Day Forty Six!!

The Brat


Have you ever thought about surgery? One of the shows I have really enjoyed watching on TV is ‘My 600 lb life’. What I don’t get when watching that show is that every single time the exact same thing happens. The 600 lb person insists that there is absolutely no way they can stop eating. The camera follows them around showing how the 600 lb person will go to desperate measures to eat. If they are mobile they go from fast food to fast food drive throughs, they go to the grocery store and drive themselves around on the little electric carts. And if they are not mobile they become extremely angry and abusive. Every single show reveals that there is a family dynamic of an enabler that either drives them, helps them carry the food in, makes the food for them, and/or brings them the food. Cleaning up after them not only the dishes, but the house and even so much so as to hose down their body. Even though every single 600 lb person states that there is absolutely no way that they can stop eating as much as they are eating, when they arrive at the hospital the Dr. says the exact same thing to everyone of them, “If you want the surgery, then you will have to go on a diet and lose at least 50 lbs to prove to me you can do it.” Then he sends them home and if it’s a very serious case or a case where their enabler can’t control themselves, he will hospitalize them. Yet they still have to go on the diet. 


So what confuses me is that each one of them, although at times struggling, eventually loses the 50 lbs in order to have the surgery. So what this says to me is; if they actually can do it, why do they need the surgery? 
Physicians advocate for surgery because of the success stories. People who have never been able to manage their weight finally do. The trouble is that the good result of the success story only happens if the person loses weight. What’s really disappointing is that there are many people who go through all of that to get the surgery and they never lose anything. Only 40% are successfully able to maintain the weight they lose through the surgery by the 5 year mark. 


So here is the key, the only way it actually really works whether the person has the surgery or doesn't have the surgery, the only way for long term success is to follow the diet. And no matter what the choice, the person is expected to change the type of food that they have been eating.   


I think I watched the show so vigorously because I was trying to scare myself away from ever being a contestant for it. I think I started committing to the new lifestyle because I new if I were ever to come to the conclusion of surgery I would be very angry with myself.
My friend had the surgery and she unfortunately was one of the people who didn’t lose anything.  She told me about it during the summer before the new school year started she said she had surgery on her stomach but didn’t wan’t to talk about it. During our time living together she would frequently run to the washroom and vomit saying “something didn’t agree with me.” But I knew she was overeating and her new stomach could’t tolerate it. On top of all this she never actually changed her diet. She would order a medium sized pizza and wings for delivery and then scurry away to her room to eat it all.


Your stomach is an amazing organ. Some people call it our second brain. It seems to me that our stomach is like a little child and when you overindulge the little child it can quickly become a spoiled brat. I think the bottom line is, if you let your stomach or ‘the little brat’ rule you, then you are always chasing after it to make it happy.