How long did it take your brain to get on board?

LorettaLynn,

I get it ,..you are not prepared physically/emotionally to give up all of anything -because you do not have the physical restriction that gives YOU control. Change the way you are thinking... Start by cutting portion sizes, and number of servings.. This is a lifestyle change. This is for the rest of your life and This IS your life.

You must train your brain now that smaller portions are normal.....as you cut the carbs the cravings will decrease as well... after 3 days below 50 grams my cravings go away...

My way be to..would start working on those bad habits,-begin with change your portion sizes. .. of all carb foods..Start with reducing them to 1/2 of a normal and no second helpings. Make it a habit to have a protein only late evening snack..,

This time is more about establishing GOOD habits... Center your mind on the POSITIVE aspects of change....ie.." I am getting healthy, I am doing this for me." ..."I have lost 5 lbs with lifestyle changes in 2 weeks. " " I can breathe deeper. It is easier for me to climb the stairs than it was 2 weeks ago."

I cut my carbonation to 1/3 prev before surgery.. from 3 - 20 oz day... to one a day.. After my surgery there was no room for them. I will have a few ounces of one now ,if i am out and can't get anything else, I usually mix with ice and will shake a bottled drink to remove some of the fizz. I can't drink diet drinks now...Tn quickstep follows artificial sweetners. After you are off cola's a while, you will taste one and wonder "how did I ever drink that many of those?"

.Make your own deserts that are diet compliant...take 2 oz of milk, add vanilla and a sweetner you tolerate..I use stevia...partially freeze it, 45 min or so in freezer portion of refrig.. add 2 oz of strawberries, slice them thinly and dice them so they blend in well...mix in , freeze firmly...enjoy. be sure to figure your igred for protein and carbs. and include them in your amounts.

If you are not ready to work on bad habits early on, this may be a very difficult journey for you :( not saying it is impossible, but I have met many people who had surgery who were blown away by my loss and couldn't understand how it happened. I will ask them how they eat and how much, they eat "normal food" and "not that much food" but they have no idea how much they really eat since there is no tracking and I have seen them devour things like a hamburger with the works along with french fries.

My getting on board started before I considered WLS. I went through therapy for a year to figure out my problems, and subsequently my relationship with food. That came first, then WLS was put into my mind by a doctor in a hospital. Without that year before surgery of therapy I feel that I also would keep those bad habits without understanding too much about why I couldn't stop. When the program started for surgery, I was able to quit everything pretty much cold turkey. No more soda, candy, chips, fried foods. I was ready. That's not to say there haven't been times I've those things since surgery, since I've most certainly have. Difference is it doesn't consume my life, or make me crave more and more. I don't really get the carb cravings others do, but I allow myself more than some as it is.

I was a little confused by the word "ready" in your post, so I want to make sure that I understand. Is it that you are trying to give up these foods and are having a really hard time of it and want to know when others were able to give the foods up? Or is it that you are not trying to give up these foods because you don't feel ready/don't feel it is necessary so early on, and want to know when others felt it was really time to really start trying? I will address both, just to be safe.

If it is the first situation, don't feel bad, everyone has slip ups. Just try your best and maybe try slowly eliminating one food at a time, starting with the easiest foods first. Also, while it'd be great to go really hard core and lose a ton of weight these next 6 months, it's much more important to just get your eating more under control so things are easier post op, that should be the real goal.

If it is the second situation, I cannot stress enough how important it is to get your eating under control before the surgery, and that will most certainly take longer than 6 months. I strongly encourage you to begin eliminating certain foods from your diet now, because things will be so so so much easier for you if you do. I didn't lose a lot of weight pre op, but I was able to eliminate soda and juices, also bakery goods and desserts, and now I don't have to worry about those things at all. What I do worry about and is giving me a hard time is carbs, which I was NOT able to eliminate pre op. So the consequence of continuing to eat all the "bad" foods up until surgery is that you'll struggle giving them up post op (a LOT of people don't lose the cravings) probably still eat them but maybe just in a smaller amount, lose weight slower than what you could be losing, and then maybe even not reaching goal/regaining a lot of weight because you never really eliminated the foods from your diet.

It is very important and serves a real purpose, and if after all this information you still think you aren't ready, you really should consider seeing a therapist before you have surgery, because that not ready feeling will not go away post op and the last thing you want is to eat through your surgery :( that's very sad.

I'm routing for you and I hope you figure out what the best option for you is! Even if you end up deciding that surgery needs to wait for a little bit.

Good for you not just jumping in and winging it. It is a very emotional thing having the surgery. At least it was for me.

I was sick of feeling and looking like I did. Sick of worrying if I was going to break that lovely plastic deck furniture.

wwhen I look back I think I was mentally ready to have a thinner body and feel better. It took my head a longer time to catch up with me. I had to learn to like myself and have done self respect.

I work on it daily that I have to watch why I am eating and what I am eating. And know that I am worth it.

myself esteem was in the toilet when I started out. Now I have learned to feel better about myself. Not because I lost the weight. I still have to lose more but my tool still works. I have to focus on protein forward meals.

Y one thing that was hard before surgery was to learn to not drink with meals. Doing that really helped after surgery. That is one thing I made sure I do.

sbest wished to you on this new chapter.

I don't think there is a one fit all answer. I did not have to do 6 months. My surgery was 2 months to the day from my first appt and I am three years out from the VSG. A lot of this journey involves our mind and emotions. It takes a while to change a habit and it will be hard at first, but it does get easier. Once you get the surgery - the tool it will "force" you to change and if you want to it can happen. I now honestly look at food as something I have to eat to stay alive. I don't get happy about a certain food. I never thought that day would come, but it does. Be strong and have faith in yourself - you can do this.

Your question resonates with something I struggled with when I began "getting ready" for surgery. I had a very "all or nothing" approach. It helped me tremendously to let that go and allow myself to make incremental changes.

The first thing I went after was my diet coke. It was so long ago now, but I still miss it! LOL I only drank diet coke and I always drank diet coke. The thought of changing that one thing seemed so huge to me at the time! First I would think of cutting out pop, then cutting sugar, then measuring food, then exercising and "OMG no more pizza binge?!?" It was a mental slide to NOPE, can't do it, screw you guys, I'm getting myself a couple of Tombstones and a 2 liter.

You're just starting, and you're getting a ton of information and direction. IMO it's natural to feel some resistance to starting something that feels so big. But, you must start. There's this (kinda horrible) quote about eating an elephant one bite at a time that I think of whenever I get overwhelmed.

So, I decided to focus on one thing at a time gave myself a "pass" on all the other stuff. I kicked out pop, then I started walking, then I started learning to measure my food, and so on.

Some people might be able to cannon ball into the pool, but I definitely couldn't.

Excellant question

I often say to people "you have to get it right between the ears before re-arranging your plumbing".

The 6 months pre-op did it for me. By the time my surgery date arrived I was ready

If by "getting your brain on board" you mean "eat nearly perfectly from now until my surgery", I didn't even try to do that. I didn't expect that of myself, and my medical team didn't expect it of me either. Instead, I saw the 6 month preparation as a time to analyse my eating habits, identify small changes that could have the best result without making me miserable, and make those changes.

One thing that helped me was to make certain changes for a limited time. One month I gave up all added sugar. I wasn't expecting to live that way forever; it was mostly an experiment to see where I missed sugar the most, and to find healthier options I was happy with. For example, I found that I could make a huge change to my diet by switching to unsweetened almond milk, and that change was painless for me to make. When the month was over, I was eating far less sugar than I had before.

I did another short-term experiment where I went low carb. I thought I would be miserable and never feel full. However, I decided to allow myself legumes since, as a vegetarian, I need the protein. Beans are very filling, and I found I was perfectly happy to replace pasta with shreded carrots or courgettes.

This is a great response with some tangible steps!

I did nutrition for over two years. I wasn't sure if WLS was for me. I straddled the fence the entire time, but kept going to my monthly nutrition appointments. I even gained weight initially.

In May of 2017 I had to have emergency surgery due to a severely herniated disc. That was the turning point for me. The neurosurgeon who operated on me got so excited when I told him VSG was something I was considering. He said he highly recommended it. That's when I finally got my butt in gear and lost 27 lbs pre-op.

Absolutely the best decision I could have made. I feel amazing and I have my life back.