This is an entirely new post from me tonight. A very good friend has just made the difficult decision to have bariatric surgery. Gastric Band surgery to you and me.
Now, I know she didn’t enter into this decision lightly. It was the result of a lot of soul searching and discussion with her husband and family. She was increasingly unhappy with her weight, and it was putting her health at risk.
You can read Kat’s story here, on her brand new website – Zombie Ninja Space Girl
Hopefully as the days /weeks and months go by, she will keep us all updated on her progress. The good news is that I heard yesterday that Kat was safely out of surgery and recovered from the anaesthetic. The rest of the story, will be hers to tell.
I salute her for her bravery. It was an extremely difficult decision to take, and from the bottom of my heart, I wish her a very fast success in this.
I understand in a very small way, what it is to fight with my weight, although I only admitted to this problem a few years ago. Suffice to say, I am time and a half the weight that I was when I got married. Two very good friends have successfully lost a significant amount of weight recently, but the more I tried, the more frustrated I got, when I put weight on, or at best kept the same. I even blogged about it earlier in the year, you can read my post here
I stayed with Kat’s family a few weeks ago, and as a believer in ‘mind over matter’, I would have liked her to consider something like hypnotherapy first. However, I wasn’t prepared to recommend something I hadn’t tried for myself, so on returning from the visit, I booked 2 hypnotherapy sessions in Edinburgh. It is too soon to tell how successful this has been because
- I am away from home in Madrid for 5 weeks
- I can’t weigh myself (though my trousers still feel quite neat)!
- If I even come out equal after 5 weeks, it will be a win, given the lovely food here.
- It is a long term plan – I’ll tell you my progress at the end of the year. This has to be a permanent way of managing my weight
So, Kat, I wish you all the very best, and I’ll be looking out with interest for all you upcoming posts
Updates: 1 Jan 2018
- Kat finished 2017 having lost a stunning 13kg. Well done Kat
- I managed not to put any weight on in Madrid, and I have maintained that, however I haven’t lost any, so even after hypnotherapy, I still need to focus more!
If you would like to pin this, and please do, just click the image below.
Good luck to Kat!
I hope the hypnotherapy works for you. But for me, what’s worked is finding the right foods for my body. The trick for me has been eating low volume, and eating plain, bland foods (which I enjoy) and doing repetitive meals. Removing the decision making and choices removed the food stress.
Equal after five weeks would be a total win in my book! I usually gain a few lbs even on a short vacation.
Hope you’re having a great time!
Hi Mrs Groovy
I’m slightly on the fence with the hypnotherapy – it’s still a bit early to tell, but I am not bingeing on all the lovely food in the same way I have done in previous years. I think you’ve got a great idea with the repetitive meals. One to try when I get home….
We’re having an amazing time, thanks
I just discovered you following a link from Retirement Manifesto. I wanted to comment that I used to weigh 170 lbs at the time of my early retirement at age 51. I stumbled into the book “Good Calories, Bad Calories” by Gary Taubes (he has a much shorter, more readable book “Why We Get Fat”). I thought at the time the Atkins style of low carb and high fat sounded like a fad. I decided to research it (I worked as an engineer and I think scientifically) and I found that most of us are fat and heading to diabetes because of incorrect advice to eat a low-fat diet. I changed at that time and I’ve kept off the 50 lbs. I lost for 7 years now and counting. My niece was 330 lbs. and opted for bariatric surgery last spring. She chose a more extreme version which involves duodenal switch and she is very happy. But the health issues are questionable. I tried so hard to get her to try my way of eating, but she said she did not like a lot of the foods I eat. She now has them in her diet anyway. Over the last 7 years since I made this change, I’ve seen the nutrition media slowly give this more credence.
On another, note, your blog looks inspiring! I look forward to ideas on how to enjoy this non-job related life.
Hi Susan, thanks for your comment. I will have to look up Gary Taubes book – it sounds interesting. Kat has got through her surgery well but is struggling a little with the changed ways of eating. I totally agree with you about the high fat being better for you. Since I wrote this article, I am now eating a very lo-carb diet and the weight is slowly coming off. (and I’ve also got my husband on it!)
I hope you enjoy reading the blog. I haven’t looked back since the day I retired.