Thursday, April 29, 2021

How I lost 100 pounds using "My 600-lb Life" weight loss surgery patients' stories

As part of the preparation for these blog posts, I watch the TLC reality TV "My 600-lb Life" in which Dr. Nowzaradan helps obese patients lose weight with gastric bypass surgery. So the show is about weight loss but also the psychology and lifestyle choices that lead to morbid obesity. It's not easy to watch and as usual in the "Where They Are Now" episode about Jeanne Covey and I'm alternately crying and screaming at the TV. 

"Where Are They Now" shows Jeanne using all the classic head games: delusional thinking, making excuses, having a melodramatic pity party about having to do basic household chores, blaming her father's death for weight loss fail. When Dr. Now calls out the avoidance and lack of responsibility, out comes another blame game. This time her failure to lose weight is his fault because he doesn't understand how she suffers. It's hard to watch her be so rude and sarcastic to this physician who is helping her. 

But having said that, I've learned a lot about weight loss from "My 600-lb Life" and not just from the positive examples and Dr. Now. This may sound weird this reality TV show is part of how I lost 100 pounds without gastric bypass surgery. I wasn't as overweight as the participants but not for lack of trying. I played a lot of the head games these folks play, making excuses, self-pity, skewed self-image. 

It would have been easy to pooh-pooh my obesity because well, it was nothing like those people. Surely I wasn't that fat and I never would be. But I had to admit, I heard myself speaking as some told their stories on "My 600-lb Life." I heard the excuses I myself made about obesity. I saw how overweight my poor diet choices were making me. Then a doctor told me that if I didn't lose weight I was going to need gastric bypass surgery and shit got real. 

I started listening to the excuses I was making. I realized that no situation was so difficult that being obese, overeating, and avoiding diet would make it better. I looked honestly at how overweight I was. And thanks be to God, I found weight loss. 





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