Dieting is Hard Work -- Period!!

Several friends have recently implied lately that having been [gastric] sleeved Dec 27, that I've taken the easy way out on losing weight.

NO.

I love you guys who are following my progress, but you need to know one thing.

Getting sleeved doesn't eliminate the work to lose weight. What it helps is reducing the hunger. Also, because your "pouch" is so much smaller, you have to stop eating or it's just not pretty.

I'm in a master gardener program right now and the feisty woman I love to sit next to in class offered me red-hot candies several times today. I decided early-on that I was going to be completely "out" about my weight loss surgery, and I told her I couldn't do sugar yet because of the WLS. She was SO supportive, which has been mostly my experience since Dec. 27 (A huge date for me, and one of the more important dates of my life. Just a note. Doesn't even remotely eclipse my wedding to Bob or giving birth to Kat, if either one of you are looking at my blog.)

My post today is to tell any of my friends/family, who are thinking of gastric surgery, that IT'S NOT THE EASY WAY TO WEIGHT LOSS.

That said, it's a fabulous TOOL to help you get a grip on your weight loss. But you still HAVE TO DO THE HARD WORK and discipline of losing weight yourself. You have to follow the program of weight loss or even having surgery will fail.

There are down sides, not a lot, but some fairly significant ones. It takes a while for your innards to figure out regularity. Mine haven't quite yet, but I'm OK with it. I understand things are going to heal. I do miss eating like I used to and some people get depressed with missing "eating."

I have a couple of friends who are having great success working traditional diet programs , i.e. through Weight Watchers or another good, balanced diet program. I AM YOUR BIGGEST CHAMPION! I tried those many multiples of times and just couldn't pull it through. I really, REALLY wish I could have made it work. But that doesn't mean your efforts or my ongoing effort are diminished. ALL efforts to get healthier will be rewarded with better health! You and I deserve it. And we're getting it!

I hate exclamation marks and I find myself using them repeatedly. Really, if you say it right, you shouldn't need exclamation marks. That said, sometimes I don't feel that I've adequately expressed the profound change that I'm going through. I even have resorted to using caps, which of course is like YELLING!!!!!

I'm not sorry about that. I want anybody who is reading my blog to "get it." That's really the whole point of sharing how my life is changing because of my sleeve.

I'm happy to respond to any comments or if you want to e-mail me directly, please contact me at carol.colefrowe@gmail.com.

Love you guys and thanks for reading my blog. CAPS. Exclamation point.

Onward,

Carol