Cold feet

Started 1200 calorie per day two week diet on Monday.  Surgery scheduled for June 19.  Many of my family and friends know that I have so far lost 22 lbs in preparation with relative ease, so now someone says nearly everyday, "gee, do you really need the surgery? You seem to be doing great."  Sigh.   14 days from surgery and I am now wondering if maybe I CAN do it without the sleeve?  Is this just cold feet?

 

anne

I call cold feet! While i am not yet scheduled for a surgery I go through this all the time...which is why i finally decided to do the surgery. I'm really good about following whatever the hottest diet at the moment is and think...wow, I'm really doing this but it never lasts....it' never long term for me. I know for me I get motivated by weight loss and I have found that the faster I can see it working the more I am likely to stick to it. Sure you can lose a lot of weight fast on a liquid however the moment you stop it you are going to gain it back. It won't last.

Hi Anne,

I went through the same thing.  When I started the WLS regimen, I decided if I was going to do the surgery, I was going to do it full force.  I lost 50 pounds in three months and then started wondering if I really needed the surgery.  But the first stressful day at work sent me running to the refrigerator, and reminded me that the problem was never dieting.  It was sticking with it.  Like most of us, I've done yo-yo diets and never was able to maintain the loss. 

 

Its good that you are considering this carefully.  I finally decided that I needed the surgery, and never looked back.  I'm about 5 weeks post op and so happy I did it.  For the first time since childhood, I feel in control of my eating.  I'm not driven by a need to eat.  I feel like my relationship with food is normal for the first time in my adult life. 

Best of luck in your journey!

Carol

Anne I know exactly how you feel. 

It really is up to you to but I will tell you I almost  walked away from mine for the same reason and had to tell myself this.

Time and time again the weight has come back, the habits return and the cycle of eat, weight gain, depression, eat starts all over again too quickly. Soon I forget what it feels like to be full as I try to shove food in that empty feeling again over and over. This does not make me a failure, it only means I need to be strong enough to ask for help. 

 Even after the surgery you are still responsible and accountable to you and your health, the surgery is not going to fix anything. It is only a tool to help. I see it as a sort of nutritional reset button as I relearn to eat healthy.  I myself know I need something more then diet and exercise alone to keep going. 

It is a big question. If you think you can do it more power to you sister! I will support you no matter what! It is all about healthy lifestyle changes regardless of the route you take. 

Amy

Anne, this surgery is really not about losing weight.  This surgery is about maintaining your weight loss.  I was always able to lose large amounts of weight, but I was never able to keep it off, ever.  The weight always came back and brought friends.  I lost 60-80 pounds six times in my life and eventually realized that it was not about losing, but maintaining weight loss.  Between 3-10% (depending on the study) of people can maintain their weight loss for more than five years.  Is this you?  Only you can know.  VSG was by far the very best thing I have ever done for myself (besides meeting my husband and having our children).  I regret nothing about it. 

I know how you feel and I bet a lot of people have felt the same way. I lost 108 lbs during my six month supervised diet and I had to do a lot of self-reflection about whether or not I thought I could actually do it on my own. It's a difficult thing, but I was super honest with myself and I realized that the answer is NO. If I could do it on my own, there have been plenty of things in my life over the past 8 years or so that should've been enough motivation to lose the weight, but it wasn't.

I realized that I need every tool that is available to lose the entire 275-280 excess pounds that I started with and that includes the VSG, therapy, weight loss apps, research, exercise, etc etc etc!

Only you can make that decision... those people are most likely just concerned about you and don't want to see you do something that isn't necessary. BUT, if you decide that it's necessary, then you have to do what is best for you and block out the "noise" from others!

I agree completely with Elina. This is about a long term maintenance. I have lost over 100kgs in my lifetime of dieting, but it always come back on again because after being good for a few months, slowly my old nemesis "portion size blowout" would come calling and we would party together until I found myself back to where I started and often heavier.

I needed something that would prevent portion blowouts forever. My new tummy will simply never be able to eat 8 cups of pasta again, and that is a great mental and physical insurance to underpin my new way of eating.

How did your last diet work for you?  Case closed.  

YOU ARE ALL AWESOME!!!! Thanks for talking me down off the ledge!  Onward ho!

 

Anne