paul pointed out that she was not as tall as I am, but still. I cannot continue to ignore my weight and hope that it will magically disappear. I cannot think myself thin.

So, I went to the gym. And came home and played Wii fit. I have decided that while I LOVE wine I am going to abstain until January 24th (party that afternoon) and also am going to lay off the soda. Hopefully my heart burn issues will improve and I'll drop a few pounds to boot. I can't completely give up my coffee though (although I have gone from daily to twice a week).

2009 is about being healthier, living healthier, and continuing to work on myself...being content and at peace and grateful.