Monks Jazz Club
Dangers of No Self-Control
RECEIVED Fri., July 13, 2007
Dear Editor,
It was with true amazement that I read Virginia Wood's almost surreal piece on her gastric bypass surgery ["Enough Is Enough," Food, July 13].
I have always thought that having a morbidly obese food critic is perverse at best, but her writing is usually solid, and she does have a real heart for local culinary talent. It has been sad over the years to see her barely able to move at various food events, a real red flag as to the dangers of no self-control.
But her article about trying to slim down really takes the cake (in one bite, apparently). In the thousands of words on trying to avoid a heart attack and regain some semblance of health, not once does Wood even mention the magic word: exercise!
Unbelievable as it seems, she spends half of her retirement savings to pay doctors to subvert nature in her quest for a more natural form, instead of the time-tested (and very inexpensive) method of eating less and exercising more.
It's as if the thought never occurred to her. Surreal indeed … spend most of your cash to make someone else try to give you the discipline and common sense that is staring you daily in the face.
Put that article in a time capsule; it sums up exactly how addicted our culture has become to paying someone else to solve our own self-imposed problems for us.
I know people who were fatter than Wood who are now healthy and happy, all from getting off their asses and working out.
But I guess lazy is as lazy does.
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus … and I hope he brings you some running shoes (and common sense) this year.
It was with true amazement that I read Virginia Wood's almost surreal piece on her gastric bypass surgery ["Enough Is Enough," Food, July 13].
I have always thought that having a morbidly obese food critic is perverse at best, but her writing is usually solid, and she does have a real heart for local culinary talent. It has been sad over the years to see her barely able to move at various food events, a real red flag as to the dangers of no self-control.
But her article about trying to slim down really takes the cake (in one bite, apparently). In the thousands of words on trying to avoid a heart attack and regain some semblance of health, not once does Wood even mention the magic word: exercise!
Unbelievable as it seems, she spends half of her retirement savings to pay doctors to subvert nature in her quest for a more natural form, instead of the time-tested (and very inexpensive) method of eating less and exercising more.
It's as if the thought never occurred to her. Surreal indeed … spend most of your cash to make someone else try to give you the discipline and common sense that is staring you daily in the face.
Put that article in a time capsule; it sums up exactly how addicted our culture has become to paying someone else to solve our own self-imposed problems for us.
I know people who were fatter than Wood who are now healthy and happy, all from getting off their asses and working out.
But I guess lazy is as lazy does.
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus … and I hope he brings you some running shoes (and common sense) this year.
Kyle Swanson
[Editor's note: As noted in the feature, Virginia Wood had Lap-Band surgery and not gastric bypass surgery.]
