Obesity Wake-up Call: Chattanooga Residents Get The Wake-up Call

Lucretia ParkerYou wouldn't know it to look at her, but about a year ago Lucretia Parker weighed 100-pounds heavier.  "My blood sugars were out of wack, my triglycerides were very high, so it was leading to a very high risk problem for my body."

Doctors diagnosed Parker with diabetes, blood pressure, and obesity... sending her a wake-up call.  Fearing she wouldn't be around to watch her two sons grow up, she sought help.  Parker says "you have to change everything your lifestyle, your eating habits, your exercise habits, everything, you have to have a change of mind and a way of thinking about your life."

Parker underwent a year-long Weight Management Program supervised by Memorial Hospital.

Now, she starts most days with exercise and altered her family's eating habits to reduce everyone's intake of fat and sugar.  "With me eating and out of shape and the things going on in my life, how could I tell them hey you need to eat right and exercise if I didn't do it, you have to set a positive message," says Parker.

Not everyone can do it through diet and exercise alone.  Remember Dr. Robert Sass, the gastrointenstinal surgeon from an earlier story?

Dr. Robert Sass"On December 29th, 2005 I got my life back," says Dr. Sass.  That's the date he acted on his obesity wake-up call.  "I can remember looking into the mirror one day and saying you know, you are your patients and you need to do something about it."

Dr. Sass had grown tired of feeling lousy and being hungry all the time, and decided to undergo an operation he'd performed on several patients... gastric bypass.  "I did go to the gym and used the elliptical and treadmill and every heavy person is good with weights so I was able to power that, but none of it was really helping me."

Dr. Sass weighed 260-pounds at the time of surgery.  Nearly 10-months later, he'd lost 100-pounds.  He didn't get to this point just from surgery.  Dr. Sass says the same rules about diet and exercise apply... Only now, they work.  "I trade that off for prescriptions for blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and I think most people out there would be more than happy to do that."

Dr. Sass, who struggled with weight since he was a teenager, wishes others would come to understand the limitations they put on themselves by being obese.  "I'm able to move on with my life in a way that I could have never imagined possible."

UTC will play host to a summit on this issue in April.  Organizers hope to develop a new set of active living strategies for Chattanooga-area residents.