Weight Loss Surgery Regrets?

I often get asked if I ever regret having  weight loss surgery.  Let me think for a second.

Do I regret shrinking from a size 32 lump of lard weighing in at 23 and a half stone to a 11 stone, normal sized person wearing size 10 jeans and a fitted top?  Nope.

Do I regret being able to jump up out of a chair without wondering if my spine will snap with the strain or if the sofa will be able to cope when I drop back down again?  Nope.

Do I regret being able to take up less than half the bed and still leave room for the dog and a couple of cats,( leave off with the ‘oh my god how unhygienic’) instead of feeling horribly guilty to see my long suffering husband clinging to the only bit of king size quilt that wasn’t needed to cover my mount Etna backside on a chilly night? That’s a no again folks.

I could easily write you a list of many things that are different since having weight loss surgery now that I’m a smaller person.  Some of them are not so good.  Most of them, by far, give me more pleasure than I ever could have dreamed about, purely because I didn’t know they existed.

I guess there may be some people who have had weight loss surgery and either lived to regret it, or not lived to regret it.  This part is a serious subject.  People do die.  But.  A lot more people die from the conditions that go alongside being massively overweight than die from having the operation itself.  When I was on that table, I knew I was in safe hands.  I trusted my surgeon utterly.  I’m sure many others have said that also, and woken up to the start of a catalogue of problems.

Do your research, is the most important bit of advice I can off.  You need to be sure in your head and your heart that you are having your weight loss surgery done by one of the best.  There are lots of incredibly good and highly recommended experts out there.

It’s easy to find out whether a surgeon is any good or not.  Get tippy-tappy-typing and look him up on the internet.  Go on weight loss surgery websites and forums and ask the other members if they’ve heard of the surgeon you have in mind, or to recommend one.  Make a list of all the good points and all the bad points.  Cost is always an issue, but a healthy life after surgery is by far the most important point.  Otherwise what’s it all for?

I have no regrets whatsoever, apart from one.  That is that I wasted so many years being so fat, I should have done it earlier.  Of course, I do realize that things had to hit rock bottom before I had no choice but to do something about it and weight loss surgery, fo me anyway, was the way to go.

The Problem with Weight Loss: Your Body Will Do The Opposite.

By Alwyn Cosgrove
Weight Loss

Homeostasis is the property of a living organism, that regulates its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition.

When you don’t drink enough water in the short term — often the body retains water. It attempts to maintain homeostasis by counteracting the stresses we put on it.

When you drink a lot of extra water - your body excretes more water to maintain balance.

When we weight train — we actually break down muscle tissue. And the body responds by building new muscle. It attempts to maintain homeostasis by doing the reverse of the stimulus we placed on it.

When a male takes supplemental testosterone — the body shuts down its own production in a bid to maintain homeostasis.

When we immunize children against disease — we actually inject them with a small dose of that disease. The immune system recognizes the vaccine as foreign, destroys it, and ‘remembers’ it. When the virulent version of an agent comes along, the immune system is thus prepared to respond. In order to prepare the body to defend against a disease - we expose it to the disease - and it responds by doing the opposite - it destroys the disease.

In almost every situation I can think of, the body tries to maintain homeostasis by “doing the opposite” of the stimulus.

How does this apply to weight loss?

Now we know that while you are doing it — low intensity exercise burns primarily fat.

Higher intensity exercise actually burns more carb stores than fat.

But in every head to head comparison, high intensity exercise results in more fat loss than low intensity exercise - even though the more intense work may burn a lesser percentage of fat during the exercise session.

Burning glycogen results in a larger amount of fat lost than burning fat directly.

The body responds by “doing the opposite”…

Break down muscle to grow more muscle. Burn glycogen to lose more fat.

I designed Warp Speed Fat Loss training program to specifically take advantage of this ‘law’ of nature so that when your body “does the opposite” you’ll end up with faster and greater fat loss.

About the Author/More Info:

Warp Speed Fat Loss is a complete 28 day diet and training system crafted to help you lose 10,15, or 20lbs of body fat in just 28 day. To start losing weight fast visit Warp Speed. Alwyn Cosgrove, M.S., C.S.C.S. is a nationally renown fat loss expert whose work has appeared in magazines such as Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Men’s Journal, Self, Oxygen, and Muscle & Fitness HERS. His Warp Speed Fat Loss system is a complete Done-for-You A-Z Fat Loss Blueprint that gives you exactly everything you need to eat and exactly what to do for exercise to lose weight in record time.  Warp Speed.

Why am I always trying to lose weight?

Why do you want to lose weight?

I think that if we’re all brutally honest, unless there is some medical condition, about which I’ve got no place commenting, there is only one reason that you, me or the person sat beside you at ‘Fat-Fighters’ is fat. That, my friends’, is simply because we eat too much. That means, to get slightly more technical, that we consume more energy than we use up in the daily doings of our lives.

You see, in the olden days, before cars, phones, computers, washing machines, combine harvesters, drive through fast fooderies, desk bound jobs and sugar, chocolate, alcohol and lard all being available to us on tap, we had to get off our botties and toil the soil for what we put in our mouths. In the olden days, the number of people who needed to lose weight was nothing by today’s standards!

That is no longer the case. We don’t have to take the washing down to the river and bang it on a rock. We don’t have to walk 10 miles to fill the kettle or grind up grains of wheat to make enough flour to feed our 16 children. We simply open the freezer, find something that was ‘buy one get one free’ at the supermarket last week, so we might as well cook them both; and chuck it in the microwave. Oh, and don’t forget the ice cream; it’s always on offer somewhere if you know where to look! It’s no wonder we are so overweight.

So the simple answer as to why we’re always trying to lose weight is that we don’t want to be this way. Our logical brains are screaming at us to close the lid on our flip top heads when the cake trolley is rattling past when it’s the MD’s birthday, but we can’t-just a small one then, because it would be rude not to join in. Ok then, so we can all be hogs at the trough together! Yay!

In the environment that we live in, that is pretty much a toxic one, where we are surrounded by too much food and not enough opportunity to use up the energy it provides, it seems that not only do we gain some sense of social belonging from taking advantage of any opportunity to have a good nosh-up, we also crave the social aspect of all having a problem, sharing it, and then trying to lose weight together.

Of course, we’re not all like that. Some people would rather gouge out their eyes with a spoon than sit in a semi circle discussing 101 things to do with a diet yogurt, but people are generally a fairly sociable crowd and take comfort from doing things together.

When I wanted to lose weight, I was always an all or nothing kinda gal. I’ve always been a bit of an obsessive character, so I was always 100% on it or 100% off it. Trouble is, I didn’t get to be the size I was by being on the wagon as often as I was off, so the pounds just went on, then I’d lose some, then put on even more. The battle to lose weight was something that was always a part of my life. I joined all the clubs, bought all the books, tried all the pills, lotions and potions and filled up the shed with a wonderful collection of gym equipment, (after all, we only need so many places to dry wet coats, so out to the shed they went!)

I always knew that the fat me wasn’t the real me. Some people seem to be ok with being overweight and that’s fine. I’m not one of those people like the reformed smokers, you know, now that I’ve managed to lose weight, I have to go round making others feel bad because they’re not trying to. I just always knew that one day, I would come across the thing that would work. The time would be right and I could be the real me.

Sometimes, I think that partly why I was always trying to lose weight was that it gave me a purpose. I was a stay at home mum, and I could blame it all on eating the children’s leftovers, or not having the time to look after myself, or depression and boredom; and to a certain extent all those things are true. What I really lacked was a direction just for me. I didn’t want to not be a wife and mum, but I had nothing that was just mine, so I guess I took on the constant battle of trying to lose weight, and who knows, maybe by never letting myself succeed, it meant I would always have something to work at; and let me tell you, I worked at it!

When I reached 23st 7lb, I felt dreadful and trying to lose weight was the last thing on my mind, despite the fact that it should have been the one thing I couldn’t afford not to do. Every waking minute was obsessed with either what I could eat next and when I wasn’t eating I was just concentrating on getting through the day with enough energy to be able to haul myself up the stairs to fall into bed, exhausted.

That was the time when I hit rock bottom. I felt so awful that I was so fat, but just as bad for not being able to lose weight when it was supposed to be the thing that would make it all better. I can now see that I really needed to feel so crap that I had nowhere else to go but to find the solution that was right for me.

The things that were going on in my head were all just so mixed up and dis-ordered. That’s not unique to me. I’ve talked to a lot of people about weight issues, and it seems that we’re all a little mixed up in the brain department!

When I was trying to lose weight, I did need support, but I didn’t need the pressure of going to a weekly group. I always joined them, to get the books and try to gain the focus I needed to hit the ground running. I always knew that after the first couple of weeks when that initial drop of half a stone had passed, and the loses would reduce to a more normal rate, I would get fed up and pig out on something or other. I would then not be able to go to the class and promise myself that I’d lose a bit more and then go back. I just never did. One bad day would lead to two, then three and then oh well, I’ll start again on Monday. You know what I’m saying!

Even now, when from the outside it may appear to others that I’ve won the battle to lose weight, it is something that I live with everyday. Food will always be an issue to me. Unlike people that give up smoking, or drinking or playing too much bingo by never going near a pub, or bingo hall or buying cigarettes; a person can’t just say, right, that’s it, I’m not going to buy food anymore! It’s a tricky one alright, and as long as there is nice food on the shelves in the shops, the battle to lose weight will continue…

History of Belly Dancing

Throughout history, the documentation of women and their lives is generally less well recorded than the men folks’; this means that the finer points of women and their lives are often rather blurred and tend to get a little distorted as much of the information that is now written down, had only been passed on verbally for generations. Mistakes and embellishments were bound to happen.

Consequently, the nitty gritty behind the history of belly dancing is often debated by those in the know. One thing that is certain though, is that it is a style of dancing with no rule books or associations that say how it should or shouldn’t be done, and is a form of physical and spiritual entertainment that has been generally passed down through the ages from women to their daughters who then grew into women.

Belly dancing has its roots firmly in one of the oldest social dances in history, and is native to Asia and North Africa.

Belly dancing does have strong connections with fertility and child birth and is often said to have been a way of women to keep fit and mobile during pregnancy, whilst building strength in the correct muscles to make for an easier birth, and also as a way to get back into shape following the arrival of the baby.

Very often belly dancing is accepted as something done by women, in the company of women. It is believed that this comes from the times when across the Eastern continents, the man would have many wives and they would all live together. The belly dancing was often used to pass the time.

The direction began to change slightly when the men got to know about the dancing, and when he had his male friends visit, they would call out a few of the women to entertain them.

It would only have been human nature that occasionally one or more of the women would take advantage of their dancing ability and their physical assets in order to secure a better life for themselves, this could easily account for why belly dancing, in some styles has taken on a more seductive aura.

The change in perception of the whole belly dance theme followed the introduction of belly dancing into the social scene in Cairo, when it entered the night clubs and hotels and started to be features in films and popular culture.

Even so, irrelevant of its vague or uncertain origins, what westerners refer to as belly dance is known in the Middle East as Raks Sharki; which translates roughly to ‘dance of the east’, or ‘oriental dance’. There are many regional variations of Middle Eastern dance grouped loosely under the term ‘belly dance’, but the term belly dance itself usually refers to the contemporary nightclub variety as opposed to traditional folk dance -’raks sha’abi or ‘baladi’, which is a traditional solo woman’s dance. The term belly dance comes from a phrase coined when the French saw women belly dancing, ‘Danse du ventre’, and refers to the rotation and movement of the mid section of the body, apparently independently.

There are also different nightclub styles of belly dancing, but the main contemporary form is the Eqyptian style.

Historically, belly dancing has always been performed by both males and females, but usually in sex-segregated gatherings. The exceptions to this would be at weddings for example, when the dancers were in the company of close family and friends. Social dancing of this type is actively encouraged, but the performance of belly dancing of a paid nature in revealing costumes is very much frowned upon.

Mind you, I’ve got to say, if I turned up to belly dance anywhere, they’d be paying me to stay sat down!

Belly Dancing

Yesterday, on a cold, snowy afternoon, I went to watch a dear friend perform in a belly dancing show. The performance was made up of three different Belly Dancing Groups of slightly different styles, all in order to raise funds for The Shakespeare Hospice .

The Shakespeare Hospice is based in Shottery near Stratford-upon-Avon and provides help and support to patients with life limiting illness. They currently need about 1.5 million pounds to keep the wheels turning, and only receive about 9% of that from the government, so every penny that comes from external fundraising is vital, and hard earned by the volunteers and fundraisers.

So, the Belly Dancing Event yesterday was very well attended and great fun to watch. It was inspiring to watch ladies of all different ages, put their inhibitions aside and strut their stuff. The work that had clearly gone into the routines, with both choreography and practise was clear for all to see and the belly dancing costumes were just amazing. Every one of them did themselves proud!

Belly Dancing Divas

Of course, most of my life in one shape of form has been consumed by the constant desire to lose weight, and although I’ve had a bash at most forms of exercise to try to hurry things along and tone up the wobbly bits, belly dancing had never crossed my mind, and I guess, even if it had, the thought of my belly dancing independently of the rest of me, would have been a thing I just couldn’t have subjected anyone to!

So, this morning, I had a little look into this belly dancing thing. I’ve even ordered a DVD! I thought I might have a go, you know, in the peace and quiet of the 4 square foot of living room not currently taken up with cats and cushions!

More Belly Dancing Divas

The DVD is coming from the USA, so it’ll take a few days to get here. By the time I’ve had a go, dislocated a few bones and recovered, it’ll be a while longer before I’m in any fit state to post a review, BUT, I will, I promise I will. I’ll put up the details of the DVD, so if you want to check it out yourself, and have a go at belly dancing, you can just click on the link!

BMI Calculator for Weight Loss

The term BMI is short for Body Mass Index, and is a method of body weight assessment in terms of obesity.

It’s very easy to see from the outside that we are all different shapes and sizes, but if you think back to science lessons, we are all generally built upon the same design of skeleton.  It might also be easy to think that these skeletons are all the same size, with a bit of variety between men and women and height.

However, there are many variations, and this makes it difficult to determine whether a person’s weight is an accurate reflection of their frame and build.  For example, a body builder could weigh in at 20st, but have a very low fat content.

He may also be the same height as someone weighing 15st, but who had a much higher body fat percentage. Despite the heavier weight, body fat percentage wise, the bodybuilder is in much better shape.
A BMI calculator is often used to work out this weight to height ration.  Feel free to try it out below by clicking on the blue link.

BMI Calculator

Alternatively, I have provided a do-it-yourself method.

There are 3 steps.

1.    Multiply your height in metres by itself. Eg. 1.75m x 1.75m=3.06.
2.    Measure your weight in kilos. Eg. 78kgs.
3.    Divide the weight by the height squared.  78 / 3.06=25.49

Therefore BMI is 25.49

What is BMI?

A BMI measurement is used by health professionals to determine if a person is overweight, and if so, to what degree.

There are numerous conditions associated with obesity.  Doctors waiting rooms are full of overweight people suffering with diabetes, heart disease, aching joints, strokes and different types of cancer.  That’s not to say that you will only get them if you’re over weight, but the chances increase as the numbers on the scale go upwards!

Let’s not forget also, that being overweight, to any degree exposes us all to the possibility of depression and low self esteem.

Body composition according to BMI calculation generally falls into weight ranges, as opposed to the exact amount of kilos, or stones and pounds.  Some people find using the BMI measurement very useful when tracking their weight loss journey.

Recommended BMI Chart

Underweight BMI less than 18.5
Ideal    BMI 18.5-25
Overweight    BMI 25-30

Obese - should lose weight    BMI 30-40

Very obese - lose weight now    BMI greater than 40

The downside of only using a BMI calculation is that it doesn’t cater for the variation in body fat content, and body fat is a significant indicator of future health problems.

I’m trying to collect some data about the real reasons that people want to lose weight.  Of course, I realise that they are all connected, but one answer usually is the most important.  I’d be very grateful if you wouldn’t mind clicking on the answer that applies to you, and if the answer isn’t there, perhaps you wouldn’t mind leaving a comment so I can include it?

Thanks

Weightloss Surgery

Should you tell people what you’re planning?

There is no right or wrong answer on the topic of should or shouldn’t you tell your family and friends if you’re planning to have weightloss surgery.

However, there does seem to be a growing wave of opinion that leans towards ‘strictly on a need to know basis’, and even then, only maybe!

Most of us spend time with family and friends. Most of those family and friends will be aware that a) you are overweight, and b) you are unhappy about the situation and have tried many times to do something about it.

These days, with so many cases of weightloss surgery, of whatever type being in the press and on TV, most people would be vaguely familiar with the concept. You might think then that to hear that a friend or family member wouldn’t be overly shocked to be told that was what you were planning.

I did tell people I was going to have weightloss surgery. Not everyone, but people who, at the time, I trusted.

In my experience, the people included in my ‘friends and family’ group, fell into one of two camps.

There was the camp that were 100% behind me, and were only too happy to help and support me in whatever I felt I had to do to get to where I wanted to be. Then there was the other camp who looked at me horrified.

Initially, I gave them credit for being worried about the outcome. I.e. would I live through it? There is no denying that weightloss surgery is a risky business; so I took their apprehension for worry and concern.

However, the truth was it wasn’t me they were worried about atall. It was themselves.

You see, when I was fat, and before weightloss surgery had even entered my mind, I had fairly low expectations of myself and of other people. Most of my family were fairly hefty also, and consequently, family get-togethers generally focused on meals of one kind or another. We could all sit and eat, knowing that none of us should really be stuffing our faces continually, but we all did it anyway.

We all felt safe and secure, surrounded by other fat people.

When I mentioned weightloss surgery and they realised that one of the fat people was going to become un-fat, they couldn’t cope. I wondered if it was because seeing someone break away from the group highlighted the fact that they weren’t going to be changing, yet deep down they wanted to. They were having to face that for whatever reason, they weren’t able to make the change, although they were desperate to. One of them said ‘Hmmm, weightloss surgery? Have you tried just eating less?’

I nearly fell of my chair.

For thirty years I’d been very overweight, for nearly forty years this person had known me, yet they didn’t know me well enough to think I just might have tried that already!

For most of my life, I’ve been overweight. When my sister entered her teenage years, she started piling on the pounds also. Throughout our adult lives, we were always starting diets and falling off them most spectacularly. Sometimes I would do well, other times she would do better; but all the time, down to me understanding completely the misery I felt at being fat, I always willed her onwards, even when I was stumbling; and I thought that she did the same for me.

On a night out, when I’d lost many stones by that point and was fitting into my tight jeans and generally feeling much more presentable and certainly attracting a lot more male attention, I had a jacket tied round my waist. My eyes didn’t yet quite believe what the mirror was showing them, and I was still a little paranoid about having tops tucked into bottoms.

After a few drinks, the Dutch courage arrived and I went to take off the jacket. My sister looked at me and just gave a little shake of the head, ’No, leave it on.’

Thanks heavens I thought, she can obviously see a muffin top that I can’t, and has saved me from looking like a fat fool poured into a pair of too tight jeans. I went to the bar, relieved.

Waiting to be served, a man I’d never met, stopped as he went past. ‘Why have you got that tied round there?’ Indicating the jacket. ‘It makes your backside look twice the size it is.’

I laughed it off, thinking, ‘oh, ok, I understand now.’ I got my drink and returned to where my sister and her friends were. I said nothing, but made a mental note. Inside, my heart was breaking at all the years of deceit, but I smiled even more on the outside because I knew that I was grabbing my second chance.

All the years I’d believed that she had been genuinely wishing me onwards and upwards, just like I’d been doing for her, came tumbling down. I could then see that it was just about her feeling safe because I was fatter, and that made her look smaller.

So if I was to have weightloss surgery again, would I tell people? I would be very careful of who I told. Some people just can’t cope with feeling left behind. Some people worry that you will change and they won’t know you. The truth is, you will change; but not into someone new, you will find the freedom to be the person you always were but was hidden away under a layer of fat and chocolate, and that’s a good thing.

For me, weightloss surgery has opened my eyes wide. People who I genuinely thought would be a part of my life forever, showed me their true colours and I bid them farewell.

On the other hand, people who didn’t know me atall but have seen my face in the street and have watched it shrinking have come up to me saying how proud they are to have watched a person jump at a chance and run with it. Others have said how they wish they were brave enough to do it; and those are the people that truly understand the sadness that being so overweight can make a person feel.

So, should you tell your nearest and dearest you’re going to have weightloss surgery?

How well do you know them?

How will you cope with their reactions?

Can you cope without them if it comes to that and would it actually make any difference if they knew anyway?

Welcome everyone!

I’m guessing that you’re here because you’ve followed a link on a blog, website or forum somewhere; or maybe a friend has suggested you take a look.  I expect you’re here because you, like so many people, want to lose weight.

I’m glad you’ve come.  My name is Salena Newport, and I live in Oxfordshire in the UK.  I’m not a doctor or any form of medical expert; so everything you read here, unless explicitly stated that the information is from a medical source, is either my opinion, or someone elses.

Having said that, I do try very hard to ensure that information I may put up here is accurate.  It makes me so cross when I come across things that I read and absorb quite happily, then to find out a few days later that it was a total load of nonsense.  Drives me mad!

Despite my desire to be accurate and informative, I am only human.  If you should find that I am incorrect on something, or indeed if you feel you could add to the topic; PLEASE leave me comments, or email me.  I really want to provide good quality help, advice and support.

When you want to lose weight, we all know that the journey can be a long one.  It doesn’t need to be a lonely one though.  I really hope that people will come and comment, guide and encourage, and make progress.

So, if I’m not a doctor or any other kind of medical practitioner, what, you may ask gives me the right to put together a blog on this topic and provide information, hints tips and links to other resources to help you lose weight?  Good question.  Simple answer.

One day, 3 years ago, I used to weigh 23st 7lbs.  That’s 330lb in old money.

In the space of 14 months, I lost 12st 7lb or 175lbs.  I’m 5ft 8″ and I’ve ended up a nice size 12 in UK sizes, which I believe is a 10 in USA.

I admit, that yes, there are people who have lost way more, but at the time, I would have cut off both legs to lose 5st, so I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved.

Here is a picture of me at my heaviest, and then on the day of a makeover photo shoot for a TV show, which I will write about further on.

Before and After

So, you see, I’m no more special or clever than anyone else.  If I can do it, so can you.

Please bookmark me, there’s going to be so much more to come!

Salena