I was up early this morning and happened to catch a little of the Today Show on NBC. One of the segments was about People Magazines' "half thier size" annual issue. They featured the woman responsible for this particular story and two others who were 300+ pounds and now are 150 pounds each. While I applaud these remarkable women for finally taking charge of their lives and making the necessary changes (diet and exercise) I couldn't help but be majorly annoyed at a comment the lady from People made regarding their efforts. She said "these women didn't cheat by having surgery or taking pills, they did it the hard way by old fashioned diet and exercise" How freakin annoying! If the hard way had worked for me then I wouldn't have had to pursue the "cheaters" way out of being 271 pounds, hypertensive, having high cholesterol, asthma, arthritis, and the like! I hate that society looks at WLS like its a quick fix for fat lazy people who don't want to work hard at being healthy.

Being banded is not, never was, or ever will be easy for me. It took two years to get up the nerve to attend a seminar, and another 9 months to jump through all of the hoops my insurance company requires for payment. That was a long, nerve wracking time! While my surgery went smoothly, it wasn't a walk in the park, feeling like a mule had kicked me in the gut for a few days (I would do it over again today tho) all the liquids, and mushies, and learning what I can and can't tolerate that wasn't easy either. I guess if people think that being banded or having gastric bypass is "cheating" then I am estatic to be a cheater!

I can live with people being uneducated about all of the benefits that come with being banded, what I can't live with is being overweight and spending another 11 years of my life doing things the hard way!

I posted a thread in the rant and raves a few weeks ago about this very same topic. Apparently they have made it a point to say that they are looking for weight loss stories of people who have lost weight the "old fashioned" way, many times. I want to tell these people to WAKE UP, this is not the 1950's, we have so many medical advancements, why not take advantage of it?

This is definitely not the first time that this comment has been made on the Today show.

Jennibee-u nailed right on head girlfriend!!!!

aubrie-i am crackin' up at what you said lolololololololololololololololol

I totally agree with these comments.. how often are we criticised for being "lazy" because we havent "done anything about being overweight", yet the minute we "do" something ie lapband surgery we are "taking the easy way out"

i say to them... whatya want? for me to do something or not?

In the best NJ tradition, I am now totally at ease with saying, "Kiss my ass," whenever someone starts going on about the ease of the surgery. I then follow up with such gems as, "If you are so worried about cheating in life and doing it the old-fashioned way, please feel free to sell your car, grow your own veggies, slaughter your own meat, and go back to church every Sunday, until you hear the sermon about judging people." Jeez, I'm only 38 and I'm already turning into a curmudgeon. I think getting older is part losing your physical abilities and part losing your physical ability to not to tell people to shut their pie-hole.

They were on The Insider as well last night. I was annoyed too because they kept emphasizing no surgery. I don't believe they did it totally on their own. If they really did then that is great but I doubt it. People are different and most people cannot do that and keep it off. They make it look like surgery is the easy way out. There has been nothing easy about my life the past almost year. And most people who lost that much weight have excess skin. Unless they have had plastic surgery, I saw no signs of any excess skin.

If it is so easy why don't they do it?????????:eyebrows:

"If it is so easy why don't they do it?????????"

Most people who are insensitive enough to say things like that are at least aware enough not to say it, if they are overweight. So, they get to preach from on high, without the experience of having to do it themselves. That's why, if I was Catholic, I'd laugh if a priest gave me marriage advice.

I decided to write an email to the Today Show and voice my displeasure about the segment. I suggested that perhaps they could do a segment on just how hard it is to have WLS and live with it for the rest of your life. I think that if they are going to feature one side of the weight loss "coin" then they should also educate their viewers about the other as well.

I sent the TODAY show an e-mail yesterday and expressed my displeasure with the comments by the People magazine woman.

I could not find a web site for the People Magazine or they would have gotten one, too!