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[Note from Dr. Rothstein]: The writer of this OJW journal of experiences, who shall henceforth be referred to as Ann Onn (AO), hales from a place very distant from Brooklyn, NY. AO was referred to me at the get-go, and might well have come to Brooklyn for the OJW were it not for a fortunate turn of fate. I had recently made the acquaintance of an orthodontist who had introduced a unique genre of braces in to her practice called SmartClip (a I had just done). She permitted me to spend two days in her office to see how she used them. We got to sharing experiences during the course of which I told her about my work with "orthodontic jaw wiring" and my experiences developing the protocol for providing this controversial service since 1988. She listened to me politely, nodding her head politely with a few uh-uhs from time-to-time to acknowledge listening to this quirky doctor from Brooklyn.
When AO asked me if there was an OJW provider closer than Brooklyn, a thought balloon floated over my head that spoke in words I understood: "Ask my new doctor friend if she would like to have her first OJW patient" What a pleasant surprise when the doctor accepted, not reluctantly, to provide OJW for AO.
What follows is the journal of AO's odyssey through the domain of OJW. My grateful thanks to the doctor and to AO who writes with a mighty pen and carefully chosen words.
AO begins: "My journal follows.
If posted, it should preserve my anonymity.
I reserve the right to request it being removed from websites, but until then, you may post or distribute as you wish, AS LONG AS MY IDENTITY IS NOT MENTIONED IN ANY FORM. As I have some... (text that would identify AO) ...this is a significant point.
I am generally not a politically correct person, and many Americans consider views like mine deranged or heartless. I made no effort to edit this out, and have no desire to.
If you want to cut something out before posting, fine, but check with me first. I have no ego about such things, but want to make sure my opinions are not misrepresented.
My main goal in doing this is that it may help others who might not otherwise find the discipline, to lose weight, and lead better lives. Great sentence there.
If you do not want to receive these anymore, let me know. If you think it would not be useful, let me know, I will cease writing it.
Don’t worry about my feelings, I’m used to criticism about writing, but I am busy enough that if you think this serves no purpose, I have better things I could be doing.
Day 1
Sat 29 Sep 2007
This will be a journal of my Orthodontic Jaw Wiring experience. I am choosing to remain anonymous. This journal will not pull any punches, but will rather attempt to give an unfiltered view of all my trials and tribulations.
I am going to freely use tense slurs, slang, etc. I do not have time to proof extensively, etc. Pardon any typos.
I had hoped to begin the journal a few days before being wired, but this was not possible. I am now leaving to get my jaw wired shut.
Day 2
Sun 30 Sep 2007
Why are you not allowed to eat jelly donuts?
Because I’m overweight, sir?
Because you are a disgusting fatbody, Private Pyle.
320 lbs.
320 lbs!
How in the hell did this happen?
I know the answer, but still. . .
320 lbs!
320 freakin lbs!!!
I’m a whale with legs!!!!
Enough abusing the exclamation marks. I was never athletic in terms of coordination, but until my mid-20s I was always in ridiculous shape. Bicycling 1-200 miles a week, swimming several days a week, lifting regularly, 9-11% bodyfat. I would eat fast food occasionally, but generally it disgusted me if eaten with any regularity. Meats and vegetables were the staple of my college diet—chicken, fish, steaks, salads, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans. . .Soda and beer were never an issue—I drank them occasionally, but easily burned off the calories.
Then the car accident. I hurt my neck and back. Not paralyzed or anything, but afterwards biking and swimming became ordeals rather than joys, struggles against pain. My health was never the same after the accident.
I’ve realized that everyone has a “car accident”--some adversity that makes things less than easy. For some it might be a busy work schedule, kids, limited finances. . .the bottom line is that the strong find a way to overcome these adversities, the weak whine and make excuses about them.
For years now, I have been weak. I have been part of the sniveling, coddled, contemptible American society that has it easier than any other people in world history, but acts like they have it hard. Billions of people starving around the world, and my problem is that I can’t stop filling my face! Our pets have better healthcare than billions of humans. While 3rd worlders die by the millions for lack of nickel vaccines, we have lipo, tummy tucks, stomach staplings.
To me, the stomach stapling is a metaphor for everything wrong with America. I’d love to go to Rwanda or Ethiopia, set up surgery, let a couple hundred starving tribesman observe, and watch their eyes bulge with wonder as the purpose of operation was explained.
Anyhoo. I’d always viewed stomach stapling with a kind of freakshow disgust, a subversion of that Darwinism which should be allowed to run its course. Yet here I am having my jaw wired shut. Radical, a far cry from stomach stapling, but it is still kind of pitiful that it came to this.
I hate it when people tell me I’m not THAT fat. There is moral relativism, and obesity relativism. Don’t worry about being fit, or adhering to objective goals for fitness and body fat. Rather, slouch towards that subjective Gomorrah where you’re not THAT fat as long as a herd of people are fatter. I have only one thing to say in defense of myself: I never slid down this treacherous slope. I never, for one second, kidded myself that it is acceptable to be as fat as more than half of America is, as fat as I am.
These views may seem radical, non-pc. . .pick your criticism. Orcas can sit around sniveling about how views like these are cruel, it is society’s fault, etc.
Me? I remember what it is like to run a 6 minute mile, to bike a century, to take my shirt off at the beach without embarrassment.
I’m going to return to some semblance of that form. Nothing less is acceptable, or will be accepted.
The first step on this journey is admitting what you are:
I am a disgusting fat body.
If you don’t admit what you are, you never change what you are.
I am a disgusting fat body.
I finally realized that moderate solutions, eating less, exercising more, weren’t working for me, for reasons I will enunciate later.
Pitiful or not, having my jaw wired shut is the optimum solution for me. It is radical, but not too radical. Without permanently or unhealthily altering my body the way absurdities like stomach stapling and liposuction do, it will force me to radically reduce eating, break my dependency on junk food, and lose a large initial amount of weight quickly so that I am encouraged and can become more active.
For now, my starting weight AND body fat. This is very important. Simply saying you want to lose 100 pounds is meaningless because it does not qualify whether you are losing muscle or fat. More on this later also, but my starting stats:
Height: 6 foot 3.75 inches
Body type: slender boned
Weight: 317 lbs.
Body Fat: 35%
Hydration: 49%
Body Fat Goal: 9%
Pounds of Fat to Lose: 82.42
Estimated Final Weight: 234.58
35% - 9% = 26%
26% of 317 = 83 lbs
83 lbs of FAT to lose!!!!!
317 – 83 = 234
It is extremely important to make sure you are not cannibalizing yourself by burning muscle. Measuring your body fat percentage as you go is a crude but effective way to do this. If you lose a lot of weight, but your body fat does not drop, you are burning muscle rather than fat, which is extremely unhealthy.
I bought a scale at Walmart that uses electrical conductivity to estimate hydration and body fat. It was less than $40, and I would recommend it. It is not exceptionally accurate, and appears to err more the fatter you are, especially if you are dehydrated, but you need some method to quantify your progress.
Note here that my hydration level is extremely low. I drink water, but this is the inevitable result of a greasy, salt-heavy fast food diet. I would expect this hydration level to increase almost 10% within 2 weeks. Being this dehydrated is extremely unhealthy. Extremely.
This body fat percentage the scale registered is probably low because of my dehydration (conductivity is a function of the amount of water present, obviously). I will be tracking hydration and explaining this more later. In my youth, my weight varied between 190 and 215 pounds depending on whether I was lifting a lot or doing endurance sports like triathlons. My body fat stayed between 9-11%, but my weight fluctuated with muscle gain. On a 6’4” frame, 25 lbs of variation isn’t as much as it sounds. I have almost certainly lost muscle since the accident, as I have rarely worked out. Thus my target weight, based on experience, is lower than the scale indicates. I would expect that as I hydrate and lose some weight, the scale will become more accurate and the target weight will reflect this fact, dropping to the 200-210 range.
That is all for now.
This entry was long.
I would expect the first week’s entries will be long as I catch up, then they will shorten drastically.
Been wired for about 36 hours. Overall, I’m RAVENOUS, but I feel good. Food in my stomach and intestines is still providing energy. I have still been pooping regularly. I have a desire to eat that is purely psychological.
Since being wired 36 hours ago I had some tiny slivers of raw tuna dipped in soy/wasabi, a spoonful of ice cream my girlfriend was eating, and a glass of cantaloupe juice. I will be ingesting more than this beginning tomorrow, almost entirely in the form of freshly-juiced, organic fruit and vegetable juices, and raw tuna. This nutritional program will have many beneficial effects besides weight loss—including aggressive detoxification and preservation of skin elasticity as weight is lost.
This seemed really radical as I thought about it on the drive to the orthodontist, and I questioned if I was doing the right thing. These doubts are gone. This was the right choice.
But a long road lies ahead.
This will be far from easy.