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Youtube has several series on obesity although most of the ones I've watched are from Britain. Then there is the HBO Serirs, Weight of A Nation. Much more than the usual gloss-over usually shown the series have different topics each section. So far I have watched two and the most eye opening fact is that obesity only becamr an epidemic since the 1980s. That is a timeline all of us can follow in order to understand the causes.

 

You might be interested in this article from the NYT. When scientists applied big data to the obesity epidemic in the US, they uncovered a very logical, yet rarely discussed root cause - the overproduction of food, which began in the 1970's. They also discovered some other interesting details about what causes/maintains weight gain/loss. 

 

Ever since I read this article, I have been amazed that I have never once seen this topic discussed anywhere in the media. I think its because on some level, there is a cultural tendency toward putting all the blame on the individual.  We enjoy judging these people and criticizing them for their laziness and poor choices. Its much more sensational to have shows like this one and Biggest Loser, etc, than to talk about how changes in agricultural policies and farming technology beginning four decades ago provided more food at cheaper prices to the entire population. There wasn't fast food before then because food was too expensive to produce that cheaply.

 

here is the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/science/a-mathematical-challenge-to-obesity.html?_r=2

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You might be interested in this article from the NYT. When scientists applied big data to the obesity epidemic in the US, they uncovered a very logical, yet rarely discussed root cause - the overproduction of food, which began in the 1970's. They also discovered some other interesting details about what causes/maintains weight gain/loss. 

 

Ever since I read this article, I have been amazed that I have never once seen this topic discussed anywhere in the media. I think its because on some level, there is a cultural tendency toward putting all the blame on the individual.  We enjoy judging these people and criticizing them for their laziness and poor choices. Its much more sensational to have shows like this one and Biggest Loser, etc, than to talk about how changes in agricultural policies and farming technology beginning four decades ago provided more food at cheaper prices to the entire population. There wasn't fast food before then because food was too expensive to produce that cheaply.

 

here is the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/15/science/a-mathematical-challenge-to-obesity.html?_r=2

Thank you for the referral to this article. I am going to check it out asap. I agree that we tend to blame mostly the victim. Personally, I believe lack of food knowledge c omes from those who missed out on having to help prepare real meals at home, learning to cook plus the dollars to not having to. Not quite that simple but that is the gist of it as I see it.

 

We HAD to help cook, shop, tend the gardens (small and large) therefore we learned the value of decent nutrition. Now you see young people bringing dinner home to their household from the local fast food place... pizza, McD, Jack, etc. And it is getting cheaper.

 

But I don't completely throw it under the bus. There was a time when my last three dollars got me three burgers that sustained me until I could do better. But I must add, too, that had I not smoked at the time I could have invested in more although I would have been crazy as a loon from the stress, lol. But still it came down to decisions.

 

I digress, I love the information these documents and documentaries offer. Thank you.

Two hour season finale tonight, who's watching with me???  The real question is should I watch it from the treadmill, or should I watch it with a gallon of ice cream? Maybe I will walk for the first hour and eat ice cream for the second.  LOL

 

I will update all their facebook pages tomorrow--sorry I've fallen behind, I've had a lot going on.

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My guide said tonight's episode was a repeat but it was actually a new episode--Lupe's Story--at least it was one I had not seen before.  

 

That happened to me too. This is a new episode, and I think the last one of this season. There's a discussion topic for it here, but it's locked. I suppose the mod put it up there and forgot to unlock it after the episode aired. I just watched a few minutes of it, but set the DVR to record it, so I can see it later with the FF key in hand.

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This is kind of gross, but help me out here. I have had to use a bedpan as an patient in the hospital. I have used a portable toilet in the ER (that was fun, hauling around a bunch of tubes & an IV pole, but I digress...) I have not used one of those pads we see on the show. I guess these people are too big for adult diapers, so they are wetting right on the pad? OK, yucky, but I get it. 

 

Here's what occurred to me for the first time while watching Lupe - I gather that they are having bowel movements on the pad. But they are laying on the pad; it's not like you have a container like a bedpan. How can you lay flat and have a bowel movement? Where does it go? With a baby in a diaper, I know it can go out of the diaper and up their back. Does it work that way for an adult on a pad? Maybe it's better if you you can turn sideways, but It looks like some of these people couldn't turn if they wanted to. They couldn't even pull their knees up.

 

Sorry to gross everyone out, but questions start coming up after you've seen these shows for awhile. 

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This is kind of gross, but help me out here. I have had to use a bedpan as an patient in the hospital. I have used a portable toilet in the ER (that was fun, hauling around a bunch of tubes & an IV pole, but I digress...) I have not used one of those pads we see on the show. I guess these people are too big for adult diapers, so they are wetting right on the pad? OK, yucky, but I get it. 

 

Here's what occurred to me for the first time while watching Lupe - I gather that they are having bowel movements on the pad. But they are laying on the pad; it's not like you have a container like a bedpan. How can you lay flat and have a bowel movement? Where does it go? With a baby in a diaper, I know it can go out of the diaper and up their back. Does it work that way for an adult on a pad? Maybe it's better if you you can turn sideways, but It looks like some of these people couldn't turn if they wanted to. They couldn't even pull their knees up.

 

Sorry to gross everyone out, but questions start coming up after you've seen these shows for awhile. 

I had the same question, especially when she was in the car.  Penny used a bed pan when she pooped, I imagine Lupe did too when she was at the point where she didn't get out of bed anymore (prior to that, she probably got up to poop).  I think some things in life should remain a mystery though, LOL.

 

Did anyone catch the preview for next week?  --which is cool because I didn't think there would be a "next week"  It showed a heavy (probably pregnant or recently postpartum Melissa Morris commenting on someone.  I wonder if this will be an early recap episode. 

I came across this today and thought folks here would find this interesting....

 

"Babies who are as young as five months old are already being fed junk food, according to a study.

Researchers found children were becoming reliant on sugary and fatty foods before they were even able to chew.

The scientists followed the diets of 1,250 babies, and came across a number of shocking cases – including a baby whose first teeth were black when they came through because they had been fed cola in a bottle."

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3511931/Five-month-old-babies-fed-junk-food-Children-reliant-sugary-fatty-foods-able-chew-researchers-find.html

 

It would be interesting if they could do a longitudinal study on these kids over the next 20 years and see how many of them end up obese.  That would be some good research. But costly, so unlikely to happen.

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I came across this today and thought folks here would find this interesting....

 

"Babies who are as young as five months old are already being fed junk food, according to a study.

Researchers found children were becoming reliant on sugary and fatty foods before they were even able to chew.

The scientists followed the diets of 1,250 babies, and came across a number of shocking cases – including a baby whose first teeth were black when they came through because they had been fed cola in a bottle."

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3511931/Five-month-old-babies-fed-junk-food-Children-reliant-sugary-fatty-foods-able-chew-researchers-find.html

 

It would be interesting if they could do a longitudinal study on these kids over the next 20 years and see how many of them end up obese.  That would be some good research. But costly, so unlikely to happen.

Horrid! I will check out this link..

The NY Daily News actually has a bit more in their article on this -

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/babies-living-junk-food-months-old-study-article-1.2579831

 

I wish I could find the actual research study. So far only the NYDN, the Daily Mail and the Mirror have short articles about it.

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I don't even understand how babies that young can EAT that food. How the fuck does a 5-month-old eat potato chips?! It took my son forever to figure out crackers, and he 1) has a ton of teeth, and 2) is almost 1 year. Babies have trouble learning how to chew things, especially things as crunchy and "shard-containing" as potato chips. That being said, I did recently feed him (Culvers) french fries for the first time, except he only ate like 2 total fries, and he has been bad about solids so I am trying to feed him lots of different stuff.

 

I know a woman who is a pediatric nurse, and the things she feeds her kids are a bit off to me. For example, she gave her daughter Dairy Queen soft-serve at 6 months, and I honestly don't even know what's IN DQ soft serve, but I'm sure it's not natural. So even people who should know better can really make questionable choices for their kids.

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I see kids here all the time who haven't gotten their permanent teeth in yet, and have a mouth full of silver crowns because their teeth are rotten already. Because they're getting bottles full of who knows what and being put to bed with bottles.

And I've seen babies that look like they're 5 or 6 months being given french fries. They just gum them to pieces.

I know a woman who is a pediatric nurse, and the things she feeds her kids are a bit off to me. For example, she gave her daughter Dairy Queen soft-serve at 6 months, and I honestly don't even know what's IN DQ soft serve, but I'm sure it's not natural. So even people who should know better can really make questionable choices for their kids.

Actually, Dairy Queen uses real ice cream. Not some wierd questionable stuff like McDonald's does. Not that it's good for babies, but yeah. Edited by OSM Mom

I see kids here all the time who haven't gotten their permanent teeth in yet, and have a mouth full of silver crowns because their teeth are rotten already. Because they're getting bottles full of who knows what and being put to bed with bottles.

And I've seen babies that look like they're 5 or 6 months being given french fries. They just gum them to pieces.

Actually, Dairy Queen uses real ice cream. Not some wierd questionable stuff like McDonald's does. Not that it's good for babies, but yeah.

 

Thanks for the info re: DQ! Ya learn something new every day. :) Another thought about the bottles with Coke in them, my older brother was invited to a coed baby shower and they had a game where they had to chug beer out of a baby bottle. My brother's conclusion was that carbonated beverages are really hard to drink from baby bottles. It was a nightmare. Again, you wonder about people's judgement.

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Many moons ago, I posted about info from my dietitian who said they expected the new dietary guidelines to be updated with less restrictive salt and fat guidelines, because studies have shown there are not really any bad fats, except trans, and people can handle much more salt then the guidelines suggest. It has apparently been a debate for years every time a new food pyramid is released, which I think is every ten years.

 

I read an article this morning discussing how fat isn't as bad as people think, etc. It doesn't say anything about new guidelines, though. I thought some of you may be interested.

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This is an article on The Biggest Loser, but I'm posting it here too, because it says
"

They are starting to unravel the reasons bariatric surgery allows most people to lose significant amounts of weight when dieting so often fails. And they are looking afresh at medical care for obese people."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

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As far as the availability of cheap crappy food contributing to obesity in these past few decades, it made me think about Italy in the 1980s. I lived there and never saw very overweight people. Some older people were slightly overweight but nothing on par of someone 50-100 pounds overweight which was common in the US. The Italians knew the American tourists because they looked so fat to them. 

 

At the time I could not find any junk food over there at all. It just did not exist. I also liked a Tab (diet cola) but all they had in Italy was this sugar free cola that was for DIABETICS! When I would ask for it they assumed I was a diabetic. No one understood the idea of "diet" soda.  Anyway they did not have the same gigantic selection of processed foods and junk foods for sale in the markets that we had here. There was really very little frozen foods in the freezers of the supermarkets either. The Italians have small refrigerators and would shop every day for fresh food. They ate treats and lots of pasta but portions were normal and treats were also for dessert (and breakfast)

When I came back to the US in the late 1980's I was working for the Italian government and my boss (from Italy) was asking why there so much obesity here. And I was trying to say it was due to the Large Selection of food we had here. I was using the word "choice" Italian when I meant selection and she wasn't understanding me. I was saying "there is so much choice in the stores, there is no choice in Italy". I meant to say (which got lost in translation) that we have a huge selection of processed crap over here that is not even for sale in Italy and that is why we are fat.

Alas, now in Italy morbid obesity is on the rise along with processed foods and junk foods being more widely available. 

Does anyone think that back in our Caveman days that overeating due to stess, anxiety and depression was a thing? 

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(edited)
On 5/2/2016 at 1:14 PM, auntjess said:

This is an article on The Biggest Loser, but I'm posting it here too, because it says
"

They are starting to unravel the reasons bariatric surgery allows most people to lose significant amounts of weight when dieting so often fails. And they are looking afresh at medical care for obese people."

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

Interesting article and it says there (It won't let me cut and paste) that they need to exercise 9 hours a week to maintain their weight. I was exercising intensely (bicycling with racing level groups) for 8 hours a week and barely maintaining my weight loss of 30 pounds. If I go any less than 8 hours per week I gain. I wanted to lose some more weight and found that only by doing 11-12 hours a week am I able to lose a small amount of weight. Once I go back to 8 hours a week, which is over an hour per day of hard aerobic effort, I start to gain. For the average person - or middle aged woman- to lose weight they need to 12 hours a week of hard aerobic effort, which sucks. Who can do that? If I stop completely riding my bike, like the time I went on a vacation for a week, I put on 8 pounds. I mean 8 hours a week of intense exercise is A LOT. So I guess I should be happy I maintained the 30 pound weight loss over 7 years since I started riding and lost the weight. But still if I let up even slightly, I'm doomed. Which is what I thought, but this article confirms that.

I have a lot of friends that do one hour per day= 7 hours a week and cannot lose weight. That is too little at this age and if you have gained and lost repeatedly over the years. You have to do 12 hours a week of hard exercise to lose a little. God help us.

Edited by operalover
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A 2011 article also in the NY Times detailed that you have to practically be superhuman to lose weight and keep it off.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/tara-parker-pope-fat-trap.html

Quote

For years, the advice to the overweight and obese has been that we simply need to eat less and exercise more. While there is truth to this guidance, it fails to take into account that the human body continues to fight against weight loss long after dieting has stopped. This translates into a sobering reality: once we become fat, most of us, despite our best efforts, will probably stay fat.

I am 45 and have spent my entire adult life battling obesity. I know my metabolism is not like a person who has never been obese. The speed with which I can gain weight is breathtaking. I am on the down swing now, I pray for the last time. These articles are sobering but also help me realize what I must do for my long term health. 

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I have PCOS (like Whitney **sigh**) and it IS hard to lose weight but not bloody impossible. I was doing about 5 hours a week of cardio and eating properly and lost 4 dress sizes 3 effin' years. Then I decided to cut down my workouts to 3 hours a week and still didn't eat junk or processed food and I went up almost a whole dress size in that month. And I cried all frigging day when I could not fasten my size 10 jeans. My husband never works out and eats an astonishing amount of crappy food yet is still the same size 32" bottoms as I when I met him 12 years ago. Bitter, much? 

I get where you're coming from Opera Lover & Dahling, and I wish you nothing but love, light and happiness. 

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One unfortunate thing about doing the same or similar exercises is, as the body gets more efficient at it, you burn fewer calories. My husband is kind of a boob about that, he refuses to believe me that he burns fewer calories on the bike than he thinks he does. He is a very experienced triathlete and thinks he burns 1000 calories an hour cycling. Nope. Maybe 500. Because he is a GREAT cyclist. I am not sure about you guys and your cases, but that might be a contributing factor to the volume of training you have to put in to maintain. If you love cycling of course you should do it as much as you enjoy, but I would probably recommend trying different activities every few months, just going through a list of different exercises that you maybe have wanted to try (kickboxing, rock climbing, circuit weights, etc). That might help your body stay out of a more efficient state, by giving it new challenges every so often :)

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I do cycling, horse riding, bloody awful Cardio-Glide, and I have a climber and a Gazelle. Yeah, it's pointless if I don't alternate. I haven't used the Gazelle for a few weeks because I was easily doing over an hour -fast- and hardly breaking a sweat. 
Nobody else in our house works out. It drives me mad when I can't get the kids to do ANYTHING and I can hardly look to the old man for help because he's as bad as they are. He's going to move 25 square bales of hay off a trailer and into the barn this afternoon and I'm just waiting for all the pats on the back he's going to give himself and act like he's healthy AF because it was SUCH HARD WORK! Eff off. What he doesn't know is, I have another 75 bales being delivered tomorrow. Ha ha!

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8 hours ago, ClareWalks said:

One unfortunate thing about doing the same or similar exercises is, as the body gets more efficient at it, you burn fewer calories. My husband is kind of a boob about that, he refuses to believe me that he burns fewer calories on the bike than he thinks he does. He is a very experienced triathlete and thinks he burns 1000 calories an hour cycling. Nope. Maybe 500. Because he is a GREAT cyclist. I am not sure about you guys and your cases, but that might be a contributing factor to the volume of training you have to put in to maintain. If you love cycling of course you should do it as much as you enjoy, but I would probably recommend trying different activities every few months, just going through a list of different exercises that you maybe have wanted to try (kickboxing, rock climbing, circuit weights, etc). That might help your body stay out of a more efficient state, by giving it new challenges every so often :)

Cycling does not burn 1000 calories per hour, no matter how hard or how fast you go or how hard the ride or how good you are, sorry to your hubby. It IS no more 400-500 calories per hour for the really good cyclists. Racing a criterium for an hour, with your HR at a 180 average for that hour might burn 600 calories but no where near 1000. People who ride slow burn much less than that. I also do inline skating and that burns 600 per hour --if you really go hard- it's much hardier than cycling because you are not "sitting in a chair" Lol. My Sat and sun ride are 50 miles and take about 2 1/2 hours (ten minutes on either side of that is about usual 2:10 to 2:40 depending on who is there/weather etc)  and I think I burn about 1000-1200 for the whole thing. But then I'm starving ALL day and all day Monday. Even though I burned 1000 calories riding 50 miles at about 20mph, I have to make sure not to eat more than 2000 calories those days. Or I gain! I rode 9200 miles last year which is a lot and although I have not gained back the 30 pounds I lost in 2009, it's a constant struggle and if I don't ride that much it creeps up on me. This winter I had the flu for 3 weeks and just rode easy indoors and gained about 7 pounds!

You are right I probably need to switch it up a bit. My shin muscles kill me though for 5 days if I try to run or even walk more than 1/4 mile which is from an imbalance in the calf muscles. It's excruciating and sore for 5 full days. I just hiked .4 mile up to see a waterfall and I was in agony for nearly a week, lol. 

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On 5/6/2016 at 5:06 PM, operalover said:

Cycling does not burn 1000 calories per hour, no matter how hard or how fast you go or how hard the ride or how good you are, sorry to your hubby. It IS no more 400-500 calories per hour for the really good cyclists. Racing a criterium for an hour, with your HR at a 180 average for that hour might burn 600 calories but no where near 1000. People who ride slow burn much less than that. I also do inline skating and that burns 600 per hour --if you really go hard- it's much hardier than cycling because you are not "sitting in a chair" Lol. My Sat and sun ride are 50 miles and take about 2 1/2 hours (ten minutes on either side of that is about usual 2:10 to 2:40 depending on who is there/weather etc)  and I think I burn about 1000-1200 for the whole thing. But then I'm starving ALL day and all day Monday. Even though I burned 1000 calories riding 50 miles at about 20mph, I have to make sure not to eat more than 2000 calories those days. Or I gain! I rode 9200 miles last year which is a lot and although I have not gained back the 30 pounds I lost in 2009, it's a constant struggle and if I don't ride that much it creeps up on me. This winter I had the flu for 3 weeks and just rode easy indoors and gained about 7 pounds!

You are right I probably need to switch it up a bit. My shin muscles kill me though for 5 days if I try to run or even walk more than 1/4 mile which is from an imbalance in the calf muscles. It's excruciating and sore for 5 full days. I just hiked .4 mile up to see a waterfall and I was in agony for nearly a week, lol. 

Agree with your first paragraph, it is hard to burn huge calories cycling because it is not a weight-bearing exercise. My husband tends to overestimate his calorie burn, possibly because he used to weigh 320 lb, then he got into triathlons and is now in the 180 range. I think he will always see himself as a fat guy, even though he has 7% body fat (I've measured it). He has one small bit of loose skin on his stomach and he is very self-conscious about it. It sucks to lose a bunch of weight and still have the psychology of being fatter, plus loose skin. Enough about that, though, I am impressed with your workouts! Not sure how your diet or hydration are if you take days off but I find that if I take a day off from working out I need to be really on point or I gain a lot of water weight. I took a long weekend vacation once and gained 3-4 lb even though I was REALLY trying to eat well and small portions. Probably just another issue of getting older ;)

Re: obese vegans, I am not too surprised by that. Although I don't know any obese vegans (I don't know many vegans, period, so that's just a coincidence), I have known obese vegetarians, because they perhaps tend to eat a lot of grains and processed foods. Then I know another girl who gave up dairy (her breastfeeding baby was allergic) and she dropped weight like a rock. Holy crap. She ate tons of crap food, like Oreos, that were dairy-free, and is mad skinny. Go figure :-P

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I watched 900-Pound Man: Race Against Time, and when I searched, I saw a few mentions in some of these threads, so I made a topic for it in one-offs.
http://forums.previously.tv/topic/47779-900-pound-man-the-race-against-time/
Hope some of you will want to talk.
Also, I included a link to the youtube, which I think is the who documentary.

Remember how we said the rich do not become obese? Well, I just watched "Obesity Epidemic -Qatar and that theory was shot to pieces. Qatar has the richest people in the world. Gastric bypass and lap band operations are rampant and performed on kids as young as 12. People are dying from diabetes. It is so sad.

2 hours ago, auntjess said:

Did you ever see Fiddler on the Roof?
In "If I were a Rich Man," Tevye sings

"I'd see my wife, my Golde, looking like a rich man's wife

With a proper double-chin.

Supervising meals to her heart's delight."
I think it was the sign that you could afford enough food.

I believe you are right.

This show both fascinates me and makes me sad. I suffer from gastroparesis (stomach paralysis) and can barely eat anything. I'm on TPN and can't gain weight to save my life. I'd give anything to be a normal weight and watching these people just shovel in food and not even think about it is infuriating. I'm lucky if I can eat one real meal a day (and even those are relatively small) and these people are eating more than I do in a week in just one sitting.

Edited by fliptopbox
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I guess this counts as small talk it's show related but not specifically. I wonder if Dr. Now ever has the urge to sing along with Queen's "Fat Bottom Girls" when he's alone in his car? "Fat buddom gherls you make theh rockin' whurld go round.." because you know if it wasn't for his patients he wouldn't be rocking that gold-plated stethoscope! I asked my fiancée what he'd do if I gave him a blingtastic stethoscope as a gift when he finishes his residency later this year and he said he'd sell it and put the money towards his massive student loan debt lol

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 I had to eat 2oz of protein in the form of crow yesterday when I took my 10yr old maltipoo for his yearly checkup and the vet informed me that he is too overweight. His nickname is Tubby Tubby Tutu but I didn't think he was an unhealthy weight. I immediately started spouting off excuses just like everyone on the show, "He only eats twice a day, he may get like one maybe two bites of what we're eating, small bites though, he eats a really good dog food, I guess I've slacked a little on his exercise but I've been busy blah blah blah.." I'm enabling my dog lol

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On WE tonight, Mama June, Honey BooBoo's mother, has weight loss surgery, and lifestyle change (or so we're told.)
First episode is 10PM ET.

Mama June: From Not to Hot

Thin-Tervention

Season 1, Episode 1

Mama June is blind sided by Sugar Bear's shocking engagement; June considers major surgery.

That "Season 1" sounds ominous, like a threat.

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51 minutes ago, auntjess said:

On WE tonight, Mama June, Honey BooBoo's mother, has weight loss surgery, and lifestyle change (or so we're told.)
First episode is 10PM ET.

Mama June: From Not to Hot

Thin-Tervention

Season 1, Episode 1

Mama June is blind sided by Sugar Bear's shocking engagement; June considers major surgery.

That "Season 1" sounds ominous, like a threat.

Oh damn. Am I gonna watch this trainwreck? My better self says no. 

Hell. I'm setting the DVR. My better self is such a boring little twit.

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