Motivational

It's getting more and more expensive to be overweight in America.

Alvin Pratt thought he was supporting his wife, Donna, in her effort to lose 75 pounds by "gently" calling it to her attention every time she exceeded her daily food goals or otherwise fell short of the objectives she had established for herself. He was sure he was helping by pointing out areas of improvement.

To the surprise of few who have found themselves in similar situations, Donna's opinion of her husband's "assistance" was far from glowing - in fact, she called it harassment.

After integrating weight loss surgery with psychological and lifestyle based interventions, Linda is now a weight loss super star. She had her first gastric by-pass surgery in 1997 at her peak weight of 409. In two years she lost 140 pounds but then began to relapse and re-gained 40. In 2000 she had a revision surgery and began losing more weight. But life didn’t cooperate and she relapsed again during a period of intense work and family stress. In August of 2006, at 325 and still gaining, she enrolled in a psychologically oriented residential weight control program.