February 1, 2023

Feb 01, 2023

A lot of irons in the fire at work and personal, but am keeping on track with managing my eating.  Weight loss has slowed a bit--as I expected it would, but I'm at a point where it doesn't mess with my head in the same way.  I feel very fortunate to have the hormonal changes as well as the stomach size reduction that comes with the RNY.  I don't have the hunger and lack of saity that undermines the efforts of so many.  I do still get the stress eats, but by tracking things, I can keep that reasonable and within my plan.  It's not like I'm never going to stress eat again--not in this world anyway!

There's been a lot in the news lately about obesity--with the new drug and medical guidelines--that I think is good for the conversation.  There was even one opinion piece in the post by a doctor about the anti-fat bias and general lack of knowledge on the part of so many doctors.  Losing weight does not cure heart disease, cancer, MS, lupus, etc. yet many people who struggle with weight get poor treatment becasue of their weight, not their health.  The default and simplistic statement that everyone overweight needs to lose weight to be healthy is not actually true and deflects real thoughtfulness.  I thought it was interesting when the doctor wrote about learning to replace the phrase "obese person" with "person with obesity" like we do with most other medical conditions. 

But I do worry about all the quackery and extremest thinking that comes with all the highlighting of these issues.  I love the podcast "Maintance Phase" and their highlighting of how much of our "wellness" language and actions really emphasis the rejection of a large person's body and right to exist is space. 

How much of my desire to lose weight has to do with my own ingrained bias (I don't find my fat body attractive), health (I really do hurt less when at a lower weight), or just vanity (I'll definitely own this one as I like nice clothes and they simply aren't available in larger sizes).  And I remember the first time I had to sit in the middle seat on an airplane once I lost weight and how great that felt.  For once, fellow passengers didn't have that look of dread in their eyes when I said that was my seat!

Such a complex issue!  And so little information that isn't filtered through some marketing language with a very different agenda.

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