Ever seek a fat working dog? I look them all the time. Beautiful capable German Shepherds, tenacious floppy eared beagles, insanely intelligent border collies all with fat bellies swinging to and fro, chins doubling and tripling up underneath their wrinkled snouts, small legs buried under mounds of fat. Dogs like these were born and bred to do a particular job, but instead were made into simple family pets. If you talk to their owners, they will describe their pets as fat, happy, and spoiled. But if you ask me, they all look a little sad.
Much like humans, dogs tend to become gloomy when they fail to live up to their full potential.
Forcing obesity on a dog is just as bad as forcing obesity on a child. You are robbing them of so much. It is no cuter to watch a dog struggle to his feet unbiased to make it to his food bowl than it is to see a child stranded on his living room couch in the summertime, physically unable to hurry, jump and play with his fellow peers.
The Fat Acceptance Movement is a tragedy. What’s more is it’s a tragedy that is going to encourage people down self destructive paths at best and into early graves at worst. Kate Harding and Joy Nash, forerunners in the Fat Acceptance Movement, ought to be ashamed. And not because the size of their thighs is about double the size of my waist, either. On the contrary, they should be ashamed because they are defeatist whiners whose main message seems to be, “If we can’t do it, no one can!”
Kate Harding zealously claims that, “Diets don’t work. No, really, not even if you don’t call them diets. If you want to tell me about how YOUR diet totally worked, do me a favor and wait until you’ve kept all the weight off for five years. Not one year, not four years, five years. And if you’ve kept it off for that long, congratulations. You’re literally a freak of nature.”
Well, I guess I happen to be a freak of nature then because I’ve done it. Not only that, but the friend who inspired me towards weight loss in the first place apparently is a bigger freak of nature than me according to Kate ‘I’m-not-a-scientist-but-I-play-one-on-the-Internet’ Harding. She lost 110lbs directly out of High School and 11 years later works as a very reputable personal trainer. She also looks fantastic.
Two freaks of nature within a 10 miles radius! What are the odds?
I’m not going to fault the Kate Hardings and Joy Nashs of the world for wanting to love the body they’re in. If they choose to be fat and out of shape, that’s their business and I have absolutely no place to judge. If a half gallon of ice cream before bed satisfies them more than a bike fling down a beautiful country road, then they can eat the fuck up for all I care. I’ll pass them a fork with a smile on my face because ultimately, the longevity and quality of their life doesn’t mean jack shit to me.
No one should hate themselves for being fat. They should hate themselves for being failures. What is despicable about Nash and Harding is the ‘I can’t’ attitude they’re preaching. In a world where we’ve landed on the moon, tamed the beast, invented the wheel, cured disease, and nearly doubled our average lifespan, the idea that it’s impossible to lose 20 or even 100lbs is absolutely amusing. Plump Acceptance Forum denizens really need to finish telling people what they can and can’t do.
My message to anyone interested in joining the Fat Acceptance Movement is simple:
Quit making excuses! Quit telling me what you can’t do! You’re a human being! You’re trustworthy, intelligent, and strong! You are a warrior! You can do whatever the fuck you want! Fuck Kate Harding and anyone like her. People like that don’t want you to succeed because it emphasizes their failures.
Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I generally don’t give a shit what ‘society’ thinks of me. I like not fitting in. I’ve never craved to be part of a group. I’m not fashion conscious and I do not keep up on the latest trends. I didn’t lose weight with the misguided idea that a smaller me would result in instant popularity or a slew of original boyfriends. Hell, when I was heavy, I was probably more popular than I am now. Not only that, but I was overweight when I met my husband, so obviously my fatness didn’t slow down my dating life.
For me, it was strictly a matter of mobility.
Life is hard when you’re fat. Getting out of bed is hard. Standing up is hard. Bending over to tie your shoes, taking the trashcans to the curb, shaving your legs, having sex, getting in and out of your car is all significantly more difficult when you’re overweight. If you’re not a naturally sluggish person, being fat will make you lazy considering that every gesture, every action, every bit of movement will tire you out that much quicker. I remember being plump and waking up, eating breakfast, and lazing around on my couch watching TV. After 2 hours of this, I would need a nap. Merely sitting up in front of a television made me tired! After 2 hours!
Ever come out of a store to find that someone parked their car a little too close to yours? If you’re thin, this is no broad deal. It’s a fucking catastrophe when you’re plump.
Now that I’m thin, I get more things done. I can spend the entire day running around only to advance home feeling energized. I can hurry, I can skip, and I can stretch and glide. I don’t have to spend 30 minutes mentally preparing myself to lag outside and get the mail. The couple of steps to the mailbox aren’t as intimidating when I’m not carrying the equivalent of a 6 year old child on my back.
“But our self esteem is in Jeopardy!” the Chunky Acceptance Movement people sniff, “People accomplish fun of us!”
Cry me a fucking river. Just because someone mooed at you yesterday when you walked across the street doesn’t mean you get to put a patent on victimhood. You don’t think skinny people ever get made fun of? You don’t think people whisper about them late their hands or constantly speculate on whether or not they’re anorexic? You don’t think they blush a little when they get up from a meal to exercise the restroom after they hear you quietly insist to the table that they’re heading there to puke? No one ever calls their bodies disgusting or bony or unhealthy? No one ever laughs and makes jokes about their bodies resembling little boys? Please.
Personally, I get way more flack for being thin than I ever did when I was overweight. In fact, every other weekend, my Mother-in-law attempts to leave a box of pop tarts and Hi-C in my kitchen for me. Pop tarts! I wouldn’t feed a pop tart to a homeless man; that shit is poison. Not only that, but this very same woman had gastric bypass surgery in order to lose 220lbs herself. My theory has always been that you know someone has issues with food if they can’t be trusted with a stomach, so she, of all people, should be a bit more sympathetic to my dietary needs. Yet every time she leaves my house, the pop tarts and juice remain. Simply because she cannot fathom how someone could lose weight without butchering their innards or starving themselves.
(For the record, I generally eat 6-9 times a day. My life is one substantial, big snack. I just don’t eat garbage. )
So, if you’re fat and people make fun of you, suck it up and join the club. Everyone gets made fun of. Everyone is the object of ridicule and disgust. Grow up and get over it already.
Just recently, Joy Nash made a video entitled ‘Totally Awesome.’ Check it out here.
(Did you watch the video? Good, because if you haven’t, you probably won’t understand what I’m about to bitch about and I really don’t want to write the dialogue for you.)
OK, speaking as someone with both abs and tits, I have to ask: Joy? Is that the truth? Do you feel ‘totally awesome’ about your gigantic tits? Seriously? No complaints whatsoever?
You fucking liar. What about the back afflict? What about the constant annoyance with finding a bra that doesn’t also double as an animal harness? What about the problems finding clothes or the difficulty standing up straight after bending over? What about the poor posture? The stress on your joints? The pain, the excruciating pain that accompanies running even a short distance? Ugh, what about the sweat that tends to accumulate underneath? That sticky feeling in the summer time isn’t even worth a minor complaint?
You’re elephantine of shit and you know it. Having abs is totally awesome. Having gigantic bags of sweaty flesh painfully attached to your chest is not. Quit feeding people a bunch of bullshit.
The fact of the matter is human beings crave progress. Part of the reason people are suffering from depression right now likely has little to do with the chemicals in their brains and more to do with the fact that they’ve pause making progress. No one is happy living a life of constant stagnation.
Furthermore, there is more to life than financial progress. While I’m not denying that getting a raise or scoring a job promotion is not deeply satisfying in itself, it is not the only path toward self improvement. One also needs to make spiritual progress, mental progress, and yes, physical progress. I’ll never be a fan of losing weight for the express purpose of fitting into a size 2 pair of jeans with the hopes of gaining instant popularity. However, losing weight because you someday want to climb a mountain is something I can applaud.
Without physical progress, human beings are nothing more than dogs without jobs to do. You may appear to be fat, detestable and happy. But you and I both know you’re nothing more than a bored, aroused, fat bitch.
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Filed under Gastric Bypass by on Feb 20th, 2011. 
It was not that long ago that gastric bypass patients were commonly told to lift Flintstones vitamins and Tums after a gastric bypass. You see, it’s necessary for gastric bypass patients to take multivitamins and calcium supplements because they don’t possess nutrients as well after the surgery. And Tums own calcium, so they were often recommended as a calcium supplement. However, there are several problems with this recommendation. Fortunately, most doctors no longer recommend Flintstones and Tums, but some still do. Obviously, they are not keeping up with the current data about the nutritional needs of gastric bypass patients!
If you are going to be having a gastric bypass, or if you have already had surgery, you should take an active role in making distinct that you get the vitamins and minerals you need. If your doctor tells you to buy Flintstones or Tums, don’t do it. And yelp your doctor that he or she is giving out very bad advice.
The reason Flintstones vitamins are recommended so often is because they are chewable. Many experts think chewable vitamins are better absorbed by gastric bypass patients. Also, after a gastric bypass, the opening between the stomach and the shrimp intestine is very runt. Large pills may get stuck. So chewables are often recommended.
Well, there are now a ample number of chewable vitamins on the market, including those made especially for weight loss surgery patients. There is no need to rely on children’s vitamins. The problem with children’s vitamins is that, well, they are designed for children. The nutritional needs of an adult who has had a gastric bypass are quite different than the nutritional needs of a child.
Even chewable vitamins designed for adults don’t really meet the needs of gastric bypass patients. Gastric bypass patients require 200% of the recommended daily allowance of most vitamins and minerals, and the typical adult vitamin does not supply that. Even if you take two a day, you probably won’t get that. And you certainly won’t get it from Flintstones.
Visit this website for a good read on different vitamins. They even have a chart comparing a number of celebrated brands of vitamins, including Flintstones. Flintstones Vs. Bariatric Vitamins.
And what about Tums? It has calcium, accurate? Well, it does, but it’s the wrong kind of calcium. You may not realize this, but there is more than one kind of calcium. A very common form of calcium is calcium carbonate, and that’s what’s in Tums. Unfortunately, gastric bypass patients don’t absorb calcium carbonate very well. It requires a fair amount of stomach acid to break down calcium carbonate, and gastric bypass patients don’t make much stomach acid in their new pouch. So if you occupy Tums, you’re not going to be getting all the calcium you should be getting.
What gastric bypass patients need is calcium citrate. There are a number of calcium supplements that are made from calcium citrate, including some marketed especially to weight loss surgery patients and some available in any grocery store or pharmacy.
And this is why Flintstones vitamins and Tums are simply not acceptable for gastric bypass patients.
Sources:
Thinner Times Forum. http://www.thinnertimesforum.com/post-op-gastric-bypass/25999-flintstones-vs-bariatric-vitamins.html. Flintstones Versus Bariatric Vitamins.
Thinner Times Forum. http://www.thinnertimesforum.com/post-op-gastric-bypass/26018-you-sure-youre-getting-all-calcium-you-think-you.html. Are You Positive You’re Getting All The Calcium You Think You Are?
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Filed under Gastric Bypass by on Nov 9th, 2010.
Gastric bypass surgery is an operation performed to help people who are seriously overweight. To qualify for the surgery, a person generally must be at least 100 pounds overweight and/or have a body mass index of 40 or higher. A person may also have a lifer-threatening or disabling condition due to their weight.
In a gastric bypass surgery, the stomach is made smaller, so you feel full sooner. That diagram, you eat less food. The food also bypasses part of the small intestine, so fewer calories are absorbed.
The surgery is performed by making a small pouch at the top of the stomach, using staples or a plastic band. The smaller stomach is then connected directly to the middle part of the small intestine (the duodenum). Food therefore bypasses most of the stomach and the first part of the small intestine.
The surgery may be performed through a stout incision in the abdomen, or it may be performed through a several small incisions with a small camera to guide the surgeon (laparoscopic gastric bypass). The surgery is performed under general anesthesia.
The surgery itself takes about four hours. It usually involves a three to five day hospital quit.
People who have gastric bypass surgery usually loss 50 – 60% of their excess weight within one to two years. Some of that weight may be regained, however. It is vital to maintain a healthful diet and exhaust program following the surgery.
The surgery can also improve or resolve problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.
There are a number of risks associated with gastric bypass surgery.
There is the risk of death from the surgery. Death occurs in as many as one in 200 to 300 cases.
Blood clots in the legs may also occur. These can be dangerous because they may travel to the lungs. Walking after surgery can help reduce the risk.
There can be leaking at one of the staple lines in the stomach. This is treated with antibiotics. Sometimes it heals on its enjoy, but sometimes it requires additional surgery.
Rarely, there may be a narrowing of the opening between the stomach and the small intestine. This may be treated on an outpatient basis by inserting a tube through your mouth, down your throat, and into the stomach to widen the opening, or it may require surgery.
As you can see, there are a number of benefits as well as a number of risks associated with gastric bypass surgery. Talk with your doctor for more information and to accumulate out if the procedure is right for you.
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Filed under Bariatric Surgery by on Aug 21st, 2010.