Author's
Commentary on Vain Wish
Americans
are getting fatter. Currently,
64 percent of Americans are overweight, as opposed to 47 percent 25
years ago. People are desperate to shed the fat, not only for cosmetic
reasons, but also to stave off heart disease and other ailments, such as
diabetes. Every year these people turn to the diet industry, in various
forms, to help them lose weight. The
diet industry takes in over $30 billion dollars yearly.
According to existing medical research, fewer than 5% of all
dieters succeed in losing a significant amount of weight and maintaining
that weight loss over a five year period.
90 percent of all dieters regain all or some of the weight
originally lost and at least one-third gain more.
Then the whole cycle starts again. Someone
comes out with the next ‘miracle’ pill and we get suckered in, spend
some more money, only to be disappointed again.
The stigma on
fat people is devastating. The diet
industry’s advertising and marketing strategy is based on the creation and
perpetuation of fear, biases and stereotypes.
Fat people are portrayed as unhealthy, unattractive, asexual,
weak-willed, lazy, and gluttonous. The
inability to be thin is blamed on a lack of willpower and moral values.
Fat people are taught to feel guilty and blame themselves for the
failures of weight-loss programs, and to accept rejection, mistreatment, and
discrimination regarding their weight. I
know … I was once one of them. I
took every pill, fell for every new product that came along, only to fail again
and again. My original
idea for Vain Wish was the fat-girl-gets-thin theme, dealing with society and
its treatment of fat people. I was
tired of the stupid movies that attempted this idea but fell short by still
portraying the fat person as someone who sits around and eats ice cream by the
gallon; someone to be vilified. As
someone who once weighed almost 300 lbs, I can tell you that is not the
situation in most cases. I ate
healthy, so I thought, following mainstream advice by eating as fat-free as
possible, and exercised by walking as much as weather allowed. I was a few chapters into the book when I got diagnosed with
type II Diabetes. I was stunned.
I worked in a hospital, and I knew what Diabetes does to a person.
I didn’t want to die young. I
didn’t want to have my feet or legs amputated, and I didn’t want to go
blind. I believe this was a kick in
the pants from God. I had no
choice. I had to do something about it. The book took
low priority while I started reading. I
read a lot. What I discovered was
shocking. I found out the diet
industry has been lying to us. It
turns out the whole way I had been eating is what not only put the weight on in
the first place, but was keeping it on. I
discovered the food pyramid was completely backwards. It’s the carbs we eat, especially sugar, that make us fat.
Sugar is poison. The soft drink industry alone has caused much of the weight
gain with its high sugar content. The
average American drinks an estimated 56 gallons of soft drinks each year.
One can of soda has about 10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories, 30 to 55
mg of caffeine, and is loaded with artificial food colors and sulphites. Yet,
we have all been told to cut out the fat, which means fat-free soft drinks are
perfectly OK. This is just one
reason Americans have gotten so fat. The
more I read, the angrier I got. I finally
asked myself this question: With over $30 billion yearly at stake, does the diet
industry really want to find a cure for obesity? Of course not, in fact quite the opposite. It is in their
interest to keep us fat. My doctor had
put me on a glucose-lowering drug for my diabetes, which was only mildly
effective. I didn’t want to be on
a drug. When I was first diagnosed,
my blood sugar was 380. I was
managing to keep it around 250 with the drug, which was still too high.
I knew I had to get the weight off.
I went on a sugar free, grain free, no carb diet.
Within 2 months I quit taking any drug, and my sugar never got above 120,
still too high but much better. I
worked harder, exercising with weights and hiking every night after work.
My blood sugar kept plummeting. I
became the poster child for low carb diets; I lost 70 Lbs the first 8 months by
eating lots of fat and protein with no bread, potatoes, pasta, fruit, or
anything made with wheat. I kept
going, reading as much as I could about insulin resistance and the epidemic of
obesity that has gripped this country. I went from 298 to 194, and then came to
a screeching halt. I am now a size
14, not tiny, but for 5’9” a healthy weight and size.
I continue to stay off sugar and grains, and exercise religiously.
I have kept the weight off for 2 years as of this writing.
My blood sugar rarely gets over 100. My daughter,
Melanie, on the other hand, has the opposite problem-she has low blood sugar.
She was, and still is, obese. She
tried the diet along with me, lost 72 pounds, and slowly gained it all back,
while still on the diet. Her body,
like the majority of obese people, has rebelled and is working against her to
maintain her weight--at the risk of her health.
Flesh is dumb. She is now so
desperate that she is looking into gastroplasty in order to have a normal life. (See Mélanie's Story for her
progress.) Doctors and society
still treat her like a non-human. Because
of her experiences I gained another viewpoint. I finally got
back to writing the book. The idea came
to me to make Vain Wish a commentary on how fat people are doomed, both by
ignorant doctors and the food industry in general.
I deleted almost the whole thing and started over. As the book
progressed, I got the brainstorm to make evil the factor in my character’s
inability to lose weight. In this
case, demons. I believe in God, and
therefore also have to believe in Satan and his fallen angels, demons. I decided
to have my character have an actual relationship with a demon named Dave, who
has chosen to look like Kevin Bacon. (My
apologies to Kevin. I hope he has a
sense of humor.) Having a demon
as a main character gave me freedom to express things from another perspective.
In my ‘Conversation with Dave,’ he explains that all the ills of the world
are caused by demons who simply take a person’s weakness and helps it along.
Drug addition, alcoholism, violence tendencies; all are fed and nurtured
by demons, who walk among us without our knowledge.
In my character Jainey’s case, Dave has been with her since she was a
small girl. She had a
predetermination to be fat, and he tweaked things to make her fail.
No matter what she tried, it would work for a little while and then she
would weaken and gain it all back again. Sound
familiar? As the book
progressed, I realized I had to have an opposite force to counteract the demons.
I had to have a reason that the wish was granted.
The idea of a game developed, between the two realms, demonic and
angelic. Jainey needed an angel to
help guide her and help in the fight against the demons.
I thought of using a random angel, and then decided, no, this was too
important for just any angel, he had to be someone special. I won’t spoil the story by telling you who he is. When the angel
appeared, the book soon took on a complete second side, a spiritual side that
seemed to write itself. The message
became one quite different from the original; one of faith in the Holy Spirit
and the knowledge that no matter what your size, God loves you and has a plan
for you. I truly believe that his
plan for me was to write this book. If
you receive any insight, gain encouragement, learn something, laugh a bit, or
even cry, then I was successful.
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