BariatricEating.com Health & Nutrition
Strong Opinions... on Serious Surgery
Katherine Warmerdam is an extremely successful post op who has overcome tremendous personal odds. She is an intelligent and sensitive member of our message board community whom I respect and admire. Katherine has written our ‘guest rant’. Please take her words to heart. – Susan Maria
Katharine
398 /140/179 5'11"
High/Current/Goal
LAP RNY 5/16/2006
Dr. Lauter - Bellevue, WA
Lower Body Lift & Thigh Lift 12/08/2008
Dr. Dry - Kirkland, WA
Read Katherines story as told by Overlake Hospital Healthy Outlook Magazine magazine.
I consider myself a pretty positive and supportive person. I try to encourage people and help when requested. I always reread what I write to make sure it's well worded and won't hurt anyone unnecessarily. I am unable to do that today because I am overwhelmed with frustration at a flurry of posts on the board. That said, this post is exempt from my normal personal standards.
Over and over it is stated on this website and accompanying message board that RNY is a tool. That is what it is. That is ALL it is. It is the responsibility of each and every patient to educate themselves by every means possible how to USE that tool to maximum advantage. As you learn, you must incorporate the things you've gleaned into your life to make positive, permanent change. There are standards that must be kept in order to lose weight, achieve goal, and then maintain it.
No sugar. At all. Ever.
Very little fruit.
Very few complex carbs.
Very high protein.
Very high fluids.
Exercise.
Do not drink anything with meals or for 30-60 min after.
Keep junk food out of your house, and don't go to fast food joints.
No soda.
If you compromise your eating, you compromise your results. If you choose to eat garbage, you choose to remain overweight.
If you were going to build a shed in your yard, you would buy a lumber package, hardware and a hammer. The hammer is the tool necessary to achieve the building of the shed. If you stand there in your backyard with the hammer in your hand and look at the lumber package you will not get a shed. If you use the hammer once in awhile and build the frame, but then decide it's too hard you will not get a shed. If you hold the hammer by the head and hit the nails with the handle you will not get a shed. If you borrow your neighbors hand saw and cut the handle off your hammer, you will not get a shed. The only way to get a shed is to use the hammer in the manner it was intended with diligence and dedication. Once the shed is complete, it will require maintenance in the form of painting and repairs. If it is not maintained it will become dilapidated and fail. If the shed is never finished, or falls apart from lack of care, it is not the fault of the hammer.
That hammer is your stomach pouch, and the shed is your body - your temple. You can use your tool to build a strong healthy body, or not. You decide. Every bite you take, every weight you lift, every drink you sip, each step you take. You decide. Are you honoring your body? Are you using your tool?
This is NOT the easy way. THERE IS NO EASY WAY. This is the ONLY way for those of us who took that leap and had RNY. Despite whatever circumstances may have contributed, we are responsible for the state our bodies were in when we climbed up on the gurney to go to the OR for surgery. We are equally responsible for our end result. Look at the people who have been successful. Model your attitudes and behaviors after theirs. Read their posts and learn from their experience. Read Susan Maria's book. Decide to be successful and then do EVERYTHING it takes to achieve that. Don't compromise. You only hurt yourself and set yourself up for further failure. Own your choices and take responsibility for them. There is a huge difference between "I blew it but I won't do it again" and "I blew it and the surgery failed me". Be your own hero and don't make excuses - make changes. Be the change you want to see in your life, your family, your circle of friends, your workplace..... Put on your Nike's and JUST DO IT.
Susan Maria Leach is the author of Before & After – Living & Eating Well After Weight Loss Surgery (HarperCollins Publishers 2007), both a memoir and a cookbook – an intimate account of her own transformation as well as a guide for those who have undergone or are considering the procedure. As she has learned in the more than 7 ½ years since her own RNY procedure, weight-loss surgery is not an event with a finish line or a goal weight – it is the beginning of a new way of life.
She is also President of BariatricEating.com & BE Inc., and an officer of the Corporate Council of the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery.
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© BE, Inc. 2010 - Susan Maria Leach. All rights reserved.
