PrincipalsOffice

I was reading a post from a fellow bandster who is having trouble with a "friend" who is jealous and lashing out about her weight loss. Of course, we all know the phrase people like to use when they are passing judgment:
You're taking the easy way out!
Well, let's put aside for the moment that being banded is hardly easy, nor does weight magically fall off. I would argue that it is, in fact, EASIER (or why else have your body cut open and a foreign object placed inside?).
Here's my question: So what? So what if it's easier? So what if it's easy? Why the heck is that bad? The band is a piece of technology that makes work easier (or, even makes it possible, period) than it was before. We, as humans, have invented millions upon millions of pieces of technology to make our lives and our work easier. It's what we do.
Driving a car or even riding a bike with gears is taking "the easy way out" when you have two legs and can walk. Yet I don't hear too many people willing to give up their gas guzzling, environment and natural resource draining cars so they can "do things the right way".
Look, people who have this attitude are not hard to read, they have a simple motivation that isn't at all about you and completely about them: They want to judge you for being fat (which equates to lazy), and feel superior for not being fat (or feel comfortable because they are also fat and you make that ok by your very presence).
It isn't about YOU. It isn't about your health, or your well-being, or your self-confidence. It's about how your changing size affects the individual and either their need to feel comfortable or their need to feel better than you as they sit in judgment. if it were about health, as people always claim when they stand loud and proud in their open prejudice against "disgusting" fat people, then they'd all be more than happy to have everyone banded, losing, and healthier by any means. Don't let them fool you that this is concern about you and your health. It isn't. It is about THEM.
So here's my answer. So what if I'm taking the "easy way out"? It's a way out, period. So bring on the easy.