Page 23 - Waterfall_Issue 2_Feb_2022

Is WeIght Loss

Your NeW Year’s

resoLutIoN?

Read This First

By Prof Tess van der Merwe and Mienkie de Jager

Professor Tess van der Merwe is a leading

authority on obesity and weight loss. She

currently heads an internationally accredited

bariatric centre at Netcare Waterfall City

Hospital, where more than 2 000 patients

CLICK HERE have been successfully treated to date.

TO VIEW Prof Tess van der Merwe

L ike clockwork, January is the feet on the field once again, even ideals of beauty. What they do not

if they only teach their children or
time of year when my office
realise is that the enchantment is
gets flooded with a spectrum
and mind too. By the time their
beloved game on the lawn in the
of New Year’s Resolutioners. grandchildren how to play their not only of the body but the heart
To no surprise, I always have the Kingdom of Domestic Bliss. various goals come knocking, my
ex-athlete who once ruled over young patients enter with the
the rugby field, but who now only Then, I see the usual bevy of soon- knowledge that regardless of dress
observes the kingdom from afar to-be brides and debutantes, size, their beauty was ever-present.
by watching the game through the determined to enter matrimony,
television on the reclining throne. university, or perhaps a new phase Both of these archetypes often find
This patient always reigns with a in their careers like a transformed themselves in my office waiting room
beer for a sceptre, a bowl of chips as Cinderella heading to the ball. with a third character, or perhaps
the cross-bearing orb, and a crown Naturally, they expect me to be they find that this character is indeed
of co-morbidities. Luckily, after their professor fairy godmother within themselves. With experience,
treating them, these monarchs of with the ability to magically bippity- I know that every patient will carry
the Sunday braai can soon find their boppity-boo them into the societal pain with them into my office. More

Waterfall Issue 2 2022 21