War and Peace

Yesterday I took some checks downstairs to the CreditNazi, also known as the DealKiller, also known as Teresa. She's on the 3rd floor. After stopping by her desk, I tooled 'round to the elevators. I was about to step onto the elevator, but then I got a nudge to stop by my friend's office. We'll call her Tummy Tuck as she got gastric bypasss a while back and then had a tummy tuck. Here's a link to a story about her before...http://asecretaryslife.blogspot.com/2007/09/bariatric-surgery-is-gamble.html

Moving right along...

I saw TummyTuck yesterday and she talked about how desperate she is feeling because she is gaining weight. Why, yes she is. She feels helpless. At that weight, you can barely eat anything. She is worried about getting her tummy back and many other things.

The feeling of helplessness I sensed from her is palpable. I didn't have much to tell her except to give her food to God everyday. She's still dieting, she's going to Weight Watchers, she's excercising, she's limiting her foods, she's obsessing over her food. She's snapping at her husband and she's calling him stupid. She notices that when she refrains from doing that, her husband is nicer to her.

Textbook case of compulsive eating. An alcoholic in his cups is not a pretty thing, and neither is a compulsive eater in her food. She hates herself because of her weight, and she takes it out on her long-suffering husband.

I just told her that it sounds like she feels powerless over food and her life is unmanageable. The whole thing is just really sad.

And what's even sadder is that I can relate to every bit of it. I can relate to snapping at my husband and treating him horridly. I used to act *just* like that when I was married. And it's because I was in my addiction and food was my god.

She tried to tell me something about how some Dr. soandso from the Celebrity Fit Club or something was on Ellen the other day and Ellen was talking about how she was getting ready for the Oscars again by trying to get fit and lose some weight. She had followed the food plan exactly, done the exercise, and she had gained weight. Dr. Soandso soothes the audience, telling them that there is no limit to what stress can do to our lives. Well FYI Dr. Soandso, it ain't stress. Weight gain is a simple matter of more coming in than is going out. Simple. It's not anymore complicated than that.

I just pray that Tummytuck will realize that she is an addict and that she needs to get better.