…but where do you draw it?
We all have a line at which point something in our mind starts to feel uncomfortable…when we don’t quite agree that something is right. I got thinking about this line following my post about ‘My Baggy Body’.
As mentioned, I am at a stage now where I appreciate all that my body has done for me…and it’s a pretty awesome body. I am still striving for my health and so will continue to lose weight until I can treat my body to the kind of life it deserves…one where it isn’t forced to carry around a lump who keeps filling it full of crap! 
I know that I am responsible for the weight that I reached and the health conditions that I have. One of the reasons I felt that surgery wasn’t suitable for me relates to the responsibility element…I got me into this mess, and I wanted to get me out of it. Yes, my current obesity-related health conditions cost the NHS a bit of money. However, I have more than halved the diabetes medication and keep trying to get them to take me off a particular element of it…but they see me as a guinea pig I think and told me to stay on it for a while longer. I have almost cured another of my ailments too…through healthy living in general.
So in less than a couple of years, I am on the road to health. I didn’t cost taxpayers the £18,000(ish) that it would have been for my surgery, and I am perfectly willing to look at funding options for my own excess skin removal as and when the time comes. Again, this relates to the responsibility element for me.
When it comes to the NHS, there isn’t an unlimited pot of money. There are people out there going without vital treatment due to funding issues. So I won’t be banging the drum any time soon for the obese to automatically qualify for skin removal surgery…just as I won’t remind you that over the years I have paid a fecking shed load of cash into the system – for the record, my tax bill in my last salary packet was over £2.5k…but I won’t harp on about it!
However, there are people that do harp on about the injustice of the obese getting the help and support that will change their lives. I read a few comments left on various news articles following the show…a bad move really…but it did make me think. The comments were pretty interesting. There were some supporters who recognised the changes that people had made, and the psychological impact that such an excess of skin could have, but the majority were in the ‘our NHS shouldn’t have to fund this’ camp! I will share a few with you…
Please excuse the grammatical errors in the following quotes…the ‘perfect’ people who responded are seemingly not quite so perfect after all!
Hayley, from Perth in Australia, said, “I’m sorry but if they ate healthy and excercised in the first place then they wouldn’t of had to have surgery. They have no one to blame but themselves”
zipdip, from Harwich, said, “Well you would think with all the programmes about dramatic weight loss and the fact that peoples skin hangs down and looks awful that people would learn not to over eat ,those that do have surgery look like a patch work quilt,so the best idea is not to get like that in the first place it is not cool at all.”
Erica, from the United States, said, “Don’t eat yourself into obesity in the first place!!!! Gluttony is sinful.”
ld, from ‘west midland’, said, “Why are they moaning no one else fed them the food that got them there in the first place? They should be grateful there are these ridiculous measures in place that give them the option of surgery”
kingreg said, “It’s ironic that she turned into a blubbersaurus at the taxpayer’s expense and now she wants the taxpayer to pay to carve the lard off her carcass. Useless waste of space and drain on society.”
mvg909 said, “No wonder our NHS is in such a mess. It should NOT be wasting money on self inflicted problems like obesity. These fatties with no self respect and no self control should be made to pay for treatment if they want it”
pensiangan said, “These Porkers have no self respect or dignity and when they have ended up like this women, we are expected to pick up the bill for her surgery. This Country will soon overtake America.”
and finally…
RightFieldBall said, “And no doubt she’ll want us to foot the bill for fixing that too.”
What a delightful bunch. They clearly recognise significant achievement and the heartache that changing your life can cause…and the hard fecking work involved, don’t they?!
I got to wondering where these people would draw the line. If you have no sympathy for excess weight, then surely all anorexics should be thrown out of the treatment programmes they are on. And all lung cancer patients who smoke(d) should be struck off the NHS. Then of course A&E should close it’s doors to all victims of car accidents who were driving recklessly, or those people who got into a car with a drunk driver…they knew the risks surely? As for liver transplants, drinkers should not be eligible at all, should they? What about people who use sunbeds…if they get skin cancer, should they fund treatment themselves? After all, the dangers of sunbed use, drinking to excess and smoking are all well-publicised…so do you also have the same level, or lack, of sympathy for these people as you do for the obese?
Where do you draw the line…do you have any friends or family members who would now be eligible for NHS help and assistance – given the above criteria – if they got health issues?
Where do you draw the line…what about DIYer injuries…shouldn’t you call in a professional to take care of those tasks? What about horse riding accidents – close to my heart – surely I knew the risks when I got on an animal with it’s own mind? What if you are just a clumsy fecker who has more accidents in a month than the average person does in a year…shouldn’t you just look where you are going, stop dropping things on your foot, and man up? What about gym-related injuries…you are trying to be healthy, but didn’t know what you were doing and refused the gym induction?
Where do you draw the line?
Obviously, some of my examples are purposefully idiotic – I think the idiocy rubbed-off when I was reading the comments on those articles! My personal thoughts are that things have gone a bit crazy in terms of NHS spending. However, I don’t know enough to comment really – for example, I read about people getting breast implants on the NHS…but if the patients have deep-rooted psychological issues and this helps, does this save money in the long run in terms of their ability to become a productive member of society? Who am I to comment? It might be that the breast implants give a person the confidence to go out there and get a great job with more money – therefore paying more tax to satisfy the taxpayers! – and maybe they might just experience a better mood, come off the depression medication and out of counselling? Again, this is all hypothetical and what the feck does ‘productive member of society’ mean – but there must be a justification behind what seems, at times, like rather flamboyant spending. Just as there is a justification for weight loss surgery and for excess skin removal surgery…I might not agree with the justification…but there will be one!
So when I see comments such as the ones left on the articles surrounding ‘My Baggy Body’ I just smile. I send a little nod of sympathy towards the commenter as it must be so difficult to live the life of a saint who never needs help and assistance. It also must be so hard to have all of the answers but have nobody but the readers of such articles to share that wisdom with. 
Getting angry is a trait of mine – my bark is generally worse than my bite – but I am trying to realise that anger directed at people who will never feel it is pointless…even more so than anger in general, which is pretty pointless too! So I am trying to live and let live…I just wish others would too…as the kind of attitude demonstrated by the readers of these articles is one of the reasons that I am remaining anonymous for a while longer!
Today has been good, very good. I had a lovely two hour conversation with a great health, fitness and well-being specialist today – we share some very common visions and I will be blogging about him soon! I then headed off to aquarobics – although I must say that I get irritated with the instructor at times as she makes us do all sorts of what I like to call ‘arsehole-ish’ movements to stupid songs…the old ladies love it, but I am there for a proper workout – gosh, I sound full of it! Anyway, my PT sessions start on the same day in a few weeks, so I won’t be doing this particular aqua class soon. I finished up with a swim and had a monumental moment…I overtook someone…twice! I was so excited and could almost see the pride on the face of the poor lifeguards who watch me swimming around like a very slow dog with a broken leg, week after week. Granted, the guy was very old…but I overtook someone – woohoo!
It was then off to carry out some chores, and then home. Nothing special happening this evening really. Mr WLB has escorted my Mum to the theatre for the evening…they are doing the squidge test for me…checking the size of the seats so that I can go on Saturday night if all is well!
Breakfast: Banana porridge (5 syns).
Lunch: Tuna, cottage cheese and baked bean jacket potato.
Dinner: Fakeaway Quorn KFC burgers, sweet potato chips and salad (HEA, 2 x HEB and 10 syns).
Snacks: Black Forest fruits with Total 0% Greek yogurt.
A tasty food day! My usual porridge for breakfast, which fuelled me nicely for my swimming. Lunch was grabbed quickly in between picking up prescriptions – oooh…shoot me, I cost the NHS money! – delivering a table for my Mum, checking on the horses, and heading to Aldi to pick up their Super Six butternut squashes! No superfree food, but some lovely tuna, cottage cheese, beans and a jacket potato. Dinner was good too. I felt like a fakeaway and opted for the KFC-style Quorn burgers at 2.5 syns each…and I had double-deckers and was a greedy mare…topped with cheese and gherkins, served with salad and sweet potato wedges. No syns for the evening munchies, so I had a bowl of fruit and yogurt instead.
Exercise: 60 minutes of aquafit and swimming.
Thank you for reading,
Weight Loss Bitch xxx
WeightLossBitch
On a health and fitness driven journey to lose over 32st / 448lbs / 203kgs – yes, it is a considerable amount – I am committed to losing my excess weight without the aid of weight loss surgery, diet pills, or quick fixes…as there aren’t any! Changing my eating habits and building up my fitness levels, along with addressing the ‘head issues’ will be crucial in order for me to achieve my goal. Living in England as a 31 year old super morbidly obese woman can be challenging to say the least. I have been shouted at in the street and verbally abused far too many times to mention; hence the name ‘Weight Loss Bitch’…the day I am just called a ‘bitch’ instead of a ‘fat bitch’ will be the day that I know I have cracked my weight loss! With many reasons to lose this weight I am documenting my journey for a number of reasons. Firstly, I would like to keep a record of the ups and downs, the highs and lows, and the challenges I face with such an enormous task to tackle. Secondly, I would also like to inspire and encourage other people who are in a similar situation and to show them that significant amounts of weight can be lost naturally…with a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and will power. Thirdly, all of the blogging, Facebook-ing, Tweet-ing, Pinterest-ing and YouTube-ing keeps me occupied and keeps my fingers out of the fridge!
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