FatGirl vs World

So... in July 2014, I got an email from an Associate Producer at ZoCo -- Dr. Oz's production company, and an affiliate of Harpo, Oprah's company -- asking me if I wanted to be considered for an "upcoming segment on the show" regarding their "new life change" shows:  "The show would be based around one guest who wants to get on  the right track to changing their life for the better. This will be a great opportunity for someone like yourself who has been on a weight loss journey."  The Associate Producer then listed a bunch of questions IN ALL CAPS (wtf?).  

At the time, I thought about all of my friends who had been published in books, featured in magazines, on local or nation-wide news, or who had achieved international recognition.  I wondered: Was this my time in the sun?

After 30 seconds of due consideration, I penned my response:

[Associate Producer]:

Thanks for reaching out to me -- but I feel that Dr. Oz's promotion of weight loss pills doesn't fit with my mission statement or branding.

Cheers!

-Robby

The more and more I read about Dr. Oz, the more I think that I dodged a bullet.  Earlier in the year the FTC investigated the "doctor" that Dr. Oz backed in regards to the green coffee bean extract diet – Lindsey Duncan – and they've just this week ruled that his claims were deceptive, fining Duncan's companies $9 million.


Does Dr. Oz say some good things? Sure.  But even a broken clock is right twice a day.

More fun links:

• John Oliver attacks Dr. Oz and nutritional supplements withthe help of George R. R. Martin
  http://www.theverge.com/2014/6/23/5834858/john-oliver-attacks-dr-oz-and-nutritional-supplements-with-the-help
• Dr. Oz's 10 Most Controversial Weight Loss Supplements http://www.forbes.com/sites/melaniehaiken/2014/06/18/dr-oz-senate-scolding-his-10-most-controversial-weight-loss-supplements/ 
• Dr, Oz and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Dayhttp://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/dr-oz-and-the-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-day/

In Part I of Discovering Dad, my very awesome and forthcoming dad talked about his childhood and the attitudes about health that he learned from his parents.  He candidly spoke about his own weight issues and how it affected his own view of himself.  Part II is a little bit more about my dad as head of the household and family man. 



A9:  When did I ever educate you about health or food (other than making mountains of pancakes, slabs of meat, potatoes, dessert)?!?  When you got heavier, as I was heavier, I failed to see and get us running or exercising, or going together to the gym or anything positive. I recognize that I was a poor role model and I wonder if my depression rubbed off onto you.

Q9.1: I remember you once signed us up for Gold’s Gym, perhaps when I was 16. Why did we stop going?

A9.1:  Knowing me I probably came up with a hundred excuses.  When we signed up for the family membership, that came with one "free" training session -- I got a artificially-muscled steroidal freak who started me off on weights that were far too heavy.  He didn't address the needs and limitations of my own body.  Schedule was also a big excuse too.  I commuted over two hours each way for work, and I would come home at the end of the day tired.  Changing out of my suit into gym clothing was just too much to ask some days.

Q10: Now that we're both adults trying to get our weight in check, do you think it's important that we are good role models and inspirations for each other as well as the rest of our family?

A10:  It would be important if I BECAME a GOOD role model for you. YOU have ALREADY BECOME a good role model for yourself, despite me.

Q11: I've tried to keep this interview brief, but is there anything else you'd like to talk about?

A11: Just an overview, to wit:

My life has been one with a lot of pain and sorrow and loss, and my childhood was not a happy one. Many issues continued into adulthood, and new issues arose. Clearly, I have had an unhealthy relation to food and and other consumables which were bad for me. Couple that with smoking and I have not taken care of myself.  Some people have an innate sense of themselves and take pride and thus make the effort in their health and their appearance. In the course my life, I can not be so categorized thus far. But I want this to be otherwise henceforth.

Dad -- I love you very much too :)

A1: As a kid, I never learned about exercise, and nobody knew about nutrition in the 1950s. We were taught to eat everything on our plate. We were told to think about the starving children in China; left overs were a moral obligation to finish. I was 40 pounds as a 1-year-old. My parents would feed me to stop from crying that first year. I then slimmed out. I ran through neighborhood often, climbed all trees available, and from 4 to 5 was the Peter Pan, ruler and leader of the neighborhood kids. I was tall, trim, outgoing, confident, self-assured and active until the summer my mother died, two months short of my eighth birthday. From age 8 to 12, I just ballooned up in weight, lost confidence and really became a different person to that happy kid I had been before my mother’s death. We had conflicting influences, various housekeepers and even sometimes we were left on our own. I don’t remember food being solace during that time. However, there was no overall approach to a healthy regimen of food and exercise and there was, for me, a great deal of sorrow and trauma.

Q1.1: Do you think the “clean plate” mentality your parents had was a result of them living through the Great Depression, or was it some other reason?

A1.1: Not the Depression, it was more a left over from the Victorian Era. I also think that for my parents’ generation slimness was akin to sickliness for some. My mother was as slim as a rail due to her heart defect, and plump cherubs for children indicated in some way that they were healthy.


Q3: I've seen pictures of you as a young man, and you were quite dapper and thin. When did you notice that you were gaining weight? Do you know why you were gaining weight?

A3: Luckily, I hit a growth spurt that allowed me to be 6’2” and 175 at 18-years-old at graduation. I looked good then. Then I gained weight in the novitiate. We had sports, and exercise, but also a lot of other influences. At college I was between 215 and 235, and stayed in that range, mostly till third year of law school between age 28 and 29. Law school was sedentary, driving a cab was sedentary. Eating deli on the run was not helpful either. Thus, I got heavier. From 17 to 29, the lightest I ever was was 185 when I was in Boston. The heaviest was 280-290 when I got married. Since then the lowest I was was 238 in the late 80s. I was 250 when I tore my left ACL in 2008. That injury contributed to going up tp my current weight. But eating out, eating deli, not exercising and unhealthy eating also are huge factors.

Q4: You once said to me that you tried running once, but wasn't enamored because you didn't experience a "runner's high" -- what were you expecting?

A4: Let me rephrase the question. I had to run at times in gym, I also tried to be on track team at some point. Running always was painful in the legs, chest and abdomen and I never experienced a runner’s high, as in the endorphins. I was not instructed on the right way to train, nor did I have anyone to tell what to expect, how to work through it, or anything like that. An example, the track coach put me in a relay once, had to sprint 220 yards, did miserably. All he did was look at me disdainfully. Years later, remembering I said in my mind the rejoinder I should have said then: “don’t look at me like that, teach me.”

A5: The emotional ups and downs of my formative years left me feeling all over the place, without any understanding of myself, my weight, my health. I never had a sense of pride about my body, and not even any perception regarding same. I once did a low fat regime and stuck with it for a good while. I have tried other things with varying degrees of failure, even Weight Watchers.