Recently, a friend told me about a writeup she read written by someone who had their mouth wired shut in order to lose weight. I couldn’t believe any of what my friend told me was true… Until she shared the link.

In this writeup, the author chronicles how she just “can’t stop eating” and claims that she’s “too lazy/overweight to exercise.” Thus she looked up a website for a dentist who wires mouths shut (and then details how she paid for the procedure with credit that she applied for online).

While I appreciate the writer’s honesty and candor, I have to question her reasoning.

It seems to me that wiring your mouth shut will never work for permanent, healthy weight loss given that it doesn’t address the real issue of wanting/needing to lose weight. Too often we try to cure our life’s weight loss struggle through surgery (gastric bypass for the stomach) or mouth (wiring jaws shut) when, in reality, the real issues are in our head.

The mind (and our thinking) is the place we need to investigate. The place we need to spend time. The place we need to heal.

Sure, the writer of this piece who had her mouth wired shut promises that she will exercise and work to maintain the weight loss once she’s reached her goal of fitting into a size 10 dress. But what about learning sane and healthy eating habits? Too often when we go to extremes (like being “on” or “off” a diet — to say nothing of wiring one’s mouth shut), we are setting ourselves up for failure. To truly attain and maintain a healthy weight, we need a life long plan — not a temporary one.

There’s a reason we label something like wiring your mouth shut for dieting purposes as “Extreme.” That’s because extreme is exactly what these kind of things are.

Am I being too harsh? Am I not seeing something in the author’s prose? Is this something some of you would even remotely consider? I promise to keep my mouth closed (sans wires) if you’ll be kind enough to share your opinion.

Photo Source: CranioRehab.com