What is an eating disorder?

According to the National Eating Disorders Association (click on the name to go to the site) an eating disorder is when you have one or more of these issues...Anorexia Nervosa, Binge Eating or Bulimia Nervosa.

Why am I blogging about this on my weight loss blog? Well, this morning I watched Good Morning America. They featured a woman who was pregnant who compulsively exercised and was obsessive about how much weight she gained not only when she was pregnant but at other times in her life as well.

As the segment finished up I found myself really MAD! They classified this woman as having an eating disorder and I wondered why it was that people felt badly for her and were, what I believe is, abnormally concerned for her!

Here's my issue... Why is it that they won't just tell a person who is thin and has issues with eating/not-eating that they should just go eat a freaking sandwich!!! I mean what do they tell overweight people??!!!! To STOP eating a freaking sandwich!!! No one ever tells an overweight person that there is something in their brain that makes them that way!

About 5 years ago I called my insurance company at the time to see if they would cover gastric bypass surgery. I was told they would not. As I thought about it I decided to call back with another question. "Will you cover treatment for anorexia?" I was put on hold while the person checked my plan and was eventually told that if I was seeking treatment for the problem as an outpatient than the treatment would be covered. I was LIVID. I launched into a tirade, to someone who really couldn't do anything, about how unfair it was and that they were discriminating against fat people!

I'm no expert but I would venture to say that overweight people have MORE health related issues than a person who vomits on purpose or who doesn't eat enough!

Why is it that people fall over themselves trying to "help" a person who refuses to eat but we look at a person who overeats as merely being out of control? Is a thin person who REFUSES to eat, or throws up NOT out of control????

I say...GET A GRIP! If you're not going to treat overweight people with the same commitment that you will an anorexic person YOU ARE DISCRIMINATING!

What does a pound of fat look like anyway?

This is what a pound of fat looks like.



I went to Weight Watchers today after spending the morning in my son's classroom cutting 1 1/2 inch strips of green construction paper for some Christmas project they're going to do. I was too late for the meeting but I decided that I should at least go and weigh in.

Once again, I spent the week NOT tracking. Not even posting my weight gain from last week or ever tracking one thing I put in my mouth for the week. I don't know why I've developed such an aversion to tracking all of a sudden. That's another blog post.

I was totally prepared to step on the scale and not see any loss but to my "shock and awe" I lost one pound. At first I was like..."Well, that stinks!" but then I thought, "Well it's one pound less than I weighed last week and at least it's something."

After the day was almost over I decided to Google an image for a pound of fat and found the photo that I posted here. I'm actually impressed by what it looks like. It's gross looking but it looks more substantial than just saying, "I lost one pound."