Shut the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks Up!

It has taken me a few days to draft this post because I have been so worked up over it I wanted to make sure I selected my words carefully. I was worried that someone I am venting about will read this post and get upset and then there would be that awkward silence between us. I got over it when I decided those people do not read my blog because if they did they would know the challenges I have faced this past year and wouldn't be talking crap. Here goes...

At work, we put together a little weight loss game we are calling the Great Fat Loss Challenge. Our intention is to have a healthy weight loss, which is to lose fat and not muscle. This prevents people from simply starving themselves to lose weight. What many people do not realize is that when you starve yourself your body will burn muscle instead of fat and this actually causes you to have more body fat. To have a healthy weight loss you need to tell your body to use the muscle and burn the fat. To do that you need to feed your muscle healthy protein in addition to working the muscle though exercise.

Our program is set up to last nearly a year and we have three really great prizes being awarded along the way to keep people motivated. The prizes are awarded on the greatest fat loss percentage and not just on weight loss. This means that a person could actually gain weight and win the competition. This is not because muscle weighs more than fat because that is actually a myth. A pound weighs a pound regardless of what you are weighing. However, since muscle is denser, it does weigh more than fat if you compare same-size portions but it takes up much less space than fat (approximately 1/3 the space) and it burns calories quicker. Two people may be the same height and weight but the person with a higher body fat percentage will most likely wear a bigger size. Since our challenge is based on fat loss percentage, this makes it fair for everyone...and this is where my venting comes in...

When going over the rules of the challenge, there were a few people complaining that I was part of the challenge. They feel that because I had weight loss surgery I have an unfair advantage over them. Now...I had my surgery almost a year ago and have already lost 122 pounds with a little less than 40 more to go before reaching my ultimate goal. One argued that it was unfair because I can eat less than they can. I explained (rather defensively) that just because my stomach is much smaller than theirs it doesn't mean that I automatically lose weight. I could technically sit around and eat crap all day if I chose to and not lose anything just like they could but I choose to eat healthy. I had to go further into the fact that weight loss surgery is not a solution but rather a tool.

I was high on my soapbox when I got to the part about people who have had weight loss surgery and didn’t do a darn thing different wonder why they didn’t lose weight on a consistent base or lost it and gained it all back because they didn't take the time to learn the "rules of the road". To be honest, after that part I kind of felt like hypocrite because I standing at the front of a classroom talking as if I was some expert on weight loss. It was only a year ago I was sitting in one of those chairs weighing in at over 330 pounds staring up at another instructor talking about the same thing with a blank look on my face because I couldn't get it to click in my brain.

When I was done speaking (and stepped down from my soapbox) I decided that a “hypocrite I was not” [she said in her Yoda voice]. It may have taken a drastic measure such as weight loss surgery to get the nutrition and exercise stuff to click AND stick in my head but I am not going to apologize for it and I am not going to remove myself from the challenge because of it. I have worked VERY hard for every single one of those 122 pounds and I am going to have to work twice as hard for these last 40. If you think it is easy to do then you should not have a problem losing your weight. I am in this challenge to keep me motivated so I can continue living a healthier and happier life. I do not need to win an iPad or a cruise to Mexico…but I would not mind winning that MacBook Air at the end of the year. If anyone out there still has a problem with this, you can kiss my former fat ass and shut the hell up.