Katie’s Beer

Carnie Wilson has done well in facing her battles publicly. Although she has been criticized for choosing gastric bypass surgery, both for its cost and its risks, she has demonstrated that even with the surgery obesity management is an on-going battle for life. She is an encouragement to me. After the thrill of losing 30+ pounds last winter, I’ve been slapped with the reality that my body is prone to putting on weight if I don’t eat the way I know works for me. I have found that magic balance of food and exercise, thankfully, and I have kept my weight loss. But I must wake up everyday and get on the wagon. Every day.

Currently, I keep to a schedule (recommended by my Bariatric Physician) of 4 to 5 days on my plan and 2 to 3 days off. “On” means 1500 calories, low fat, low sugar, low sodium, with lots of veggies, fruits, whole grains (not much) and a little lean meat and egg whites. “Off” doesn’t mean anything more than more calories and usually means a meal out or some other fun foods. Again, lower fat, sugar and sodium. I don’t deny myself any foods, but I keep extreme foods to a bite or two. I highly recommend finding a Bariatric Physician (different from a Bariatric Surgeon) to form a key partnership in understanding and battling obesity.

I still want to lose another 30 pounds and, for the first time in my life, I have the ability to do it and the confidence that it will happen.

Interview excerpt:

As for her weight, Carnie says there are good days and bad days. “There are days where I’ve lost weight and I feel bigger or fatter or uglier and I want to just hibernate. I’ll find every excuse not to exercise. I hate it. If someone puts too much pressure on me, I will automatically rebel.”

After undergoing gastric bypass in 1999, Carnie whittled her size 28 waist down to a 6, but jumped up to 240 pounds when she was pregnant with her daughter Lola, now 2. Nowadays, she says she’s hoping to shed 30. “Keeping off 113 pounds after eight years, I’m really proud of that.”

For more on Carnie, check out Entertainment Tonight on 11-29-2007.

Tags: weight loss by TK
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“It’s about what you can control, and I couldn’t control all the things that were going on in my life, but I could control what I ate and maybe if I looked like Teri Hatcher or whoever I would be happy and people would like me.” 

Guess the age of the woman who said the above?  16? 18? 24?  She is 46.  She is one of a supposedly new breed of women who are being treated for anorexia and are well over 40 years old.  Park Nicollet Clinic was recently interviewed by the Times of London regarding their treatment program for such women.  I was intrigued by the statements of the women interviewed, because a frequent theme is control.  This interested me because part of my own weight loss success is due to the fact that as I become older it is much easier for me to control my appetite and my weight.  It took me 46 years to realize I could control my weight.  I used to think that was sad, but I think it is probably a natural part of aging.  But for some, low self-esteem and other issues drive them to anorexia.

For any anorexic patient, and this includes older women, their illness is triggered by a genetic component and one or more socio-cultural components. The genetic component relates to personality type — anorexic patients are typically perfectionists, high achievers and have a strong need to control, combined with low self-esteem — but this is not sufficient to trigger anorexia on its own.

“With teenagers, the socio-cultural factor comes from problems with adolescence and peer pressure. They’re striving to look the best, to have the best boyfriend,” Jahraus says. “With older women we see a high divorce rate and women are out there trying to look good, trying to find a partner, and I think that has done something to influence these numbers of older anorexic women we are seeing.”

Of the mature women I spoke to who have been treated for anorexia, none wished to be identified, and some preferred not to be quoted. With some their sense of shame was palpable, and they were frightened that people who knew them might recognize them and then know that they were anorexic. It might seem logical that if you are tall and weigh six stone, your friends have probably worked this out, but it is common for chronic sufferers to become isolated not just from other people, but from their thought processes too.

The word they all used repeatedly was “control”. They felt that when they encountered problems, anorexia was a way of demonstrating a sense of control and gave them a sense that they were good at something. They recognized that society puts women under ridiculous pressure to be unhealthily thin, and this had contributed to the onset of their illness, but once it was entrenched their motivation to restrict their eating came from their need to maintain control in the midst of a chaotic or failing life, rather than a desire to look like Teri Hatcher.

Read the rest of this very interesting article here.

Tags: weight loss by TK
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I don’t believe I have mentioned yet that I began a weight loss program at the beginning of 2007. Well, I did. I suppose I didn’t mention it because I wanted to make sure that it actually worked. Well, it has. As of today, I’ve lost 27 pounds. I am working toward another 35 by summer for a total of 55 pounds lost. How did I ever end up with 55 extra pounds? That is embarrassing and astounding to me. Those 55 pounds are basically the 2 - 5 pounds a year the average adult over 35 years old gains each. I spent those 11 years in denial that I would end up so heavy.
So why, after 11 years, decide to lose weight? First, I felt awful. Tired all the time, couldn’t focus, felt like I was going to explode, couldn’t do the activities I wanted, couldn’t find stylish clothes to fit… That list could go on and on, but the main reason to lose weight was that I am facing surgery at the end of March and I didn’t want to go into surgery 55 pounds overweight. I sought the help of a bariatric physician who specializes in weight loss and chose a medically supervised modified fast. My diet for the past two months and next two months consists of four shakes, one bar, one frozen entree, unlimited vegetables, a couple of hard-boiled egg whites and a minimum of 64 ounces of water a day. Tough for the first couple of days, until I started feeling so completely fantastic.
After the first month, I entered a state where I am never hungry and rarely think of food (except for pizza and beer). I usually enjoy a nice, small meal out once a week and have a drink or two on the weekends. It’s a very livable plan. I also signed up for a year of maintenance so that I keep my weight loss. I visit weekly with a nurse and a dietitian. I visit monthly with the doctor. It’s a great plan and I highly recommend it. It also costs a good deal of money, but my health had deteriorated to the point that it was a good financial move.
After two months, people are really starting to notice. They mostly notice in my face. A couple of weeks ago, a co-worker starred at me and kept asking me what I had done to my hair. I finally had to tell her that it wasn’t my hair, but my weight. That was funny. Will I be unrecognizable by summer? I hope not.
Here’s a photo of me last summer and one from this morning. I will update again soon.

Tags: weight loss, health by TK
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