Fat Frog Diary

This email begins a series sent to a friend considering bariatric surgery. I've decided to share my emails with her, since this uses some of the recipes and concepts previously expressed herein. I want to reiterate that the opinions expressed in my blog are my own. I am not a medical or nutritional professional. The information I give is based solely on my personal experience. Your Mileage May Vary (YMMV).  I promised I'd give you information on how to make the process of getting ready for bariatric surgery easier, so here goes. I'll be doing this in sections, mainly because it takes time to absorb the concepts and put them into practice. Not only that, but there's a lot of information to share! First we'll go over the boring, repetitive basics every yo-yo dieter knows. Still, this is important to remember. After all, practicing now means you avoid dumping syndrome later, and who really wants to feel nauseated, stomach cramps, weakness, shakiness, and sweating...

This girl is telling it like it is!! I refuse to reinvent the wheel. Wendy Tippens tells you the truth about banding. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKfp7aovYkM&NR=1

I do believe this will all be worth it in the end, but as I sit here waiting at 6:30 AM to drive over to my friend Karen's house to walk, I cannot help but envy those who can slurp down lattes and munch on potato chips without consequence. I am more physically fit and prepared for my surgery when it finally comes, but the waiting and sweating in the Florida heat is difficult to bear. Sometimes I think Karen and I fight our battles with only each other for support. I cannot count on my husband's support. He's admitted outright that he'd prefer I remain overweight, because he remembers what I look like when I get close to my medically correct weight. He's terrified someone will steal me away. Doesn't say much for his opinion of my loyalty, not to mention over 25 years of marriage, but I forgive him. That's his lack of self-esteem talking, not a low opinion of me. I bought a bikini pattern for myself to sew. Not that I'd wear such a thing in public! I don...

Okay, I have to say Angela Knight was right. (See her post, Half of Me.) Since my pal Karen and I started exercising on a regular basis, both of us are doing much better health-wise. Karen is ready for her surgery to reverse her temporary colostomy while she recovered from diverticulitis. For me, it's even better. I'm not dropping a lot of weight, but that's all to the good. A pound or two at a time is just fine by me. The big change is my endurance walking and the way my clothes fit. Sure, I'm sore as heck the next day, but I'm better about the *way* I walk. Before, I had started to develop that rolling walk badly overweight get, and I felt like I should be on the heaving deck of a pirate ship or something. Now I'm walking with my back straight and more confidently. I almost feel normal! This weekend, I went through Jo-Ann Fabrics like a woman on a mission without having to stop and rest. I got everything I needed and came home without needing a nap afterward....

Happy Day! After a week of exercising with my friend Karen, I've lost 5 pounds. That's not bad for one lousy week. Because both of us are poor as churchmice, we've chosen walking as our preferred method of exercise. Later, we might add bowling, since we might be able to persuade our husbands to join us for that. I also got a bit of bad news from the doc. Not terribly bad, since it might help me get on the operating table sooner. My cholesterol is even more elevated than last time. Well, duh! My pulmonary doc, the one that manages my DVT/Coumadin, ordered me not to eat one scrap of green vegetables without permission. No salad, no spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts, or any veggie I really love. Not even asparagus. How am I supposed to eat low-fat, low-carb without veggies?

I promised my friend Angela Knight that I'd start exercising now, even before my surgery was approved. So, I called upon my friend Karen and asked if she'd join me. She too is due for a different form of surgery this fall, so I figured we could both use the benefits of exercise. Karen is a very interesting person. She served in the military and married a man who'd eventually become that dreaded creature, a Navy Chief. Like me, she has a thousand crafts she can do, but her main focus is something I've never attempted until recently --quilting. She's a member of a Quilting Guild, and has been for 20 years. What she can do with fabric is amazing. Anyway, Karen and I decided that walking was our choice of exercise. It's cheap, can be done on our schedule, and it's private. The idea of hauling our fat butts into a gym and being told to "feel the burn" by a skinny teenybopper in spandex gave us the willies. So, we're starting slowly and just walking ...