I hate to bring this up, but TLC is having a 600lb life marathon and lo and behold the episode with Penny is on there. I feel so bad for this woman because she is clearly a food addict and not accepting her part in the failure of her surgery.

I can say that since my surgery 5 months ago I have fought many an inner battle when it comes to food. I try to convince myself that it wont be bad if I have a cookie or Pasta etc but in the end I know that I have been given such an incredible gift and no food is worth trading that.

What are your thoughts on this? Anyone else struggling with her episode?

What I see with this show, especially in Penny's case is the monstrous affect & effect of addiction.

Just like the saying on Breaking Bad, "meth is a helluva drug" (btw, BB is one of thee best tv shows ever, masterpiece), the same saying can be applied to the kinds of foods we'd nosh on.

I was not a fast-food kind of person but I know I could eat an entire box of Tastykakes and 20-60 minutes later be ready for another "fix." I joked that I carried a rubber tie, lighter, spoon, syringe and sugar around because SUGAR was my heroin.

For others it might be pastas, salty foods, or just volumes of food in general but for me there is no denying that when I ate sugary, fat-filled carbs my reward centers lit up and I'd literally feel high.

As most of us know, addiction is a monster to beat in to submission and I just feel like Penny is at critical mass (pun intended too) with her addiction.

PS: I still wanna just shaker though. Her sweet little boy is the one who's going to pay the most.

And that husband. Ugh!

Edited March 1, 201511 yr by tomi71

I'm a clinical therapist, and so I recognize the severity of food addiction and how hard it is to break. My father was a food addict until his lap band, and then went through addiction transfer and dealt with substance abuse before getting his s*** together. It's hard. When you are fighting heroin addiction, no one is telling you "Hold up, you still have to have heroin 3 times a day." We're surrounded by food. I do not suffer from food addiction but my heart goes out to those to do.

Penny is an exception. She is self-centered, narcissistic, and completely unwilling to even accept the IDEA that she might have to change. She wants the band to do the work for her. She lies to everyone around her. Her personality would be considered toxic even if she was thin and healthy. I can't believe she passed any of the psych evals for the procedure. Any psychologist with 10 minutes of graduate education should be able to flag her.

She's grooming her son to be an enabler just like his dad. She is going to ruin his life.

I follow her on Facebook, she has a page just devoted to healthy eating. She is awesome!

What's the name of Melissa's Page?

I watched a couple of those episodes for the first time this weekend on On- Demand. Watching these woman and seeing the toll it was taking on their families made me even more determined to work at this as hard as I can

What's the name of Melissa's Page?

https://www.facebook.com/melissasheisme?pnref=lhc

If that link doesn't come through, on facebook search Melissa She is Me

I'm a clinical therapist, and so I recognize the severity of food addiction and how hard it is to break. My father was a food addict until his lap band, and then went through addiction transfer and dealt with substance abuse before getting his s*** together. It's hard. When you are fighting heroin addiction, no one is telling you "Hold up, you still have to have heroin 3 times a day." We're surrounded by food. I do not suffer from food addiction but my heart goes out to those to do.

Penny is an exception. She is self-centered, narcissistic, and completely unwilling to even accept the IDEA that she might have to change. She wants the band to do the work for her. She lies to everyone around her. Her personality would be considered toxic even if she was thin and healthy. I can't believe she passed any of the psych evals for the procedure. Any psychologist with 10 minutes of graduate education should be able to flag her.

She's grooming her son to be an enabler just like his dad. She is going to ruin his life.

She is toxic. With a capital T!

I was so angry with her. She is totally delusional and she is going to die. It's so sad for her little boy. They gave her all those opportunities and extra help.

I'm a clinical therapist, and so I recognize the severity of food addiction and how hard it is to break. My father was a food addict until his lap band, and then went through addiction transfer and dealt with substance abuse before getting his s*** together. It's hard. When you are fighting heroin addiction, no one is telling you "Hold up, you still have to have heroin 3 times a day." We're surrounded by food. I do not suffer from food addiction but my heart goes out to those to do.

Penny is an exception. She is self-centered, narcissistic, and completely unwilling to even accept the IDEA that she might have to change. She wants the band to do the work for her. She lies to everyone around her. Her personality would be considered toxic even if she was thin and healthy. I can't believe she passed any of the psych evals for the procedure. Any psychologist with 10 minutes of graduate education should be able to flag her.

She's grooming her son to be an enabler just like his dad. She is going to ruin his life.

I think that's the only thing I don't like about the show, the lack of mental health clearance. I've never seen any of them jump through the hoops that we had to.

I agree, I think it was pretty obvious from the start that she didn't see her obesity as her weakness and that she had any intention of changing. It seems like the surgeon just looks for an ability to lose weight, then he approves the surgery. Pretty sad, but without a will to change, she'll be like any other addict whether it's drugs, alcohol, or food, an early death.

I think that's the only thing I don't like about the show, the lack of mental health clearance. I've never seen any of them jump through the hoops that we had to.

Edited March 11, 201511 yr by vincereautmori

HA! OMG, I thought it was just me, but I am now addicted to this show and I like that little Dr Know (sorry, but he is so tiny and frail looking to me) is no nonsense with these people. You can tell some of them just want the quick fix and I cant get over how much they blatantly lie about what they are eating at home.

Penny needs to see a psychiatrist! She is mean, hateful and in denial. I really got mad when she told the Dr. That her night grown was falling off. She kept not showing up to her appointments and she was a total B to her nutritionist. Her poor physical therapist! She stood up half way once and that was it. I wanted to climb through the TV and give her a piece of my mind!

I refuse to even watch the Penny episode. In fact, I mainly started watching the show to see Zsalynne. I had seen her on the documentary "All of Me" on Itunes, and it broke my heart to see that her husband insisted they spend her surgery money on a house instead. And then made her pose in skimpy clothes to earn more money. Just hurt me. So I looked her up, to see what happened, and that's how I found the show. So whatever else is wrong with the show, it paid for Zsalynne to get her surgery, and that makes me happy. AND she left that loser of a husband, so that makes me happy too. I want to see the "where are they now" episode, but it's not on Hulu or Youtube yet, so if anyone wants to fill me in on how she's doing now, I'd love that

I just watched this one last week and my husband and I were talking about how awful her choices were and how we couldnt understand how she could be that way. She was given a gift and decided that it just was too much work. She had no intentions of changing herself. I just cannot figure out how she didn't lose ANYTHING though and kept eating and gaining. (not that I have ANY desire to try but) I dont think I could maintain or gain weight if I tried! I cant eat enough! LOL My husband was the one that said that first, the fact that there is nowhere to put all that food. The only thing I could think was that she must graze on awful sugary fatty stuff ALL day long and really commit to it

I absolutely agree with you Sleevemom88 - it's almost impressive how she managed to fight through the pain with eating- imagine how much better her life would be if she "fought through the pain" in standing up and walking!