Needing Encouragement...
A little background info about me....I have always been "chubby" but not going overboard if that makes sense. I hovered between 220-260 for years and years. Well, the last year and a half or so that high scary number of 260 began to creep up and up and up. By the time I was ready to admit I had a problem....I was above 300, and at my highest 319.
I was embarassed, scared and horrified at what I had done to myself. I went to a seminar on weight loss surgery and began working through the insurance hurdles. I started in October, meeting with the dietician who put me on a super healthy diet and I have done really well.
I lost 24 pounds in just 4 months and I am thrilled. So thrilled in fact, that I am considering putting surgery on the back burner and seeing if I can really do it and lose this weight. I am so scared to not do the surgery, what if I don't lose the weight? What if what if.....
I have to make a decision fairly soon , so I just wanted some words of advice and/or encouragement.
Thanks!
-Jen
Hi Jen, welcome to the non-op board.
It is a hard decision isn't it. All I can tell you is MY own advice, but I think you really need to look into your own heart to make this kind of call. I applaud you on your ambition to seek out other ways, especially if you have already lost 24 pounds. That motivation might just take you further than you know. I think if a person is unsure, they should wait until you ARE sure. There is no turning back on something like that. It sounds like you are on a good start. Best of luck on whatever you decide to do.
Very cute baby by the way. :)
Holly
I was looking into the surgery myself..i'm 25 and my highest being about 319 also..i started watching what i ate..started eating less..started walking..when it was warm out..i'm down to 281..each day is a new beginning..but i have decided that i am not to do this on my own..and i will fight it each moment of the day if i have to! because WE CAN DO THIS!!! I want my kids to learn better eating habits..and having surgery wasn't going to help my kids and family out..but changing my ways...will also change their ways! Not only that..I had always worried..how this surgery really effects people later on in life..you know..maybe 20 yrs down the line..i understand some people HAVE to have the gastric or whatever...but if you have nothing against you right now..then stick around the board...talk with us..and try to fight this like we are..it won't be easy..but tell me what in life is easy?? Goodluck to you and I hope that you stick with us!
Goodluck on the weight that you have lost..you are off to a GREAT beginning!!!
By all means, keep on with this route. I cannot quite tell from what you wrote - if this is the first serious attempt at eating well, then for the love of God, please keep on with this. Your body may respond very well - you are seeing the results, right? Not too hard, right? (it's hard at times i am sure) Those of us who have been professional dieters have a harder time - I think our bodies stop playing nice at a point.
By now you realize that surgery will not fix your bad habits - it only solves a more immediate problem of weight that has accumulated. You will end up having to manage that weight loss eventually!
My thinking is that even if a year from now or so you decide to have surgery, this time is not wasted - you are learning skills that will help you keep surgery weight off. Better yet, you will be so excited and down another 75# with no surgery! Somebody around here said they used the $ they saved in surgery for plastic surgery once they lost it.
You look young, so my own "rule" is if at age 40ish, a person is 100# or more over plus really do have good habits like choosing better food most of the time and exercising regularly, it is time to seriously consider surgery. Once in a while, weight gets that stubborn to need surgery to help, I am convinced it is hormonal from being super morbidly obese for many years.
For SURE, people beat the odds all of the time. you CAN be exceptional and get around this on your own. Trust that it is possible.
"The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not." ~Mark Twain
I am 57 years old, am a little over 150 pounds overweight, and have been a "professional dieter" for most of my adult life. Now I am going to a therapist to effectively deal with my eating disorder issues from childhood, I am also a member of Overeaters Anonymous and I call in my food every day to my sponsor, and with the Help of my Higher Power, I am abstaining from compulsive overeating on day at a time. I sometimes give in to the food addiction, but always go back to the good eating habits the next day or even the next meal.
I cannot have the gastric bypass because my husband's insurance will not pay for it. I am cut off from that route, and I am currently down 6.5 pounds from where I was in October 2008. It's a slow weight loss process, but it's very livable and non-diet-like for me. I just cannot do fast weight loss diets any more - I burned out on that by 2001, after having gone on around 25 different diets since my early 20's.
At the rate I am losing weight (around 2.5 pounds a month) it will take me approximately 5 years to lose from 268.5 to 115 pounds, which is where I should be for my height and build and age. I once had the opportunity back in April 2004 to have the gastric bypass on a different insurance policy, but my husband's employer dropped that insurance, so we're stuck with a policy that won't pay for the surgery at all.
All my adult life, I've been in a "hurry" to get my excess weight off. I've let go of the idea that I must lose all my excess fat in 2 years or so. It's just not going to happen that way.
Good luck to you trying it without the surgery first. The only advantage the surgery offered in my opinion was that you lost your weight really fast. Otherwise, it's just another difficult diet to follow, one of the most difficult diets that anybody can go on, in my opinion.
I'm not sure I would have been able to stick to their diet, anyway.
Denise Phares/kitties4
With that said, you are making wonderful progress already. I'm sure you know it's going to take while to get back to 240.... months, maybe even a year. There are people out there that can take off the weight in 12 months, but what you want to do is to learn how to live a new healthy life. And that simply just takes time! I started my journey 9/2007. It took me 11 months to lose 50 pounds. I've had set backs, but I'm back here doing the right thing for myself. Although this is taking a long time to get to my goal I'm willing to push myself for it, even if it takes me years to get there. I will get there. And so will you!!
At this point start a new discovery of what you are capable of on your own! Give yourself a few months to see what happens and then make a decision. Best of luck to you!!!!!!!!!!!
I think my decision was sort of made yesterday, as I had to use a chunk of surgery money to treat some mold that was found in our house. Yuck! So it will take me a little while to save that back up again.
In response to some of your questions, yes I am youngish...I will be 28 in April. I have done the up and down dieting, but not really too crazy...I'd lose a couple of pounds and then stop. The most I have ever lost was with Weigh****chers, and I did it really slowly and lost 40 pounds over 2 years. So I know I can do it....I think I had just lost faith in myself after I was at 300.
I don't have any actual health problems, other than lack of energy, etc. My blood pressure is perfect, my cholesterol is ok, no diabetes, and I was tested for sleep apnea and I don't have that either. The scary thing for me is that I know in another 10 years, I will probably have all of the above if I don't get this under control now.
The earliest I could have surgery is June, because of my DH's school....so right now I think I am going to finish up the presurgery stuff just so that its done if I ever decide I do want surgery, and focus on losing more weight and see where I am at.
It's sounds like you are totally at peace with your decision and that is Wonderful news! Keep a good support system around yourself. When you feel down, talk about it or post about it. People around here are very encouraging when going through this process no-op. Good luck and keep us posted on how things are going!!
I just have to say that That you and I are in the same boat on the amount of weight we have to lose, I just updated my ticker today and I have lost 23 lb's and have 139 to go, almost exactly the same as your ticker!! and I was for sure going to go the WLS route, but I have decided that that is not for me! we are all in this battle together, Good luck to you on your Journey!
Michelle
