I have to say, I did not do much laboring this Labor Day. There was a lot of napping and trying to stay cool instead. More than once I caught myself thinking "Well, I'll be able to handle the heat better next summer after the surgery!"
I told a couple more friends this weekend and both of them had pretty much the same thing to say to me, oddly enough. Both of them mentioned other people they know who have had the surgery but for whom it ended up not working; one of the people had gained most of the weight back and one had not only gained some of the weight back but had also gained a prescription pill problem. But right after telling me these stories about their other friends, both of my friends told me that they think that it will work for me because I'll do it the right way and be smart about it.
The second warning story, Pill Girl, made me think a lot. My friend made a very good point when she said that Pill Girl hadn't worked on her emotional issues surrounding food and had instead replaced it with pills. On top of that, Pill Girl not only refused to follow her diet, she actually kept eating everything she wanted and chose to allow the resulting throwing up and diarrhea become part of her life. She lost most of her hair, had vitamin deficiencies...basically, she got the surgery and then did not change anything else in her life. And so it didn't work the way it was supposed to.
Man, that story made me do all kinds of "Well, I definitely WON'T do that!" I declared that *I* will take all my vitamins and follow my diet and do everything I can to avoid vomiting and/or diarrhea (that last one especially because man, do I hate experiencing those two!), and I won't lose as much hair because I'll pay attention to things like vitamin levels and no WAY would I go off and get addicted to pills instead of food! Of course, it's easy for me to say that from here, the pre-op side. Hell, I'm a month away from even going to my first seminar so it's realllly easy for me to say. But the truth of the matter is this: I have an addictive personality, and the addiction I've chosen for all these years is food. So what's going to replace it when I finally cut that addiction off at the proverbial pass?
Personally, I'm hoping it'll be knitting. Or maybe running. Or writing. But there's a chance it could be something else. It won't be smoking, because blech. Hate it. It won't be illegal drugs because I have no idea where to get them. And prescription pills are way too much of a bother (and expense!) for me to get addicted to. But...there's always alcohol. I already do that whole "had a bad day, let's have a drink" thing every now and again, so the potential for me doing that rather than eating every time I'm bored or lonely or sad or celebrating is actually rather high. And that's not a road I want to go down.
So I've decided I will need to quit drinking after the surgery. It won't be hard; being married to a man who doesn't like the taste of alcohol means I rarely drink at home anyway. But it'll be hard, turning down a perfect Cosmopolitan while out with my girlfriends. Of course, it'll be nice to be the one who remembers everything.
I told a couple more friends this weekend and both of them had pretty much the same thing to say to me, oddly enough. Both of them mentioned other people they know who have had the surgery but for whom it ended up not working; one of the people had gained most of the weight back and one had not only gained some of the weight back but had also gained a prescription pill problem. But right after telling me these stories about their other friends, both of my friends told me that they think that it will work for me because I'll do it the right way and be smart about it.
The second warning story, Pill Girl, made me think a lot. My friend made a very good point when she said that Pill Girl hadn't worked on her emotional issues surrounding food and had instead replaced it with pills. On top of that, Pill Girl not only refused to follow her diet, she actually kept eating everything she wanted and chose to allow the resulting throwing up and diarrhea become part of her life. She lost most of her hair, had vitamin deficiencies...basically, she got the surgery and then did not change anything else in her life. And so it didn't work the way it was supposed to.
Man, that story made me do all kinds of "Well, I definitely WON'T do that!" I declared that *I* will take all my vitamins and follow my diet and do everything I can to avoid vomiting and/or diarrhea (that last one especially because man, do I hate experiencing those two!), and I won't lose as much hair because I'll pay attention to things like vitamin levels and no WAY would I go off and get addicted to pills instead of food! Of course, it's easy for me to say that from here, the pre-op side. Hell, I'm a month away from even going to my first seminar so it's realllly easy for me to say. But the truth of the matter is this: I have an addictive personality, and the addiction I've chosen for all these years is food. So what's going to replace it when I finally cut that addiction off at the proverbial pass?
Personally, I'm hoping it'll be knitting. Or maybe running. Or writing. But there's a chance it could be something else. It won't be smoking, because blech. Hate it. It won't be illegal drugs because I have no idea where to get them. And prescription pills are way too much of a bother (and expense!) for me to get addicted to. But...there's always alcohol. I already do that whole "had a bad day, let's have a drink" thing every now and again, so the potential for me doing that rather than eating every time I'm bored or lonely or sad or celebrating is actually rather high. And that's not a road I want to go down.
So I've decided I will need to quit drinking after the surgery. It won't be hard; being married to a man who doesn't like the taste of alcohol means I rarely drink at home anyway. But it'll be hard, turning down a perfect Cosmopolitan while out with my girlfriends. Of course, it'll be nice to be the one who remembers everything.
1 Comments:
Sister, I hear you about the sweating! The 100+ days just about did me in this summer. Cut the alcohol out now and it won't be a big change along with all of the other huge changes. Thanks for linking to my blog!
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