lizziecharles

Admit this may be a long one so I apologize upfront for that!
I was ridiculously out of control in my eating habits therefore I was also crazy worried about my ability to make the change. I did begin changing my habits before surgery. I began walking short distances as the 8 stairs up from my basement had me huffing and puffing. Initially I dreaded having to walk the 3 blocks to pick up my children from school. For almost 2 decades I never really dealt with hunger because I often ate so consistently I don't think I ever allowed myself to get hungry. I woke up and thought about what I would eat for Breakfast, after Breakfast i focused on lunch but had Snacks, etc... I literally ate from wakeup, to my head hitting the pillow and often got up to eat more before I actually fell asleep. I remember eating 2 footlong subway subs in a sitting, and this wasn't a one time marathon thing; driving to 7-11 at midnight for junk food and then eating most of what I thought I would eat over 2-3 days. So I get it completely. Frankly I was scared sh**less that I would fail, or sabatoge myself along the way. Shortly before my first meeting with my center I had gestational diabetes but it went away immediately after my pregnancy. I admit when I am pregnant I am completely in control and anal about what I put in my mouth so lose weight throughout them. Of course post nursing forget about it! So after finding out I had no choice but to switch to formula I actually managed to become a full blown diabetic in about 5 months. It was a flurry of chocolate, fries and slurpees! My point being you and I are very much alike in being obsessed with food 24/7. So if I can do it anyone can do it!
I found out I had become a diabetic at my first appointment at my bariatric center, March 12, 2013. That was the day the light went on for me, even if it was dim when it started. I walked 15 minutes that first day and I hated it lol. That night I completely lost all control of my sanity as every emotion under the sun came out over every little thing. For a second I thought OMG I am pregnant!! But no, apparently I am an emotional eater so now instead of eating, all of a sudden I was feeling everything and it was completely overwhelming. For this reason I strongly recommend trying to get at least 2-3 days of healthier eating out of the way prior to your liquid pre-op. The mental part of this is by far the hardest, so getting a small advantage before really does help. So expect to be very hormonal when you start out.
Tricks of the trade pre-op.. I chewed a lot of stride gum especially during my liquid diet (3 weeks), lifesaver, that is my biggest thing to this day, although no I don't promote it post op as we all know it is a no no and I was 6 months out before I tried it. I drank a lot of low calorie fluids and I planned ahead for meals (before liquid pre-op). For the first little while I kept junk out of the house. I have kids so that's hard, so I chose to buy things they like but I don't, like all dressed chips, or cotton candy ice cream.. My fave thing being a large cup of lite hot chocolate with fat free hazelnut Creamer in the evening as a treat and it kept me pretty full.. so I would do it at my peak struggle time. I started keeping fruit that I really liked around, cherries and raspberries and I would go to town. Not ideal but it was certainly better than the alternatives.. smart pop was another fave pre-op.
No I was not perfect I had bad days, still do, but I started to convince myself that it didn't have to be a bad day.. instead it was a bad couple hours and then I let it go, guilt has no place on the road to success. It will not motivate you, it will only make you feel worse!! I made a list of all those things i wanted to be able to do post op... and a list of all those things I never wanted to feel or have happen to me again. That was emotional, then I put them up in a cpl places around the house where I thought they would most benefit me. I also included a list of the consequences of failing to follow my liquid diet. Number one of course being a cancelled surgery!
So I actually made it through all 3 weeks or 22 days as my nutritionist miscalculated lol. A ton of gum, broth to break up the sweetness, I was allowed 2 cups of raw green veggies/day added garlic salt or seasoning salt.. no dressing allowed! It makes you an idiot about a week in, prepare to write things down as you won't remember them. Drink tons of fluids as the day 3 headache is a nightmare and will likely last a cpl days and nothing will touch it but hydration so stay on top of that.
Post-op hunger concerns... I have hunger, boy do I experience real hunger. Now I am not trying to scare you, I didn't experience hunger like this until about 7 months out. So I have had a lot of time to work through better choices and options when I am hungry, the nice thing about being early out is that it won't take much to reel in said hunger if you are one who feels it. Have a cup of broth, some greek yogurt and boom it's gone for another couple hours. Also remember that your intake is soo limited that it is okay to feed it. Sometime just choose to feed it with fluids. That is the biggie, learning to decipher head hunger from actual hunger from thirst!! Once you get that straight your life will quickly become much easier. So pay attention to what each of them feel like, not as hard as it sounds I promise. Further out you can eat more, and I fall off the wagon the last time I was off for almost 4 weeks, stopped exercising too. I gained 5 pounds. The difference is that this time the weight gain actually scared me, having been a 'normal' size for a bit now I got comfortable and this was a well needed reality check. Now considering how much I was eating 5 pounds was kind, so the surgery really is just a tool. You still need to fight those demons for life but when I think about how much weight I could have gained in that same time period preop.. no comparison. I also dropped those 5 pounds during my 'taking back control' week. But what I didn't do is beat myself up for it, I went on a fabulous food vacation and when I landed back in reality I dealt with it. No guilt, just moved on and smartened up. So being kind to yourself is something that gets easier as you go through this process. It's also one of my favourite NSV's..
Sorry so long I admit I am horribly wordy... hope that helps alleviate some of your fears

That's amazing. Good work. I'm going to schedule my vsg date this week. You're pics are inspiring