NO ONE needs another government study to know that America is drowning in an ocean of adipose, so the state's anti-obesity initiative announced Jan. 8 is a welcome step. But it ignores the most basic fact about why so many Americans are fat and getting fatter.
Leslie Baylous was very content with her life and with her appearance although she described herself as being very heavy.
At 5 foot, 5 inches, she reached 245 pounds at her heaviest. "I had no initiative to lose weight," the Barboursville woman recalled.
She was a registered nurse, took pride in the way she dressed and was "a real go-getter."
A report recently released by the Center for Rural Affairs in Lyons, Neb., indicates that obesity is second to tobacco as a cause of death in rural America. However, losing weight is a struggle for many Americans, who often turn to dieting and exercise and, as a last resort, elective surgery.
For many it is the last resort. The body lift is the most extreme transformation of the body that cosmetic surgery can provide.
The risks are high, and this major surgery is carried out only on the morbidly obese who have lost a large amount of weight either through dieting or surgery and want to remove swathes of excess skin.
Even so, the four-hour procedure is regularly seen on cosmetic makeover TV shows, such as Channel 4's 10 Years Younger, where the results are revealed in less than an hour.
The true recovery time is far more prolonged and involved almost a month bedbound in agony, according to Debbie Murray, a 52-year-old from Walton on the Hill, Surrey, who opted for the body lift in May last year.
A wheelchair-bound Lowell man who dropped nearly 200 pounds and is keeping the weight off day-by-day is using his inspirational story to send a message to dieters derailed by temptations and excuses.
“It is possible,? said Dan Ewing, 35, a quadriplegic who broke his neck in a diving accident at age 21 and has lost 194 pounds while confined to a wheelchair. “I have committed to changing my lifestyle. With perseverance, all things are possible.?
Now it's time to take it off. For many people, that means another New Year's resolution. The most popular resolution is to lose weight and, unfortunately, most resolutions don't last.
If you are one of the few who do keep your resolution and do manage to lose the weight, these goals are often tied to thoughts of plastic surgery.
Melissa Mahboub had heard about the potential risks of weight loss surgery, so she did her research before deciding to have it herself.
"I heard death could be a factor with gastric bypass," she said. "I have a two-and-a-half year-old son and I want to see him grow up."
Mahboub decided on lap band surgery, a less invasive procedure than gastric bypass. And her choice of Durham Regional Hospital for her surgery put her in the hands of doctors who are national leaders in a new form of lap band surgery using just one incision.
