Podcast Flashback! My Weight Loss Surgery Podcast Debut

Waaaaaay back now in September 2014, I was invited by Reeger Cortel, FNP to be a guest on her Weight Loss Surgery Podcast. That discussion about my own story with obesity became her 36th Episode. Since then I’ve gone on to co-host an episode or two with her as well as doing some solo-shots to give her a bit of a break. And while most of those have been posted here for awhile, I realized I never actually posted my original appearance. So.. here we are.

The episode, 036 Rob Portinga: The Journey from Fat Dude to Positively-Healthy Dude, we covered quite a bit… in fact here’s the list of things we talked about that she ended up posting with the podcast…

• Rob’s childhood as “One of the bigger kids.”
• His weight gain trajectory as a teenager and young adult.
• Rob’s #GreatQuote that sums up yo-yo dieting: “I would lose weight, but the weight would always come back, and it would always come back with friends.”
• Pre-surgery unhealthy weight loss as the result of situational depression.
• The influence of an aunt who had RYGB.
• Getting over the “guy attitude” and asking for help.
• His struggles with diseases associated with obesity before he had surgery.
• The pre-surgery medical weight loss process.
• What Full feels like now compared to before surgery.
• #GreatQuote: After bariatric surgery “I was able to shop in my closet.”
• The experience of shopping for clothing and when it hit him how much weight he had lost.
• BMI: What it measures and what it does NOT measure.
• The importance of focusing on all of the Positives in your life, not the negatives.
• What bariatric surgery does for him and what it does not do for him (Hint: it does not control what he decides to put in his mouth).
• The 80-20 rule.
• Physical activity: Building up and getting stronger.
• Physical health and body image.
• The accountability that comes with openness and honesty.
• Weight Loss Surgery is not just about the weight! Rob, prefers to use the term bariatric surgery (SIDE NOTE from Reeger: Even though this podcast is called “Weight Loss Surgery Podcast” I totally agree with Rob, so much so that I am considering re-naming the podcast to something else. Any suggestions?)
• Weight Bias, insensitivity, and discrimination.
• Bariatric surgery has a role for the person with obesity as preventive (prophylactic) treatment of future diseases and early death.
• Why does society applaud Angelena Jolie for having prophylactic mastectomy (she had a strong family history of breast cancer but did not actually have breast cancer) but criticize someone with morbid obesity who decides to have surgery as part of their medical care to prevent worsening disease, co-morbid diseases, and possibly early death?
• Game of Thrones is a story imbued with weight bias and discrimination.
• Why Rob started blogging.
• Rob’s volunteerism with the Obesity Action Coalition.