It never occurred to me that he was obese. You could say that love blinded me from the truth, but to me he was just my dad. I was probably 10 or 11 when a classmate of mine pointed out how "fat" my dad was. Hot tears burned my face as I sat in the principals office for trying to give that kid a fat lip. How could anyone not see how cool my dad was? As I got older I realized that as a family we indulged in a lot of rich, delicious foods. I started to realize that both of my parents were quite a bit bigger than my friends parents. I never understood why we never ate in a booth at restaurants, it was always a table. One day when I questioned why we couldn't sit at a booth, my mom grabbed my arm and whispered in my ear that my dad was too "fat" to fit in a booth. There was that word again. My dad joked about being under tall, or that he was just waiting to grow into his weight. My mom however was always on the newest fad diet. We would eat the craziest things, then something would happen, they would fall off the wagon and fried chicken here we come. As I matured I thought that dieting is just what people did, so I started secretly dieting. I was already thin at 5'5" and 100 lbs but I thought I had really big thighs. I developed my own eating disorder from watching my parents incorrectly battle their eating disorder.
By the time I graduated high school my parents sought help for my issues and I overcame my eating disorder with therapy and an excellent medical team. In family therapy was the first time I heard anyone confront my parents about their eating disorder. ...Food Addiction...we were out of there so fast my head spun. We never, ever spoke of that again. My parents went on a new low carb diet, that lasted about a month.
As an adult I realized that my parents had serious issues with food. My mom grew up so impoverished that she had to have the food pantry full at all times. My dad was a sneaky eater, he got up in the night to eat, ate on the way to work and on the way home. By this time he now had type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and heart disease. When I was pregnant with my daughter my dad had to undergo a kidney transplant, his out of control diabetes and high blood pressure had caused him to go into kidney failure.
When my dad died he was 5'10" and around 350lbs. His official cause of death was a stroke, but it doesn't take a genius to know that your body was not designed to carry that much weight. My dad's damaged relationship with food caused him to die far too young. He left a wife, 4 kids, 8 grandchildren and a church full of people who loved him and still miss him to this day.
I watched my personal superhero, succumb to disease. He became a prisoner to his own body. He is still super to me and in my minds eye he is still the best man I have ever known. A superhero's story is never supposed to end in tragedy, but in this case it did. Our story did not have to end this way and yours doesn't either. If you have a damaged relationship with food, get help. Don't allow your family and friends to miss you like crazy. Call your doctor, get an accountability partner, get some good counseling, research all your options. You deserve a healthy and happy life!
Please visit our website: www.westernbariatric.com
or
Call one of our offices in Riverside, CA or San Bernardino, CA
951-352-5643 or 909-475-8611
No comments:
Post a Comment