One More Week!!

I can’t believe I only have one week left until my surgery! It’s only been about 6 weeks since I met with my new primary care physician and she suggested that weight loss surgery might be a good option for me. I was thrilled to finally find a doctor that understood my struggles with my weight and that “eating right and exercising” wasn’t the long term solution for me… not that it didn’t work, but that over the past 20 years I’ve cycled through “eating right and exercising” at least 20 times and each time I’d loose weight but the second I stopped, I’d gain it all back – typically with 10+ extra pounds.

My problem is hunger. I’m hungry all the time while dieting. ALL. THE. TIME. I’ve tried pretty much every single diet there is… Remember the cabbage soup diet? Did it! The HCG diet? Done it! Atkins, South Beach, Slimfast, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Slim4Life… Yep, done them all with varying success, and always with hunger. Which is why the lap band has intrigued me for a while now. The idea that I can feel full after eating just a single cup of food and that I’ll keep that full feeling for an extended period of time sounds outrageous to me! Outrageously FANTASTIC that is!

I’m in the midst of my “pre-op” diet. I feel pretty fortunate that the doctor I found only requires patients to follow a high protein – low carbohydrate diet for 10-14 days. I’ve read many many blogs that talk about having to do an all liquid pre-op diet, and I’m not sure I could handle that! And the pre-op diet is working. I’ve lost 3 pounds in 3 days, so hopefully by next Friday I’ll be down another 5 or so pounds. But giving up breads/pastas/grains and especially regular soda has been harder than I thought. I know it will be worth it, but man, what I wouldn’t do for a big plate of spaghetti and a Dr. Pepper right now!!

So I’m excited, nervous and, quite frankly, scared out of my mind about the surgery next week. I’ve never had major surgery before, except for a C-Section three years ago, and I’ve never been under general anesthesia. My husband is wonderfully supportive, but also nervous and scared. He loves me no matter what, and would actually prefer that I don’t have the surgery, but he knows what this means to me, and what it will mean for my health in the future. I love him so much.

I’m sure this next week will fly by and the 30th will be here before I know it! YAY!

Normal

So, I’ve rarely ever been accused of being normal. In fact, I’m pretty sure the only time the word “normal” has been used in a sentence with my name, it has been proceeded with “not”. And I’m ok with that. I’m not normal:

I’m afraid of sunflowers.

I believe bacon is a food group.

I organize my closet first by color, then by sub-categories of shirt types.

I have no idea what my natural hair color is.

I don’t believe that opposites attract.

I eat peanuts - shell and all (same with sunflower seeds).

My favorite color is periwinkle.

I can’t stand the taste of water.

Just to name a few… So yeah, I’m fine with NOT being normal. Except for one small aspect of my life. And by small, I mean HUGE. I desperately want to hear “Kate, you are a normal weight”. Yep, I’m fat. And I’ve known it for a while. I’ve struggled with it much of my adult life.

About a month ago, I hit my highest weight ever. And by hitting that weight, I was officially “morbidly obese”. I am only 5’ 2”, so 220 pounds is not easy for my frame to carry. My back hurts constantly and my legs have recently started to hurt. I’m pretty much tired every waking hour of the day.

I finally decided to do something about it! After a battling my weight and dieting for what seems like forever, I decided to have weight loss surgery. It’s something I’ve thought about for many years, and on July 30th I’m having lap band surgery. I know that the lap band isn’t going to instantly change my life, but I also know with some hard work, my life will change.

So this blog is about my journey along the path to a normal weight. It might be winding, a bit off the beaten path and rocky at times, but I know it will lead me there.