Morbid Obesity... and Soup!

Tonight I've come home from netball training and was ready to put a batch of soup (a new red lentil & sweet potato recipe from taste.com.au) and turned the tv on for some company (Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares was wrapping up - a giblet club sandwich? Eww, no thanks!!!). Anyway, after that, some sort of medical show came about morbidly obese people - in particular, the most obese man alive. I've only heard snippets, but its making me sad and happy at the same time. This man hadn't had a shower or bath in 4 years. He had massive fat deposits hanging between his legs - they went int surgery to have them removed, and it took them 5 hours to just remove one. Its just really sad. But the happy part is more acceptance of myself.

I weigh 94kg - this is the heaviest I've been in my life, but I'm making changes. I don't know if I will ever be super skinny (I'd rather be healthy looking with a bit of muscle definition) but I can take pride that I'm able to get out of bed easily every day (ok, maybe not on the cold days, but that's got nothing to do with my weight!), I can wash myself, walk somewhere, run on a treadmill, play netball, know the difference between healthy and unhealthy (although that doesn't mean I always choose healthy!) and take responsibility for myself.

Not so long ago, one of our casuals at work was required to come and work. She's quite a large lady and was having meal replacement shakes so she could lose enough weight to have gastric bypass surgery. Please forgive my naivety, but isn't that cheating? I would much prefer the personal satisfaction and pride of losing weight all by myself - without the aid of surgery.

Now that I'm done ranting, my soup is just about done! I'm really surprised at how quick that's been. I wonder how good it'll taste!

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Edit (added 5 minutes later): oh my god, this soup is heaven. The sweet potato really gives a beautiful sweet twist, and the lentils make is so hearty. Delicious, cheap, healthy, perfect.