Thursday, August 02, 2007

New Rule!

From Bill Maher, August 29th, 2003's show Real Time, during his "New Rules" segment:

All right, New Rule: No more celebrating gastric bypass. Carny Wilson, Al Roker and now Starr Jones are all being heralded by the media for stapling their stomachs shut. They shouldn't be. They're not making a brave choice to change. They're giving money to doctors to reroute their ability to turn food into crap. It's like kicking cocaine by crazy gluing your nostrils shut.

This is why I love Maher. Blunt, but honest, and pithy. I couldn't agree more. Really, people who cut their guts by literally cutting their guts are a direct insult to the rest of us who didn't resort to supergluing our nostrils shut. People ask me all the time when I tell them I lost 100 pounds, "Did you have surgery?" I want to punch them in the face.

Changing your life isn't easy. It isn't something you can go check into a clinic for, and walk out a new man. It's gut wrenching, 100% honest with yourself, painful growth. It's character building. I don't know how to describe it other than what I always say, "The weight is simply a byproduct."

Honest, the weight loss is a secondary effect of you living a healthy life if you're doing it right; mentally, spiritually, and physically. Do it wrong, and you're like the angry excuse making idiots I meet who got surgery. Honestly, I deal with many of them, and they're the angriest most emotionally immature people ever. They come to me looking for things like vitamin B when the weight starts coming back on because they think that's the problem. No, fatass, you've stretched your stomach out again. Face it.

I suppose I've been trained to be hard on myself. Even too hard on myself. However, I'd rather err on that side of the fence than the school of "it's not my fault I'm fat." Therefore, I will take 100% responsibility for my actions, and in this, I know I can be 100% responsible for my future results.

If you've had surgery, and want to defend yourself here, go for it. However, know you cannot talk your way out of a situation you acted yourself into. Tell me "Obesity runs in my family." I'll tell you, "No, the problem is NO ONE runs in your family, slacker."

I'm a bit sick of these people.

9 comments:

Half Man said...

A big part of the reason I started my journey of fitness is because I don't want surgery. I knew that if I continued the way I did, I would end up having the surgery for many of the reasons you stated.

However, I know many people who have had the surgery, and it's not an easy way out. It's painful. It's hard to adjust to eating so little at a time. They suffer a lot of sickness and nausea. In the end, they lose weight the same way anyone does. They take in fewer calories than they expend. They have to learn to eat the right way. In the end, the people I know have lost the weight and live active lifestyles.

BUT, it's not for me.

Mom said...

Oh my. See, this is the difference between a guy blog and a ladies blog, but I love the differences in the sexes. You laid it on the line. I was told by my doc that I needed gastric bypass. I told him absolutely not.

Now, 72 lbs later, he wants to put my before and after shots on his wall. Why? So he can sell more idiots on bypass?

People do regain the weight. It's because they have not done the weight loss as a lifestyle change that is sustainable. They have not exercised. And no wonder! They are subsisting on 600-800 calories a day! Give me a break!

The main problem that I see is that these people don't live too long. Mark my words, this surgery will go by the wayside as the FDA yanks it. It is dangerous and time will tell the ramifications.

Your remark, "No one runs in your family" was just classic.

Scott Hidalgo said...

Yeah, I was about 60 pounds heavier a few years ago. I've since started eating better and have become a runner and as a result, kept the weight off. Honestly, I've become somewhat of a "fitness nut."

Well, now people see me and say things like, "You must have good genes."

Funny, but, I wasn't getting comments like those when I was fat. Apparently, I've somehow acquired better genetics!

Great blog!

Kim Ayres said...

Bypass or other surgeries can never work in the long term because they never address WHY the person was overeating. If a person is suffering from low self esteem, self-loathing, food addictions and intolerances, emotional and mental health problems as well as bad habits and no real support, then all that's going to happen is they are going to learn how to liquidise mars bars.

Exit 465 said...

Amen to this, Josh. I've had so many friends and family go the surgery route. I just didn't want to do it. It seemed the cheap way out to me. It didn't beat the real problem, and that's learning to control your addiction. Since their surgeries, every one of them has transfered their addictions elsewhere, mostly to alcohol. They just don't look good with skin hanging everywhere. This is the much better route!

Anonymous said...

Obviously some people are ignorant regarding morbid obesity...
I am 46 years old, male, have lost over 100 pounds 6 times in my life, and gained them back each time!, i have exercised, go to a shrink and tried every "sensible" method to keep my weight down, I just dont have more time left to keep experimenting, I am in a very high risk situation. I am gon to have gastric bypass.

Anonymous said...

I would never get bypass surgery, but I really do not appreciate your tone. Insulting people is not going to help you keep your weight off, and it will not erase the fact that you were fat in the past, either.

I am a woman, 5'6" tall and about 233 pounds. I was not always like this. I was slender when I was growing up, remained slender through my teenaged years and did not start gaining weight until the year I went on the Pill. Later that year I got pregnant. After my first child was born I could not get all the baby weight back off. I had my second child almost nine years later, exclusively breastfed her, and although I got back to my post-first, pre-second-baby weight immediately after the birth, I gained about seventy pounds in the three or four months afterward. It literally snuck up on me.

Am I lazy? Yep. But I've been lazy all my life. Why wasn't I fat the whole time?

Do I eat a lot? It depends. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. There are quite a few days I forget to eat much of anything at all. This has also been true for many years, at least since I was a teenager. Why haven't I been fat the whole time?

If I had a nickel for every fat person I've talked to or observed who has stated they don't eat much or don't eat often, I'd be a rich woman. I believe them. You can only take so much of being called a fat pig before you believe it and begin starving yourself hoping that's all it'll take to make the fat go away.

And for your information, several factors that lead to obesity DO run in my family. My mom, her mother, her aunts, and her (now-deceased) grandmother all have/had type 2 diabetes. My father was diagnosed with it in 2005 and it doesn't even run in his family. I have symptoms of insulin resistance and I might also have thyroid issues, although those are difficult to diagnose and I have no insurance.

I really feel the hormones involved with both the Pill and my pregnancies contributed to my weight gain and the difficulty in getting it back off. This while I went through several years in poverty and not having much food to eat AND having to walk a lot, sometimes upwards of three or four miles a day, because I had no car and the bus stop was far from work.

So it's not as simple as you make it out to be. Now, I know low-carbing helps me lose weight, and inasmuch as I have not stuck with that, that IS my responsibility. But it is hardly the abject moral failure you are making it out to be. If I'd known the effect that excess carbs would have on my body from the very beginning, I would probably not be in this mess now. I could have compensated for the effects of the hormones. And there are a lot of other people walking around not understanding either, because the media and their own doctors lie to them.

But you're such a font of wisdom, there, I guess you already knew all that and are just trying to work out how to incorporate it into your blog. Let's hope a few more years and a bit more experience keep you from ODing on humble pie.

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