Excuses Literally Can Kill

Excuses Literally Can Kill

Except from my health journal from the summer as I continue to lose the pandemic weight….

I’ve been feeling sad over something since last evening. I’ve been watching reruns of TLC’s My 600 Pound Life. During my last weight loss journey I watched similar shows too. I have tremendous compassion for those featured.  I route for them and pray that they can beat their food addiction and be able to resume a full life. The shows help because I like to learn from other’s successes as well as failures/challenges/set backs. 

One huge thing I’ve learned from the show is that even though the majority of us who are overweight or obese are not over 600 pounds like the people featured in this show, most of us struggle with the same issues on some level. Most of us who are overweight use food as a crutch or drug to deal with emotional issues even though, as with all addictions, it only makes matters worse in the long run. Many of those featured said that they never expected to get to 600, 700, 800, or 900+ pounds. Things just got out of control and spiraled. Even when they could not get out of bed, they had enablers who loved them but who could not say no and brought them their drug of choice of an abundance of unhelpful foods.

Another thing I’ve learned from the show is how many people resist seeking help. We always want to think we Should be able to conquer our issues alone. The bariatric surgeon Dr. Now always prescribed for the participants to see a psychologist regularly to deal with the roots of the emotional and destructive eating patterns and, show after show, I saw a recurring theme of the participants not going to sessions. Money was not a factor because the program paid for the counselors. Seeing a counselor is so helpful. And adding health coaching is definitely helpful. That is what is helping me so much in this current weight loss journey. I had to let go of my hesitancy of “needing help” through a health coach to finally make a breakthrough in starting to lose weight again. After watching so many episodes, I wish the program would also add health coaching for the participants in addition to counseling. That would be another helpful tool.

And the biggest thing I probably resonated the most with is making excuses. I’ve made a million excuses. Life really can be hard. But as the book recommended by my health coaches state—Life is Hard: Food is Easy. Dr. Now constantly told the participants that they were making excuses for not sticking with the program. He kept reminding them that they were close to death. Last night I watched the final episode featuring Sean who at one point went over 1,000 pounds. This was his third year in the program. He would lose 200 and gain back 250, etc. over and over. He kept saying he would try like many of us do even when we are dealing with an illness where continuing to eat some foods and gaining weight will make matters worse. In the end, he said he didn’t want to die. But he died in the rehab facility because the final 278 pound weight gain and constant yo-yo-ing put too much strain on his heart. He was only 29. I hadn’t expected his segment to end like this and was heartbroken for him. 

Watching these shows strengthens my resolve even more to make no excuses and love myself enough to exercise loving discipline to continue removing my excess weight and Live life to the fullest.