What Did It For You?

This may be an odd question, but I have my reasons for asking.  Did you have a defining moment in your life that finally made things "click" in your head that right now is the time for me to get this weight off of me. For me, it was when my Mother was in the home and I took her out to eat lunch.  There was an old lady in the restaurant parking lot, walking with a walker, and she had to weigh at least three hundred and fifty pounds.  My Mother made a comment about how they would have to use a hoist to bathe her.  That's when something in my brain went off.  I don't want to be like that lady in my old age.  I didn't want to be like her in my forties! My sister is close to sixty and starting to remind me more and more of the parking lot lady.  I wish I could say something to make it click for her...but we all know we have to have our own "click". Mary

I definitely had a series of clicks that came together for me to finally decide to lose weight.  The first thing was my father-he has adult onset diabetes from a lifetime of abusing his body through poor food choices and a sedentary lifestyle.  He chose to ignore it and kept going on with life as if he didn't have diabetes-now he has had part of a toe removed, he can not feel his feet-seriously.  He can't feel them to the point that he had his shoes off one day and stepped on a staple on the floor and it went into his foot and went unnoticed for 3 days when my LITTLE BROTHER saw it in there.  my. god.  What else?  OH-he can't read without using reading glasses AND a hand-held magnifying glass.  His eyes are completely shot.  He also can't feel his fingers to button up his shirt, my mother has to do it for him.  He also has had so many low-sugar attacks that they happen and we don't even get surprised by them anymore...and he's had to go to the hospital so many times for week long visits because of his health.  And all of that is due to diabetes.  He was born in 1941-so he's not that old.  I was with him during a visit with his eye-doctor a couple of years ago when he said to him "But Doc, I don't get it...I'm doing everything right now, why am I losing my eyesight?"  and the Dr. said "The damage you are experiencing now is due to the way you treated your body 5-8 years ago."  That realllly freaked me out.  He made the choice to live the last years of his life like this by being a 40 year old who didn't decide to change his ways, then a 50 year old, then a 60 year old...I saw that finally and realized...OKAY-I can't live my life like that....and I stepped up and did something about it. 

  Good for you!  My Mama passed from complications of type II diabetes, and it all could have been avoided if something could have clicked for her.  But she always was a rebellious child and I sometimes felt like she felt that her doctors were not the boss of her.  Sad. But at least we have learned from their mistakes and some good has come from it.   Best wishes on your journey. Mary 

we just talked about this - like last week, but it never gets old.  I have had the urge many times in my life. What I think will stick this time is the graphic image of the cadaver on Oprah one day.  The cadaver was sliced in two long wise. You could see tons of white fat stuffed all over the belly area - profile ways. It is an organ called the omentum, Never had heard of that organ in all my born days.  A normal omentum looks like a bridal veil - thin and lays over the inner organs.  This person's looked like insulation blown in all over the place - fluffy, blobby fat.  The other thing is that i was gaining without good reason - moving plenty, doing many of the right things - and gaining. I got scared and knew i needed help. In my family, we are a "little fat", nobody has serious diseases due to obesity. However, we do have stroke and heart issues! So, that always has been in the back of my small mind as just a very good reason to get a grip.  Getting very fat or even accepting a little fat does not help these conditions.  Never mind that, in general, I have slowly come to realize that nobody PLANS to become a drunk - morbidly obese person - drug addict. It just happens, over time, if you are not truly aware of how the little things DO matter, it all adds up.  One binge does not mean you will be a fat person any more than one drunken weekend means you will become an alcoholic. But string a few together...you have a problem.  The little good, conssitent, habits make a difference in my life.

Oh man, I haven't been so grossed out by an organ until Dr. Oz took to making someone hold an omentum on practically all of his shows.  I don't even want to THINK about what mine looks like.  Okay...I'm oficially going into denial!   But it does work to scare the crap outta ya.  I guess I've always been so grossed out by the demonstration that I've never heard if you can repair the omentum.  So Neecee... can it be repaired? Mary

it's weird... i see almost nothing about that on the internet.  I wonder...and I bet it is slow going after a person puts on weight - and especially apple shaped people. I suspect that mine is very stubborn based on how little my waist size changed. You may recall, I lost 40# and my waist size went down...drumroll please..one inch....that is all. I could not believe it. now it is true that my mid section is where I put it on, but wow. I have since lost 3/4 inch since January, no weight to speak of, just some small amounts of inches.  Ya got me. I think it is one area that there is little information on. I am going to ask my doctor what he thinks. he is a PCP who does have a big interest in obesity and tends to think as I do - why some and not others.

Hi, New kid on the block here.  I don't recall ever reading anything that mentioned the omentum while researching weight loss.  I do remember an article however that talked about reducing the fat layer (same thing?).  In the article it stated that in order for the fat layer to be reduced, it was necessary to drink mega amounts of water.  The fat cells can't not release the fat for the bodies use, or to release it for disposal,  until there is enough water in the body to refill those cells with water.  I often wonder if all the water that the WLS folks loose is more because they are required to drink 64 oz. of water per day?  Something to think about. The thing that made it click for me?   Well, I'll try to make a long story short.  I had fusion surgery on my spine ten years ago.  It was my hope that besides giving the use of my legs back, that it would also leave me free of the pain from a broken spine.  It took five years of me continuously pushing myself to do more and more in spite of the pain.  But I  finally got there.  And I worked it for all it was worth for about 18 months.  I did loose some weight during that time.  Then suddenly  it was gone again.  I started to experience  all  of that old familiar pain again.  I started going from  doctor to doctor looking for someone who cared enough  to figure out what was wrong.  It turns out that there were numerous things and they are not surgically operable.  I am looking at a lifetime of disability now.  Now I know a lot of people would give up at this point and for a while I did too, until I could get my head wrapped around it.  What made it click for me was thinking of my mother in law who is wheel chair bound (88 yr. old come Thursday)  Like me, it was arthritis that put her in that chair.  For the past four years we have struggled to take her places with us, to get her out of the home for a while.  We struggle with lifting her in and out of the car,  finding bathrooms that could accommodate her,me and her chair.  Sitting with her while she cried about having to be changed due to incontinence, being bathed on a lift chair etc. etc.....  Well that did it for me.  When I think of being in a position that everyone will have to care for me in those ways eventually, I just can't bare the thought of them having to do this while I am obese.  In other words I don't want to add the humiliation of  being fat to the humiliation of having to be cared for.  If others have to lift me , turn me and clean me, please Lord do not let them resent me because I'm fat and difficult or painful for them to care for.  I found out in October (after nearly two years of searching for answers) exactly what ALL is wrong with my back etc.  I began my "diet" towards the end of January.  I've lost 29 lbs to date.  I plan to have weight loss surgery (VSG) sometime this fall because I want the changes I'm making to be as permanent as possible for obvious reasons.  I'm 49 yrs. old.  If I loose all the excess weight, I realize that it will prolong my life.  Disability...it's a double edged sword.  But you have to make a choice here.  I choose to make life easier for others.  Perhaps thinking of where you may end up in later years will help some of you to put things in perspective.  Set some goals that will make your "golden years" something truly golden.  I wish you all the best of luck in your journeys. MeMo

Hi MeMo Yes, you raise some interesting points...hard telling what is in store for us around a corner. And to be obese and dependent...man talk about a whole nuther aspect of pain. I also forgot to mention 911...I want to be one who is a help in a gigantic crisis, not so crippled up and fat that I'm the liability.  Some people cannot help their disability, and while I understand how hard it is to lose weight, it does not have to be like that.  Obesity is changeable and within some degree of our control. 

Amen, Neecee... I had such a hard time in the aftermath of hurricane Charlie .. and I knew it was my weight.  We were going to Wally world everyday after work to load up on frui****er and ice and heading down into the "war zone".. and lemme tell ya... by the time the van was loaded, I thought I was going to die.  There was so much that was needed and I was so pissed at myself that I wasn't in the physical condition needed to whip out a chain saw and get to REAL work!  When Katrina rolled around, I wanted to go so badly.. but there was NO WAY my body would allow it. Being over 100 lbs down makes a big difference in one's ability to "be there" in times of crisis... it's so emotional that adding the guilt of being physically unable to do anything because of WEIGHT makes getting through these times almost unbearable. Amen, girlie....  good reminder....   Thank you!

I don't know that it was one thing.  My family is so overweight it isn't funny.  This last weekend going to Texas we stopped at Dairy Queen for lunch.  My grandmother comes in, tries to fit in the booth and she can't, she yells "Do you have a chair I am too fat to fit".  How embarrassing for her.  My mother was diabetic, high blood pressure, blah bla.  I have sleep apnea.  But I think the kicker?  My 9 year old is 5 ft 2.  Big kid right?  Well he weighs 180 pounds.  He is so consumed with food.  Did I do that to him?  How can he worry about it so much?  He thinks there won't be enough for him to eat or he will not get up in time to eat.  He thinks about what they are having for lunch during class at school.  If he stays with his grandm on Friday, like he normally does, he gets upset if we have something like pizza without him.  Did I make him this way?  How can I fix it?  Why id he always so hungry?  And he eats like he hasn't eaten in days.  What a horrible mother I am to do this to him??  So, now if I could get my family to stop letting him have free range of the bad crap i the fridge, I may be able to fix it if he sees that Mamma is trying to be healthy.  i have never ever told him he was fat or eats to much or any of that negative crap.  I want it to be a poitive experience.  There are enough people to make your kids feel bad  about themselves without you doing it.  I am trying to make him see it is bad for his health to get up an eat 7 snack cakes like he did Sunday morning.  That is my trigger righ there.  I don't want a 300 pound teenager or worse yet, before he is 13.