Everyone agrees that a healthy life is the way to go! The healthier the better right? Doctors repeat it like it's their slogan (well, technically it is!), the TV, magazines and general media are all over it, and it's even found it's place in most of the newest children's literature ("Give me one generation of youth....."). I mean, it's everywhere right? It's like the whole modern world is focused on one main thing right now, Health and Fitness! Hey, this stuff sounds great! But wait.....did they mention how to get it?
Exactly! Well, not exactly exactly, but all the same. The phrase "Health and Fitness" is just thrown about like we're having a very competitive game of "Hot Potato", and relatively can't put the phrase down! It's been used so much so that it's become more empty and meaningless than that three word phrase that's always ready to roll off any 21st century teenagers lips at any given moment! Yes, even worse than that dreaded "I don't know!" (Wait.....what were you thinking I was going to say?) What I'm trying to get at here is that we as a society are so focused on becoming "healthy and fit" that we are ready to settle for any and all definitions of that very thing that the media, alongside conventional wisdom, is throwing at us. We, as a society aren't too fussed over whether we feel healthy or not, more so, our level of satisfaction towards how healthy we are comes from how "fit" we look! Isn't that a bit superficial? I sure think it is.
It was when I realized this, coupled with the utter garbage that the media and conventional wisdom was feeding us, in it's literal and non-literal meaning, that I decided to start afresh, and re-find my health even if that meant throwing conventional wisdom to the curb and turning the TV off! (Oh no she didn't!) and never to look back again! I started on my journey to DestinationPureHealth a little over two-years ago and am still learning new things about myself and "my health" every single day! The way I see it is, "Health and Fitness" for one person can never be defined by someone else. It has to be defined for yourself, by yourself! This blog is a record of that journey for myself. A journey in which I go from poor health, to DestinationPureHealth!
The Power of Assertion - Part I: How I overcame my mental negativity towards WLS.
Or more so, what drove me to make that difficult decision!
Or more so, what drove me to make that difficult decision!
As far back as I can remember I've always been an over-eater, and if I am completely honest with myself I know that mental or emotional hunger have played no role whatsoever in bringing me to where I am today. Fortunately, I've never actually had to deal with emotional eating or mental hunger or any of those serious issues, I've just always been able to eat more than anyone else around me. I can even almost time and date when this change came about within me. When I was 11-years old my parents unwittingly had me re-vaccinated 3 times in one year, one after another (per doctors orders) because they kept misplacing my immunization records on our travels back and forth from the U.S and abroad. The doctors at the time, (not much has changed, unfortunately) made my parents believe that it was completely harmless to re-vaccinate a child so many times and was simply "easier" to re-immunize to get me admitted back into school on time rather than spend time looking for the misplaced paperwork. Thus, my immune system was put under attack repetitively. This left my immune system severely damaged and lead to a complete 360 degree turn-around in my biology from that point on. My tall, skinny and athletic physique ballooned up almost over-night. Among many other new health issues that developed within me immediately (most within days) post-vaccinations (i.e, PCOS, full body cystic acne, hirsutism, hyperpigmentation, anemia etc, and an overall weakened immune system) I could easily down 2-3 plates of food at a sitting all without the slightest feeling of actual fullness. This event lead to the downward spiral that has become the everyday battle with my weight, but most importantly my health! Of course, now I have learned self control, which comes pretty easily when your not interested in food emotionally or mentally. Especially not the kind of high carb, starchy, sugary, grain laden, anti-nutrient loaded crap I was eating previously before going paleo/primal/clean n green (low carb, high protein, mod-high fat, natural, pref. raw when possible and all around clean). It's certainly been a battle, but I have learned the rewards of healing myself far outweigh any that those types of foods could provide me!
The feeling of satisfaction I get from eating this way is my biggest reward. That coupled with the guilt-free feelings I get when knowing I intentionally ate very little, and stopped before I was "full". I must add, this wasn't easy. It never is. The process can be summarized as re-writing a massive part of your internal being. It takes a whole lot of will-power. Basically, it's a commitment! And whether the results "look good" or not on the outside, what matters is how you feel on the inside! When I changed my eating habits, I may not have lost a lot of weight, but I certainly do feel better than I have in years!
The way I see, react to, and think of food has changed drastically in these couple of years simply because I decided to forever give up sugar and carbs and things I absolutely loved to eat, in turn changing my priorities and my favorites. That's where all the "will" business comes in. And that's where the procedure comes in.
A little about the surgery (Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy, Laparoscopic): Basically, the procedure is fairly simple in that it is done Laparoscopically (one small incision, through the belly button) and the surgeon will remove 80-85% of stomach along with a large portion of the stomach that releases the hormones which signal hunger, and the remaining (20-15%) stomach (also called "sleeve", hence Gastric Sleeve Surgery) is left behind to do it's original job. What this does is it leaves the patient with a much smaller stomach so that the patient will not experience hunger and eat anywhere near as much as they used to eat previously, pre-operation that is. This is incredibly helpful to the obese patient as the many years of over-eating has more than usually increased the size of the stomach by means of stretching to fit more food inside, which makes diets near useless to the person because their stomach will not stop sending the hunger signals until it is full. To fill the stomach of a long time obese person takes quite a lot of calories, which contributes to the inability to lose weight long term, if not gaining more weight all together. This is why doctors recommend the surgery as the likely least invasive, and most successful, with least need for revisions.
The fact of the matter is, once I have the sleeve I will gain the ability to feel full once again. It will remain so for a minimum of one-whole year post-operation, to a maximum of two-years post-operation. Which is more than enough time to get my body, my mind and habits, my mouth and tastes, and my overall health back in check as long as I "will" myself to make that change! Perfect time to recondition myself to eat fully primal (paleo plus dairy, low carb/high protein/low-mod-high saturated fat/NO SUGAR/ GRAIN-FREE/Organic/Green n Clean). The fact that my sleeve will only take so much will be the perfect opportunity for me to make this change permanent. It's a new stomach, a new start! Once the initial year has passed and I've become accustomed to eating the way I did in order to milk my sleeve ( in other words, make the most of the procedure), it will become incredibly difficult to fall back into old habits. As I'll have had plenty of time to destroy the old nasty ones, and plenty more time to have made new awesome ones in place of them.
From that point on, I think failure is only an option as long as intentional self-sabotage is. The only way to fail now is to revert back, and after 1-2 years of being a certain way the only way to revert back now....would be intentional. Basically, if I become intent on failing, I will fail. Which is simply NOT going to happen! Among many other reasons, this surgery is way too expensive to screw up!
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