A new chapter in my weight loss journey

It has been a long time since I wrote on this blog. After the VLCD diet and journey, I regained all of my weight and possibly a little more. I learned again that I am a rock star at losing weight but suck at keeping weight off. So I decided a new path was needed.

Today I am over 7 months into the journey of bariatric surgery. While it has been nearly 7 months for the journey I am nearing what feels like day 1. On Thursday, March 31, I will be undergoing vertical sleeve gastrectomy.

Hang with me and I'll try to answer the 5 W's.

Who:
Well me of course.

What:
Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy is a form of bariatric surgery that removes a large portion of the stomach. The portion removed helps to restrict how much food can be eaten at one time, plus it helps re-balance the hormone levels in the body. After surgery many patients no longer require medicine for high blood pressure or type 2 diabetes-two conditions I am affected by.  Here is a good video you can watch to see the basic parts of it.

When:
As said before I will be having surgery on March 31, 2016.

Where:
Unity Point Weight Loss in Des Moines Iowa. It is a certified Center of Excellence for bariatric surgery.

Why:
Well I guess this is the most important part isn't it? As I have written about in the past I have been overweight my entire life. As I have written about before I can lose weight. I am good at that. What I have learned from years of trying to keep weight off is that I am not good at keeping weight off. The more I have looked into this, the more I have found out that I am really quite normal. Over 90% of people who lose significant weight gain it back. This changes with surgery.

In ways that are not fully understood people who have weight loss surgery keep the weight off at a much higher rate than those who do not have surgery. In fact at the 10 year mark the large majority of people keep off 50% of the excess weight.

I know that my weight is going to limit my life span, and the quality of life. I need to make a change, a permanent lasting change, if I want a different outcome. A permanent change is needed. Read this blog, all 110+ posts of it; I've reached the end of non-surgical methods.

Conculsion:
I'll post more as time goes on and try to keep this updated. Thank you for reading.