My Organs Just Look Uncomfortable and Are My Meds Keeping Me Fat???

A long time ago I saw the image below in National Geographic.  It is an MRI of an obese person compared with the MRI of a healthy weight person (notice no thigh gap on the healthy weight person!).  The thing that shook me about this picture was how uncomfortable the internal organs look in the obese body.  They are all smashed together and suffocating.  And the heart is enlarged, which is not a good sign (usually means untreated high blood pressure).

Often people who have suffered abuse or trauma disassociate from their bodies.  They come to identify themselves as what's in their head and their sense of self remains completely separate from the body.  I have had this problem.  This image though, reminds me that even though obesity has worked for me on an emotional level it is not working for me on a physical level.  This picture helps to bring me back into connection with my body and gives me the desire to let my organs stretch out a little bit and get comfortable.  The body is an evolutionary machine and there is plenty of room for everything meant to be there, unless you fill up that room with baggage.

Some people have trouble losing weight even when they try their hardest.  Necessary medications taken for health problems can keep the pounds on - but that doesn't mean changes aren't happening to your body.  Unseen proof that your health is changing for the better with proper nutrition and exercise include lowered blood pressure, stabilized blood sugar leading to decreased risk or relief from Type II diabetes, better cholesterol, better liver enzyme levels, and so on.

I myself have to take several medications for my depression which are known to be associated with weight gain and decreased ability to lose weight - Remeron and Effexor.  First I tried switching medications, but my doctor could not find anything as effective as those two.  So now I'm facing working for weight loss minus the immediate satisfaction of seeing intense and fast results - like a slimming waist line or pounds dropping on the scale.  Before this has discouraged me but this time I'm committed.  I've been assured that for some people it takes about 6 months to start seeing the pounds melt away, but it does start to happen....eventually. Until then, regular doctor visits will show me how my body is changing without me being able to see it.  Not as satisfying, but still better than nothing.

And my therapist points out something profound.  Statistically, according to a recent article entitled "Is Obesity Incurable?", only 2 out of 1000 people are able to keep the weight off.  You are 5x as likely to survive being shot in the head...  So if you "diet" to achieve a "result" what keeps you going when there's no longer any pounds to be lost?  If your sole motivation has been to watch the lbs decrease as you go along, what motivation do you have to keep up the hard work when you no longer are losing any weight?  HEALTH, that's what.  It's not about having a model body or fitting into a bikini in time for that trip to Mexico - it's about keeping your body going for as long as it can.

So while I admit I want to look better (though the concept of that bothers me), I want to feel better, be better, and be healthy too.