My 600-lb Life

I don't know anything about Cookie from Empire. I don't know the characters or story lines for Power or Game of Thrones. I've never seen Twilight. But, I can tell you who Andy is from Mayberry, Sargeant Carter from Gomer Pyle and Jack, Janet and Chrissy from Three's Company. I also know the lyrics from the Brady Bunch opening song. See, I don't like the murder, death, kill themes that seem to be the topic of today's television shows. They are so depressing to me. I much prefer the happy ever after, all is well endings of the shows I watch. My television is usually on METV, TV Land or Hallmark. But my absolute favorite television show is My 600-lb life. I watch it on demand and I can easily watch three episodes back to back. That's usually my weekend guilty pleasure. :)

I was watching one episode one day and getting upset with the character. Yes, I talk to my t.v. On this particular episode this very obese woman was close to 800 pounds at 5'1. She was bedridden and had not been out of bed for years. She had to have help with her very basic needs. Someone had to bathe her and even clean her after a bathroom visit. She was killing herself with food. So why was I yelling at my tv? Because with all of the help she needed just to survive daily, she was still eating a whole lot of food. Ya'll her plate which was actually a platter was piled high with food. One breakfast consisted of 7 link sausages, 5 sausage patties, several strips of bacon and then there were eggs, hashbrowns, and biscuits. And she stuffed every bit of the food down and even scraped the plate with her fork and her fingers. I was disgusted, but as disgusted as I was with her, I was even more disgusted with the people in her family who brought her food. Remember she was bedridden. All day long she ate. Donuts, pizza, chips, candy. Anything and everything. She would even order food to eat between meals. She bullied her children and even her husband if they didn't bring her food or if they said anything about what she ate. And so they continued to bring her the unhealthy foods that were killing her.

The obese people on the show all travel to Houston to work with a weight loss doctor who specializes in performing surgery on morbidly obese people. They all have to lose some weight before they can undergo the surgery. That is when the struggle really starts. Most of them find it very hard to do the right thing and follow the 1200 calorie diet. (I know I would too) They are all fooled by the amount of food they consume daily. They really think they are eating less than they really are. it is a constant battle as the cameras follow them for a year.

As I'm yelling at the t.v.on this particular night, it came to me that some people abuse food and other people abuse other things. On the show there is a morbidly obese person and then there are the people who enable them. In real life we may not be 600 pounds but we are often doing things that may not be good for us. That may be drinking too much, partying too late, smoking, not exercising enough or at all, staying in a relationship that no longer serves us, on a job we hate, saying yes when we need and want to say no or anything that is not good for us. There are also people (our enablers) who are right there with us in our mess. They drink and eat too much with us, agree with our excuses about why we are not going to exercise, encourage us to stay in the relationship or jobs that aren't working. They are the ones who tell us what we want to hear. They don't encourage or motivate us to level up. They would rather we stay right where we are.

On the show some husbands have gotten mad when their wives decided to lose weight. There have been cheating and divorces because of the big changes once the weight begins to come off. Their reasoning was that they didn't feel needed anymore as their wives became able to do for themselves. They felt their wives were going to leave them once they were able to enjoy life again. Are there any people in your life that could not stand the positive changes in you and left? Some people want you to stay a certain way because they are not prepared for the new and improved you. Some don't want you to change because they don't want to change. and your changes are a reminder to them that they are doing nothing.

Take a serious look at your life. Are there 600-lb areas? Areas where you are self-destructing? Just like they are eating and killing themselves with food, you may be killing yourself in other ways by not following your dreams, by not saying no, by not making the necessary changes in your life that will make you a better you.