S01.E02: Friends Over Fat

[PrincessPurrsALot]

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After a painful recovery from bariatric surgery, Meghan works hard to keep best friend Vanessa's diet on track. Vanessa wants the surgery too, but she struggles to maintain a healthy diet because all her groceries come from a local food pantry.

Original network air date 2021.11.17

[SunnyBeBe]

Vanessa not only seems to be a liar, but she also seems to be quite clueless about nutrition, calories, health, etc.  She could benefit from classes, books, videos that explain how things work and that she doesn’t actually know it all.  
 

Why these morbidly obese parents are convinced their kids should be fat and eat poor diets is beyond me.  It’s cruel, imo.  

[1011101010001]

Hmm maybe If Vannessa hadn’t dropped $57 at the fast food drive through she could afford to buy healthy groceries and not complain about the high calorie options at the charity food pantry?  And yeah the whole box of mac & cheese may be 320 calories but eat part of it offset with a salad or shudder vegetables.  And 320 for a meal is not bad anyway.  If she could keep under 2000 per day she would lose weight.

[Pepper Mostly]

Couple of things. One, the old "Wah, I need to diet but I need to cook for my family and I can't deprive them" dodge is paper thin and dumb. Your kids can eat healthy, you're not "depriving" them by having them eat a carrot every once in a while. Two, in my community we have an urban farm and free produce is given away to anyone who needs it. We can't be the only one. Its called Google, Vanessa. 

And seriously? That bit of theater with the kale? Please. "Oh yuck, I'm gnawing on a raw kale leaf, ooh its nasty, who can eat all this healthy stuff?" Steam that shit with some garlic and red pepper flakes and hit it with a squeeze of lemon. Its fucking delicious. She's another one who equates eating well and losing weight with never being able to eat anything "good". 

[1011101010001]

28 minutes ago, Pepper Mostly said:

Couple of things. One, the old "Wah, I need to diet but I need to cook for my family and I can't deprive them" dodge is paper thin and dumb. Your kids can eat healthy, you're not "depriving" them by having them eat a carrot every once in a while. Two, in my community we have an urban farm and free produce is given away to anyone who needs it. We can't be the only one. Its called Google, Vanessa. 

And seriously? That bit of theater with the kale? Please. "Oh yuck, I'm gnawing on a raw kale leaf, ooh its nasty, who can eat all this healthy stuff?" Steam that shit with some garlic and red pepper flakes and hit it with a squeeze of lemon. Its fucking delicious. She's another one who equates eating well and losing weight with never being able to eat anything "good". 

Plus you can make a separate meal for yourself in addition to the one for your family.  For example if the cook has gluten or dairy issues that doesn’t mean the whole family has to eat that way.  As far as the kale, I always thought you rinse produce rather than just jam it in your mouth in the parking lot.

[PrincessPurrsALot]

Our local food bank does an incredible job of providing fresh fruit and vegetables.  They also include recipe cards with simple ways to prepare those vegetables that people may be less familiar with.  Vanessa could really use something like that.  Yes, she could google it, but that takes more effort.  Also, googling a bunch of recipes can make you hungrier and//or make you think everything needs a lot of steps to prepare.  

It annoys me when people act like children won't want to eat fruit and vegetables.  They most often will (save for people with certain issues around smells and textures of specific foods or categories of foods).  Start serving more nutritious options and their palates will shift also.   I know many folks whose kids have been raised to eat large varieties of nutritious foods.  Some will have different items they don't like, but there is so much that they do that saying no to zucchini or peas isn't the end of the world. 

[AZChristian]

When Vannessa was arguing that eating 5 times a day didn't make sense if you were trying to lose weight, she missed the BASIC premise.  You eat 5 SMALLER meals, not 5 of the same-sized meals that got you where you are.

Example.  If she was used to eating three big cheeseburgers if she went through the drive-through once per day, she was assuming that she's supposed to be eating 15 cheeseburgers per day (5 x 3) instead of three.  No, Vannessa.  You should not be going through the drive-through at all.  You should be at home eating 5 small meals (from your diet plan).  And that's IT.  

You can't fix stupid - especially if it's intentional.

Edited November 18, 2021 by AZChristian

[1011101010001]

2 minutes ago, AZChristian said:

When Vannessa was arguing that eating 5 times a day didn't make sense if you were trying to lose weight, she missed the BASIC premise.  You eat 5 SMALLER meals, not 5 of the same-sized meals that got you where you are.

Example.  If she was used to eating three big cheeseburgers if she went went through the drive-through once per day, she was assuming that she's supposed to be eating 15 cheeseburgers per day (5 x 3) instead of three.  No, Vannessa.  You should not be going through the drive-through at all.  You should be at home eating 5 small meals (from your diet plan).  And that's IT.  

You can't fix stupid - especially if it's intentional.

Yes.  Plus If you eat just once or twice a day you will be ravenous and overeat at those meals.

Vannessa knew she had to lose 40 pounds in a month but chose to do no exercise and admitted she did not really pay attention to what the nutritionist said.  She is not a serious person.  She sounded like a four-year-old when she whined about her love of chips and pastries.  

[CrazyInAlabama]

The local food pantry where I live also has produce and veggies they pass out.      Vanessa could take the money she spent on Kale and other things, and bought a lot of family packs of chicken, and skinned it and roasted it, with spices or marinate, it would be delicious. 

Even if it was just for filming, I liked Meghan showing Vanessa what she could eat from the pantry food boxes.    A lot of places also have monthly food boxes that are low cost, but give you a lot of meals worth of food, and none of it's junk food.  

Vanessa going through the drive thru is disgusting.    Vanessa was given every chance by Meghan and Dr. Proctor, so I'm not feeling sorry for her. Vanessa gaining weight wasn't a surprise, but I thought it would be more gain.  At least she's finally lost weight. 

I was so happy at Meghan's update four months later.   Meghan has come such a long way, and lost 160 lbs.   I'm glad her boyfriend, and now fiance, has been so supportive.   I hope she's still doing well, and will be very happy.    

Edited November 20, 2021 by CrazyInAlabama

[Texasmom1970]

Like many I am not a fan of kale; and I do not not eat as healthy as I should. But I do not weigh 500 or so pounds and have no issue making it to the toilet. 

[1011101010001]

3 hours ago, Texasmom1970 said:

Like many I am not a fan of kale; and I do not not eat as healthy as I should. But I do not weigh 500 or so pounds and have no issue making it to the toilet. 

I think it’s more than a food addiction for these folks.  It’s self hatred and a slow suicide.

[DNR]

The shape of vanessa’s body was so shocking . It was like her lap was a table (for her fast food) looks like she spends a lot of time sitting on her ass and she just spread out.   She fed Megan & dr proctor a lot of phony lines then went home & did the opposite. Vanessa was so childish around food and it looked like her sons are paying for her poor habits as well . Sadly she seems like a lost cause.   It was great seeing Megan being so successful! (Especially after seeing her pee on the pee pad … a 180 from the start of the episode) 

Edited November 20, 2021 by DNR
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[CrazyInAlabama]

I hope Meghan's still doing her program, losing weight, and becoming healthy.   

I also hope she doesn't let Vanessa drag her down.    Vanessa is the only person that can help Vanessa, and until she realizes that, and starts trying to help herself, nothing will change.   She has a lot of excuses, and a lot of sources of help, and isn't even trying.   I bet that in five years, Vanessa will have the same excuses, and be much worse off.   I hope her sons can find a way to get out on their own, and don't get guilted by her into being her caretakers. 

[kassa]

The one son seemed like he wanted to do better. But he's also old enough to take charge if he does... unless she's hard as nails on them behind the scenes, which I can believe. A big part of the psychology of a lot of these larger tv weight loss people is a very controlling personality.

I want to hand her a jar of garlic, a stick of butter and a squeeze bottle of lemon for those veggies. There are flavors in the world other than salt!

[Hellga]

I am happy for Meghan, but Vanessa is annoying.  The woman is not the sharpest tool in the toolbox as is, but the fact that she prefers to stick her head up her ass and give self-acceptance speeches and ignore reality when it's knocking on her head to actually making changes is what makes her annoying and very unlikely to succeed (we saw her dropping out in the follow-up episode)