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Thursday, November 06, 2008

Weight Loss Surgery is Easy, Right? WRONG!


This is one of my syndicated articles with Ezine Articles. Just this morning I listened to another news story about how surgical weight loss is easy, and a cop-out. Those who take this path are weak and too lazy to do it the "old fashioned way" (diet & exercise). Who says we don't follow a diet and exercise? Reports like this anger me! Nine years after getting "gut whacked" I'm still working to control my health by maintaining my weight, exercising and following a mindful diet. How about You? Has weight loss surgery been easy for you?

I hope you enjoy this article - Please leave your feedback.

CHEERS!
Kaye


Gastric Bypass: The Easy Way Out of Fat Land - Right?
By Kaye Bailey

If you listen, even for a moment, to the talk in overweight communities you will almost always hear that gastric bypass weight loss surgery is the “easy way out” of Fat Land. People with weak spirits and good insurance get a lucky break, have their stomachs whacked and stapled and lose weight the easy way. Weight Loss Surgery: seen by pious public to be surgical baptism for the guilty gluttonous slothful.

But those of us who step in the water to be cleansed of our fatty sins know better. Weight loss surgery is NOT the easy way out, a simple dunking of the repentant, the sins atoned, and the price paid, the soul and body healed. We know the atonement is paid every day for the rest of our lives when we set our healthy house in order with gastric bypass.

We understand that WLS is not easy. Why, then, does the public think it’s redemption to weight loss?

First: what the public sees is a rapidly diminishing person recently repaired by gastric bypass. The pounds melt away seemingly in a plain sight. What hides behind the curtain are the ugly demons. Dumping? We don’t talk about it. Vomiting? We don’t tell our regurgitating stories. Head games driving you insane? Who you going to tell? Who is listening? Exercising? Nobody wants to hear about the “E” word. So what the public sees front and center stage is a person consistently succeeding at massive weight loss; a person glowing in their own rebirth and betraying the fat and hopeless around them. How else can it be explained? WLS must be the magic pill, the easy-way-out of obesity hell.

Second: the WLS grass-roots public relations machine tells the public gastric bypass is easy, thus we become our own worst enemy. Tell me if this doesn’t sound familiar: “I can still eat the same things, just less of them! ha ha ha!” or how about, “I lost 145 pounds and never had to do a moments exercise – WLS is fabulous that way – no exercise required.” And so the popular belief perpetuates that fat glutton slobs can lose weight just by eating less of the same foods and never exercising. Brilliant! How easy is that?

Let me tell you what weight loss surgery is really like for me.

I am six years post-op. Two nights ago I vomited my dinner (bacon-seared sea scallops and green beans) because it was just a bit too greasy for my sensitive stomach. A week before that I became deathly ill, it’s called dumping, from snacking mindlessly on Chinese chow mein noodles. Disorientation, hot sweats and then cold chills – dumping – a dire consequence of eating the wrong foods with the malabsorptive system. This morning, just like most mornings, I walked two brisk miles on the treadmill to begin my day. This evening I spent 25 minutes strength training to maintain my muscle tone, keep my metabolism running high and making damn sure I don’t regain one single pound.

And this is how it will be for the rest of my life. I will vomit, dump, exercise and be vigilant day in and day out if I want this easy weight loss surgery to work for me.

My body does not take weekends off from weight loss surgery. I don’t get chocolate cake just because it’s my birthday. I do not have a double-cheeseburger with fries and a shake just because I’ve had a stressful day and I deserve it. My body is on the gastric-bypass plan 24-7.

Do you think that’s easy?

Weight Loss Surgery post-ops understand what I’m talking about. Many of us go through a phase of fighting the gastric bypass and engage in snacking or grazing. We out-eat the stomach pouch and regain weight and we become self-loathing. We vomit and dump and do it all over again thinking we can somehow trick the body. Eventually we learn and we get it: WLS is for life.

Weight loss surgery pre-op patients want badly to understand this, but the dieting culture has taught us to be strict for X-number days and then we get a free day. The culture has taught us if we can stick to a plan for X-weeks and lose X-pounds then we can “get back to normal”. We are all expert dieters by the time we elect to have gastric bypass surgery.

There is no back to normal after WLS – it is a lifetime lifestyle commitment.

Kaye Bailey © 2005 - All Rights Reserved

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kaye_Bailey http://EzineArticles.com/?Gastric-Bypass:-The-Easy-Way-Out-of-Fat-Land---Right?&id=71012

5 comments:

Donna said...

Nice article Kaye! And even for those of us who make endurance excercise and challenges a hobby, it's still hard!!!

Anonymous said...

I had 3 peanut M & Ms from my kids Trick or Treat bags on Halloween, I though- mostly peanuts right? Protein, right? I thought I was going to DIE. I dont trust to tell my extended family because of the back talk and gossip and judgement I know will come. Its sad, but when My dr told me I would have a heart attack before 40, there was no doubt what I had to do. Easy? Are they kidding?

Anonymous said...

I agree with a lot of what you say but, not everyone dumps. Not everyone vomits as much as you have experienced. I've read the online forums widely and I've learned that the experience differs greatly from person to person.

I have a friend who indeed eats normal foods in smaller amounts. She has kept off 100 pounds for five years. I'm only five weeks out from my surgery so I still have a lot to learn. I know that I can have small amounts of apple juice but, that still makes a friend of mine dump two years out of surgery. We are all different.

The same person who dumps on juice has done almost no exercise and lost 120 pounds. I don't choose to go that route. I'm doing strength training and am just starting aerobic exercise.

I just think, to be fair, readers should know that experiences after WLS vary widely.

Michele Helms said...

Oh boy is it still hard...just a great tool!

Unknown said...

I have done it the old fashioned way...like hundreds of times! I have also lost hundreds and hundreds of pounds...hundreds of times! I have been answering this "easy way out" thing for a while now and I finally said this: Does it really matter what I did to go from 30 years of obesity to 7 years of being thin? Nope!

I finally decided that I fought very hard for this result and I am not going to let the misinformed comments of others ruin my life. Obesity took so much from me for so long and now it is time to live! Living well is the best I can do to educate those that are critical of my decision. What an awesome life I have been given and all my energy is going into maintaining that awesome life!
Blessings, Yvonne
aka Bariatric Girl
WOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!