maybe not 100 pounds overnight..but youre doing something......

i work in retail was a little slow today..so i was reading the paper on line...story coming out of Ohio..a man was so obese he could not get off a couch and stayed on it for two years..eventually the fabric of the couch 'fused" with his flesh and he was in his own filth.. with two roommates who would feed him but not clean him..two years..when paramedics arrived after he was found unconscious they described a horrid smell..maggots on the mans flesh and all over the couch...

i had to look up to get away from what was being described..only to see about six people in mobile scooters riding by like a parade..to obese to walk anymore asses hangin all the way over the seat..electric engines you could hear crying from the effort to move these people on their mobile thrones in the kingdom of food court.

at what point do you say..."walking is over rated give me another cinabun..." or "ill just stay on this couch and eat all day in my own s**t,while maggots burrow into my skin"???



any little step you take..even when you fail..or rather especially when you fail at first..think AT LEAST YOUR DOING SOMETHING!!!!!!

I am one of those who chose to do something about it. I was nearing 600 lbs and wanted my life back. I didn't get this way over night. But the last 200 lbs I gained was due to immobility from an auto accident during the beginning of my last pregnancy. Before the accident I was at 380. I had been for a few years. Not a healthy weight but I managed to work a 40 to 60 hour shift in a factory. I lifted heavy parts and did my job well. I also managed to care for my children and my home. Yet when I was in public people just saw a fat, lazy person.

When I go to the mall or Walmart and I am in my chair people look at me and judge. They assume I'm that way because I'm lazy or don't care. Truth is I am this way because my life was changed when a 19 year old girl chose to drink and drive. When people look at me they see a fat, lazy person. What they don't see is a person who has commited to a healthier life. A person who has worked hard and lost over 140 lbs in 9 months. A person who works hard every day to become healthier and more active. When I eat in public people stare and make comments about how I look like I really need to be eating. What they don't see is that I am eating something healthy and counting every calorie & every gram of fat.

When you see someone like me it is easy to make judgements. I used to be guilty of the same thing. But now I remind myelf that I do not know this person or their situation. I do not know how they got to that point. Maybe it is lazyness, maybe it is over eating and lack of exercise. Or maybe something horrible happened to them which caused them to gt to where they are.

As for the man who spent two years on the couch, that is horrible for him and the room mates who enabled him. Yes, he should have sought help much sooner. And his room mates should have helped him to seek help instead of letting it get that far for two whole years. However I wasn't there and I don't know the whole situation or what led him to be that way. But it is a sad situation.

Not being judgemental or anything but I wonder the same thing !  We all know it is way easier to give up and live in denial and continue on with bad habits but HOW powerful is denial  ?  If you are fused to your couch or cannot walk it may be time to make some choices .It is very sad to see ppl who have just given up .:(  Good post !  
PS.... makes me SO thamkful for my band and an opportunity to change.:)

There's a heavy guy who I see working out at the health club several days a week. When I go to the coffee shop for my skinny latte after working out, the heavy guy is there buying cinnamon buns. I've seen him in Wal-Mart riding on the electric shopping cart/scooter. I wonder what's going on with him, if he can walk on a treadmill at the gym but not under his own power at the store. But...I don't know this guy, I don't know his story, so I do my best not to judge him.

Jean

I will not be judgemental because I have said this before that guy's story is my worst fear come true.  I feel I was well on my to being that guy....and if we were honest with our selves a lot of us were on our way to be that guy. 

We all have our stories of how we got fat (pregnancies, illiness, injuries).  You ask how or why did that guy let himself get to that point...well I have had people ask me the exact same question.  How did you let your self get to that point where you need surgery?  Have you asked that question to yourself?  Asking that question to someone fatter than us is no different than someone skinny asking you that same question.  In fact I think it's (that old saying) the pot calling the kettle black...who cares who's fatter and by how many pounds the fact remains we were ALL fat.  Who am I to ask this guy a question like that when I am battling the same war... 

I'm judgmental all day long  lol  that's human.. (and I'm definitely most judgmental with myself)   being "politically correct" to me causes more problems then solves them...  sometimes people need to hear truth raw then to be pacified with whats deemed a " nice way to say things"..  not that I'm a mean guy..my friends and family would tell you I'm the nicest guy..but that there's a filter part missing from my brain to my mouth which makes me usually blurt out loud what other people are thinking but dare not say...

 and boy do I see judgment at any given hour on these boards all day.. but it wasn't my point

what i was trying to convey is any small effort in the battle is better then just laying down your sword and trading it in for a scooter.. a couch.. and from another story i heard a toilet  (a woman lived on a toilet for four years due to severe obesity and rather then sit in her own filth she moved into the bathroom)

what I was saying was..even when you don't loose a pound that week..even when you break down and eat that thing you know you're not supposed to but get back on track..
you only spent 10 minutes walking.. you look in the mirror frustrated that the weight doesn't simply fall off. your out of breath going up that stair case instead of the elevator.. you need a mop at the gym because you sweat like a hurricane storm and people are looking at you.. 

you choose your surgery..your working it..... YOUR DOING SOMETHING!!!

When we was at Disney World two yrs ago I never seen so many people in scooters in my life and when you ride a scooter or a wheelchair you get to cut in the front of the line in rides and waiting on the buses which I dont think is fair at all go through the line like everybody else does . Disney makes the lines wide enough for scooters and wheel chairs to fit in  .

That was a pet peeve of mine especially after I heard this crowd talking that had the scooters all of them overweight heck I was 340 pounds when we went and I walked the entire time , but they was all saying oh just get a scooter they will give it to you because you are fat and then you dont have to wait in line for anything.

You talk about losing respect right then and right there.  I had to bite my tongue so bad right then and I had to pull hubby back from saying anything.

To use your weight as a excuse like that and to be that dang lazy that is awful .  I would never do that but I guess I got some self respect and pride in me .

I'm all for a scooter if you really need it but to use it because you wont get off your lazy ass and walk then that is pathetic !!!

I hear ya taezee...I think we have the same brain...  ;o) 

Very sad story, but doesn't have to be that way....