A Beautiful Work In Progress

by Mirna Valerio

MORBID OBESITY My spirits sank. I had never considered myself to be morbidly obese. In fact, that term hadn’t even existed for me until the doctor used it to diagnose my condition. Now “morbid obesity” defined me to that doctor. Having this diagnosis and descriptor added to my name made me cringe. I thought that people who were morbidly obese weighed like four or five hundred pounds. The condition belonged to folks with stomachs hanging past their privates, with double and triple chins jiggling as they laughed, with mobility issues that caused them to need to waddle around or ride in an electric chair at the supermarket. Of course, these are all stereotypes of people who live in big bodies, some of which do describe some people with morbid obesity. I suddenly found my mind wandering there. With these images in my head, I began in earnest to plan my return to fitness and overall health right then and there.

Exactly how I felt