Tough Love and dying......
Thank you for verbalizing what I've been thinking. I feel like I am working hard to earn a priceless gift. I'm willing to do it. There seem to be increasing posts about not being able to attain pre-surgery goals and eating around the sleeve / not taking the process seriously. Thank you for saying what needed to be said.
Age: 64; 5' 5"; High weight: 345; Start weight: 271 (01/05/15); Surgery weight: 218 (05/27/15); Pre-Op (-53); M 1 (-18); M 2 (-1.5); M 3 (-13.5 ); M 4 (-13); M 5 (- 8); M 6 (-12) M 7 (-5, Xmas); M 8 (- 9) Under surgeon's goal and REACHED HEALTHY BMI 12/07/15!! (Six months and one week.) AT GOAL month 8. Maintaining at goal range (139- 144) ~ four (4) years !!
I also really appreciated this reminder in the OP, and the community of discussion about this post. Here on this forum, as a group of people who have had WLS, we really have a great gift, and although we cannot control everything, and we cannot foresee the wheel of fate in the future, we can live each day being honest with ourselves and not squander this opportunity that few people get. We can hope that by taking care of each day, we take care of the future as best as we can.
I really do think that many people just do not know what to do for their health. They try to follow the "crowd wisdom," like eating low fat and eating whole grains, but that means lots of baked Lays chips or reduced fat Wheat Thins or Lucky Charms. (Yes, me 10 years ago!). But then conventional wisdom shifts, and meanwhile we are still bombarded with tricky advertising or social pressures or addictions or whatever...all the things that we all know make weight issues develop and stick.
One thing about being MO, it has given me much compassion for others struggling with this same problem, people who suffer and do not know what to do. Or even for those who do not care about doing anything, I know the health and social issues must be hard on them. It is a hard road to travel, a hard road to turn around on.
I am very glad for the surgery, and the chance it gives me to turn around, to adopt new life choices. Very glad for this forum and the insight and commitment and honesty and support here. Thanks saterry for the post and thanks everyone for the discussion.
I have a dear friend in the hospital right now, on a ventilator with a feeding tube. She is more than 10 years out from gastric bypass. Granted, she also suffers from bipolar disorder and the surgery has made it difficult for drs to control her meds. However, most of her problem is due to not eating well and not taking her supplements. She was _happy_ to have re-lost some weight after being in a coma. At the very least we need to be getting in our 60g of protein (or whatever your doctor recommends) and faithfully taking our vitamins. Many of us got heavy by not taking responsibility for our health. I am in the midst of trying to reverse a regain of about 15 lbs bc I have been eating junk food and drinking beer too often, so I am not trying to preach, only to take this very good advice to heart myself. Best wishes in getting-- and staying healthy.
