Sarah at Weighing In has a unique view...she is a WLS patient and she works in a WLS office. She sees both sides of the coin and it is very illuminating and refreshing.
She had a great blog on Bariatric Mind Games Bariatric Mind Games This article really shook me up...and made me think of how proactive and committed I was as a WLS patient...Truly I was waiting for things to fix themselves, feared failure etc...But I saw myself in a mirror when I read her post. Here is an excerpt:
A lot of the patients we saw today were failing. I was mad at some of them. I mean, the excuses, the ignorance! I'm not perfect, but I know when I'm not eating healthy or working out as hard as I can...some patients just have an excuse for everything or they're either just really ignorant...and they're just in shock over how they could have possibly gained weight (when they are holding a full sugar Gatorade in their hand and talking about eating cheese dip every night). Part of me thinks, how can you go through something as serious as bariatric surgery and still seem to have no idea what good food choices are (or are not)?!! I want to grab them and shake them...at the same time I know how it feels to get stuck in bad choices and feel like a failure....so I also want to hug them. It's hard! and I can't spend as much time as I'd really like to spend with each one, encouraging them and trying to give them tips and help....not to toot my own horn, but I'm actually pretty smart about nutrition, even though I don't always follow my own advice!!
I've been this patient and it just shook me to the core and really helped me to critically and honestly look at my choices everyday. Sometimes I would just be easy on myself because I ate a lot better after WLS than I did before. And I'm sure I was one of these patients where the staff would wonder what the heck I was really doing at home...
But to achieve the kind of losses I want, I needed to make a re commitment of sorts. After reading this, my mind clicked into gear the journey became a bit easier and more successful. This is not a soap box blog, just a personal reflection about coming clean with myself
I'm so happy for you! I was at a Lap-Band workshop a few weeks ago and one of the surgeons was talking about bypass vs. band patients and he said that he felt overall band patients usually end up being much smarter about health/nutrition/exercise than band patients because with bypass you can still eat pretty crummy and lose weight, whereas with the band you HAVE to do your part and utilize the band as the tool that it its and nothing more. I think you get that, which is awesome! :)
ReplyDeleteI think that is why I wanted the band. I wasn't able to get bypass and didn't want it. But I knew what food to eat I just need help keeping me on track! I want to make sure this continues to work for me!
ReplyDeleteSomeone said this "nothing tastes as good as Good feels" or something to that effect. But it is true. I feel good and that helps me keep it up!
Great post!!
ReplyDeleteLove this post! I remember feeling very judgmental about people's choices before I was banded, wondering how they could still eat fast food after going through surgery. Needless to say, I've learned my leson. The choices don't get easier just because you're banded. Only wiring my mouth shut would do that.
ReplyDelete