An Apple A Day....ISN'T ENOUGH
Posted by Sherry , Saturday, June 5, 2010 Saturday, June 05, 2010
I am sick and tired of doctors and other health professionals talking too much and not listening enough. SICK OF IT.
"Where did all this rage come from, young Jedi? you ask. Well, in a nutshell, Sandy Lee's blog.
It's not her fault, she's simply relaying information she was given from her doctors and health professionals. And we like to trust doctors. We want to believe doctors. We want to put our problems in their hands and have them fix us.
They are doctors after all! They have more schooling than us! More money than us! They carry clipboards!
But what MOST of our doctors DON'T have, is our problems. Whether it's obesity, migranes, back pain or excessive flatulence, typically our doctors don't have our issues. They have medicines and rehearsed advice and books and AMA guidelines and clipboards. But they haven't lived in our bodies or felt our pain (mental, physical or perceived).
With regard to obesity, most of us have surgeons and doctors and physician's assistants who are not, have never been and never will be obese.
If dieting worked, none of us would be overweight. It is not rocket science. It isn't even 7th grade biology. It is a fact of life for those of us who have had weight struggles. Dieting, especially in the mental sense, is detrimental. It is detrimental physically, emotionally and frankly, it just plain SUCKS.
Furthermore, if a private practice Lap-Band surgeon knew that their nurses, P.A.s and nutritionists were telling potential patients that they had to 'diet' the rest of their lives, you can bet they would nip that in the bud quicker than you can say “bankruptcy”.
Look at it this way: If, while investigating the Lap-Band, you were told that after surgery you would have to count calories every day, eat 'diet' foods 99% of the time and STOP YOURSELF from eating when you are hungry, would YOU have signed up for the band? Think about it. Would you?
I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I would not.
I'm going to take it further. I think its a farce that most obese people eat terribly. Most of us just eat too much. Period. Most days we eat vegetables, fruit, protein. And some days we eat Ritz crackers and peanut butter. But generally, the reason we are fat is because we just eat larger quantities than our thin friends.
In fact, I would even venture that many of us are even PICKIER than most people about what we will eat. We want GOOD food. We want things that taste, smell, feel and look satisfying.
This isn't to say we never eat Doritos, but we appreciate a the finer things when they come our way. We savor ethnic foods. We dream of homemade pasta. We get nostalgic over grandma's pastries. We won't turn down a box-made brownie but we'll get positively poetic about a homemade one. Especially if it is made with Chilean vanilla extract. And Georgian pecans. And love.
Leona and I haven't yet found our stride. We're still working out the kinks and facing daily power struggles. But we agree on one thing: To succeed, we need fills. Fills take the reins when we cannot. A fill reminds us to quit when we need the reminder. I will say it again: WE NEED FILLS.
I will not be the first nor the last to say that I did not spend thousands of dollars, hours in a hospital, heartache in the decision-making and headache in the surgery aftermath to be told I have to DIET for the rest of my life. Make healthier choices? Certainly. Cut down on portions? Sure! Work out my mental issues with food? I'll try. But diet? No way. Uh-uh. This girl said “no more” to dieting on March 19, 2010. And I'm not turning back.
Preach it sister :-)