Letter to the editors of People Magazine regarding April 9, 2007 cover story entitled "Trading One Addiction for Another":




Dear Editors:

Your excellent story on cross-addiction (April 9, 2007) among bariatric bypass surgery patients illustrates some very important and valuable information for overweight people.

From personal and professional experience, I have found being

overweight to be a complicated situation that is physical, emotional, mental and spiritual in nature.  It is further complicated by society’s attitudes, judgments and ignorance about it and the fact that today’s medical climate is geared towards fixing things only when they become threatening, rather than preventing the situation in the first place.

Permanent weight loss is medically defined as weight loss that is maintained for 5 years.

Making changes only to the physical component, such as weight loss through extreme dieting or surgery, is successful long term only when the other components of the mental, emotional and spiritual change too.

If we continue to think, act and work with our emotions in the same old way, we get the same old result.

Under ideal circumstances, dramatic weight loss will positively impact the way a person thinks, the way they function emotionally and their spiritual being as well.  But old engrained habits and our complex nature as human beings sometimes interfere with our best intentions and with medical science.

Simply put, excess weight is a symptom, not the problem.  We need to solve the real problem and change what’s creating the negative behavior, and the weight will adjust accordingly.

Calling up every fiber of fortitude and willpower to resist a brownie is a losing battle.  Being the kind of person who doesn’t overeat is a whole different story!

Pat Barone, CPCC, PCC
-70 lbs., 7 years & counting
www.patbarone.com