New and nervous

[Dbro]

I am extremely new to being part of a support group. I am generally a really private anxiety filled person. The medical team that I am working with suggested trying an online support group.

So here I am way outside of my comfort zone. I am in the process of having gastric bypass surgery. I am still waiting to be “green lit for surgery”. I am currently “yellow”. This is because I struggled with eating enough protein for a few weeks when I had a family member became ill and I was trying to take care of them. I am reevaluated in a few weeks so hopefully it will be a positive appointment. I have currently lost 22lbs but I hope that I can lose over 100lbs after surgery. I’m really nervous that I won’t succeed.

Honestly I don’t know what I expect from posting this and I appreciate anyone who took the time to read my rambling. I think it might just help to put these thoughts out so it’s not just rumbling around in my brain.

 

[dianeseattle]

This is because I struggled with eating enough protein for a few weeks when I had a family member became ill and I was trying to take care of them. I am reevaluated in a few weeks so hopefully it will be a positive appointment. I have currently lost 22lbs but I hope that I can lose over 100lbs after surgery. I’m really nervous that I won’t succeed.

Welcome to your support group, Dbro. Are you a man or a woman? It doesn't really matter, but the "bro" part of your handle made me wonder.

It's so great that you've started losing weight. My doctor told me I had to lose weight before he'd do the surgery, and that was back in 2008. I didn't lose much because I only had to wait about a week or so after our appointment. Weight loss surgery (WLS) is much more structured with its waiting periods and goals now. I wasn't nervous, though, because ignorance is bliss, you know? I had no idea how long I'd be in the hospital and how much pain I'd be in and how long it would take before I fully recovered.

Still, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Having this surgery was one of the best things I've ever done for myself. And I lost 115 pounds over 14 months.

I want to address how you ate differently because you had family issues. What would you do differently after you had surgery? Would you stick to your eating plan even if it meant planning and preparing meals ahead of schedule? What was the main reason you gained weight while caring for another person? I feel you need to address those issues because they could happen again.

Pretty much everyone who's ever been part of this group has succeeded with surgery. I'll share one tip with you which, if you adopt it, will offer you insurance that you will succeed. Get a notebook and write down every crumb of food you eat, honestly and completely. This will help you become aware of how you eat and what you need to do differently. Most of us with weight problems got that way because we weren't thinking about what we ate, and we just popped any little bite or bit or morsel of food in, unaware that crumbs add up to a meal.

So start your notebook now, and when you get through surgery and/or your appointments with a dietician or nutritionist, consult with that medical professional about what you should eat, and in what amounts. If you want to read more about this from a group member, I posted my post-op diet on my profile page. It was actually a letter I wrote to my obese sister, who actually eventually died from complications of obesity, including diabetes and heart problems. But if you read what I wrote, hoping to save her life, you'll get an idea of what my post-op diet was like. For me, post-op is similar to how I've always eaten, except the amounts are smaller and I don't add sugar to anything. Still, I eat very well. Again, if you go to my profile, you can scroll through pages and pages of foods that I've cooked or baked for myself since surgery.

You will succeed! Don't worry about it, even if you're a little nervous. It's normal to fear change and to be nervous about dramatic changes, like what foods you eat versus how you eat with a pouch where your stomach used to be. Thanks for sharing with us right away and I hope you stay engaged in our conversations here.

 

[dianeseattle]

p.s.: here's the link to my profile and all the resources there: https://www.americanbariatrics.org/members/dianeseattle.12861/

 

[Dbro]

Welcome to your support group, Dbro. Are you a man or a woman? It doesn't really matter, but the "bro" part of your handle made me wonder.

It's so great that you've started losing weight. My doctor told me I had to lose weight before he'd do the surgery, and that was back in 2008. I didn't lose much because I only had to wait about a week or so after our appointment. Weight loss surgery (WLS) is much more structured with its waiting periods and goals now. I wasn't nervous, though, because ignorance is bliss, you know? I had no idea how long I'd be in the hospital and how much pain I'd be in and how long it would take before I fully recovered.

Still, I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Having this surgery was one of the best things I've ever done for myself. And I lost 115 pounds over 14 months.

I want to address how you ate differently because you had family issues. What would you do differently after you had surgery? Would you stick to your eating plan even if it meant planning and preparing meals ahead of schedule? What was the main reason you gained weight while caring for another person? I feel you need to address those issues because they could happen again.

Pretty much everyone who's ever been part of this group has succeeded with surgery. I'll share one tip with you which, if you adopt it, will offer you insurance that you will succeed. Get a notebook and write down every crumb of food you eat, honestly and completely. This will help you become aware of how you eat and what you need to do differently. Most of us with weight problems got that way because we weren't thinking about what we ate, and we just popped any little bite or bit or morsel of food in, unaware that crumbs add up to a meal.

So start your notebook now, and when you get through surgery and/or your appointments with a dietician or nutritionist, consult with that medical professional about what you should eat, and in what amounts. If you want to read more about this from a group member, I posted my post-op diet on my profile page. It was actually a letter I wrote to my obese sister, who actually eventually died from complications of obesity, including diabetes and heart problems. But if you read what I wrote, hoping to save her life, you'll get an idea of what my post-op diet was like. For me, post-op is similar to how I've always eaten, except the amounts are smaller and I don't add sugar to anything. Still, I eat very well. Again, if you go to my profile, you can scroll through pages and pages of foods that I've cooked or baked for myself since surgery.

You will succeed! Don't worry about it, even if you're a little nervous. It's normal to fear change and to be nervous about dramatic changes, like what foods you eat versus how you eat with a pouch where your stomach used to be. Thanks for sharing with us right away and I hope you stay engaged in our conversations here.

I’m a woman. The username are initials of my name. I guess I really never thought about “bro” being part of it.

I didn’t actually gain any weight while taking care of my mom I just wasn’t eating a very structured diet. I skipped a lot of meals and didn’t eat enough protein during that month. I actually have been using an app to catalog everything I’ve eaten for the past few months. It’s how I realized I was tasting a lot of the food while I was cooking for my family and how I was usually skipping 2 meals daily. Now I just cook the food without tasting it to make sure it’s seasoned enough and tell my kids to spice it up on their own. The nutritionist was concerned that I fell back into old bad habits of skipping meals when taking care of my mom. Since that appointment I have stocked up on high protein yogurts and cottage cheese cups as well as protein bars, snack size fruit/veggie packs on hand for the days I am extremely busy.

Thank you for replying and all of the advice. I will read your attached post tomorrow.

 

[AnitaB]

I am extremely new to being part of a support group. I am generally a really private anxiety filled person. The medical team that I am working with suggested trying an online support group.

So here I am way outside of my comfort zone. I am in the process of having gastric bypass surgery. I am still waiting to be “green lit for surgery”. I am currently “yellow”. This is because I struggled with eating enough protein for a few weeks when I had a family member became ill and I was trying to take care of them. I am reevaluated in a few weeks so hopefully it will be a positive appointment. I have currently lost 22lbs but I hope that I can lose over 100lbs after surgery. I’m really nervous that I won’t succeed.

Honestly I don’t know what I expect from posting this and I appreciate anyone who took the time to read my rambling. I think it might just help to put these thoughts out so it’s not just rumbling around in my brain.

I too am new to this group. I love the app, I'm using and it helps me see when I snack. I have to figure out is it truly because I'm hungry or just snacky/bored. I still find this part difficult to figure out sometimes. Someone suggested drinking water and then that re evaluate if I'm hungry or not.
Thank you for your honesty in posting. I just want you to know that you are not alone in starting this journey. Hope you have success in the upcoming time you have before you can do surgery and even after.

 

[Dbro]

Thank you.