Friday, July 6, 2012

The Whine About Wine for Gastric Sleevers

Probably the hardest thing after my Dec. 27 gastric sleeve surgery was not drinking wine. And I've had the occasional glass, usually with hubby, but sometimes in a solitary way just reading a book and kicking back.

My wine-drinking philosophy when my sleeve started feeling healed was to count the calories I'd had that day and see if my calorie count would allow a glass of wine or two.

This is not a terribly good idea, I'm sad to say. There are several reasons why, but the most resounding one came out a couple of weeks ago. Check out this new report:

- Weight Loss Surgery Increases Risk of Alcohol Addiction in Some from ABC News

- For another thing, I don't lose weight if I drink wine. That was the whole goal of the surgery — to give myself this marvelous tool to lose weight — and drinking wine screws that up.

- When you drink wine or alcohol, it hits gastric sleevers hard and you get tipsy right away. And it passes through and almost immediately that wine glow wears off. Instead of feeling mellow, like I felt drinking wine before having the surgery, my body feels differently and the wine is somehow more aggressive towards my body. Having the sleeve definitely changed how I enjoy wine.

- The other thing the psychologist at WeightWise warned about is transfer addiction — that is, transferring a food addiction to an alcohol addiction. 

Plus there has been alcoholism in my family, so I'm going to have to be especially careful about that.

To drink or not to drink? That's the question, if you'll forgive the paraphase. Do I really want it? Yes. Do I really need it? No.

Oh, and by the way, I'm more than halfway toward my weight goal now. 

Onward,
Carol









1 comment:

  1. Well, I've basically given up sugar, but the wine thing...not so much. Now I think I understand why my weight is not going down! Thanks for your great posts...I'm totally enjoying them and learning from them. Good work, friend!

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