Jedi mind tricks post-op or "do mental gymnastics count as exercise?"

[Donna4545 13]

I have my sleeve done about 2 weeks ago. After being on "follow the surgeon's instructions" autopilot for the last month, I'm getting mentally fatigued. For the last month I have been eating, sleeping, and breathing VSG. Diets, carbs, and Protein counts dance in my head.

Now, this weekend, my mind is engaging in the little backlash. It's not that I've decided not to follow "the rules" anymore, in fact they are becoming more or less automatic. What my mind is rebelling against is the total immersion into WLS issues--it's telling me "enough already!"--but I'm addicted! I find it hard not to think about it even while I am tired of thinking about it.

At this point, I want to stop obsessing over every pound and just get on with my life. I want the eating rules to be habitual. Vigilance is exhausting. I want my life to stop revolving around WLS. I want out of the constant weight-worry. I just want to be happy, healthy, and focused on the rest of my life.

In terms of my work life, I've lost about a month of productivity because of my surgery--not because of anything physical that went wrong, but because mentally I was totally immersed in it. For example, during my 2 week pre-op diet I isolated myself and stayed in the house as much as possible to avoid exposure to any food triggers. I didn't go to a BBQ on the 4th of July, specifically to avoid temptation. I didn't want to drive down our fast-food lines streets. That's what it took for me to get through the two week pre-op diet.

In these two weeks post op, I have been completely absorbed by portion sizes, food tracking, liquid tracking, and internalizing "the rules". I started a blog that will hopefully help others (Gastric Sleeve Foodie). Now, at the end of that two weeks, I want my life back. I want to be more than a WLS patient.

I think that our bariatric programs prepare us very well for the physical aspects of WLS, but not so much for the mental and social aspects of WLS. After the psych evaluation, no one really deals with emotional/mental/social issues. Sure, our programs have support groups, and we have this message board, but where is the systematic program for the mind? All of the books I have found on the subject assume that everyone who has WLS actually has an eating disorder, was molested as a child, or is an emotional eater. I don't/wasn't. I was just raised on the wrong foods, and continued in that lifestyle until I developed insulin resistance and PCOS, which make your body fight your every effort at weight loss. By the time I got educated about food, only WLS could save me.

A systematic program would deal with:

-American food culture and how to resist it

-Social aspects of eating (how to navigate restaurants, parties, work lunches)

-Social aspects of WLS (how other people react to WLS and how to deal with it; who and whether or not to tell; issues with family and significant others who are not comfortable with WLS)

-Stages that we go through when "saying goodbye" to American food culture and developing new habits

-Our changing feelings at different stages of our WLS journey and how to deal with them

-Post WLS depression

I think the reason that we have this need is because of the tendency of American medicine to compartmentalize the physical from the mental and emotional aspects of health--to separate them when in fact they go together. What happens to our bodies affects our minds and vice versa. I hope that in the years to come bariatric programs will stop seeing patients as pieces on an assembly line of pre-op, post-op, support group, and institute some kind of systematic aftercare to address the emotional/mental/social aspects of the WLS experience. Even if someone put together a FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) of issues that would be helpful.

We spend so much time researching our surgeon, the surgery process, carbs, Protein, and other physical issues but how much is out there for us on how WLS affects work and intimate relationships, self-image/identity, and outlook on life?

If your program includes this stuff, I salute you (and would love to see some of the material). If not, maybe we need to start asking for this kind of component from our bariatric programs.

So anyway, if mental gymnastics count as exercise, I just spent 500 calories. Thoughts?

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