Saturday night, we made the drive down to Hyannis to Dan’s company’s annual holiday party. This is the 4th time we’ve been, and it was a pretty good time. The party was at The Resort & Conference Center at Hyannis for the 2nd year in a row, and even though we didn’t decide to stay the night, the hotel did not disapoint. The food was great, especially the pumpkin sage ravioli, in some sort of a butter cream sauce – I wish I had thought to take a picture!
It’s always interesting to spend time with people who spend a ton of time with my husband, in a professional setting. I feel like they know him in a way I never will, and it’s interesting to get to talk to, and put a face to, some of the people that he tells me about all year long.
On of the most enlightening parts of the evening, for me, was speaking with the wife of one of Dan’s co-workers. I’ve met her at pervious holiday parties, but this was the first year that we sat with her, and actually got a chance to really talk. At some point in the evening, we were observing people wandering off to another side of the room, and returning with massive slices of delicious looking cake. We both decided that we wanted cake, and went off to investigate. Once we found the cake station, there were a number of choices, including a Buche de Noel, and a white cake with lemon filling. I grabbed a medium sized piece of the chocolate log, and headed back to my seat. She grabbed a gigantic slice of the lemon cake, as well as a large piece of the chocolate log, and also returned to her seat.
We both sat down to enjoy our treats. I ate about half of my slice, and pushed it away, as I was already pretty full from dinner (and wine!). She ate miniscule bites of both cakes, pronounced them delicious, and mentioned that she can’t really eat much of anything, as she had had gastric bypass a few years ago. I asked her how long ago her surgery had been, and she said it was 7 years ago, that she had been over 350lbs, and was now maintaining around 175lbs. I asked her if she was happy that she had had the surgery, and she got a sort of strange look on her face.
She mentioned that yes, she had lost the weight, and been able to maintain the weight loss, and that she is certainly much healthier than she was pre-surgery. But then she told me that after she had had the surgery, she would sit on the couch and eat a bag of doritos a day, and still lose 4lbs in a week. And that even now, 7 years later, she doesn’t know how to eat in a way that is both healthy and satisfying, and that she never exercises at all. She just eats whatever she wants, albeit in the tiny portions that her body allows, and deals with the consequences.
I was shocked. I’ve read plenty of weight loss blogs by people that have had these sorts of procedures, and they all seem to include a mandate to learn how to eat correctly before the surgery is performed. In a way, this woman is sort of trapped by her weight loss “success” – she has lost enough weight to maintain a borderline healthy weight, but the consequences have denied her all opportunity to learn how to eat, and live, healthfully. She wants to lose the remaining weight, but is at a loss as to how to do it, since traditional diet programs wouldn’t work for her.
It was an interesting conversation, to be sure, and it made me feel somewhat better about myself and my own weght struggles. Yes, I am overweight, but at least I am trying, at least I know how to eat to maintain a healthy weight, how to eat things that are both delicious and good for you.