Obesity Discussion Forums

[jemima]

i was told by my doctors i had 5yrs too live if i didn't have surgery to lose weight, i went through all the doubts and wat ifs and after 2yrs of seeing consultants having tests, i decided to go through with surgery, i was told i would have the gastric bypass as i am 32st and only 25yrs old. i was put on the waiting list and would have the surgery within a yr. 2months later i was told i wouldn't be having the surgery next year on the NHS because i don't have diabeties and heart disease and other obese related illnesses, i would have to pay for it myself, my woeld crashed and i was devasted, i am on benefit and have no way of raising the £10,000 for the operation. the teleivison ppl got interested in my story and have appeared on week-in-week-out, gmtv and Trevor Mcdonald last week. at this moment i dont see myself in the future as i can't do anything, i can only walk 15yards and 2/3mins on the exercise bike at atime, i suffer terrible with my back and my partner has to do alot for me, cooking, cleaning, washing me. i hate it because 5yrs ago i was out all the time, cleaning all the time, working, and cooking and now i am always in the house only go out every saturday.

[Obesity Discussion]

Well, at this stage exercise is going to be tough, maybe in the mean time have you considered trying to work on your eating habits?

[1 Goin Low]

Rather than host your own pity party, buck up & modify your diet. More protein, far fewer carbs, plenty of fibre, and as soon as you can say "Bob's your uncle" you'll be out of danger.

So as soon as you do this, put the $10,000 PS back in your purse. You can buy me a juicy steak with a nice bottle of wine and we'll call it even.

Cheers,

Goin Low

[healthy_drinkr]

Hi jemima,

You might want to look at this as a blessing in disguise.

Unfortunately, one of the disadvantages of gastric bypass is to restrict the absorption of nutrients. Well, the fact is, you critically need nutrition to lose weight.

There is a very famous TV personality in the US who went thru gastric bypass a few years ago. Of course, he significantly lost a lot of weight immediately after the surgery.

But here he is, several years later, and he is almost back to where he started.

About 200+ years ago, it was the common belief among the world's best medical doctors, that blood-letting was the proper procedure to cure disease. If my memory serves me right, I think the former US president George Washington died, as a result of being squeezed out of blood.

About 75 years ago, a highly respected medical journal accepted advertising from the tobacco companies because they didn't think nicotine was bad for your health.

My point is, don't necessarily believe whatever is the "commonly accepted medical practice" of today. Do yourself a favor and do proper research. There is so much more available today than yesterday.

You are lucky because your doctor gave you 5 years....that is an ETERNITY for you to get healthy the safe and natural way. In addition, you mentioned that you DO NOT have other symptoms of high blood pressure, diabetes, etc.

Instead of spending the 10K on surgery, just buy yourself the best quality foods you can get...organic, whole foods, including grass-fed beef, and free-range chicken, wild-harvested seafoods, high quality vitamins, etc.

Start with a food log, and journalize what you are eating today, including the specific brands of commercial foods you eat.

From there you can slowly substitute them with the right foods that will eliminate your hunger, your cravings, and restore the energy you need to start exercising.

[D-Nuck]

wow dude, you DON'T cook, clean, wash yourself and only go out every saturday??

WTF????? what do you do all day???

how do EAT if you don't work?? HOw can you afford food to eat to GROW to 32 stones???

why cant you start some type of LOCOMOTION to stimulate bloodflow and increase caloric expenditure. WHY do you wait 2 or more years for doctors to help you when you aren't helping yourself??? i could have the wrong impression but from your post it seems to me you have giving up and have no hope EXCEPT surgery??? What gives????

[MikeB]

Atkins is the perfect beginning to your weight loss then modify to add carbs as you are able to start exercising.

[sass63]

Hi

Wow some pretty rough things have been said to you. I really hope you see this because it might help.

I can remember feeling just like you do. And its a horrid way to feel. Thinking that your life is over and you have no control.

The hardest thing in your life will be to get it in your mind that you dont have to have surgery to live and to lose weight. Now I know I did have the RNY but like lots of people that have had it I lost a ton of weight to start with and then gained all but 70 or so lbs of it back. I didnt feel at the time that I was using the surgery as an easy way out but looking back on it now I can see thats exactly what I was doing.

What you have to do to start with is try every day to eat a little less, a little more healthy and to take a few more steps. If you blow it dont let yourself talk yourself into the drama of well I blew it today I might as well eat what ever I want the rest of the day and try again tmw.

Try using a smaller plate also. I still to this day use a small plate for a dinner plate. This might sound a little weird but I feel that when you get to the weights that you are at and that I was at its like a drug addict. But the drug is food. I dont know about you but I felt the only thing I had control over was my food but as it turns out it had control of me.

Please dont let a couple of posts stop you from joining in with the boards here its really hard for people to understand how it feels to be over 400lbs muchless the reasons behind how it got so far out of hand to start with,
And just how hard it is to stop the maddness.

Best of luck to you!

[D-Nuck]

SASS63, great points, glad that you took time to posts, i am trying to better understand exactly what you are talking about, I tend to make quick assessments and judgements of people and find out that i am either way off or right on.

I saw myself getting fat and decided to stop it immediately, i resorted to restricting my intake and making exercise a daily part of my life, considering the status of my family history i figured i better get started sooner than later, b/c later was never gonna get here.

I always tend to think that some people just dont have the WILL or self respect to make changes that could better themselves, i can never understand how somebody can just on a whim decide that today b/c someody brought over a cupcake that they were gonna fall off the wagon and go apes hit on the calories.

Thanks for the reply, speaking out and hearing peoples comments helps me to better come to terms with things in my life, i appreciate that

[sass63]

Originally Posted by D-Nuck

SASS63, great points, glad that you took time to posts, i am trying to better understand exactly what you are talking about, I tend to make quick assessments and judgements of people and find out that i am either way off or right on.

I saw myself getting fat and decided to stop it immediately, i resorted to restricting my intake and making exercise a daily part of my life, considering the status of my family history i figured i better get started sooner than later, b/c later was never gonna get here.

I always tend to think that some people just dont have the WILL or self respect to make changes that could better themselves, i can never understand how somebody can just on a whim decide that today b/c someody brought over a cupcake that they were gonna fall off the wagon and go apes hit on the calories.

Thanks for the reply, speaking out and hearing peoples comments helps me to better come to terms with things in my life, i appreciate that

I am glad my post was able to help you understand some. I cant speak for anyone else but for me yes I knew I was gaining but I really didnt think that my calorie intake was that high.
I am one of the ones that have been heavy my whole life. And when the babies started coming boy oh boy so did the weight. And its like my body liked the higher weights and not the lower ones. With childhood trama the more I weighed the less some people talked to me ect. And it was like a switch that went off in my head without my knowing it. And I the next thing I knew I was well over 400 lbs and on oxygen and having a ton of health problems and I had 4 small kids at home. I was afraid I wasnt going to be able to watch them grow up much less see any grandchildren.
When your that big its not that you sit and do nothing it you cant do anything. All that fat is crushing your heart and your lungs.
And I happen to come from a large family of fat people. My fathers top weight was real close to 600 lbs.
And to be honest if I counted calories I would not have made it as far as I have. I cant eat 1100 or 1200 calories and lose.
I cant even eat 4 or 5 small meals a day. But with a lot of hard work I did find the key for me ( Thanks to God and determination ).

I also must say that I missed judged you also I thought you were just being a jerk and I am sorry. I am glad I postd as well now I know that your not just some jerk and you might have a little more insite to how its possible for people to become so fat.

[bigdaddy38]

D-nuck there are a lot of other factors that cause obesity such as Depression, Sleep apnea, Genetic disposition, not to mention a lot of people just have deep seated phsycological problems they don't even know about. My point is just that a person has to get to the bottom of the problem before they can fix it, I had a doctor once that was joking around with me and he said "food is your friend isn't it" I personally was a stress eater.

[D-Nuck]

yeah never can understand how some people think and justify there doings, im a wrong/right person, logical and never let my emotions dictate what i should or shouldnt do, espcicially when it comes to my health and well being, i enjoy everthing that i can try to make the best of what i got

[sass63]

Originally Posted by bigdaddy38

D-nuck there are a lot of other factors that cause obesity such as Depression, Sleep apnea, Genetic disposition, not to mention a lot of people just have deep seated phsycological problems they don't even know about. My point is just that a person has to get to the bottom of the problem before they can fix it, I had a doctor once that was joking around with me and he said "food is your friend isn't it" I personally was a stress eater.

I hear you on the stress eating lol man I remember lots of times I couldnt even understand why I was eating and couldnt stop either. Now when I am stressed to look at food makes me ill. Which isnt any good either someday I will find a happy medium

[sass63]

Originally Posted by D-Nuck

yeah never can understand how some people think and justify there doings, im a wrong/right person, logical and never let my emotions dictate what i should or shouldnt do, espcicially when it comes to my health and well being, i enjoy everthing that i can try to make the best of what i got

For me I know I wasnt trying to justify anything nor was I thinking about what I was doing to my health. The food made the pain go away for a little while anyway. Thats why I always compare a food addict to a drug addict its the same principle, just a different substance.

[bigdaddy38]

I know what you mean about it being an addiction, I think that is what people don't understand, they think that obese people are obese because they want to be. I was watching the biggest loser the other day and Dan made a really good quote just before he got booted he said that now he could do all the things that weight had stopped him from doing. I thought this was pretty powerful it made me realize that I had just wasted years of my life that I could have been living and would have been much happier if had done something sooner, but as I said its just not that easy.

[sass63]

Originally Posted by bigdaddy38

I know what you mean about it being an addiction, I think that is what people don't understand, they think that obese people are obese because they want to be. I was watching the biggest loser the other day and Dan made a really good quote just before he got booted he said that now he could do all the things that weight had stopped him from doing. I thought this was pretty powerful it made me realize that I had just wasted years of my life that I could have been living and would have been much happier if had done something sooner, but as I said its just not that easy.

I can really relate to that. I remember saying to myself it will be different in my 30's I will gain control and then when I turned 40 and was gaining again it was very discouraging. But now I am 44 and its diffenetly a lot better and I can do things I couldnt do in my early 30's ect. I try not to dwell on the fact of the wasted time and try to just enjoy the now and knowing I will never go back.

[Treasure]

Originally Posted by bigdaddy38

I had a doctor once that was joking around with me and he said "food is your friend isn't it" I personally was a stress eater.

I have a huge emotional connection to food. Stress, depression, celebration - all eating triggers, although different emotions tend to trigger different types of food. Ironically, I am very rational in the rest of my life. But completely irrational about food.

I know that when I can keep myself on an eating plan that regulates my blood sugar, the emotional eating is much easier to manage. I just need to figure out how to change my eating habits for good.

Good luck jemima!

[bigdaddy38]

I have been eating a lot of fruit lately that seems to help.

[Obesity Discussion]

I have a bad habit of eating out of boredom.

[sass63]

I think that everyone has some kind of trigger that will have them eating when they really dont need to or even want to.

[bigdaddy38]

Originally Posted by sass63

I think that everyone has some kind of trigger that will have them eating when they really dont need to or even want to.

I wrote an article yesterday that i'm posting around the web one of the things that I talked about was that if the government really wants to help the obese then rather than trying to tax bad foods to death or give us tax breaks to lose weight they have to focus on the root of the problem. Like you said there is usually a trigger most people that overeat do it becuase of some underlying reason such as a bad relationship, or bad childhood, or simply that's how they were taught to eat as children, it's not like we just decided that we liked being obese.