Who do you like

"Hi everybody I would like you to meet our new friend Susan!"

"Say Hi to everybody Susan." the leader of the group, a support group for Overeaters Anonymous.

"Hi, I am Susan, and I have gained over 10 pounds two months ago. How about that as if I needed more pounds right?" Susan said with a wide grin on her face.

"Okay, Susan have a seat. This week we are going to talk our selves through portions and the number of times that we spend eating food. Alright! Oh, first let me go over the list so that I can make sure that all of you are present tonight. Alice... Sam... Susan of course... Debra...Tony....Swapo....Tolkeen....Vincent....Demise.....Obrey....Yan....Hue.....Anne.....Type....Fowler......Brandon.......Jamie.....Bibi....Dan....Fuse....Monday and I am here. Okay, that is a tick. Any changes in your phone numbers or email addresses. None. Okay, what about insurance any changes. Debra..."

"Can I still pay out of pocket?"

"Yes as long as you pay a week ahead, alright! Any questions... questions at all!!!"

"Alright, let's start by shaming ourselves for spending time of our lives eating more than the general population out there. Right? Let us clap hands for that!"

They all clap hands and whistle.

"Alright, many of you when we first started gave us a list of foods that you all eat at any mealtime session. We were all upset because it was just a lot of food to be eaten by one person, right? That is not what we are talking about today. Last week I asked you to weigh the foods that you eat. We have a graph here showing how each spent time eating food based on how much it weighed. Mind you the weight of the food is not before it was cooked if it needed cooking, it was after it was cooked. See how it compares to men vs women or boys vs girls. Interesting! Alright, why did I ask you to do that? To make a point that after you digest the food, the residue that is absorbed by the body actually becomes fat which weighs a lot more than the food weighed initially when it was digested. That is not a problem. The amount of time that we spend chewing and swallowing food is much more than we should be spending on eating food. Our teeth work harder than regular people who have no weight problems.

We probably do not have time to brush our teeth as often as we should because by the time we finish eating, we are so tired and so sluggish to even worry about washing dishes let alone brushing our teeth. What do we do after eating? We sit in front of the TV. Right and some of us fall asleep."

He hands out a sheet of paper with digitized photos of restaurant meals with the ingredients and nutrition values listed.

"Take a look at the first course, it is a quarter size pattie. The main course is but less than a pound. The dessert is a small cup of a chocolate cake. Okay, will we be full of this? Of course not? ....Debra!"

"It's different in a restaurant though. There are other people there. The chairs are too small. The tables are too small. So, we already are embarrassed to be there in the first place. Once we start eating we want to be out of there quickly."

"So you are suggesting that we must all try to go to restaurants. Be uncomfortable. And we will eat less?"

"Something like that. We tried your trick of drinking water first, before eating and some of us lost up to three pounds that way. I know we all need to lose 60 pounds or more and 3 pounds is nothing but we lost some weight right?"

"Okay, let's try going to restaurants for two weeks and see what happens in our next weigh-in. Susan how does that sound, okay, Hmm not sure. Are you on a diet, I know that we are an unconventional group? You will get a hang of it."

"I am on a doctor monitored liquid diet. I thought that we will be talking about our inner feelings and such."

"We do everything here. Every member's experience is valued. We try it all. Okay before you leave we must weight you. Talk to your doctor about adding solids for the next two weeks to your liquid diet. How long have you been on a liquid diet, if I may ask?."

"I'll say about a month. I have lost about nine pounds. I had to detox first. It was a mess and I got dehydrated and had to be hospitalized. I am fine now."

"Oh my, that is some experience. Well, be safe this time introducing solids early."

"Okay, wait, let me not mess your name up. Let me check my list alright, Fowler, question?"

"Hi, everybody, I think that this is the first time that I can sit and not have to worry about food. I don't have to obsess about going to the kitchen for food. I am so relaxed here. I just wanted to ask if we can get more comfortable chairs?"

"Yes, funny you should ask, in a couple of weeks we will be moving to the main room. There will be couches and tables there. What we are aiming for, is to have a dining area as well where we all can sit and eat together and we can sort of watch each other's back. When we get to that stage, we all should have lost about 30 pounds, By the next 30 pounds, we will be learning skills to cope away from this setting. We will learn to not eat a lot. To not eat when we are not hungry. To not eat a lot of fatty foods. To limit our consumption of alcohol if we do drink. Good habits. At some point, we will have a doctor come in and check our vitals and check our density weight. At that point, our focus will be more about how to control our brain and fool it into thinking that we are full, that we do not enjoy foods that we know for sure we want to eat or desire. For instance when I want to stay up to study or I am frazzled and afraid to go to bed. I chew gum. That helps me stay awake. Hey, we can try that too because I usually do not eat then or even think of food. Let us all stay up late and chew gum, and not sleep so much. When we feel hungry let us go to a restaurant and not order more than one main course. Alright, that is what we are going to do for the next two weeks."

"Sounds great," said Tony.

"Okay, let us turn our attention to the tv set on the wall. We will see foods served in different restaurants. Some meals will be cooked some will be uncooked. We will see cuts of meats. We will see how fish is gutted before it is on our plates. Okay!"

The tv screen showed all types of very good meals and other raw ingredients.

"Did you notice that the meals at first were tempting. By the time we saw the fisherman gutting fish, we were like yuck!!! We are going to keep doing that until we see food as a source of energy. As you know in order to join this group, the minimum weight that you must need to lose is 60 pounds, We have a set an amount of time that we aim for. As soon as I lose my 60 pounds another instructor will take over. Those of you who also just need to lose 60 pounds will be dismissed. Alright!"........"Okay Susan, welcome. Fill out the evaluation form and be honest about how you feel about our first session today. The rest of you can go to the music room and relax until you are ready to leave. We have to be here for an hour. We still have 20 minutes left. So enjoy your music. Susan, we have headphones and you will be able to select the music that you like. I know you will. As soon as you finish evaluating this session, join the others, and I will see all of you next week. Yooo Hooo!"

They all said Yooo Hooo and clapped their hands and pushed their chairs into their tables and picked up their belongings and moved to the music room. Susan filled out her form and later joined them. He packed his car with all the leaflets and his bags and drove home.