One Month Update

I'm a month out from surgery today and, I've got to say, I'm really happy.  My recovery has been smooth and my weight loss has been steady.  I feel really great about life right now.  I feel like I can conquer the wall.  

Before surgery, I had a list of 20 WLS Promises that I shared here.  I decided that it would be fun to revisit those and see how I was doing.  The original list is in black and I've added my notes in red.  

1. I will not panic if I stop losing weight for a few weeks. Instead, I will re-evaluate that my eating is on plan and wait until the stall has lasted 4 weeks before I start to panic. – Knock on wood, no stalls yet!



2. I will not ask OH what I need to take to the hospital, I know these things. Chapstick and a pillow. And the pillow really just needs to be in the car for the trip home. – Check. I took my Kindle, of course, and didn’t use it once. I did use my phone quite a bit.



3. I will not lie when people ask me how I’ve lost the weight. I will either be honest and tell them “surgery, diet and exercise” or I will tell them “I’m not comfortable talking about this with you.” These are the options, lying by omission is not one of them. – This hasn’t come up yet.



4. If I fail, and I will fail, I will forgive myself and return immediately to plan. It’s okay to screw up, it’s not okay to beat myself up for it or let it become the start of a downward spiral. – So far I’ve been 100% on plan. The thought of eating off plan has zero appeal to me right now since food isn’t super appealing anyway.



5. If I don’t start losing sizes right away, I won’t freak out. Chances are the clothes I wear now are too small and tight, and I just deal with it. It might take awhile for my current clothes to fit correctly and that will happen before I can get into smaller sizes. – No sizes lost yet, but my tight clothes are SUPER baggy. 



6. I will own my mistakes. They’re mine and result of my own choices, no one is ever going to hold a gun to my head and make me eat crap, I control what goes into my own body. – No issues here, but it’s still early. 



7. I will not compare my weight loss to that of anyone else. I’m me. – I do this, of course. Because I’m human. Sigh. 


8. I will do everything I can to find a therapist I can work with. This will help me out in the long run. – I LOVE my therapist! I see her ever week and I’m enjoying it and think it’s beneficial. I’m glad I did this. 



9. I will be hyper aware of potential addiction transfer issues and especially aware of getting too caught up in numbers as I already know I am want to do. – No issues yet. 



10. Extra skin is a fact of life, get the **** over it. If I really hate the way my body looks, I can save my pennies and nickels for plastic surgery once I’ve maintained for a year or two. People will still have sex with me if I have weird skin, and Under Armour sells compression gear. I will, however, have every issue with my skin documented. – No issues with extra skin yet, in fact, I’ve been feeling my skin getting tighter. It’s really cool! 



11. I will be kind to myself. I will keep getting to my monthly massages, I will keep engaged in my hobbies, and I will spend time with my friends. – Check! Well, I haven’t had a massage yet, since I gifted my March massage to my bff, but I have one scheduled for the end of April and I can’t wait. 



12. I already know that being a “hero” about medication is stupid so I’ll work on remembering that when the time comes. Pain keeps us from healing, it’s not noble. – I was definitely not a hero about pain and used pain meds in the hospital and for a few days after. No longer term issues, though, so that’s a relief!



13. I will only weigh myself once a week. I will not let myself get obsessed with the scale. See #9. – Yeah.. I “failed” on this one, but I think it’s a good thing. I’ve been using TrendWeight which wants daily weigh ins and I’ve learned to take the number as just another data point. No freaking out with daily fluctuations. It’s pretty great and healthy feeling. 



14. My stomach will probably gurgle after surgery, this is normal. Just don’t go to silent Meeting anytime soon. – My throat makes lots of noises too! 



15. I will not worry if people don’t comment on my weight loss. I will assume that they’re being polite and not commenting on another person’s body, which is what they should do. – No one who doesn’t know that I’ve had surgery has commented, and I’m cool with that. But I’ve also only lost 40ish pounds, so it’s not surprising that people aren’t commenting. And I don’t want them to anyway. Heh. 



16. I will work to break the compulsions to “clean my plate” and to “not let food go to waste.” Sure, there are starving kids in Africa, but throwing away food will not change the situation. – So far, so good. I’ve left food on my plate a few times because I just don’t want to eat the rest that I’ve measured, and I’m cool with that.


17. There is nothing to be done for hair loss, assuming that I’m eating on plan. It will happen, or it won’t, but I will remember that it will grow back eventually. I will be a shavee with St. Baldricks six weeks post-op. – 13 days to go! I’ve raised almost $1500!! I’m really looking forward to head shaving day. 



18. I understand that my hormones will be all messed up after surgery. I will do my best to remove myself from the company of others instead of taking my hormonal changes out on them. – I have warned people. Mostly I’ve been okay, maybe being on BCP helps? I did snap at my partners during dinner one night since they were both talking about how I didn’t need to finish everything if I didn’t want to. (After I’d already said that I was done eating.) That just really pissed me off for some reason. 



19. I won’t weigh myself for the first two weeks post-op because I know that I’ll gain weight from all of the fluids and swelling that surgery entail. I’ll wait to weigh until I’m off liquids. – I made it a week. Heh.



20. I will not panic if I don’t feel restriction immediately post-op. Chances are restriction won’t kick in fully until I’m eating dense proteins and that will take 4-6 weeks on my plan. – I started feeling restriction once I got to pureed foods, actually, so maybe late in the third week. I’m still learning how to read my body, it’s an interesting process.

New Things
21. Breaking the compulsion to eat mindlessly has been a challenging thing so I’ve been trying very hard to be more conscientious when I do eat. I only eat at the table and I focus on eating (or chatting if it’s a family meal). This focus, I think, has been really good for me.

22. Learning how to listen to my body after ignoring it for 37 years is a challenge.

I love this idea!  Do you mind if I use it when I go?  Don't have a date yet but by Thursday I should be on my way to it.

Of course I don't mind!  Ideas are for sharing, using, and improving :D  

Great list. You mind if I use it.  Surgery is on June 17th and I have been saying some of the same things. Awesome attitude. Thanks for posting.

Of course :)  

Only two months to go for you!

great post!!!

Thank you :)

Great list! You are doing great... keep it up! Congrats on your weight loss!

Great job. You've inspired me to create my own list!  Keep up the good work!  Congrats on your progress. 

I really enjoyed this post.  Thank you!