bisley_

So...Last night I watched a program called Half Ton Son. It was a documentary about a 19 year old boy who weighed close to 60 stone. He lived with his parents, and his incredible weight gain was basically, and quite obviously, a direct result of his mum overcompensating and catering to his ever wish. She had had a son before him who had died very young as a result of an inoperable brain tumour.
So, the documentary followed the boy's (I can't remember his real name, but they referred to him as Junior) life at home - sitting wathing tv all day and eating, while his mum went out almost daily to stok up on food (utter junk, although 'he does like good healthy food. Like broccoli, he likes broccoli, with cheese on it. It's GOT to have cheese on it') and then his time in hospital in order to lose some weight and then get a gastric band thing. He lost the weight, but no thanks to his stupid mum intervening and sabotaging the process.
The program ended by explaining that they were now going through a phrase of agreed forced seperation in order for him to continue his weight loss, as she was only hindering him by not letting him do anything.

Then, earlier tonight, I watched a program called Extreme Slimmers, which was interviews with a few people after dramatic weight loss. 3 or 4 of them had all resorted to gastric band surgery, and then plastic surgery in order to remove the excess stretched skin, and only one had used traditional diet and excercise.
It's horrible to think that in this day and age, where we know so much about how to look after ourselves, that there are more people in the USA that are clinically obese than there are overweight people.
One guy in extreme slimmers had lost all the weight, but had so much excess skin that it hung down at his knees.

I don't believe that anyone needs to be a size zero to look good - quite the opposite in fact. I love curvier role models like Charlotte Church and love that Christina Aguilera is looking healthier and more womanly now. But I think the important thing is to be healthy. One of the women who had the gastric band found out she was pregnant during the show, and therefore had to cancel the tummy tuck and skin lifts she had arranged. However, because of the operation, she only absorbed 30% of the calories, vitamins and nutrients of the very little amounts of food she ate. This meant that she would now have to eat double the calories a normal pregnant woman would eat in order for her baby to be safe. Why didn't she research this before and consider the consequences and alternatives?

I had already made the decision to get properly in shape, and I estimate I need to lose about 2 stone to get to a healthy weight and no longer be clinically overweight, and I plan to do this by eating better and cutting out the crap I eat, and exercising regularly. But these programs have really spurred me to make the changes to my life for good, and not just to get down a dress size, but to just improve my body and look after it better. I don't want to end up some heaving, sweaty pile of cellulite and lard by the time I'm 30. It won't take over my life and make me obsessive, but it will make me improve myself and let me have the best opportunities.

So...Plan:
*cut out crap food, but don't deprive myself
*swap from white to wholemeal bread
*drink lots more water
*snack on raw fruit and veg
*daily exercise of some form, and wear ankle weights daily
*start dance classes


Hopefully I'll be seeing the benefits of these changes soon, both in how I feel and look. I already feel so much better from drinking more water since the weekend.

xx