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Over the next 15 years I tried diet after diet, successfully losing 50-75 lbs by whatever method. The problem was that those pounds would find me again every time…and bring friends! This routine had me weighing over 300 lbs and feeling quite desperate. By 2000 I’d sworn to never diet again. I figured it had to be less dangerous to stay where I was than to yo-yo again and again. But I wasn’t happy with where I was. I fanatically read about Carnie Wilson’s weight loss surgery. I was longing for the results she had but was too scared of the radical bypass procedure to pursue it. I also couldn’t afford 6 weeks off of work to heal! And then one day in 2001 I heard a snippet of an ad for a news piece about a new kind of weight loss surgery. And with only that much knowledge I started using the internet to find out what this was all about. And this search led me to Dr. Hadar Spivak (www.lap-surgery.net) who happened to be the only person doing the FDA trials in my area on this new thing, the Adjustable Gastric Band. And as I was researching it, the FDA approved the surgery! This convinced me that I was on the right track. It took awhile to get everything in order, including having to change insurance companies, but I finally was able to schedule a date. I really liked Dr Spivak and his attitude. In my consultation he explained that the band is a tool. That it’s a 50/50 proposition. If I do my share of the work, the band will do its share. If I didn’t do my part I could expect to lose 20-30 lbs and that would be it. He also told me that I could expect to lose approximately 100 lbs. This would bring me to 200 lbs. By this time, I’d found the Yahoo groups and read every single message in SmartBandsters and ExtraOrdinaryBandsters (about 25000 messages I think). So I knew that these numbers were from the FDA statistics and that I could expect to beat this loss…if I worked at it. By the way, I can’t emphasize enough the importance of reading the messages on the yahoo support groups. Because I’d done this and seen the changes and phases and problems and issues come up again and again, I was prepared for what I was about to face. I finally scheduled the surgery for 9/30/02. I’d read about the last supper syndrome and didn’t want to mess myself up by gaining. Doctor Spivak wanted me to lose 10-15 lbs to help shrink my liver and I was determined to do it. So I set about the eating my last meals methodically. I decided what I wanted to eat a lot of for the last time and only ate those 5 or 6 meals. And because I did it that way, I didn’t gain weight and it was very satisfying I wasn’t nervous in the least waiting for the surgery. I was calm and convinced of the rightness of what I’d decided. The day of surgery I weighed 294 lbs. And I was happy to be under 300! Surgery went well. I had a lot of anesthesia and anti-nausea medication so I wasn’t up and walking around a few hours after the surgery like many people are. But I was lucky enough not to have a problem with the gas. But recovery was quick and the weight started dropping off.
As for how I’ve done it. I eat primarily protein. I strive for 90% and usually make it at least 80% of my diet. I lose better the more protein I eat. I try to keep the carbs to a real minimum or I don’t lose. I don’t mind thinking of this time as being on a diet. I am dieting. But I have this wonderful tool inside me to help me when my focus and will are diminished. I had a few months where I didn’t do as well and I let my focus slip. I didn’t gain!! I didn’t lose as much or as quickly, but that doesn’t matter. This is a life change and it will take time. There have been so many change in my life I can’t count them all. Not only the physical changes but the mental and spiritual changes as well. I have made some wonderful friends who will be friends for life. Malcolm definitely being one those people! I am starting a new business that I never would have dreamed of creating before. I am taking courses to become a Life Coach and hope to help others achieve the same successes that I have. I have hope and optimism and that is worth every moment of frustration and impatience that I may have from time to time.
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All site content copyright Malcolm
Bywaters and WorldWyldWeb.com 2003 |
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I
have been overweight for most of my life. And at 5’2” it doesn’t take
much to be a problem. By the time I left college I was 200 lbs. At the
time I thought this was the end of the world; little did I know how much
worse it could get.