If you’re struggling with your New Year’s resolutions, know that whatever self-improvement you’re attempting it probably pales in comparison to this woman’s many challenges. In this exclusive clip from “My 600-lb Life” (Tues. Jan. 14 at 9:00 p.m. on TLC), we meet Olivia, a 46-year-old woman finally faces her excess weight after a suicide attempt and a long struggle with depression. She doesn’t leave her Chicago basement for two years before deciding to make one last attempt at changing her life. She travels to Houston for life-changing surgery, and, as she says, it’s one step at a time.
If you’ve missed previous episodes, each sixty minute show tells the powerful story of one morbidly obese individual – many who are home bound, relying on care just to live day to day – as they make the decision to undergo a dangerous gastric bypass surgery in an effort to save their lives and change their world forever.
Their motivations for making the drastic change vary – some do it for their loved ones, others to be productive members of society, but all of them want to be free from a life trapped in a body. The series documents the life-saving, but traumatic experience of surgery, the ups and downs of struggling with addiction and dependence, the transformation from being completely dependent to gaining a sense of self worth and the inevitable impact — positive and negative — that change has on close personal relationships.
Will you be watching “My 600-lb Life”?