Weight Loss Surgery: NOT the easy way

I’ve always been overweight, starting from my teens (I’m 47). By 2014, though, I had gotten up to 350 pounds. I’m 5’4″.

I couldn’t even walk down the hall without getting out of breath. I did not fit in anything besides our living room couch. I hated how I looked. Hated myself.

But I could not and would not eat right.

Then, I chaperoned my daughter’s kindergarten field day. One of her classmates said to her: “Why is your mom SO fat?” My daughter, being the level headed girl she can be just looked at him like he was an idiot and ignored it.

However, it stung me deep. I did not want my child growing up with the “fat” mom, the child who all had to carry the burden of MY fat on her shoulders from classmates’ taunts.

At that point, I began researching weight loss surgery.

Now, I’m a medical wuss. I throw little tantrums at pain, needles, being poked/prodded, etc. I also threw up violently the only other time I had surgery. I also read so much about how the surgery was a KICKSTART and not a cure for overweight or food addiction. Many think its the “easy way out” because you don’t have to “do” the work.

Not true.

I made the decision to go for it in summer 2016. You have to follow a diet for a few months prior in order to reduce some organ sizes to make surgery safer. So, by the time I went under the knife, I was down to 330, from 350. My surgery was surprisingly easy. Once I woke up I had no nausea or vomiting, literally the mildest pain, like being sore after a stomach bug, that lasted for maybe one day…and that was it. The first year or so, the weight DID come off easily due to my tiny stomach (I had the sleeve) and physically not being able to eat much food or certain types of foods. Eating beyond a few ounces at each meal or eating bready/fried foods make me instantly throw up. After a few dashes to the bathroom in restaurants, I learned that.

I lost 80 pounds, getting down to 250, which is where I am now (give or take pounds due to my period, eating salty foods, or things like that). How now, almost two years out, the “easy” part is over. Now that my stomach is fully healed and has stretched a bit due to just…you know, eating, I can eat more and more kinds of foods. Nowhere near what I used to eat though; I used to be able to eat an ENTIRE pizza on my own followed by chips or something.

But my weight loss has stalled…at 250 without me having to now work at it like anyone who hasn’t had the surgery. So, some may ask, then why do it? Because…80 pounds. And the kick in the butt surgery gave me.

Without the surgery I have no doubt in my mind that I would have kept going up and up till I became one of those 600 pound people trapped in their home. No doubt.

So, even if I never lost another pound and stayed where I am, I WOULD DO IT ALL AGAIN. I run around with my kids now. I wear a size 22/24 rather than 28/32. I fit in most seats. I don’t feel like or look like a freak. I just look like your average overweight middle aged woman.

All this to say: I now need to figure out what to do going forward to keep losing. I know friends who have had success with Weight Watchers (not sure I want to pay for that) and after WLS it is recommended that you go low-carb’ish, eating protein first, then veggies, then fruits and finally (if ever/rarely) simple carbs.

So, I will choose a way to eat this week to keep my loss going.