!!!!!!

[Guest guest]

CLAPPING LOUD AND HARD ERIKA!!!!!!!

Love,

Loriann

Re: Okay, everybody -- remind me why I'm doing

this

hi, sue. it really cheeses me off when people challenge me with such

uninformed questions, and it also hurts a little because of the bad things

i've let myself believe about myself because of my weight problem. now that

i've got the guts and confidence to put the blame where it belongs and do

something about this life threatening disease, i have little tolerance for

that stuff from folks who just don't get it.

> 1. your eating will be severely restricted after the surgery, why

> don't you just follow that same diet now?

BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T WORK

> 2. this is such a drastic procedure -- why can't you be as drastic

> in your commitment to a diet?

BECAUSE IT WOULDN'T WORK

> 3. with your sweet tooth this surgery won't be successful.

GO TO HELL!!

lol!

but seriously, diets and deprivation *don't* work. we have all tried that

many times without success. if someone wants to know why you don't try

again at a failed method, let them know that your health and life is to

precious to risk on a method that is a proven failure. you want to entrust

your life to a proven success.

as for the sweet tooth, i hear from other post ops that cravings really do

change after surgery. and there are plenty of post ops who talk about

eating sweets in moderation (even a few who have a little something sweet

everyday) and they are still losing weight. i guess the key is not

deprivation, but moderation.

let me just share this. i recently had my consultation with a nutritionist

and i asked her to give me the high test version of the post op diet. 'i'm

willing to diet!', i told her, 'i'll do anything to maximize my window of

weight loss!'. she told me that i had better shift gears, that i better get

the idea of dieting out of my mind. 'there is no way you can diet after

this surgery', she said. 'you want to eat a balanced diet, protein first

and avoid high sugar foods'.

i wanted to be very clear on this point so i asked her a few questions. i

said, 'i like to drink a cup of tea with a teaspoon of sugar in it. should

i omit that sugar?' she said no. that a spoon of sugar in my tea will not

negatively effect my weight loss. ten spoons, yes, one or two, no. i said,

'i like to eat fruit sweetened jelly on my toast. should i omit that?' she

said no. that jelly on my toast, or anything else that is similar in terms

of a dab here and there, will not negatively effect my weight loss. so i

took it one further and i said, 'now i'm going to get crazy and take it to

the end of the line. what if i eat dessert once a week? " she said, 'well,

if dessert is a whole cake it

would be a problem.' i said, no, just a piece of cake. and she said that

would be fine. that a piece of cake once a week would not negatively impact

my weight loss. not bad!

so if you combine reduced cravings with the fact that you can still have

some sweets in your diet, there is no reason why your sweet tooth should be

a problem. i'm sure there are lots of others out there who had/have a sweet

tooth and have had surgery and have succeeded. i think some people just

want to see fat people suffer! they think we are to blame for the weight

and that we enjoyed all the cakes and pies on the way up, so now we should

be willing to do without on the way down. not nice! and not true.

> ...How can I counteract the belief by

> others that I " just haven't tried hard enough? " ...

you counteract it by knowing yourself that it's not true. and really, to

hell with what anyone else may believe about you. if they insist on their

beliefs nothing you can do will change them. just know in your heart that

you have tried hard enough, that you have tried their way and it has failed.

now it's time to do something that works!

> On the positive side, my PCP, although uninformed, seems to be open-

> minded and our discussions so far have been good.

that's great! it's good to have your pcp on your side. don't let others

get to you. you know the truth! good luck.

erika

5'2 " , 281.5#, bmi 51.5

tentative surgery date 5.11.01 11:30 am

dr. herron

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