Laura Veen Baldus

Good article and I agree - this is the number one thing I fear as a new surgery patient (my surgery was Dec 24, 2015). I am lucky in that food was deeply unsatisfying to me before the surgery (with the exception of a bleu cheese smothered rib eye yum yum!!), but even that didn't curb me from eating poorly. I hated to think about food, honestly, and would grab and go or "worry about it later" which meant drive through food has been a cushion for a lot of years. I am working very hard at building new routines and thinking in a new way about food. Thank you for sharing your thoughts, it's given me more "food for fodder"!

So I'm five weeks out from surgery, and I thought I'd be amazingly transformed at this point. Well....maybe not AMAZINGLY transformed, but SOMEWHAT transformed would be a step in the positive direction! I have before pictures, and my after pictures look almost identical. But I've lost 27 pounds. You'd think that after 27 pounds, there'd be SOME aesthetic change. Especially considering I was heavy, but not extremely heavy. My co-workers tell me I look like I've lost weight, but I wear a girdle to work, so that doesn't encourage me too much. I should have taken measurements before my surgery and then kept up with it. So...that will start today. Another thing I have not been doing is exercising. Now my surgeon doesn't want his patients exercising before their six week checkup which mine will be next week. So I've rested on those laurels despite the fact that I know I've been ready to exercise for a couple weeks now. I haven't had one twinge of pain in probably two weeks. If my surgery isn't healed now, I'm guessing it won't be healed, hah! So I'm going to do ab exercises today as I noticed that my back hurts all day at my desk and it never used to do that. And some back strengthening exercises. Which reminds me....found a GREAT suggestion in a magazine last week. Write exercises on popsicle sticks (or pieces of paper) and put them in a cup marked "daily workouts." These exercises should be like "10 push ups" and "50 crunches" etc. Then, when it's time to work out, pull five of them out and go to town! Keeps the workout full of variety and won't let you get too bored! Good luck out there to everyone on this journey....stay tuned to find out how my progress is going!