Follow up to Yesterday's Rant

Overall the rant from yesterday was well received. If you haven't read it, please do. I feel I need to clarify a few things. First, I don't hate those shaper shoes. Some people use them and like them and feel like they help. But, wearing them to work isn't exercise. It's not. People need to understand that. And, they can hurt people especially older people with poor balance.

Second, I was not in any way saying that WLS or lap band is not useful. It is a tool like any of the other tools we can use to lose weight. I have and will recommend WLS to patients when the risks are outweighed by the benefits the surgery might bring. It is a surgery with very real risks. I recommended it just recently for a patient who is diabetic, has high blood pressure and weighs nearly 400 pounds. He had a stroke last year. He has a heart blockage, but he is too big to fit on a cath table so we can't even know for sure where the blockage is or fix it. He is 2 years older than me.

Having lap band is a personal choice. I don't feel the risks outweigh the benefits in my case at this point. Being a doctor, I know all the bad stuff. I've seen it and sometimes that's bad. That's my own personal fear. You see, I own my own business. There is no sick leave in my world. Although I have disability insurance and all that, I have 20 employees working for me who do not. Their families depend on me being at work. If I'm not working, we make no money, they don't get paid. If I were to have the surgery and god forbid end up in ICU for 3 weeks as I have seen happen more than once, it would be devastating financially to me and to them.

I don't have diabetes, heart problems or high blood pressure. I'm lucky because I'm just fat. So at this point, surgery isn't worth it to me. But that's me and everybody has to make their own choices in this area.

My point about all of us as bloggers was only to remind us that we are here with a problem. Just like in AA, you have people who've been at it longer, the "sponsor" who can recognize the BS and call you out on it. We all need to remember our responsibility to each other. Let's not enable each other. There's a difference between:
1) A lapse at one meal or one day or even one week and getting back on track with a good attitude and

2)Eating badly day after day, missing exercise habitually and then being upset because you don't lose.

My son cam home from camp and said he learned something from his leader. He said, "KP duty is just about as hard as you make it." Now, he's 12 so his interpretation was "Don't make a big mess and it'll be easier to clean up." But when he said it to me it stopped me in my tracks. This is a VERY important life lesson. Maybe one of THE MOST important. So I sat him down and explained the deeper meaning.

To me, this means that you can whine and bitch and complain about how hard it is and how long it will take and how gross the mess is, or you can approach it with a smile, acknowledge it will be hard, but be confident that you can clean it up in a jiff and be on your way. My 12 year old son got it. Do you?

Losing weight is hard. It's damn hard and it takes a long time. But, sometimes I think we make it harder than it really is. I know I have and sometimes do. We make it so big in our minds, we talk ourselves into thinking it can't be done.

This was me a few months ago. About 3 weeks into this change, like clockwork, I had a small gain. And like clockwork, the petulant child inside me started in. Like my 3 year old daughter frustrated as she tried to learn how to button up her jammies, I mentally stomped my feet and said, "It's just too hard! I'll never be able to do this! It's stupid! I'm stupid! It's not fair!" I don't know why I did it. But on my facebook page there appeared a post from the LoseIt program I use about a blogger who'd done a review. I clicked on it. I read his story. He'd lost almost 200 pounds. From his blog I found others and as I sat there with tears in my eyes I realized that if they can do it, then DAMN IT so can I.

And, that was a turning point for me. I found Sean, a fellow Okie, BTW, who was over 500 pounds and lost weight. He was twice what my heaviest was. It Wowed me. I read and read. I was scared to start a blog. But found myself thinking things in my head I could share and wanted to tell these people I imagined that were becoming my friends. So I sent Jack Sh*t an email and asked him how to start. He replied with in minutes. That impressed me so much. And here I am.

I'm not perfect. I don't have all the answers. I appreciate all the help I've gotten from my blog friends. This is a process. It doesn't happen overnight. BUT, I know TODAY I woke up and did my C25K week 6 day 2 and when I weighed in I'd lost another 2.4 pounds bringing my total to 32.2 pounds lost. Something I've never done before. Ever.