I’ve been thinking a lot about exactly why I’m having surgery. I guess my initial resistance to the idea was that subconsciously I thought of it like plastic surgery: it’s the easy way out, a magic solution, a quick fix.
When I first went for a consultation, I had already learned about the different kinds of bariatric surgery and what they are. But I still didn’t get how they work. I walked away from the consultation understanding that having the surgery gives me a better chance at maintaining weight loss than if I just lost weight without surgery. But I was still trying to figure out why.
After a few weeks of being on this journey, the conclusion I’ve come to is that the surgery is a quick fix–but only temporarily. The surgery removes a large portion of your stomach so you can only eat a small portion at a time, and your sense of hunger diminishes. As a result, you lose weight rapidly, and within two years, you should be at or near your goal weight.
But that’s just the beginning. The rest is up to you. You can take this gift and lead a new, healthier life, or you can continue your old habits and go back to the way it was.
Bariatric surgery is a reset. It’s the first piece of the puzzle, and it’s up to you to find the other pieces.
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