| Self |
“You know that you are going to destroy your life. I get really angry because I know better and I can hear myself saying these things to her [mother who died of diabetes complications at age 60], and I keep saying them to myself.” “I felt angry with myself because I could have avoided this if I had been more diligent and conscientious about what I knew could happen.” “I get so angry at myself for knowing better and deliberately not doing it.”
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| Family |
“My own kids are on me. I have a son … he’s on me constantly about, oh, I shouldn’t have eaten this. I get so sick of it.” “But I think a lot of times they don’t have the ability really to truly understand simply because of the fact that they don’t have it. My husband is probably one of the healthiest people that I know.” “They don’t walk in our shoes.”
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| Health care providers |
“My previous doctor … every time we would spend 45 minutes—it was like the rosary. He would start in—you know that eventually if you don’t do something then they’re going to cut your legs and they’re going to do this and they are going to do that. I almost had it memorized. He would say the same old thing.… Instead of saying how can we take care of some of these things and encourage, it was the same old thing.” “One day I went into the doctor’s office and I said, ‘Close your eyes and pretend I’m not overweight, and I’m telling you I have these problems. What would you tell me?’”
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| Others |
“People feel like they can say anything to you … like they can make comments like ‘You ought to watch what you eat.’ I mean total strangers, plus your well-meaning friends who say, ‘Do you think you should be eating that?’” “What is it about being overweight or people know you’re a diabetic and they feel that they have to have some input into your life?”
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