Laurie’s “big day” – the day of her weight loss surgery – is just around the corner, blog-wise (in real life, she is several weeks post-op). Generally, losing some weight first is a prerequisite of WLS. Let’s see what Laurie’s doctor recommended, how she did with this assignment, and what it’s like to be on an all-liquid diet. Next week, we’ll read about her big day! (Catch up with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5.)
Part 6: Pre-Work
The doctor determined that he wanted me to lose at least 25 pounds before surgery, so throughout the summer I worked on that. I went back on Weight Watchers, and managed to get rid of just over 20 by about two weeks before the big day. Now, one of the things that seems to be a universal requirement prior to surgery is going on an all-liquid diet for a length of time that fluctuates depending on how your body is made up. The point of it is to “clear the path”, so to speak – to make more room for the surgeon by shrinking everything around your stomach, in order to make surgery easier. I had to do two weeks, but I recently talked to someone who had to do a full SIX WEEKS of all liquids. Seriously, I would shoot myself. Some people get to do Carnation Instant Breakfast-type stuff for their allotted time – Lahey requires that you buy this special meal replacement shake from their pharmacy. This was all I could have, for every meal, for two weeks. I started the day after Thanksgiving. It was much harder than I thought it would be.
I used to be a smoker. I tried to quit smoking hundreds of times before it “took”. I equate the all-liquid diet to quitting smoking cold turkey. I suffered severe withdrawal symptoms for the first four days or so. It actually pained me to be around food, and I may have actually cried once or twice. Fortunately, the shakes were quite good. Nice and thick, and they gave me a bunch of “recipes” so I could make them a little bit different and not go too crazy. You see, the only two flavors the shakes came in were chocolate and vanilla. Nothing but that for two weeks would probably have me eating the flesh off my own hand. But adding extracts to them to change things up really made the difference (caramel extract to chocolate was divine, as were banana and rum extracts to vanilla).
Watching the weight drop off as quickly as it did didn’t hurt, either. I ended up losing another 20 pounds in that two weeks, so that had me down 40 pounds before I even had the surgery – a wonderful thing.
So, I’m kind of blowing through this like it was no big deal. I just have to stop again and stress the point that this was absolutely the hardest thing I’ve ever done. Not having anything to eat – at all – for two weeks was incredibly difficult. How many times have you been on a diet, and you’re doing really, really well, but every once in a while you pop a little something into your mouth, or make something for someone else and lick the knife or your fingers? Just a little thing, really – nothing you’d ever count if you’re on Weight Watchers, and really, nothing that would ever be held against you. You still lose weight, so you move on and slip a little something in every now and again, no harm, no foul. Well, the next time you’re making something, try to imagine how hard it is NOT to do any of those things. Cook dinner for your family or a group of people, and DON’T taste any of it. At all. Make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for your kid, and don’t lick the peanut butter off the knife or the jelly off your fingers when it spills out of the bread when you cut it. Try it.
I don’t know if they plan it this way or not, but the extra side benefit to the all-liquid diet is that it makes you hyper-aware of all the times you eat “mindlessly.” Every time you just casually sample something, or finish something up that’s “almost gone,” or eat the mashed potatoes straight from the pot because there really isn’t enough for a whole serving but it would be a shame to throw food away… I was never more aware of just how much I was eating until I couldn’t eat at all for two weeks. Good preparation for post-surgery, and great for the changes I’d be making for the rest of my life.
Next I’ll get to the surgery itself, but my back is killing me, so I have to take a break. Let me leave you with the knowledge that I’m doing really well, that every day is still a struggle, and that I don’t regret one single second of this.
If you have a story you’d like to share, please contact me at bigfitdeal@gmail.com.
