An Important Date

The magic number is...3/13.

The surgeon's office called me today to let me know that my Lap Band has been approved by Regence. I scheduled my surgery an hour later! They actually had 3/6 available, but that is NEXT WEEK which I thought might be just a little too soon. I do still need to arrange medical leave, take a class and do preop stuff, plus work some. And March 13 is one week before my scheduled time off anyway, so I thought it wouldn't be too tough to get that week off and then have my vacation week off. If it works out the way I think it will, I won't be going back to work until March 31.

I'm a little nervous. Mostly I am nervous that I won't lose weight doing this. What if I go through all of this surgery and money and time off and emotional energy and it doesn't work? Or what if I regain the weight? I've been seeking out some other band blogs (cute, the terms folks come up with...BPD/DS folks are "switched"....lap band people are "banded") to learn a lot more about what to expect. So far it's been pretty evenly split between big losers (in a good way) and little ones. A lot of the little losers blog a lot about making some poor choices and then not losing. But I'm sure some of them do the right things and still don't lose as much as they expect. As hubby says, I need to respect my own decision making. I chose this path because I didn't want to completely rearrange my guts and because I have less than 100 lbs to lose. I also didn't want to be tethered to taking 4 extra supplements a day for the rest of my life. And most importantly, I didn't want the 5 year complications that some RnY patients have who don't diligently take their supplements or eat healthfully: intestines that disintegrate, twist or otherwise kill them. I've seen these people with my own eyes, they were my patients, and the visual is unforgettable. So, in my mind, lap band is safer, plus it's slower...I have to stick to it and do the work to make it work. (Mind you, I know RnY people who follow all their guidelines diligently and are fabulously healthy...and if my insurance hadn't covered the Lap Band, like I originally thought would happen, I would have done the RnY myself. It's been done on so many patients, the safety is really quite high now and people do great with it. I am not disparaging gastric bypass at all...I'm just glad I have a less invasive choice.)

One thing I'm trying to make more of a reality for me now is the idea of "head hunger". It's something I've been aware of for a long time, but people really struggle with it after WLS. I'm sure I will too. Eating because I'm bored, lonely, tired, sad, happy...not because I'm (duh) HUNGRY! I'm trying to prepare for that mentally, come up with lists of things I can do instead of eating.

So, I now have just 2 weeks until surgery and there is much to do: arrange my medical leave, take my class and my preop appt, plus I'm working, of course. Most importantly, my food free-for-all is over, and I am starting NOW with making the changes I'll need to make post op. My goals:
1. Drink my water, 64 oz/day
2. Eat my protein first
3. Avoid sugar and high calorie stuff
4. Eat more veggies
5. Work out every day

I still have to plan my "executioner's dinner" as hubby likes to call it. What do I want that I won't be able to have for a long time? I'm not sure how totalitarian I am going to be about food rules when I am closer to my goal. Maybe, as some do, I will be able to live a life of moderation and maintain my goal weight. Maybe, as others do, I will have to be more restricted in my food choices forever. This all remains to be seen. But I've been eating whatever the hell I wanted for the last 2 months, and I'm kind of tired of it, to tell you the truth. So the "final meal" will be...I don't know what.