Almost a year ago I had a phone call appointment with my (young, female*) family physician. It went something like this:
Me: So, I was thinking, and I’ve decided I want a breast reduction.
Doctor : Hmm…..
Me: Yeah, I mean I have degenerative disk disease in my neck, headaches, neck pain and almost 20 years ago I was booked for surgery but wussed out a few weeks ahead of time because I was sort of terrified. But I’ve hit the point where really I just need them gone. Or like… way smaller.
Doctor: Hmm… Well, unfortunately you’re too fat. [okay, it was more like your BMI is too high, but all I heard was ‘you’re fat]
Me: Hmm, well I mean you aren’t wrong. I’m definitely a chonky girl. Great weight for someone 6 ft 2 but not so much for someone my height [five feet tall]. But I mean, there’s got to be someone who does this? I try to lose weight and it just doesnt happen. Weight Watchers, Noom – the only time Ive ever successfully lost weight is low carb, its just getting to that 2 week mark – when the cravings stop- that’s actually difficult. I’m having a really hard time with NOT falling off the Keto Wagon ya know? But like – I REALLY want to go down a bunch of sizes. I’m done with this huge chest.
Doctor: Well you need sustainable weight loss. So I’m going to refer you to an Obesity Clinic.
Me: Oh. Okay.
So , now almost a year later, my referral went through to a plastic surgeon . I was pretty thrilled. I thought “Wow! She actually listened to me! ” I didn’t think she was even going to put that referral in to be honest. I was also excited to see that this surgeon’s acceptable BMI places me within her workable range.
Then I got another call, yesterday from the Obesity Clinic. Makes me wonder if my doctor’s office just randomly found these old referrals and put them through not long ago. So I have some upcoming phone call appointments with that clinic and an in person appointment with a highly recommended plastic surgeon. Both within the next month or so.
So tonight, I was looking through the Obesity Clinic site, and they list their treatments. Bariatric surgery, and prescriptions for Ozempic, Saxenda, Contrave and Mounjaro. I also read the risks, side effects as well as studies listed at the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Granted the outcomes look great for many people. Yes there are definite risks associated with these medications, and by week 120 post discontinuation, people are back where they started, and the meds have some of the highest adverse effects of any non necessary medications [ https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.645563/full ] , but there is definitely a lot of success with weight loss and Type 2 diabetes control.
However – I find it interesting that Keto or Low Carb is mocked by so many in the medical community. (not ALL, as there are many physicians that actually support this sort of eating now) for reasons like; not sustainable, might have some health risks (jury is VERY out on that one) and it’s ‘too hard for people to stick with’.
Yet these meds are even worse because they need to be continued to be taken in order to keep the effects, they also actually change how the body works by stimulating insulin production, or causing fat to not be absorbed and/or many other avenues. It varies from drug to drug. The side effects make it hard to stick to these medications and there are definite health risks (stomach paralysis, intestinal blockage).
Low carb/keto is VERY effective at Type 2 diabetes control, it can actually completely reverse it:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2716748/ is an article I used to refer to for inspiration. But anyhow, this post wasn’t to mock anyone for taking meds, it’s just pointing out the irony in how medication is so quickly embraced to solve a problem caused by the super shitty way that crap food is pushed at us. Why are we all obese now? Oh I don’t know, maybe because if you put a grocery store today next to a grocery store from the 70’s there would be a STARK difference. If we fed our dogs and cats the same stuff we ate, they’d just die.
And the fact that I KNOW that these various foods not only make me gain weight, but lead to an inability to say ‘that’s enough’ and leave me feeling ashamed, and unwell – yet I eat them anyhow, is pretty indicative of the addictive essence of these foods. And the fact that we have hit this point of western obesity robbing people of healthy lives but still push this kind of eating lifestyle and are working hard to find injections and pills to turn it all around rather than attacking it at it’s base is just mind boggling for me.
We need more healthy eating communities, healthy eating support, a playing down of these ready to eat meals dripping in salt, sugar and fat, we need REAL answers, not just temporary fixes that can cause permanent health issues.
Low carb eating, or Keto eating, or ANY eating that focuses on vegetables, lean proteins and healthy fats will NEVER make you fat. It will not ever make you less healthy to eat more of what is good for you. Sure, cutting out whole food groups and not replacing them with similar nutrient dense things will cause issues – but nowhere near as much as the medications being peddled to us fat folks.
I would love to see a mindfulness based approach to how we eat, blended with scientific facts regarding the dangers of keeping elevated levels of glucose in our body, supportive group Forum both on a website (NOT FACEBOOK) and in app that promotes journaling and looking at the reasons we turn to unhealthy eating habits when feeling low/angry/frustrated. Kind of like Noom and Atkins (minus the pounds of bacon) had a baby. But for FREE. Eating poorly is literally fucking killing us, yet finding ‘help’ brings us to Overeaters Anonymous (great idea but not always accessible and its a community run sharing group that doesnt really focus on the health stuff) or Dieticians that still push the Low Calorie, Low Fat mindset, and pretty much ALL the options outside of OA cost money.
As an ex drinker, I can honestly say that moderation was NOT the key. It was just not partaking at all. But we can’t just NOT PARTAKE in food. I lost 50lbs when I low carbed. It was maybe 2 weeks of feeling like garbage, and then feeling amazing. For a good number of years. My hematology panel was the best it had ever been. But then I got pregnant and my doctor said ‘no low carbin for you!!!’ I’ve spent the last 16 years dealing with the after effects of jumping off that wagon. Each time I get back on it’s with a weaker and weaker ability to stay on.
I actually asked a friend of mine who develops apps and does other smart things (CEO of one company, as well as CTO of two others) to make an app like this. I offered to pay him. Only 200 but still — like how hard would it be to combine mindfulness, science, support and community into an app? He didn’t do it, though as someone who is almost obsessed by fitness and creates solutions for those in the medical field among other things, he admitted it would be great.
Well enough ranting for me. I get pretty worked up about this trajectory of mass production and how it separates us from the actual BLESSING of food and instead encourages over consumption. I also hate how the stores can sell beautiful bottles of poison, listing the provocative nature of the contents “gently aged whiskey, full bodied taste, hints of sweet cherry, melodies of fucking angels singing” etc right on the bottle, but wrap my cigarettes (ya know, the things I smoke that don’t get me drunk and beating the shit out of people or vomiting on my feet) in plain brown packaging with dying people, and blackened lungs as decorative images on them. Consumerism is bullshit.
No other species of animal lives just to accumulate masses of shit that kill them.
Happy New Year!
*specified gender/age to express that this isn’t like she is some stodgy old fella that has no clue what its like to have a chest or is ignorant of the issues with female body image etc.
In the Wind 