New here and waving hi!
on 4/29/17 9:55 pm
Hello all,
I've been reading this forum for the past several days, watching youtube videos, etc. as I am in the process of preparing for roux-en-y surgery. Terrified, but going forward nevertheless. I have one more visit with a specialist to take a look at a small cyst which showed up in my GI imaging, but I am at ease about that. Once that's cleared I will get my surgery date!
I have dieted intensely many times, always successfully, losing on several occasions >100 pounds. Yet I have not been able to hold onto my losses and at this point find myself very heavy and ready to try this dramatic an approach. I think that had I dieted sensibly - by eating lots of vegetables, lean protein, etc. rather than as I did, by crazy HMR, Optifast or Medifast shakes alone (sometimes for longer than a year!), I would probably have had less of a backlash from my own physiology once I reached my goal. The good thing is that my pre-op diet will be relatively easy for me, as I am very familiar with that type of diet. I actually debate with myself whether I should try once more to eat my way down the scale (veggies, fish, etc.) rather than take a surgical approach. But I know I can't just do diet shakes alone for a year or 18 months again, only to predictably fight against my body's will to regain. I do realize that the bariatric surgery is a tool rather than a promise of forever-after slimness, and that I will have to work to keep myself slim, but I figure it will be a little easier with that tool. And I am determined to give it my all. Sorry for the italics - I tried switching it off but it isn't working. Anyway - nice to meet you all!
The first week is tough but once you get into the swing of things I think you'll enjoy it as a former dieter. I often describe it as being on the worlds strictest yet easiest diet. I spend very little energy thinking about food
Im about 6 weeks out from surgery and yesterday was my first visit to a restaurant to actually sit and eat a meal. I probably ate about 20% of what I would normally eat. I broke a few rules but just barely. Got on the scale this morning and the number made me smile.
I too had dieted all my life with the added complication of diabetes. After surgery, dieting was not the same.
I ate a tiny fraction of what I had eaten before. Many meals consisted of one ounce of meat. I was never hungry and very satisfied with what I ate. I met my protein requirements from protein shakes for the first two years.
Dieting is so easy when you are never hungry, can only eat a small amount of food, and not all of that food is digested. My center has a strict diet plan. No rice, potatoes, bread, crackers, cereal, flour, sugar, noodles, pasta, or sweets.
For the first three months, no fruit and no raw vegetables. After three months, I was allowed salad, strawberries or blueberries. At eighteen months, I added apples.
Because I ate no white carbs, my hunger never returned. I strongly believe that failure with this surgery comes from trying to eat like a "normal" person. If I do attempt to eat white carbs, my hunger comes back. It is close to ten years since I had surgery.
I see so many people come to this forum and post that they are eating like before surgery, only smaller amounts. I hold little hope for those people to have long-term success. We never hear from them after the first easy year or so of easy loss that is the gift of surgery no matter what you eat.
They do re-appear in year three. They are sad that the surgery did not work for them. They are obese again and asking for advise about revisions.
Weight loss centers do a good job with surgeries, but are failing miserably with telling patients how to adjust their diets for long-term maintenance.
Real life begins where your comfort zone ends
on 4/30/17 6:17 pm
Hi White Dove,
Thank you so much for your response. During the intermittent times I was able to stay slim (usually not more than 2.5 years before I'd begin regaining), the diet you describe was the diet I naturally favored (no white food or sweets, that is) - it is actually what I like best naturally when I am not going off the deep end. I am going to print out your response and keep it, as I think this is true and I need to imprint it within my being. Now that I am finally going to take such a big step I want to be very steady, observant, and truly honest with myself in how I manage maintenance. I know how things have gone when I embraced everything and everything as if I was a lifelong active ecto- or mesomorph unaffected by my food choices. I know how reality has bitten me in the caboose every time I acted as if a meal consumed in solitude wouldn't have consequences! Talk about magical thinking! I know that I have a huge capacity for denial! Everything we do has consequences, and getting to the point of actually having surgery is for me such a huge step, one I resisted for decades. The last thing I want to do is blow it. It's interesting to me that every time I ever dieted before I had great certainty that I would never be fat again, because I was always so extremely focused and single-minded about achieving my goal. Yet here I am, way too heavy. I really appreciate too that you wrote what you did and find your experience of no hunger when eating correctly to be very compelling. Thank you for taking the time to write.
