Pre Op Diet Starts

So the time has come for me to start my 2 week pre op diet.  The purpose of the pre op diet is to shrink the liver by stripping away the excess fat and glycogen.    A big fatty liver is a fragile thing so a smaller liver makes the surgery much safer.
To be honest this is the stage I have been dreading the most.  I am worried I will be hungry and won't be able to stick to it and then my surgery will be cancelled because my liver has not shrunk.

So the idea of the diet is to replace all of your meals with shakes and you can also have some green veggies and diet jelly.  The idea is to send you body into a state of Ketosis which reduces your hunger.  The dietitian explained it to me like this:  After 3 days of very limited carbohydrate intake and very low calorie intake your body thinks there is a famine so it shuts of your hunger signals and starts to convert the fat stores in your body to fuel.

So for the next 2 weeks I will be on 3 Optislim shakes a day, as much diet jelly as I want (the dietitian said it will not matter if I use this as a stomach filler as there is no calories or carbs) and I can have 2 cups of  green veggies (no potatoes, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, corn, parsnip, legumes or any starchy veggies) a day as well 1 cup of berries (blueberries, raspberries or strawberries) and water, black tea, coffee and herbal tea.  You also need too take a fiber supplement like Metamucil.

I can use as many herbs and spices as I want so I think stir fry will be a regular meal.  I plan on having a shake for breakfast, my berries for morning tea, another shake for lunch, a late afternoon shake and then veggies for dinner.  The dietitian also said that if I was ever hungry I should eat, celery sticks, cucumber and carrots as these would not impact my weight loss.

So here goes.  I hope it is not too hard.  No I will not think like that.  I will look at my vision board to remind me why I am doing this.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

Dietitian Appointments

Over the next 6 months I will have 5 appointments with a dietitian to make sure I am aware of everything I need to do at each stage of this journey.

Appointment Schedule

1.  A week before starting my 2 week pre-op diet to discuss the do's and don'ts over the 2 weeks.
2.  2 days before surgery to discuss the 2 weeks of liquid only post op.
3.  Last day of liquid only diet to discuss moving on to blended phase
4.  4 weeks post op discussing moving back to all foods
5.  3 months post op discussing how to keep loosing weight until you reach your goal weight.

Next week if my first appointment which will be conducted over the phone because of where I live.  The Dietitian I am seeing is Andrew McNeill and he works with my surgeon a lot.
He  has been really nice so far and took the time to explain all of the stages that we will discuss and what I have to look forward to.  He also reassured me that I have a great surgeon who takes no risks and will really look after me.
It was great to hear that from him, not that I had any concerns but at the back of my mind I know there are real risks associated with any surgery.

I will post about the details of each appointment as they happen.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

Can You Be Fat And Healthy?

I guess that is a pretty loaded question.

If you are young, active, have no health conditions and are only a little overweight then maybe yes you can still be healthy.  But the chances of your health not being affected in the future I think are slim, something that, if you are heavy when you are young, you are unlikely to be as you age.

Since I hit puberty I have always been overweight but from when I was 18 until when I was 30 my weight hovered around 85kg.  I was active, went to the gym 4 times a week, played sports, and generally ate healthily.

But then age kicked in and the weight slowly crept on.
As my weight increased I also found exercise less enjoyable and therefore did less of it.  And so the vicious cycle began.

I think that you can be fat and healthy in the short term but in the long term I think that you body is less able to deal with the extra weight.  I for one know that my joints ache now and they never used to and they will be glad for me to shed this extra weight.

I sure am looking forward to a healthy future and that is one of the biggest reasons for having the surgery. Looking good will just be an added bonus.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

The Scales Don't Lie - The Before Photos

So I am starting this journey at 116kg and that is my heaviest weight ever.
In my 20's I hovered around 85 - 90kg but over the last few years the weight has crept on.  Bloody 30's.

For me it is really hard to see myself as I really am and apparently I have been fooling others too.  The other day I was discussing with a good friend my surgery and the fact that I wanted to loose  nearly 50kg and he just about choked on his coffee.  He was shocked and told me there was no way I needed to loose that much weight and he was having trouble understanding why I was doing something so drastic..  I asked him why he thought that and he said that I did not over eat or eat bad foods.  He is correct that I don't over eat that much and I eat really healthy food but my hormones really affect me.  Then he says "plus you are not really that big", guess I had him fooled.
He got me to stand up and he said he still couldn't see it.  So I laughed at him and told him how much I weighed.  Then he got it.
He got up and hugged me and said "now I understand".  Until that moment when I put it in numbers he had now idea.

So I have taken my before photos so that I can track my progress.  Even with the dusty mirror soft focus on you can still see that I carry all my weight around my middle, the worst place to be fat due to the organ damage it can do.

Anyway this is the starting point and I will never again be this big.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

Staying Motivated

I know that there are going to be some tough times ahead and I am trying to put some strategies in place to give me the very best chance of success.
Many people will think that this surgery is the easy way out and that it does not require as much effort as traditional dieting but I know there are hard times ahead.

The times I see being the hardest are:
The last week before starting my Pre Op Diet
The Pre Op Diet (the first few days in particular)
Immediately Post Op
The first 2 weeks Post Op

And Here's Why:

• The last week before starting my Pre Op Diet - I think this will be my time of doubt.  Am I doing the right thing, OMG I might never eat this again, I am not sure if this is what I want, and many more negative thoughts.
• The Pre Op Diet (the first few days in particular) - Diet shakes and rabbit food, hunger (I think this will be mainly the first few days but I worry that it will last the full 2 weeks)
• Immediately Post Op - I do not cope well with the anesthetic and I know I will feel really rotten and nauseous for at least 24 hours.  I worry that the hospital staff will not be able to get this under control and I will end up retching and tear my staple line.
• The first 2 weeks Post Op - This is where I think I will be thinking what have I done, will I ever get my energy back, and I can't wait to get rid of these shakes and eat some real food.

So I have made myself a vision board.  Something to remind me that these are all short term issues to overcome and I have so much to look forward to.

I will be looking at this every day as I have it on my office wall and I will be using it to remind me of all the good times to come.
Hopefully these images and words will get me through the hard times.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

Dealing With A 12 Month Wait

I had my first appointment with my surgeon 12 months ago and at the time I weighed 113 kg.
Because I needed to upgrade my level of private health insurance to cover my operation I had to wait 12 months before I could have the surgery.
At the time my surgeon warned me not to just go out and eat like I would never eat again.  He said it was quite normal for people to put on weight once they knew they were having bariatric surgery.  But for most people the damage they can do is relatively minor as their surgery is in the not to distant future.
So with 12 months up my sleeve I had to be very careful.
For the first half of my 12 month wait it felt like it was so far in the future that I didn't think about it that much and life went on as per normal.  But as the day has gotten closer the reality has started to set in and with 4 weeks to go my mind is consumed with thoughts about the operation and my future eating habits.

I had read about people having last suppers and going on massive binges before their operation.  It was something I could not really understand.  I mean if you are having a gastric sleeve you will be able to go back to eating most things just in smaller amounts.

But you know what?  I have been thinking about foods as I eat them wondering if this will be the last time I eat them.  I am not someone who eats junk food on a regular basis and I would say that it would be less than once per month that I ate chocolate, chips, burgers or any other type of take away.  But the other day I went and had a burger from those big golden arches.  It is not somewhere I eat that often but for some reason I felt I needed to go.
And since then it is like my subconscious has taken over because all I can think of are the things I want to eat before I have my op.  And the things I want to eat are not take away foods.  On the list is steak and roast lamb.  And I also want to go out for a really fancy 3 course meal.  There is nothing else at this stage but I am sure there will be in the weeks to come as I count down.
The main thing with only 4 weeks to go is that I have managed to limit my weight gain to just 3 kg.  I plan to do some cutting back before I go on my shakes so hopefully I will get rid of that 3 kg.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

Why Now?

As I said in my overview my weight has not really caused me any issues or held me back in the past but things have changed and  in the last 2 years my body has started giving me different signals.

I feel like I am at a crossroads with two options "business as usual" and "make a significant change".

If I head down the "business as usual" path there is a future that I never thought would be part of my destiny. A future that includes type 2 diabetes, joint pain, feet problems, back problems, continued fertility issues and more weight gain.

Already I am seeing the signs that these things are on the cards.  I have noticed that I am hauling myself up from the sofa and when I get up and my knees often crack.  My back is often sore and my podiatrist (who I see for non weight related issues) has said my feet problems will be significantly improved with weight loss and/or significantly worse with weight gain.
Exercise of any description is also becoming a chore, a real chore and this is making me avoid it, which lets face it is the opposite of what any overweight person needs.

I am someone who has always been active and in the past I have done kickboxing and been someone who goes to the gym on a regular basis. These days I like to ride my bike, I ski every winter, I love swimming and this is the first summer I have not been at the local pool swimming laps 4 mornings a week.  We also have a dog that needs a lot of exercise and even that has become a chore.  It is also over a year since I went to yoga and I feel tight and wound up all over.

For the first time ever I can see how it is possible to reach a certain weight (for me it was 105kg) and then to just have your weight and health start to spiral out of control.  For me it just felt like I had reached a point where my weight was close to spiraling out of control.

In the past I have lost weight though diet and exercise but it has never stayed off.  And after more than 20 years of this battle I have decided to go down the path of surgery.
It was not a decision I came to easily and anyone who knows me will tell you I am some one who is very detail orientated and I research all the big decisions I make.
I don't think it is the easy way out or a stand alone solution.  I am looking at it as a tool to help me loose enough weight so that exercise is much more enjoyable.

And the big kicker here is my fertility.  Hubby and I have been struggling to fall pregnant for the past 2 years and it is due to my PCOS and that is directly impacted by my weight.  So it is now or never.  If I put this off any longer I may be too old to have a baby at all.

So that is where things stand.  5 weeks until surgery and my brain is in overload.  There are so many things I have to get out in this forum, hopefully it will help me clear my head space.
My mind is also still telling me that my weight has not impacted to greatly on how I have lived my life. (although this is a self belief that I am going to challenge as this journey progresses)

Does any of this sound familiar?

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

A Brief Overview

I am at a bit of a loss as to how to start this, so I have decided to give a brief overview of where I am now and some basic details of my situation.

I am 35 years old and have battled my weight since I hit puberty when I was 11.  This is partly to do with the fact that I have PCOS (poly cycistic ovarian syndrome) but the reality is that I also over eat.  Not a good combination.

My weight has not been much of a barrier for most of my life and I have always done some sort of exercise, although not enough to ever shift a significant amount of weight or keep it off.

But over the last few year there have been signs that my weight is now starting to have an impact on my health and I can feel myself at the start of a downward spiral.

So just over 12 months ago I started investigating bariatric surgery and decided that a gastric sleeve might be the way to go.  I got a referral from my GP and started investigating surgeons.  I ended up going to see Dr Michael Hatzifotis .

After putting him through his passes with an exhaustive list of questions I had decided to book in to have a gastric sleeve in just over 12 months time.  The reason for the wait is that I needed to upgrade my private health insurance.

So for the last 12 months I have been in a holding pattern waiting for my surgery.  But now it is only 5 weeks away  on February 14 and there are so many thoughts running through I really needed somewhere to get them all out.  I have been looking on line to try and get answers to some of these questions/thoughts and while there is lots of information out there I feel like there are details missing.

So I hope through writing this blog about my experience it will help other people.

I have only touched on some subjects very lightly here and will expand on them in future posts but for now you know a little bit about a few things.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.

I really appreciate any comments you take the time to leave.  Feel free to ask questions.

If you are on this journey too or any other type of weight loss journey feel free to say hello and share your story.