Below is an article that was posted by a fellow WLS recipient.  She did not post it to support it, but because it angered her.  I was thouroughly angered as well.  I will let you read the vitriol, and you will find my comments below.  The article can be found in italics, my thoughts in regular font.  

Fuming Foodie
US News & World Report recently noted that gastric bypass surgery not only cuts your appetite but also might reduce your desire for high-fat foods. Over the years, I've had friends who have suffered through gastric bypass or lap band procedures. They've all shed weight as if they had made a pact with Satan -- quickly and what appears to be easily.

People applaud their weight loss and congratulate them on how thin they've become and how good they look.

Not I.

I don't like cheating and I don't like short cuts, especially (at least) when it comes to such a big thing (pun totally intended).

My weight has yo-yoed during the years. I've been normal weight, thick, chubby, and obese. When I was at my heaviest, 250 pounds, I did the unthinkable. I cut my calories to less than 500 per day and began exercising two hours daily. Guess what? I also lost weight as if I had a pact with "he who must not be named." (Oh, wait, that's Lord Voldemoort; I mean the other guy.)

It was difficult, especially at first. But every day I -- and my will -- grew stronger. And after three months (in which I lost 80 pounds), I was very, very proud of myself.

How can I be proud of someone who takes the easy route? Someone who decides that having a surgeon cut them open and rearrange or modify their insides is easier than eating less and exercising more? It's just lazy.

And if you're too lazy to cut calories and exercise, you don't deserve to be skinny.

Before I get a ton of comments about how some people are so obese they don't have a choice -- chill, please. You're the type of person who enables drug addicts and criminals. I have the Learning Channel. I've seen those shows about the heaviest people on the planet, including Manuel Uribe from Mexico, who weighed more than 1,000 pounds and was dubbed "the Fattest Man on Earth." He began losing weight by exercising and cutting down on eating. Sure, his exercise consisted of doing arm circles while lying in bed, but it burned more calories than lying there eating tacos.

And if the fattest man on Earth can say no to food and yes to exercise, so can all of the self-indulgent, overweight, spineless jellyfish who take the easy way out.


In the beginning, I was hesitant to tell anyone about my decision to have gastric bypass.  This hateful person is the reason for that hesitation.  The attitude that the surgery is an easy way out, or in some way cheating, is one that scares me.  My journey has been in no way easy.  If you saw me get wheeled into my room from the OR, then you know that from minute one after surgery I have been in a fight.  If you saw me work with my doctors and surgeons and anyone who would listen at the insurance company, you know that I was fighting long before the surgery.  


Let's start at the end.  You call me self-indulgent.  That's a laugh.  For me indulging is eating a piece of fruit, or maybe a bowl of Special-K.  I no longer "indulge" anything, you obviously know nothing about my life.  You call me overweight.  Ok, you have me there.  I am still overweight, but I won't be for long.  You call me a spineless jellyfish.  You must never have had surgery.  It is a little bit terrifying.  I give myself shots once a month, yet I used to be terrified of needles.  My spine is perfectly intact, thank you very much.  Oh yeah, and it's stronger than ever.


If you could have seen me sit in the teacher's lounge this week while my coworkers all ate a beautiful cake for someone's birthday and not even take a lick of icing, you know that I can "say no to food."  The surgery didn't prevent me from picking up the plastic knife, sliding it through my fingers and popping that icing in my mouth.  They didn't sew my mouth shut.  They made the consequences of that action much more tangible to me.  Instead of only knowing that eating that icing is not good for me in general, the surgery allows me to know that I will instantly regret that decision.  I will be so sick to my stomach within minutes of eating that icing.  


This author obviously has a very warped view of dieting.  Anyone eating 500 calories a day in addition to working out for an extended period of time is anorexic.  Congratulations moron, you had a very serious disease for a period of time and it helped you lose weight.  Eating 500 calories a day is not something to be proud of.  It is a sickness.  Within weeks after my surgery I was required to get at least that much a day, within a month and a half I was supposed to be getting 800 calories a day.  Now I go for 1000 calories.  After three months of starving yourself, you should be seeing a therapist.   


Yes, I made cutting the amount that I ate easier on myself.  I took an opportunity to change my life.  It hurt, a lot.  It has been emotionally very challenging.  I struggle every day with how much to eat.  I feel terrible if I don't eat enough, I feel terrible if I eat too much.  I didn't only have someone gut me, I had them take away my options.  I boxed myself into a corner so that I didn't have the option of quitting anymore.  I walked away from the thing I love best in this world, eating.  How dare you judge me for having the courage to do that.  Do you hate people who use Nicotine patches as well?  And those damn diabetics with their insulin shots... I applaud anyone who is able to change their lives for the better.  No matter how they get there.  


On behalf of all of the "self-indulgent, overweight, spineless jellyfish" out there, I sincerely hope that you get some help.