I
met a young man at a local thriftstore the other day. I have seen him in
several of the local Goodwill stores and he has started to recognize me as
well. He stands out. He currently weighs between 300 and 400 pounds and is
about 5 feet 10 inches tall. Lots of tattoos on his neck and arms. He has been
very polite in all of our interactions, and I told him that I had once weighed
300 pounds. He looked at me carefully and asked how I had lost the weight. I
told him weight loss surgery. That opened a flood gate of questions, concerns
and a clear dialogue was developed. He was in the early stages of the 6 month
program at Kaiser leading to potential weight loss surgery. The program
requires you to make a concerted effort to loose weight on your own, before they
will do WLS. They provide weekly group meetings to help you in the process. He
seemed happy with the progress he had made and looked forward to the weekly
guidance sessions. He told me he didn’t have too many risk factor issues like
heart problems, diabetes and other physical problems. But I wasn’t sure he was telling me the
complete truth.
We
spent some time discussing the surgery (proposed gastric sleeve) and what were
things he could anticipate down the road after the surgery. I l=told him about
the rapid weight loss amd some of the dietary problems I encountered. I also
told him about my current battle to take off some of the weight I gained after
that first amazing year of weight loss. The psychology of the weight loss
process is extremely important in that post-surgery world. Failure to exercise,
increased snacking, and eating the wrong kinds of foods can all be part of a
problematical resolution. I asked him about why he felt he needed to have the
surgery and he told me about failed attempts to lose weight in the past. Now he
said he was doing it for himself. He was going to try to lose the weight so
that he could be healthier, happier and in a better place. He had the right
attitude and I wished him luck. But it is not just luck. It is the will to not
go back to where you were before you lost weight. There is no alternative that says that you
can return to your old habits. There are sacrifices that have to be made. As
this blog has stated many times this WLS should not be a sentence of dull,
tasteless food or the ability to go out to restaurants and eat with your
friends. It opens new life vistas that while they do have some restrictions on
how much you eat, do not restrict you at all about the types of foods you eat.
So Eric, get through this early stage process and get the surgery done as soon
as possible. You will be starting a whole new life. Get started as soon as possible.
