Friday 20 April 2012

When does someone say enough is enough? Does everyone get to that point?

When does someone look in the mirror and think 'ok, enough is enough. I have to do something about my weight.' Are there people who honestly live in ignorant bliss for their entire lives and cannot see that their body is simply too big?

I have been watching a show on YouTube called SUPER SKINNY VS SUPER SIZE. It is about the extreme eating habits of large and small people and then getting 2 people from each size to swap diets for 5 days. It amazes me how the super size person is happily eating HUGE amounts of food per meal and yet they cannot understand why they are the size they are.

I know of someone who is extremely large (and getting bigger) and yet this person eats absolute rubbish and eats foods that even as a large person, I would never have eaten as they are so high in fat and sugar that you would need a medical team to sit beside you whilst you ate it. And yet, this person thinks they look great. Petite even. Weight related health problems have already started and yet this is not been taken seriously.

Everyone who is on the blog has gone through or is going to go through WLS. However it still amazes me how some people have no self confidence at all and yet there are some enormous people who appear to be ok.

I think we need to lack of self confidence to get going in the right direction. As the person I know will only get larger and sicker. Self confidence seems to have a good side and a bad side.

Saturday 14 April 2012

A PROBLEM - WHO CAN HELP?

So my dilemma is this. How do I keep my meal warm, since I am taking so long to eat it? Others must have this problems too and so I was hoping if there is any little plate warming gadget etc. that someone has discovered - please share!

I am not eating much. This is causing my mother some concern but I am eating as much as I can. For breakfast I will have about 3/4 of a scrambled egg. Morning tea might be half a glass of skim milk. Lunch might be 3/4 cup of porridge. Afternoon tea is 3/4 cup (sometimes I will eat half of it) of pureed pear. Dinner is 3/4 cup of something and for a drink just before bed it is a cup of milo made with skim milk. Plus water throughout the day.

I find pureeing food - even though it tastes the same - the appearance is a turn off. I'll get there. But I look forward to chewing something!

Wednesday 11 April 2012

I'M PUREEING BABY!

Today I am progressing to pureed foods. No, no don't be jealous, I can understand the envy. Who wouldn't want to blend their food to the point where it resembled clag glue?

So I had Greek yoghurt, porridge, and I scooped out the middle from a quiche and blended it till it looked like green mud - but it was delicious.

Tomorrow I thought I would roast a chicken and puree it.  It is amazing that once the food hits the food processor it basically disappears! Anyway ... by the end of the 2 weeks I will be an expert. 

The weight is coming off so all is happy. Bought a dress online and it arrived today and WOW I was thrilled. Things are looking up (except the weight!)

Saturday 7 April 2012

Gastric Sleeve Update

It is the weirdest feeling - not to be hungry. I look at the amount I eat in a day and I am not hungry. For those who did not know, when they are removing your stomach, the hunger sensors are also removed. therefore you do not get hungry. My family was a bit worried about this. Their main concern was that this could be dangerous. However although I do not feel hungry there is a funny sort of 'empty/hollow' feeling around meal time. Although I can easily get past this and simply grab a glass of water, it is a good little alarm bell to tell me that it is time to snack on something.

I have now lost 13.9 kg (30.65 pounds) in approx. 4 weeks. I feel great. My jeans no longer fit me and I am looking for clothes to get me through this, without looking completely daggy. What a terrible problem to have! LOL

Thursday 5 April 2012

Pumpkin Soup - Oh it was ammmmaaaazzzing!

Yes today I had pumpkin soup - YUM! Not much granted, but it was enough to kick start the taste buds again. I went to see the Dietician yesterday and she said for the next week I can have anything that I can suck up a straw.

 So.... off to the supermarket to find straw suckable food.

It is not far off winter here in Sydney so all of the soups are filling the shelves and there it was glowing - pumpkin soup, my favourite. I had about 100ml and I was full but at least it was not one of those horrible diet drinks.

So my day consisted of - 8 days post-op


  • Breakfast - 1/2 glass skim milk

  • Lunch - 100 ml of pumpkin soup (approx)

  • Tea - 100 ml of pumpkin soup (approx)



Drinks throughout day - water and diet ice tea.

I'm building it up. I just find I get full so quickly. Luckily with the sleeve I do not feel hungry, I just have to work on building up each meal.

Who would have thought - before the surgery I would have eaten a large bowl of soup and 1 roll for lunch. That would keep me going for a week now!

Monday 2 April 2012

WHY I CHOSE THE SLEEVE

Before I begin, I just want to say that what I am about to write is not to say one method is better than the other. Far from it. I am simply saying when choosing a weight loss method, I choose the sleeve. Everyone is different. Families, recovery times, reversible or not, etc. etc. factors into the decision made for everyone. 

But having said that ... phew! ... This is why I chose the sleeve.

I was given a choice between the band and the sleeve. These are the SOME of the points the doctor put forward.

The sleeve is not reversible - I was fine with that. I did not want to reverse it. I have had problems with my weight my entire life and now was the time to find a suitable method and live with it. I was not sure in myself (crystal ball time) if when the time came and I had the band removed, that I would be able to stick with the proper choices or that I would slip back into my old ways.

Recovery time is longer - Yep I am going through that now. True it is not a walk in the park BUT I am getting through it. I'll live and I know that every day becomes easier and what I am going through now is just that - only going to be now. I can't go through it again! (Gee what a whimp!)

It is major surgery and that can bring some terrible complications - True. The doctor went over all of the things that could go wrong BUT the idea of staying fat and getting fatter as I got older was also dangerous.

It is not an ongoing concern - I have to see the doctor and his staff at least once a month for a year but after that I am a free woman. With kids, work and not living close to the clinic I did not want ongoing trips.

When I was in pre-op, a lady was having the band and she was talking about her reasons for that choice and it was totally understandable in her position. You only have to look on the net to see peoples fantastic results from various types of surgery.

It is serious surgery, there is no denying that and when a piece of paper is put down in front of you with all of the complications that can arise - mmmmmm it looks a little daunting. However I have gone though with it and so far have no regrets. I now have to adjust to my new life and that is what it will be as all prior eating habits are out the window - for life. Let's just hope it made the life a bit longer!



Sunday 1 April 2012

I HAVE BEEN SLICED AND DICED!

I AM BACK! I MADE IT! ...... just

Wow I cannot believe the surgery is done and I am at home with a feast of medications before me - what a glamorous life I lead.

So I had the gastric sleeve and was in hospital for 3 nights. It was a private hospital and it was all very cushy and the staff were fantastic HOWEVER the indigestion was horrendous!

The doctor pumps gas into you so that he can see what he is doing - why the hell he cannot stick that blower onto suck and suck it all out again is beyond me. The pain was terrible for the entire time and I am still getting bouts of it now.

The hospital stay was interesting. There was 2 sleeve patients and 1 band patient for the same doctor on the same ward and we became quite chatty and did our walks through the hospital together pushing our IV poles with our excess blood bags swaying in the wind. Victoria Secret models look out!

He said that he wants me to drink my pre-op diet drinks (200+ mls) every meal and 600 mls of water on top of that in a day. Oh I think not! I can barely take 10 mls of panadol without feeling I have had eaten a Christmas dinner. But like a trooper I try....

The meal replacement drinks are tasting worse now than they ever have but I had a drink of apple juice today - oh the taste! It was like nothing I had ever experienced before - yum.

My family are a bit worried at how little I am consuming. I am trying and there are still a lot of meds running through my system that don't make you feel too great. But as time goes on I will get there.

Would I do it over again? To be honest - the way I felt in the hospital, absolutely not. I thought I was going to die. In fact the clock in front of me at one stage read 2.14pm and so I declared "and time of death is 2.14" - BUT as time goes on and the weight comes off I will be happy. Sort of like childbirth you forget the pain when you see the result. Mind you, at least with the sleeve it is a one off never to be repeated experience - huge relief!