Mission Statement

I will in general eat healthy, eat "normal" food, without gimmicks, pills, surgery, or trademarked diets. I will log all calories consumed and estimate calories burned on a daily basis. I will then be able to track my progress and estimate arrival time to my goals through My Food Log. I will also develop non-food rewards for reaching my goals knowing that reaching each goal is a reward in-and-of itself. I will not give up. I know that I will not be perfect but that I am making a permanent lifestyle change. The good days will out-number the bad days. I will not give up!

8.22.2007

Alli, Friend or Foe

do0rdiet.blogspot.com
My mother just announced to me that she is now taking Alli. The question tonight is whether to convince her that is bad or to support her efforts to recover a healthy weight and disregard the chemical side of her plan. What to do?

I think the answer has to be to support her no matter what. For one, she is my mother. Secondly, she is doing this with the blessing of her doctor. Thirdly, I did the workup of her daily calorie usage... it's not pretty. Due to her age and short stature, she only burns 1800 calories in a day. She has to work 14% harder than I do to burn the same amount of calories that I do in a day. This is rough because she is 22 years older than me and is 3 3/4 inches shorter than I am.
Just by coincidence, I discovered that we are now the same weight. I am attempting to get her to wager with me as to who can loose the most weight and keep it off. But, then I realize that I truly have the advantage. While I'm talking about money.... I would MUCH rather her pay me the $45 - $80 monthly that she will spend on Alli.
I can do the same thing for her. I can "block" the fat from her diet by guilting her into not eating junk, but then, I realize that as much as I want her to succeed, I can't do it for her. She has to want to be healthy for herself. She has to want it so badly that she will do whatever it takes to get there. I guess this is my biggest concern with her choice of Alli. It seems like she wants an easy way out.
Now I will say that the "Alli-Oops" or treatment effects (oily and gassy discharges, sometimes uncontrollable) seem to be a struggle to put up with in and of themselves. And according to the Alli diet plan, calories and grams of fat must be counted to make Alli a success and make the Alli-Oops minimal. So they are striving for personal accountability. But I just don't know. It seems terribly unhealthy to chemically alter your digestion in this way. At the same time, doing nothing at all is ultimately just as unhealthy.
All in all, I will support her efforts whatever they may be and continue to offer what I believe to be more healthy tips and information. Got any better advice?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alli, I agree isn't the answer - BUT I've found that most folks have to find out for themselves. My advice - support her efforts to lose weight and get healthy. Don't knock the Alli, but just let her know it's not something you would chose.

That way you are keeping the dialogue open and she can feel comfortable talking with you about her progress if it works or trying something new if it doesn't.

Just my 2 cents.

I'm over 50 and I finally found a medically supervised program that is working for me and I'm not hungry at all (provides 5 meals a day and it's affordable). Nothing else worked for me, I have a very very hard time losing, I have like 0 metabolism - so I can thrilled to finally be losing steady and without hunger (a true miracle because I used to be constantly hungry).

If your mom decides to look into something different I'd be happy to talk with her.

Sondra said...

As I have learned with my husband who is a smoker, what you say to her probably will not matter. If she is convinced it will help her and she want to try it, no amount of talking will convince her.
I have heard some bad things about Alli including the fact that it causes bowel leakage :(. And noone should take anything chemical like this for a long period of time. Perhaps after she tries it she will realize that it is not the best thing for her. Good Luck.

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I'm Christina's mom. And yes I need help, health is now my number one reason to loose weight, so we will be in this together.

Flabuless said...

Christina...I think you are on the right track...support each other, encourage each other in the end it doesn't matter how we loose weight really but the reasons why we are loosing weight...it sounds to me that you are both doing it for better health...Which is fantastic. You go girl!
:) xx Flabuless