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This Woman Chose Gastric Bypass and Lost 178 Lbs.: ‘I Wanted to Be Healthy but I Needed Help’

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“I remember being in the fourth grade and having to get a note from my pediatrician granting me permission to start Weight Watchers,” she said.

Kathleen Golding’s weight loss struggle started when she was very young.

“I remember being in the fourth grade and having to get a note from my pediatrician granting me permission to start Weight Watchers,” Golding, now 26, tells PEOPLE.

At 21, she found herself wrestling with depression and anxiety turned to food as a “coping mechanism.” By her 22nd birthday she had gained 100 lbs.

“I was stuck in a constant cycle of daily binging,” says the New Bern, North Carolina resident, whose highest weight was 331 lbs. “I was eating fast food for every meal and enormous quantities each time.”

By August 2015, she was ready to start the process of getting gastric bypass surgery. “The morning [I decided to do it] I turned down an offer from friends to go to an amusement park because I knew couldn’t fit in the ride seats, and the following Monday I had a doctor’s appointment scheduled to discuss diabetes medications,” she recalls.

Golding had also been laughed at by strangers earlier that day. “They had pointed to my legs and I knew why — I had stopped shaving my legs because it was difficult to reach my calves, and that was funny to them.”

In preparation for the surgery, which she underwent in June 2016, Golding lost 20 lbs. Afterwards, the weight quickly started to “melt off,” she says. “I felt this incredible sense of confidence that I had totally forgotten about. Even after losing only 30 lbs., I felt amazing, both about my appearance and the way my body was able to move.”

Since losing a total of 178 lbs., Golding maintains a weight of 150 to 155 lbs. — and remains proud of her decision to seek medical help. “For some reason, weight loss surgery is seen as ‘cheating’ or being weak, but for me, I found strength in being able to say ‘I can’t do this on my own. I want to be healthy, but I need help.’ ”

She continued:  “For a long time, I felt completely hopeless. I felt trapped in my body, and no matter what I did to try and lose the weight, I failed. I went into this surgery with the mentality that this would work for me, and I looked at it as me finally taking back control of my life.”

Now the fast-food-free Golding — who recently got married — says she “loves salads and colorful dishes.” She also has been “hitting the gym hard.”

Another source of strength comes from social media. Golding, a photographer and operations manager, has been candid about sharing her story through photos and videos.

“Between Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, I probably receive about 25 to 50 messages a day from random strangers struggling with their weight and looking for diet and fitness tips, or from people who have been on the fence about bariatric surgery,” says Golding. “I’ve inspired them to take the next steps and move forward with the surgery.”

As for how she’s feeling these days, Golding says she is finally at peace with her body. “I have some loose skin and it definitely has its imperfections, but I worked hard for this body,” she says. “I spent so much time hating it but I’ve realized that this is the only body I’ve got and I’m going to take care of it.”

Lemon-Ricotta Pancakes

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How to Make It

Step 1

Preheat oven to 200ºF. Whisk together coconut flour, arrowroot, lemon zest, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Process eggs, ricotta, milk, maple syrup, and lemon juice in a blender until smooth, about 15 seconds.

Step 2

Add ricotta mixture and chia seeds to flour mixture, and stir until well blended.

Step 3

Heat a griddle or large skillet over medium. Brush with butter, and drop batter by scant 1/4 cupfuls, spreading to form 3-inch pancakes. Cook until bubbles form and pop and undersides are golden, 2 to 3 minutes. Carefully flip and cook until golden on both sides and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes more. Keep warm in oven while cooking remaining pancakes.

Step 4

Make Ahead: Let pancakes cool completely; wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate or freeze. Reheat in a skillet or toaster oven.

News24.com | Zuma to be recalled after refusing to resign, sources say

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Cape Town – The ANC national executive committee (NEC) has decided to recall President Jacob Zuma at its marathon meeting in Irene on Monday.

This brings to an end the stand-off between ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa and Zuma.

The writing seemed on the wall for Zuma on Sunday, when Ramaphosa announced, in his address at the launch of the ANC’s Nelson Mandela centenary celebration in Cape Town, that the matter would be resolved at Monday’s NEC meeting.

“As the leadership of the African National Congress, we are currently engaged in discussions around the transition to a new administration and specifically to resolve the issues of the position of the President of the Republic,” he said.

“The successful resolution of this matter has significant consequences for the country and for the African National Congress.”

Ramaphosa didn’t provide any detail on the discussions he had with Zuma. However, he said it was important that these discussions were managed with “care and purpose”.

“The NEC will be meeting tomorrow [Monday] to discuss this very matter and because our people want this matter to be finalised, the NEC will be doing precisely that.

Ramaphosa postponed an ANC NEC meeting last Wednesday that would have decided Zuma’s fate after the president told the top six that he would not resign. Instead, Ramaphosa continued talks with Zuma, who apparently had a set of conditions for his resignation.

On Thursday, Ramaphosa reportedly told the ANC caucus that immunity for Zuma was not on the table.

Last week, Parliament’s presiding officers, National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete and National Council of Provinces chairperson Thandi Modise announced the unprecedented decision to postpone the State of the Nation Address, which was scheduled for last Thursday. There had been mounting pressure on Zuma not to deliver the annual address to both houses of Parliament.

The NEC is, according to the ANC’s constitution, mandated to remove its public office bearers. 

On Sunday morning, News24 reported that cautious NEC members want the party’s highest decision-making body, between conferences, to also give the Parliamentary caucus a mandate to support a motion of no confidence against Zuma, in case he defies the NEC decision to recall him.

Follow our live update here

More to follow. 

News24.com | BREAKING: ANC NEC resolves to recall Zuma

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Parliament statement on EFF request for rescheduling of motion of no confidence

Parliament, Monday 12 February 2018 – Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli, on behalf of Speaker Ms Baleka Mbete, has responded to the request from the Leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Mr Julius Malema to reschedule the EFF’s motion of no confidence in the President to 13 February.

In the letter to Mr Malema and the attorneys of the EFF, Ms Mbete said she was currently consulting on the request to reschedule the motion and would revert after this.

The Rules of the National Assembly entailed consultation with relevant structures, including the Chief Whip of the Majority Party and the Leader of Government Business.

Ms Mbete originally scheduled the motion for 22 February.

This was after consulting with the Chief Whip of the Majority Party and the Leader of Government Business and obtaining confirmation for the 22 February scheduling from the National Assembly Programme Committee.

In her letter today, Ms Mbete said she was currently consulting on the request and would revert to Mr Malema.Reports that the Speaker had rejected the EFF’s request to schedule the Motion of No Confidence on 13 February are, therefore, false.

eNCA | ANC NEC meeting ends, no word on outcome

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JOHANNESBURG – ANC NEC meeting comes to an end in the early hours of Tuesday morning, 13 hours after it began. 

The is still no word on what was decided in the meeting.

Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa had left St George Hotel in Irene, Pretoria at about 10.30pm, to meet with President Jacob

Zuma.

The other members of the ANC national executive committee (NEC) remained at the venue after he left.

Ramaphosa arrived back at the hotel at just before midnight on Monday.

The NEC meeting began at 2pm and there has been no update on its discussion of Zuma’s future as president.

Earlier on Monday, all the opposition parties in Parliament called for the vote of no-confidence in Zuma to be moved forward to Tuesday and for Parliament to be dissolved.

EFF leader Julius Malema threatened to go to court if National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete doesn’t respond by 10am on Tuesday to the call to bring the motion of no confidence forward.

The motion is scheduled to be tabled on 22 February.

The postponement of the State of the Nation Address last week sent the country into a tail-spin, which was followed by talks of an exit plan for Zuma.

An NEC meeting that was scheduled for Wednesday last week was called off by Ramaphosa, who said his talks with Zuma had been constructive and laid the basis for a speedy resolution to the leadership question.

On Saturday, the ANC’s top six officials met without Zuma, but there was no media briefing afterwards.

eNCA

eNCA | UPDATE: Ramaphosa arrives back at NEC meeting

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JOHANNESBURG – Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa has arrived back at St George Hotel in Irene, Pretoria just before midnight on Monday.

The other members of the ANC national executive committee (NEC) remained at the venue after he left at about 10.30pm, following a marathon meeting of the executive.

The NEC meeting began at 2pm and there has been no update on its discussion of Zuma’s future as president.

Earlier on Monday, all the opposition parties in Parliament called for the vote of no-confidence in Zuma to be moved forward to Tuesday and for Parliament to be dissolved.

EFF leader Julius Malema threatened to go to court if National Assembly Speaker Baleka Mbete doesn’t respond by 10am on Tuesday to the call to bring the motion of no confidence forward.

The motion is scheduled to be tabled on 22 February.

The postponement of the State of the Nation Address last week sent the country into a tail-spin, which was followed by talks of an exit plan for Zuma.

An NEC meeting that was scheduled for Wednesday last week was called off by Ramaphosa, who said his talks with Zuma had been constructive and laid the basis for a speedy resolution to the leadership question.

On Saturday, the ANC’s top six officials met without Zuma, but there was no media briefing afterwards.

eNCA

Sport24.co.za | Proteas looking for early wickets

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Cape Town  – Andile Phehlukwayo says the Proteas would dearly like to get early wickets to put the India middle order under pressure in the fifth ODI in Port Elizabeth.

The seam-bowling allrounder says that to date in the series the Proteas plans with the ball have not yielded the results they would have liked but he insisted their was no quit in the group.

Speaking after training at St George’s Park Phehlukwayo said: “Obviously they have been batting really well.

“It will be really nice for us to expose their middle order [early on].

“At the same time we don’t really want to look too far ahead.”

Phehlukwayo explained the thinking behind the decision to send him in ahead of Chris Morris at the Wanderers, something that paid dividends as he quickly smashed the Proteas past the revised target.

He said: “Obviously‚ the game plan changed.

“It was a left-hander for left-hander thing‚ so when David Miller got out‚ I had to go in and keep the combination going. I was told to look to be positive‚ watch the ball and execute my game plans that I have.”

The Proteas are determined to fight back in the series having lost the first three matches and will be keen to adapt to the conditions in PE faster than India.

Phehlukwayo added: “It was a game plan we had in our change room to be really positive and look to score against them. Here in PE it is obviously home conditions.

“We know the conditions very well and we train specifically for them. The guys know their individual game plans. We know we have to be really positive.

“I think the team has been really positive.

“We have obviously been training really hard. We have good momentum now from this last game. We didn’t think we were too far away from a victory.

“We have been very specific about our training and the team environment is really good.

“The setup is really positive. We have a good fighting spirit and a good culture. It’s never down and out. We always looking to fight back.

The fifth ODI between South Africa and India gets underway at 13:00 from St George’s park on Tuesday, February 3.

Health24.com | Peter Rabbit movie under scrutiny for allergy bullying

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Recently BBC News reported that the film company Sony Pictures apologised for a scene making fun of a food allergy in the new Peter Rabbit film.

The scene depicts a character who suffers from a blackberry allergy being pelted with blackberries by a gang of bunnies. The character Tom McGregor, who has an allergy to the berries, is attacked by Peter and his friends who shower him with the fruit, even shooting one into his mouth – until he is forced to use an EpiPen.

The offending scene is shown in a film adaptation of the Beatrix Potter book Peter Rabbit, which was released in US cinemas this weekend (9 February 2017) and will be released in South African cinemas on 30 March 2018 (see the official trailer below).

Campaigners, Twitter users and the charity Kids with Food Allergies Foundation condemned the movie with hashtags such as #boycotpeterrabbit and this Facebook post:

The Kids with Food Allergies Foundation commented on the post, saying that a serious food allergy should be viewed in the same light as a disability, as an allergy can affect eating and/or breathing, which are two critical prerequisites for life:

In 2008, the American Disabilities Act (ADA) was changed to include more people in the definition of “disabled”. Conditions that only show symptoms at certain times are now included. Asthma and food allergies fit this definition.

The ADA protects people with asthma and allergies even if reactions or attacks happen only when triggered. In section 504 of the ADA, a person with a disability is someone who has a physical or mental impairment that seriously limits one or more major life activities, or who is regarded as having such impairments.

Sony apologises

Sony Pictures commented on 11 February in an official statement, saying that it was wrong for the filmmakers to include the segment, “even in a cartoonish, slapstick way”.

“We sincerely regret not being more aware of and sensitive to this issue, and we truly apologise,” the statement said.

What is a blackberry allergy?

Although a blackberry allergy is one of the less common food allergies, it can cause a serious reaction including anaphylaxis. This happens when the body produces antibodies to fight the food in question.  

The reaction between the antibodies and the food releases chemicals that cause the allergy symptoms. 

How to help your child cope with a food allergy

It might be difficult to explain to your child why they may get sick from a certain food, but there are ways to make coping with it easier.

  • Cook at home and familiarise your child with the ingredients they are allowed to eat.
  • Teach them how to read food labels and how to identify a specific allergen in food products.
  • Tell them that they have nothing to be ashamed of.
  • Inform their teachers and parents of school friends about their allergies.
  • Find accommodating restaurants, party venues or holiday accommodation. Call ahead to hear what they can do to prepare for your child’s special food needs.
  • Always pack a stash of safe snacks for your kid when they go on school trips or sleepovers.
  • Educate your child as much as you can about the allergy so that they have the ability to explain it to school friends.
  • Take your children seriously when they complain about someone bullying them. Address the issue with the teachers.

Have you or your child ever been excluded or teased about a food allergy or medical condition? Will you boycott the Peter Rabbit movie after reading about this scene? Email marelize.wilke@24.com.

Image credit: iStock

Marelize Wilke

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