Are you ready for Weight Loss Surgery

Hi everyone out there,

Where is your head?  The ONE BIG thing I learned before I had Weight Loss Surgery was that I had to be willing to do exactly what the Doctor wanted me to do if I wanted to be successful and Weight Loss Surgery.  I had to have my head in the right place and be willing to choose a healthy lifestyle forever.  I knew how I had been eating and that sure didn’t work for me because I was NOT eating the right things.  So if you are NOT willing to give up the junk food and snacking all day long you are NOT ready to have WLS. Your head has to be in the right place.  I am NOT saying that I never have a treat or eat desert.  I do have that now and then, just not every day! I may only have one small cookie not the whole bag of cookies.

I have also learned that you can eat yummy and good healthy foods.  You have to be willing to look for different ways to cook your food, and be a bit creative when it comes to what you are eating and look for healthy ways to convert some of the things you eat into a healthy recipe, it can be done because I have done it. Here is just a small example.  I used to eat a fresh fruit salad with whip cream on it.  Now I have a fresh fruit salad with Greek Yogurt on it and I love it. I just look at food differently.  I learned that snacking (or I call it grazing) is a killer and something that you shouldn’t do—sometimes people eat because of stress or being bored.  However you can do this: how about having few healthy snacks around such as fresh veggies.  You can eat them raw or steam them. 

WLS is not your miracle cure. It is going to be your TOOL to allow you to get the weight you want to achieve.  After the surgery it is going to require work and effort on your part and some exercise is really helpful too.  Take it one day at a time, don’t let it overwhelm you.  Don’t look at it and think I have to lose 125 pounds.  Look at it and say I am going to lose 5 pounds and then go for the next 5 pounds.  You DID NOT get fat overnight!

I had a sleeve and I had this surgery over 4 years ago.  I never feel hunger any more.  It is a good feeling to not feel hunger, but I do know that I should eat 3 meals a day.  What I did struggle with was “head hunger” that is where our good old brain tries to tell us we are hungry; the brain can play nasty tricks on you. 99% of the time you are NOT hungry. We now have a very small stomach which does NOT require large amounts of food. For your entire life you have been consuming large amounts of food.  Now all of a sudden you are eating small amounts of food and you brain is saying “hey you” where is all the food we used to eat????  It really does take a little time to re-train the brain, that you NO longer need large amounts of food.  When we go out and eat, we share a meal most of time, because they serve such large portions of food and NO one needs to eat all this food.

I believe having WLS has changed my entire life and all for the better.  But, if I wouldn’t have had my head in the right place it would have been a huge struggle for me.  I wanted to lose this weight more than I wanted anything in my life.  It worked for me and I have kept it off. It can work for you too!!!!  To maintain that weight loss, I eat healthy.  Nothing feels better than being healthy and being thin.

It took me about 6 months to make up my mind that I wanted WLS and the sleeve was going to be what would work best for me.  I also did a lot of research and I knew at the end of the 6 months that Dr. Aceves was going to be the ONLY Doctor that I would consider going to. It was my choice. His patients were all very pleased with their results and having WLS with Dr. Aceves. He has an excellent staff of Doctors and Nurses.  The hospital is fully equipped. This made it the right choice for me.  I was going to pay for this myself and I wanted the best I could find. I was older than a lot of you, and I wanted my recovery to be in a fully equipped hospital.  I can only speak about what I experienced, and I highly recommend Dr. Aceves.  I know if you are sitting out there trying to make your mind up you have 100’s of questions about all of this—I did and I had some wonderful patient people who answered ALL of my questions.  I am always here to try to answer any and all of your questions about Weight Loss Surgery and Dr. Aceves.  You can contact me here or send me a private E-mail.  My E-mail address is [email protected]

 

Suzanne

 

 

My head is NOT in the right place. Surgery is in 4 days. I have a therapist, but I am hoping the Sleeve will start me on the right path, put me in the right way. Do you reccomend a hypnotherapist to retrain the mind?

Hi,

I did have a need for one. I think you should be able to try it yourself. If that doesn't work for you then seek some professional help. I wish you great success with you weight loss surgery.

Hugs,
Suzanne

Suzanne,

Thank you so much for your post.  I needed to read your words of encouragement today.  God bless you and please continue to keep encouraging others with your story.

Crystal 

Hi,

I am thrilled that what I said helped you. I am always posting. I always here if you have any questions. You are doing something great for yourself.

Hugs,
Suzanne

Coming from someone who is only starting out on this journey towards WLS, thank you for your words of wisdom !!

Hi,

You are so welcome. . Just remember I am out here if you have any questions along the way.

Hugs,
Suzanne

What a great post. Thank you so much for this. I'm seeing my surgeon for the first time on Thursday. (Well, second, saw him a year ago)  These are a lot of the thoughts I was thinking of. I will almost definitely go to therapy to figure out why I use food for comfort and so forth.  But I cannot wait for the feeling of not being hungry.  Your post has made me feel more confident in my decision to pursue WLS, so thank you for that. =) 

Hi Amanda,

First of all yeah for you for moving forward. It is very normal to have all these feeling and emotions. And we seem to always have them all at the same time. I am here to support you and help you in any way I can.

Hugs,
Suzanne