Here I am – again.\u00c2\u00a0 Over the past 7 years I’ve been using the internet to track my efforts at losing weight and regaining my health.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m back to give it yet another go.\u00c2\u00a0 Like most people with a severe weight problem, I’ve tried almost anything and everything in my life.\u00c2\u00a0 In my teens and 20’s I lost weight with extreme and fad diets and they often worked, but of course it never lasted.\u00c2\u00a0 This journey has been about finding a healthy, sustainable way to live.\u00c2\u00a0 It has been far from easy.<\/p>\n
Right now I weigh in at 285 pounds.\u00c2\u00a0 That’s a significant number to me, unfortunately.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve managed to lose to this weight several times.\u00c2\u00a0 But every time I hit this point, my body just rebels.\u00c2\u00a0 Weeks go by, and no matter what I eat and don’t eat, no matter how much or little I exercise, no matter what tips I follow, what tricks I try, my body refuses to shed another pound.\u00c2\u00a0 When I stop working, the weight returns.\u00c2\u00a0 350 is where my body seems to want to rest.\u00c2\u00a0 Although I have seen higher numbers (close to 370 once), 350 is where I seem to stabalize, repeatedbly.\u00c2\u00a0 After hitting this “plateau” for the Nth time, my doctor urged me (and not for the first time) to consider weight loss surgery.<\/p>\n
I’d been stubbornly opposed to the idea.\u00c2\u00a0 I wanted this to be a healthy, sustainable effort by ME.\u00c2\u00a0 Surgery seemed like cheating.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0But it seemed clear by that point that my weight was affected by more than how much I ate or exercised.\u00c2\u00a0 What?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, that’s the lovely thing.\u00c2\u00a0 Doctors don’t really know.\u00c2\u00a0 They can say its “Syndrome X” or “Metabolic Syndrome”, but what it boils down to is that they recognize a collection of symptoms, but have no idea of the cause or any way to fix the problem.\u00c2\u00a0 My PCP and the surgeon urged me to reconsider, because aside from the obvious reduction in calories caused by surgery, the surgery also has an unknown factor, it works in a way they can’t explain, affecting brain and stomach chemistry, and they felt it was my best chance.<\/p>\n
I eventually elected for lap-band surgery.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s far less extreme than the traditional gastric bypass.\u00c2\u00a0 In theory, its even reversable.\u00c2\u00a0 It doesn’t prevent you from absorbing calories like the bypass.\u00c2\u00a0 Nothing is removed; they simply\u00c2\u00a0place a belt around\u00c2\u00a0the initial bit of your stomach creating a tiny stomach with a tiny hole leading to the rest of the stomach.\u00c2\u00a0 So less food helps you feel fuller.\u00c2\u00a0 You don’t lose weight by the bucketful as with gastric bypass.\u00c2\u00a0 In fact, the standard 2 pounds a week rule still applies.\u00c2\u00a0 It just helps you control how much you put in your mouth.<\/p>\n
Maybe I didn’t think it through well enough.\u00c2\u00a0 I mean eating well and exercising didn’t help me get past that mystical 285, so was feeling full on less really going to help?\u00c2\u00a0 Well, let me tell you what the surgery hasn’t done for me in the 16 months since I went under the knife.\u00c2\u00a0 It hasn’t suddenly made me skinny.\u00c2\u00a0 I got stuck at this exact same place about six months after the surgery.<\/p>\n
But here is what it has done.\u00c2\u00a0 Before, when I hit this plateau (in all fairness, anything that lasts for months despite hitting the gym almost daily, including 3 times a week with a physical trainer, and barely being able to eat anything solid is more of a mountain chain of Everests than a plateau), I would work at it for a few more weeks or even a few months and eventually my inability to creep below 280, regardless of how I worked would wear me down.\u00c2\u00a0 I’d give up, and in the blink of an eye – almost literally, I think my record gain was 17 pounds in a week – all the weight would be back on.<\/p>\n
But not this time.\u00c2\u00a0 I hit 285 and stayed there, and stayed there.\u00c2\u00a0 I had given up really trying.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not exercising.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m not trying hard to eat the right foods.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m ignoring many of the rules of lap band surgery.\u00c2\u00a0 But I’ve maintained this weight for a year.<\/p>\n
My body has had a year to acclimate to THIS as its “default” weight.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve decided its time to stop fooling around, and get back to what I know I can do — eat well, exercise regularly and journal, and finally make progress once again. Read more<\/a> about my exercise routine and what I use in the little home gym I made myself.<\/p>\n The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be. ~William James<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Here I am – again.\u00c2\u00a0 Over the past 7 years I’ve been using the internet to track my efforts at losing weight and regaining my health.\u00c2\u00a0 And I’m back to give it yet another go.\u00c2\u00a0 Like most people with a severe weight problem, I’ve tried almost anything and everything in my life.\u00c2\u00a0 In my teens […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2765,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7\/revisions\/2765"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}