Worst WLS Example, Ever

Thank you!  I have thick skin, no worries, or I wouldn't have posted to begin with.  I do know its my problem, I am just wondering how I can balance it with weight loss and my job.  And my boyfriend has zero problem with it -- he thinks I look fine, he likes to go out with me and he is a social drinker as well....that makes it even harder.  We belong to several winery event clubs and go to tons of athletic events and alcohol is always the center of everything.  I am well aware that I have just shifted my excessive behavior with food to alcohol, no brainer.  I am thinking of trying to impose a "Drink maximum" on myself per event or per week, and when its done, its done.

Hi Lisa,

It's been a long time since I came out of lurking on the OH forums, but your post really struck me.

When I was in nutrition school, one of my areas of research was WLS patients and alcoholism. We are at a 60% greater risk for developing alcoholism than the general population. 

The main difference is metabolic. An average adult can process one drink per hour and bring their body back to a normal BAC (blood alcohol content). However, in gastric bypass patients, one standard drink (a 12 oz. beer, 4 oz. wine, 2 oz. liquor shot) will bring the BAC above the legal limit for driving, and will also stay there 3 times as long as an average adult. 

So basically we get drunk faster and stay drunk longer. The hardest thing for me to understand about this was that I didn't feel that drunk. It was like I was fine drinking a glass of wine, then I'd wake up the next day and my husband would have to piece the evening back together for me. It was very frightening. We tried setting a drink maximum, but even with that, some days one glass of wine was still wayyyy too much alcohol and sugar for my body to process. 

Cutting calories to lose weight will help you, but the problem is that if the alcohol intake remains the same, I wager your tolerance for it would go down even more and those dizzy spells would get worse. 

My advice would be to try going alcohol free just for a short time (2 weeks? 1 month?) and keep an open mind. Journal how you feel each day and if your symptoms are improving. There is no harm in trying, and my weight has stayed far more consistent. I've been sober for 2.5 years now and it was the best decision I ever made for keeping myself at a healthy weight and having better mental health.

I hope you find something that works for you. Have a great day!

Thank you Neen, that is the path I am on this week - 2 days into it.  Weird after all this time NOT to have a glass of wine with dinner, etc., or a drink after work, but I am just going a week at a time.  I was motivated by the poster who told me she dropped twenty pounds in two months JUST by not drinking, and that is such a short time period.

Hi there.  I had RNY in 2005.  Lost all the weight that I needed to.  I don't think it is possible to lose all the weight that I wanted to because I could never be too thin.

The reason we became morbidly obese is that we are addicts.  We were addicted to food.  Pure and simple.  When an addict stops doing the behavior that was their addiction, a new one will step up to replace it.  Alcohol, opiates, cigarettes, coffee, energy drinks...etc.  I am envious of the few *****placed their food addiction with fitness, sigh.  So abstinence is good but never say never.  Just say for now.  For today I will not have a drink then I will not drink during the work week, then I will only drink on holidays, then I will only drink on birthdays or whatever.  You get my point.  Never is a big wall to face.  So just for now stop the drinking.  I'll bet the weight will come right off and you will feel better after a very short while.

Good luck and please keep posting.

Finally someone said it.  Great thread to read, but I kept waiting for the obvious.  Sure, our altered digestive systems do make us vulnerable to alcohol dependence due to how we metabolize it, but the core of the problem is that most WLS patients tsp were addicts going into the surgery.  The vast majority are Food addicts. The bariatric community is still ambivalent about the rally of food addiction, but it certainly looks like good addictiin fuels the obesity epidemic.  

Finally someone said it.  Great thread to read, but I kept waiting for the obvious.  Sure, our altered digestive systems do make us vulnerable to alcohol dependence due to how we metabolize it, but the core of the problem is that most WLS patients were addicts going into the surgery.  The vast majority are Food addicts. The bariatric community is still ambivalent about the rally of food addiction, but it certainly looks like food addictiin fuels the obesity epidemic.  

So Lisa... your reality bu**** me.  You are saying the same thing my at the time best friend said to me.  He'd try to stop drinking and it'd last a few days, or a week, but it'd always come back.  He also had a nice job that it never interfered with, except he didn't see that it was.  I worked with him in the same office and I know what his manager's said.  They didn't know at first he drank, they thought he was young, then they thought he was a just a normal batchlor, then they said why is it he's sick a lot on Mondays?  Point being there very well may be more people at your work who suspect you drink too much or know that you drink more than you'd like them to.  Also the deals your tying to make with yourself "I wonder if I can balance weight loss and still drinking".  You also said "my boyfriend is find with it and heck he drinks socially too" Also said "I never drink at home alone".  

So after reading your post and responses I wa**** by your bus.  You are saying the exact same things he was saying.  Like to a T, you both felt like it wasn't effecting your job, you needed to cut loose after a bad break up, you were enjoying life, you didn't do it at home alone, you only do it socially, you have a good boyfriend and he doesn't think it's an issue, and you both also make deal with yourself.  

Fast Forward 41/2 years:

The good friend of mine wanted to eventually date me and I said no way.  He knew why, we'd fought about his drinking before.  I didn't like that he did it, because my father was a drunk and I didn't want to see my best friend live the same way.  So he asked me if he stopped would I think about dating and I said yes.  But I mean for it to stop all together, I wasn't going to be with him if he wanted to do it 1/2 way.  So he went to the doctor and was prescribed antibuse.  That helped him be afraid to drink, and gave him the will power to stop drinking.  I was pretty leery the first 6 months because he'd say things like in the future I'd like to be able to have wine with dinner, or a beer at the beach.  I'd just look at him and wonder if he'd go back to drinking.  I'd watched him quit several times and it never stuck so I thought we'd try dating but eventually it'd stop because he'd go back to drinking.  It always seemed so important to him, kind of like what I'm reading from you.  You know your happy being thinner and at your goal weight and you know what the problem is, it's alcohol.  So a non-alacholoic would just stop drinking like they stopped eating cookies.  But girl I think you know where I'm going with this....

My now husband has been sober for 4.5 years.  He's not had a drop and his mindset totally changed once he was away from drinking about a year or so out.  He realized that drinking was a temptation that he just didn't need.  That overall it didn't add much to his life.  he too had built up such a tolerance that he'd have to have several beers to feel anything and it added a lot of weight to his belt which he didn't like.  But in his own words he said it just wasn't worth it.  This year I had to do the same thing with food I had to say cookies are not worth it.  I've not had another surgery treat since my WLS and I'm ok with that.  We've treated my food issues just like we have treated his drinking.  We added up all of the positive things sugary treats did for me and except for a few minutes of happiness or a party with people around having cake that made me smile, cookies were doing nothing but making me bigger and taking parts of my life away.  Drinking for him was doing the same thing.

Sit down and add up what drinking is really doing for you and then think about what it's taking away from you.  If you can't really come up with a lot of good things it's doing that makes you happy and promotes the healthy life you worked hard for then you you may want to take steps to eliminate it.  

Hi, my name is Rachel and I am an alcoholic.  After my surgery, I married a controlling Italian, who made my life COMPLETELY miserable.  Then my mom was diagnosed with cancer on the same day my dad had a stroke.  I drank like a fish.  They went through their battles: mom-chemo, and dad three brain surgeries.  In the end, I drank so much to hide my pain, I lost our home.  I took a job in Virginia in a Rehab.  The Universe was talking to me.  Eventually I got sober and divorced the Italian.  I have over 4 years.  Its all one day at a time.  Looking back.  I look at my 'addictions' as 'escapes', or 'self-soothing'.  I have put 100lbs back on.  I am talking to my surgeon about a revision.  Luckily now I have therapy and support.  And here I am again.  Perhaps I should have never walked away from this support.  I'm just one of those folks that has to do things a couple times to 'get it'.  But I'm learning!