Earlier in the year, I was offered the chance to place a bet on losing weight from William Hill bookmakers.
I would aim to lose 2lbs a week for 52 weeks, so 104lbs in total which is a shade under 7 and a half stone.
It would be a sensible, calorie controlled diet with sensible exercise and nothing more - slow and steady wins the race and all that.
One of the pre-conditions of this wager is that i obtain a letter from a "medical professional" (GP in other words) that states that I am suitable for a diet and that losing 7 and a half stone in a year won't cause me any medical issues and can be done without resorting to surgery.
Now bear in mind that William Hill get *hundreds* of these bets every year. They've also had an actual practising GP do the bet (and she won as well), so it's not like it's anything unusual.
Every single medical professional I've asked this year has turned me down flat. Every one.
And what makes it even more frustrating is that, recently, I was told that I was a suitable candidate for bariatric surgery and that it would be a good idea if I went through with it and I just couldn't believe it.
The NHS are seemingly quite willing to spend £8-£10k on an operation, and all of the risks that might entail, and yet *nobody* is willing to write me a simple letter that will achieve the same results for free.
Now the obvious, and most frequent, question is "Why don't you do it for your health?". In a perfect world, this would clearly be the way to go but I have, unfortunately, always struggled with motivation to diet. If I could wake up tomorrow and just flip that switch then I would, but, sadly, it doesn't work like that for me.
This bet *will* work though. For me, as I am, it's the *perfect* motivation. So why is nobody interested in helping ?
Why is the NHS trying to force me to do it *their* way ?
Hi there - not sure if this is the right place nor are we the right people to address your rant to... we’re just people trying to lose weight. Personally, I love the NHS, and I’m sure you’ll find someone to help you. Good luck... 🙂