Felicia's Story: A Gastric Bypass Patient Goes Raw- Part I of II
While gastric bypass can immediately cut your risk for obesity-related diseases, it isn't a magic bullet for people with eating disorders.
Date: 4/29/2006 12:16:49 AM ( 18 y ) ... viewed 4828 times ![](http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3375/2135/400/BeforeGP%26After.jpg)
Hey everyone! Today I am sharing
Felicia's story about losing over 150 lbs following gastric bypass
surgery and then finding out that surgery is not enough. As regular
readers know, Felicia has now been eating raw for about a month and has
lost additional weight. The pictures above are her in 2004 before
gastric bypass, and then 2005. In Part I she talks about her life
before her decision to go raw.
_______________
Hello
raw world, to those of you who know of me through honorable mentions on
the raw odyssey website and for those of you who are new visitors I am
the much spoken of “chef” and girlfriend of Allison, I am also known as
Felicia. I was asked by Allison to be a guest speaker on her page and
though I feel I am no expert I am more than happy to share my
experiences with all of you.
I am a gastric bypass
patient. I had the RNY also known as the roux-en-y procedure on Oct.
14th, 2004. To date I have lost around 167 pounds, I started this
journey at 365 pounds. To anyone contemplating having surgery I would
say it was the best decision I ever made for myself but I would also
warn that it isn’t the easiest lifestyle to maintain. I came into this
world with a lot of baggage. First of all I don’t follow rules well, I
love to eat, and I am a procrastinator. I hate to be in control and I
don’t like to not have control. If you look closely you can see that I
am a pretty messed up individual. In order to succeed at this new
life, rules have to be adhered to. Don’t eat and drink at the same time,
stay away from sugar, stop eating when you feel full, exercise often
and consistently, take daily vitamins, and the list goes on. The
problem is that I was never good at lists; making them or following
them. Thus I have not followed a single rule consistently from day one.
This is my confession to you, all of you.
I will give
myself some credit for losing 167 pounds. I exercised some; I even
forced myself to take a physical education class at the local college
just to ensure I had a “reason” to work out daily. As if my declining
health or surgical commitment was not a good enough reason. (Self
esteem issue). When the class was over I had to find other ways to make
myself go to the gym though it was usually sporadically.
I
take my vitamins- when I remember. As a result I have low iron and
low B12. I have killer night muscle spasms and I get dizzy a lot. I say
this to say that maintenance is key, and whether you are maintaining
the effects from surgery or maintaining a healthy weight or simply
trying to maintain all the weight you have lost the skills required are
EXACTLY THE SAME. If you don’t have the skill you won’t magically grow
it once you have had the surgery. I can’t say it plainly enough that when
I had surgery on my stomach it did not change the way that I think.
I
know that most overweight people are experts on the subject of
nutrition. We could write our own book. We know every diet, we know
what to do and the problem is never losing the weight is it? It’s
keeping it off. Maintenance! Ok, I’m getting a little preachy here so
let me continue with my story. So I lost the weight and actually would
like to lose another fifty pounds. I had been keeping old bad habits up
to this point along my journey like eating junk, chips, cake, cookies.
At one point I would eat more junk than actual food on any given day. I
found myself snacking all day and at any time… way into the wee hours
at night. I was absolutely disgusted with myself. I hated to wake up to
my bloated stomach, I hated to go to sleep with my GAS(troentestinal)
problems from all the foods/sugar I was eating. I was a mess. I had to
deal with the reality that my life was never about losing this weight
it was about taking control where I didn’t want to have it.
This is
pivotal to my story because it wasn’t as if I didn’t already know this
about myself. It wasn’t as if I didn’t already know that I had a food
addiction or carb. Addiction or whatever you would like to call it. I
knew it, I just didn’t care. Take that back; I cared but I just felt
powerless. I really did, and I knew I was powerless about a week after
I had gone to Costco and purchased a huge bag of famous amos cookies
and a gigantic bag of Doritos then proceeded to finish them both off in
less than two weeks. Now granted, before I had this surgery I would
have finished those bags in two days, but look at me. I had a life
altering surgery, risked both death and a life for my son with no mother…
risked my mother a life with no child, risked my girlfriend a life with
no partner and continued to risk my life with no life… no quality life,
that is.
Maintenance; would this idea of maintenance
follow me for the rest of my life? What does it mean, why do I HAVE to
do it? If I wanted to lose the rest of the weight - or at the very least
stay where I was- I would have to learn this idea of maintenance.
_______________
Tomorrow we'll have Part II, where
Felicia talks about her decision to go raw and the progress she's
made. In the meantime, feel free to visit her journal at obesityhelp.com, where she hooks up with other gastric bypass patients for mutual support.
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