If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you know I’m not a huge fan of the proliferation of bariatric surgeries these days. I’m also not a huge fan of the pharmaceutical industry. But side by side, I’d much rather see people get this surgery than swallow “diet pills,” prescription or not. Both of these things remind me of the huge increase in prescriptions written for people with “depression” in the 1990s. Of course, depression, like morbid obesity, are very real illnesses that require medical intervention. However, depression medication for people that aren’t mentally ill and bariatric surgery for people 30lbs overweight (and yes there are doctors out there that will do both of these things) is in my layman’s opinion, unnecessary, stupid and possibly dangerous.

But as you will see when you read the Bariatric Girl blog, she spent 3 decades morbidly obese and thanks to life saving surgery, she is no longer ill and obese.  A human life has been saved. Thank the god of your choice for that! Seriously. There should not be a stigma about obese people having life saving surgery. If I had to have this surgery and someone had a stupid comment about it, I would just ask them, “hey, would you like me to drop dead?” Because let’s face it, people that are morbidly obese are on death’s doorstep. That’s what the MORBID part means.

If you are depressed, and have a clinical brain chemistry issue, if you are an obese yo-yo-tried-everything-dieter-for-decades, diabetic, severely ill, severely obese, yeah, you need medical intervention; and that is between you and your doctor.  And I can honestly say here, that if I needed life saving bariatric surgery, I would get the surgery instead of staying ill and obese.

Weight loss is a very personal journey; but one constant always remains the same for everyone : You must take in less calories than you expend. Period, end of story. Bariatric surgery alters your digestive system for life. Like any other surgery there are risks, and like taking pills, there are risks. The question you have to answer is, will the risks outweigh the benefits? I think in the case of some fussy primadonna with too much time, money and 40 lbs to lose, this surgery is way more riskier than the so-called benefits. This is what I call “taking the easy way out” .. you aren’t clinically ill, you’ve found a doctor that will perform this surgery (and hey, look at how many plastic surgeons have worked on Michael Jackson, when he certainly did not need it, lol) and so instead of learning to control yourself, you go out and get this surgery. I think it’s dumb. But your mileage may vary.

I was 120 lbs overweight when I started my new life as a slender person. 2 doctors told me I did not need this surgery. I do not have diabetes, I do not have high blood pressure, I don’t have any of the major illnesses associated with obesity. Arthritis and GERD (which has since gone away since I changed my lifestyle) are my challenges. These don’t necessitate bariatric surgery. I explained in another post why all of the fat people my age, in my family, have diabetes and high blood pressure, FAST FOOD, DINTY MOORE and SPAM. lol. I’m an artisan-bread-dipped-in-olive-oil girl, always have been, my problem is I intake way too many calories and did not exercise. That’s how I gained 120lbs. That’s also why, at 120 lbs overweight, I did not and do not have diabetes, cholesterol problems or high blood pressure. I’ve got the genetics for all three baby! I’ve never done the things to make those genes express… fast food is a killer, people. I know of several young adults that have had to have their gall bladders removed because of gall bladder disease due to obesity and fast food diets.

So, let’s take a look at what kind of diet these people that have had bariatric surgery eat. Now, this is absolutely fascinating, because it is the exact opposite of what Weight Watchers and and a lot of these other diet programs suggest. The only diet program I know of that comes close to mimicking the diet that a person who has had bariatric surgery easts is that doctor’s Medfast diet. Here’s the link from Duke Medical Center that give complete instructions to the bariatric patient after surgery. And here is the meal planning guide for bariatric surgery.

I guarantee you that if you eat the same diet the bariatric people eat, you are going to lose weight. Protein powder and clear liquid starting out the first 3 weeks. Oh yeah, you are going to lose weight.

The question is, can you overcome the horror that lurks in your own brain? The cravings, the cheating, so on… people that have had this surgery cannot cheat without getting very sick or busting their “pouches.”  Bariatric surgery is a straight jacket for your digestive system.  You either do what you are supposed to, or suffer the consequences.

I started losing weight when I adopted a modified version of what the bariatric person would eat. I graze and drink small amounts throughout the day. I do not eat large meals, or drink huge glasses of water. I do not stuff my stomach with raw vegetables. I keep my intake down to half cups of anything. Considering that I could put away a half gallon of ice cream before I started living like this, half cups of food/drink spaced two hours apart has reset my appetite in ways I never imagined. It’s so easy now not to cheat! That’s why I call it “bariatric surgery of the brain.” heh.

Wait… what???? Then how come we’re all a bunch of fatties if we know all this stuff??!?!  Simple – we have memorized the facts but can’t apply them to ourselves or fail every time we try to apply them to ourselves. The main culprits here of course being that awful appetite monster we all battle, and the lazy bum in a chair monster we battle.  I think the appetite monster takes first place for most of us, HENCE the reason “bariatric surgery works so well to cure diabetes,” according to medical experts. Well, hell yes it cures diabetes if you take someones appetite and ability to hold more than a couple of tablespoons of food at a time.

Here is how it was explained to me by a doctor once: As an obese person your digestive system is so accustomed to processing such huge quantities of food all the time, that when you take away that volume of food, for a while it is going to trip off the hunger signals to your brain like mad. If you can make it through 30-60 days of not cheating on a diet and eating a very calorie restricted and volume restricted diet, you will reset your hunger signals. You will. Absolutely guaranteed. He used a rather shocking illustration with me so that I could understand this more : In places of the world where there is mass starvation, and aid workers go in with food, it’s not like they can serve a huge plate of rice and beans to everyone. In a starvation situation the digestive system will not be able to handle meals, hence why they will start malnourished people on some tablespoons of liquid nutrient gruel, because when you stop eating for so long, you can’t hold down food very well. Essentially, the same thing takes place with bariatric surgery, the stomach contents are restricted to reset the appetite and ability to consume food.

But this same doctor also told me that no one needs bariatric surgery if they can reset their own digestive system on their own. And as I’m always talking about here, never cheating on your diet is the quickest way to get your body to start responding to food differently within a month or two of starting the diet.

Ok ok ok you say. So what?  Well, you understand the point well if you are saying so what at this point. Knowing what to do and doing it are different activities. It wasn’t until I started doing what I knew to be the right thing that I began to lose weight. It wasn’t until I started DOING that I lost my huge appetite. Doing means NEVER CHEATING. If you cheat, you just extend your pain. Seriously. Every time you want to cheat you have to tell yourself, if I break down and do this, it’s just going to extend the inevitable, which is, I either have to lose this weight now and suffer some of these horrible hunger pangs and headaches or I’m going to pay later. Now or later?

Say to yourself.. just today, just for today I will not cheat, I will not extend my suffering by cheating.