Getting It Done

You know how people say that a person will do whatever, quit smoking, lose weight, straighten up, when they’re ready?  Of course, if you’ve read this blog at all, you already know I’ve lost a great deal of weight.  But this past year has not been as kind to me due to illness.  I’m all better now.  However, my waistline isn’t quite back to where it used to be.  And, even though I’m ten years out from bariatric surgery, I had slipped in my eating habits.

And then.  One day.  I changed.

Perhaps it was the threat of national television cameras.  Perhaps it was the loss of my favorite jeans.  Perhaps it was just time.  

I got back to basics.  What do I eat?  Exactly what a bariatric patient should.  I eat a reasonable amount of lean protein.  I eat some vegetables.  I don’t consume sugar unless it’s in fruit.  I’m all into sugar free, fat free plain Greek yogurt flavored with Mio.  I don’t eat anything with flour in it.  For the most part.  I will use bread crumbs sparingly to make turkey meatloaf or burgers.  But no buns, no sandwiches, no taco shells, no chips.  I don’t eat anything fried either.

And you know what?  The first week almost killed me.  I’ve walked this road before.  It’s easier when you’re fresh out of surgery.  In a way.  See I know I can eat such things without being ill.  I also know I shouldn’t eat such things.  That, I believe, makes it harder.

My surgeon, Dr. Doug Olsen at Centennial in Nashville once said something alone the lines of: Many people who get this surgery think they will be able to eat like “normal people” and be thin.  You see someone in great shape, they’ve worked at it.  “Normal people” don’t eat just whatever they want.  Bariatric patients can’t either.

He’s right of course, but who wants to hear that?  No one.  That’s why America is oh so obese.  We all know what to do.  We have our addictions.  And we like them.

I am specifically a carbohydrate addict.  And recently I survived the ultimate test.  For me anyway.  I was in a Mexican restaurant.  And there I was, with warm, delicious tortilla chips in front of me.  And I didn’t eat them.  Oh sure, laugh.  But it was a big deal for me.  I was seriously thinking of not going to that restaurant just because of the chips.  I didn’t know if I could handle it, 

As it turns out, I could.  After almost three weeks of virtually no sugar, no flour, no potatoes, I am free of them.  I just don’t want them.  Do I still want pizza?  In theory, yes,  But I’d rather have the cheese.  I’m not rationalizing.–I’ll have it because today is whatever day.  I remove croutons from salads.  If my kids don’t finish their ice cream I, wait for it, throw it out.  Yeah, I don’t finish it for them.  

I’ve lost three pounds in almost three weeks.  That annoys me to no end.  That’s the same weight loss rate of a “normal person.”  My Vulcan physiology should’ve lost ten by now.  It hasn’t.  But it will.  

When it’s time.

 

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Tags: addiction, bariatric, carbohyrates, weight loss

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