How to know if I should

Hi all,

i only have one more of my required 6 month doctor visits (insurance) before I will be scheduled.  I recently read two books that may have changed my life:  Fat Chance. And. Salt, Sugar, Fat.  

With info from those books and knowing that my eating life would have to change after surgery, I banned all processed food and added sugar from my diet.  I did this starting on  March 26.  Since that time the only pre packaged food I have eaten has been a bit of mayo in my home,-made dressing, 3 thin buns, and these amazing crackers called Mary's Gone Crackers (contains only brown rice, flax, sesame seeds and a couple other good items)...and I am feeling great.

Of course now all my support folks think that I should not have surgery and should just keep going with this lifestyle change and that will be enough......thoughts?

anne

Other than feeling great -- which of course is a good thing -- how has this change in food choices impacted your health?

I could lose weight, and change my eating completely....I was unable to MAINTAIN it.  It is not about making a change, it is having the tools to maintain the change- that is what the surgery gave me, hope to maintain for the long run. Not a guarantee, a hopeful tool. 

You can always postpone the surgery a few months and wait to see if your new life style is the way you want to go.  Either way, a commitment must be made.  Congrats on feeling better, and good luck!!  (read Fat Chance a while ago, very good....I'll look up the other one..thanks!).

sophie

Yes, the maintaining has always been the issue for me too.  But I am more and more convinced of the poison nature of added sugar and processed foods.  I have lost  ten pounds with little effort.  

How fast after surgery do people see changes in things like BP and cholesterol ?

anne

Would you mind telling me the authors of the books you read? I love to read and am always looking for new books that will help me. I tried looking up fat chance, but there were a bunch of them with many different authors. Thanks!

Lustig is the author of fat chance and Moss is the author of salt sugar fat.  I thought both were fascinating

Congrats on your epiphany! It is awesome to come to such a realization and be able to follow through.

I think all of us who have had or are considering VSG have had second thoughts. I know I did-and serious second thoughts at that. I did really well on my pre op diet. I didn't do a liquid pre op, but a sustained--you--have--to--lose--20--odd--pounds--before--I'll--cut--you diet. I thought for a moment, "Wow, I've got this." Then I thought about all the other times I had lost 20 or 30 pounds. My resolve often failed at that point. (Now I know it wasn't my resolve, but the nature of obesity to want to remain obese driving my hunger and cravings, etc...) I also reasoned that I had lost weight down to goal several times in my adult life and regained it and then some and wasn't there some definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over, but expecting different results? I knew in the depth of my being that even with all the changes I had made pre VSG, I would ultimately be far more successful with VSG.

I also have learned that I have an issue with food. So while I would love to stand here and say I'm completely changed and only eat healthy things, I can't. I am human and for 40+ years I ate sugar and crap food and LOVED it. Some days I still really want that sugared crap food. Most days I don't give in, but some days I do. I know how bad sugar can be for me - especially disguised as a baked good - but sometimes I still do indulge.

What's different now is that I can stop. I have the power.  Even if a binge is coming on, I am now in control in a way that I never was before. My sleeve is a tool. The sleeve is not the diet. It is not the cure for obesity. It is a powerful tool that has taken away the majority of my hunger. It is the tool that lets me be satisfied with portions I couldn't even imagine being satisfied by 2 years ago. It is a tool that gave me the gift of month after month of no hunger at all to reprogram a lot of my habits without having to battle hunger all damn day. It is the tool that catapulted me into fast, easy weight loss that has kept me in the game to sustain this life style for months on end. Today at 17 months out from surgery I felt as if I had over eaten (well, I did) eating 2.5 oz of ham and 1/2 an artichoke. That right there is the biggest gift this surgery has given me. I can eat like a normal person (you know a true normie who doesn't eat huge portions, but just enough to sate his hunger).

I decided that I needed the gift of medical intervention. I wanted to be successful. Following the VSG path put the odds far more in my favor of reaching success than any other method I had ever pursued to lose and maintain my weight. VSG is the best chance I have at long term success. I think it gave me a pretty damn good start, too.

Good luck with your decision.

Ditto what Kairk said!

We've all been there I think...think we're "cured"...but only to fall off when the first real stress or event occurs. The cool thing abt VSG...you may WANT to fly off the handle and chow down a pizza...but your sleeve will say " NO WAY!!"...Your appetite is sliced down ( at least mine was). If you VSG AND stick with the recent changes to your diet...you will be one of the most successful VSGers !!!

Support folks love you and are often fearful of us having surgery. You have to make this decision for you...and only you know what's right. Go for it, give it a try ...just know VSG, for most of us, takes us the extra distance and is such a useful tool.

Good Luck to you!!

Peace

~Deb