BariatricEating.com Health & Nutrition
Rant - Ultimate question... ultimate answer!
Once in a while someone will write a post on our messsage board that
qualifies as an ultimate question and this one also got an ultimate answer.
So this month instead of my ranting about someone who didnt get it, I
defer my column to someone who asked a great question and got a great
answer from Dana White, our board administrator and generally wise soul.
- SM
I am 23 days away from my RNY. I am working on getting everything in line. I am watching my carbs, and trying to increase my protein intake. Tonight was a prime example... we had my son's 13th B-Day party, where he and his teen friends scarfed on pizza, cake and ice cream...not to mention the candy that they ate and the soda they gulped down. I decided earlier today that I wasn't going to over-do it. I have to start... so I ate only 1 slice of pizza, NO cake, NO ice cream, NO soda, and only a few gummy bears. For me that was HUGE!
I am trying to get my mind working in the right direction, but, I CANNOT, for the life of me, get it to compute how it will be post-op! I mean, how in the world am I going to do it? I am not scared. I am not nervous. I have the best surgeon I can find, not to mention the fact that I believe God has me in His hand! This is not a fear or nervous thing. It is just a matter of me not being able to grasp the change that is getting ready to happen in my life!
I forgot what it is like to be 130 pounds smaller(that is my goal)! I forgot what it is like to walk and not get winded. To run and feel good, not like I am going to die! To see beneath my waist, and not just see a fat glob of belly. I am in a total brain warp here!
HELP ME GET HOLD OF THIS, PLEASE!
It is extremely difficult pre-op to understand the post-op experience. It is extremely difficult to wrap your mind around life without hunger. Your chemistry will change. The RNY reroutes food. Your food digestion and your insulin production will happen at the same time. You will NOT become so hungry while you eat.
Even the doctors believe that this surgery is about restriction. It's NOT. It's about chemistry. Therein lies the protein hammer. If you get the surgery, and insist on retraining your body to accept all the crap again, you can, with some effort, get your old chemistry back.
This isn't so much about "stretching" the pouch that the doctors worry about as it is eating protein first, etc. You WANT healthy food and your body will treat you well by serving up chemistry that allows you to live normally. Your every thought won't be about your next meal or figuring out how to resist the office food crap. You'll be free to think about other stuff.
It's very difficult as a pre-op to imagine. The descriptions of the surgery and the belief of those who haven't had it is that it's all about restriction. If restriction was the only component, we'd look like death camp survivors. We'd be gaunt and energyless. This is the end result for many who rely on restriction without a change in eating habits. At the American Society for Bariatric Surgery convention, there were people in the medical field, who believe in restriction without great change in food choices, and they were either no longer near goal weight, many having gained back weight, and others who were thin and unhealthy. The people representing Susan's company in her booth looked fit, healthy, and full of energy with bright eyes and happy attitudes.
We don't FEEL deprived because we're not triggering the chemistry that haunted us as pre-ops. After your surgery, even that one slice of pizza will look like WAY too much food. Next time pizza is served, you'll likely pick a couple of the toppings from the slice and be satisfied. It won't torture you. It just doesn't.
I do need to stress here, that your body can be retrained to return to old chemistry. Those are the people that return to the breads, pastas, cheap carbs and sugars. Even though they'll make you dump early on, if you keep feeding them to your body, it will learn to tolerate them and it will then go back to the style of chemistry that drove you to the surgery in the first place.
It's hard to wrap your mind around what it'll be like. I want you to remember how hard it is now and later realize the difference. Then, at that moment, it's important that you decide.
You MUST decide how you want to live the rest of your life; Old chemistry, New chemistry. If you do what you're told around here, you can have that new chemistry virtually forever. If you do what many family and friends are going to encourage you to do, you CAN bypass the surgery and return to old way.
So, pay attention. Right now, as you eat, pay attention and try to remember what it's like. Write it down. Write down the sensations and the desires. Write down the moment you are hungry and what foods call to you. Then, later, do that again. Try to remember what they are BOTH like. Then decide.
Susan Maria, and by extension this board, will help you retain the gift of the surgery. It's NOT the restriction, it's the chemistry. You won't be able to wrap your mind around it until you're there. When you've spent most of your life in jail, it's hard to imagine the outside world.
Good luck, follow the rules, Dana
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© BE, Inc. 2011 - Susan Maria Leach. All rights reserved.
