I haven't been blogging because I've been reading. I finally went and picked up Weight Loss for Dummies this weekend (which to me was more embarrassing than buying tampons, so I did what I do with the tampons and made my husband buy it). And I spent all weekend reading it and will probably read it again a million times.
Anyhoo....
This strange thing happened to me a few weeks ago. I decided to have weight loss surgery and then I instantly decided that the decision meant I could eat whatever I want right now. Because it doesn't matter! I can gain some weight now because I'll lose it all later! Woohoo! Free for all!
Ahem.
I got over that feeling last week, when it seems that all of the junk I ate over the past month suddenly decided that it was time to take up residence on my frame. My (stretch!) jeans were a little too tight, and my ass suddenly wasn't fitting into my coworker's visitor chair so well. My shirts were riding up and my husband was silently cheering the fact that my ass and my boobs are where I put weight on first. All of this was not acceptable, and I woke up around Thursday night freaking out a bit.
So I tried to just get through the weekend and have a "good food weekend". And I did. We went out to eat twice and both nights, I came home with half my meal because I stopped when I was no longer hungry; not even full, just not hungry. And then I decided to maybe do a little dieting. Just something to kickstart me back into eating better. So I loaded up on Slim-Fast (Optima! Proven to keep you full LONGER, I swear! Woo!) and started that today.
I'm not exactly thrilled with the whole Slim-Fast idea because there's kind of a lot of sugar in it. Like...a lot. Really, should a diet shake taste like strawberry Quik? Luckily for me, I'm an anomaly in the WLS world...instead of being diabetic, I'm actually borderline hypoglycemic so the sugar isn't such a huge no-no for me. And in the meantime, it will at least get my ass back to fitting comfortably in my coworker's chair.
(Of course, tonight we're having pizza for dinner since we're going to my mom's and football is on. OF COURSE.)
Speaking of coworkers, I actually told that particular coworker (the one whose chair I barely fit into anymore) about my plans and her first words were "Wow, that's really drastic!" But once she heard why I was doing this and we talked for awhile about it, she was nothing but supportive. It makes me feel better about dealing with it here. I'm in a weird situation in that A) I work closely with a large group of people and B) we're a very tight knit large group of people so if I don't tell them about the surgery they will A) worry immensely about my while I'm out and B) think I'm dying or something and that's why I'm losing so much weight. So the plan is to let people know why I'm going to be out so that they can support me rather than worry about me.
One thing I am really glad of is that we have a great HR department that will help me get all my disability stuff set up. I have always bought into our voluntary supplemental disability insurance (our version of AFLAC, basically) so I'll be able to get full paychecks while I'm out, and I won't have to use any comp time. I find it kind of weird that nothing I've read online talks about the time off factor other than to talk about either vacation time or unpaid leave. Around here, you get disability for any surgery, as far as I know. Is there some kind of exemption for bariatric surgery that I don't know about that makes disability unallowed?
And if so, why are we not up in arms about it?
Anyhoo....
This strange thing happened to me a few weeks ago. I decided to have weight loss surgery and then I instantly decided that the decision meant I could eat whatever I want right now. Because it doesn't matter! I can gain some weight now because I'll lose it all later! Woohoo! Free for all!
Ahem.
I got over that feeling last week, when it seems that all of the junk I ate over the past month suddenly decided that it was time to take up residence on my frame. My (stretch!) jeans were a little too tight, and my ass suddenly wasn't fitting into my coworker's visitor chair so well. My shirts were riding up and my husband was silently cheering the fact that my ass and my boobs are where I put weight on first. All of this was not acceptable, and I woke up around Thursday night freaking out a bit.
So I tried to just get through the weekend and have a "good food weekend". And I did. We went out to eat twice and both nights, I came home with half my meal because I stopped when I was no longer hungry; not even full, just not hungry. And then I decided to maybe do a little dieting. Just something to kickstart me back into eating better. So I loaded up on Slim-Fast (Optima! Proven to keep you full LONGER, I swear! Woo!) and started that today.
I'm not exactly thrilled with the whole Slim-Fast idea because there's kind of a lot of sugar in it. Like...a lot. Really, should a diet shake taste like strawberry Quik? Luckily for me, I'm an anomaly in the WLS world...instead of being diabetic, I'm actually borderline hypoglycemic so the sugar isn't such a huge no-no for me. And in the meantime, it will at least get my ass back to fitting comfortably in my coworker's chair.
(Of course, tonight we're having pizza for dinner since we're going to my mom's and football is on. OF COURSE.)
Speaking of coworkers, I actually told that particular coworker (the one whose chair I barely fit into anymore) about my plans and her first words were "Wow, that's really drastic!" But once she heard why I was doing this and we talked for awhile about it, she was nothing but supportive. It makes me feel better about dealing with it here. I'm in a weird situation in that A) I work closely with a large group of people and B) we're a very tight knit large group of people so if I don't tell them about the surgery they will A) worry immensely about my while I'm out and B) think I'm dying or something and that's why I'm losing so much weight. So the plan is to let people know why I'm going to be out so that they can support me rather than worry about me.
One thing I am really glad of is that we have a great HR department that will help me get all my disability stuff set up. I have always bought into our voluntary supplemental disability insurance (our version of AFLAC, basically) so I'll be able to get full paychecks while I'm out, and I won't have to use any comp time. I find it kind of weird that nothing I've read online talks about the time off factor other than to talk about either vacation time or unpaid leave. Around here, you get disability for any surgery, as far as I know. Is there some kind of exemption for bariatric surgery that I don't know about that makes disability unallowed?
And if so, why are we not up in arms about it?
4 Comments:
Hey there! You may want to check that you are covered for elective surgery under your STD (the only STD I'd pay to get, btw) and that you do not need to have used up your comp or vacation time before collecting the insurance. Those companies tend to have quite a lot of rules. Good luck!!!
I think I did the same thing you did when I made the decision to have surgery. Went a bit crazy with food and stopped exercising --- but in the past week I've gotten back on track and am eating healthy again. I'm amazed at how much better I feel for just eating a salad.
And as for STD - That was one of the firist things I checked on. And most STD or medical leave policies cover any type of surgery, so I'm happy I won't be without pay while off work.
~Pam
Yep, I checked and per the state law in California, elective surgery is covered (from what I've read). Only time you have to use your comp leave is if you're not admitted to the hospital which hooray, will not be an issue.
I'm in the same boat with eating everything in site. Once I began the WLS ball rolling, I just let go of any sense I've ever known about food.
Unfortunately for me, I'm still waiting for approval and getting larger by the minute.
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