Fighting, fighting, fighting. My whole life I've been fighting my body. I've dieted every which way and the simple truth of it is that I can lose and gain but not maintain. Since I was 18 years old I've lost hundreds of pounds and gained even more. So I'm taking the bull by the horns, so to speak, and doing something different. I'm having bariatric surgery a week from this coming Monday, on February 10th, 2014. They call it an RNY/sleeve. What they do is remove all but a finger's width of my stomach. I thought about doing a lap band, but after exploring the options, this seemed to fit into my life better. The band requires months of adjusting the band to get it right. The sleeve just requires doing what I'm told. It's about portion control and exercise, which all diets require, but there's the helpful fact that your stomach is smaller and much less food, consumed in small quantities, fills it up. Therefore the satiety function works much better...allegedly. I am trying this because the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. So I'm doing something different. At my age, I really have nothing to lose but the weight, but I have a lot to gain in terms of the quality of my life. And, doggone it, I'm worth it.
I love my life and this crazy late life career with which I've been gifted: being a Public Information Officer for wildland fire and incident management. I'm good at it and the only thing holding me back at the moment is my mobility. I'm strong and fit as I can be at age 67, 5'3" and 220 lbs, but the 16 hour days filled with lots of walking and stressful activity will be much, much easier at 5'3" and 80 or more pounds less.
This is an adventure and I am excited. Journaling is highly recommended as a way of working my psychological way through this process, so I'm starting this blog to help myself along.
I've read all the literature, got my blood draw this morning and have an appointment with my primary care physician, Dr. John Schultz on Monday. then there is a two hour class to go to on Wednesday and a regimen of cleaning out my GI tract beginning next Friday. Kind of like for a colonoscopy, but without the nasty stuff you have to drink that keeps you on the toilet for 12 hours.
So, as another holiday weekend approaches (The Super Bowl starring our own Denver Broncos vs the Seattle Seahawks) filled with foodie traditions like wings, chips and ribs, blah, blah, blah, I look forward to a life not ruled by food. We'll see how it goes, shall we?
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