Weight Loss: Breaking the chains that bind

There was a time, my friends, when I weighed 200 pounds more than I do today.  I was in the hospital. I had fluid build-up around my heart. The cardiac surgeon came into my room followed by scads of residents and med students.  I had seen all the want-to-be docs all that morning. They were nice. The attending cardiac doc was no nonsense.

“Here is your situation,” he said.  “Your body is too big for your heart. It can’t keep up. Unless you lose at least 100 pounds and keep it off, you will be dead in five years. You need gastric bypass surgery.” There was no patting of the hand. There was no comfort in his words. He turned and walked out. The others looked at me sadly and followed him.

At first I was shocked that someone would be so blunt. I think I went through all the steps of grief before finally going to an appointment with the gastric bypass doctor. The surgeon’s office had set it up. I didn’t like the way they did the surgery at that time.  They did everything like they did today but put a small ring around the bottom of the esophagus.

I felt that could be a major problem if a large piece of food went down accidentally. Apparently I was right because several years later they changed the surgery. But I’m getting ahead of myself.  I want to show you my transformation and then tell you about my continuing journey.

In 2004, I weighed 430 pounds. By 2009, I had lost 200 pounds.

Chains—they come in all sizes and kinds from small, dainty, 14K gold ones that you can wear on your wrist to monster steel chains that are used to hold anchors that moor ocean liners.  In our lives, there are all kinds and sizes of chains, as well.

To illustrate this concept, in the fall of 2003, our pastor preached a very unique sermon.  He held up a small gold chain and said some of the things that have us held down are like the small chain.  We can get over them ourselves. We don’t need any help. And he broke the chain easily.

Then, he brought increasingly larger chains up on the platform.  He noted that some chains we needed other people to help us break. Then he and another man broke a medium size chain.  He said some chains needed some additional intervention such as a treatment program of some type.  He brought a large log chain with a fairly big cutter.  While a man held the chain on either end, he used the cutters to break it.

Still others, he said, were so big they needed a different kind of intervention.  That’s when he had six men bring out the largest chain I’ve ever seen. They drug it up to the platform.  A massive chain cutter was brought up that two men could barely hold.  They tried to cut the chain with the cutters. They tried several times but could not do it.  They needed a God-sized intervention.

It was this sermon that changed my life.  I knew that there were small tendencies I had such as watching too much television, speaking negatively about other people, speeding.  These were not overwhelming obstacles in my life. They were things I was tempted with from time to time, but I could handle them.  However, there was one major problem in my life that needed a God-sized intervention. I knew it and God knew it.  It was food.

Up until that point, I had been trying to break this chain myself or with help from other sources such as weight watchers, Diet Center, Nutri Systems, The Atkins Diet, weight loss supplements or anything else that came down the pike.  Some of these worked…for awhile. Eventually I gained the weight back plus more.

God had been dealing with me for several months about weight loss surgery. I had resisted the idea because I thought surely God would not want me to alter my body.  That Sunday, God spoke to me in a quiet way. He told me I had a bondage to food that needed a God-sized intervention in the shape of weight loss surgery.

Two other things had happened prior to the sermon that I knew were not mere coincidence. The first happened at a garage sale where a woman was selling lots of nice plus-sized clothes. I could tell they were all much larger than she wore. In casual conversation I asked whose clothes they were.  She said they were hers.

When I asked how she lost the weight, she said she had lost over 100 lbs in a year by having weight loss surgery. I told her I had looked in to several years before and I was concerned about several aspects of it.  Every aspect I mentioned to her had been revised since I had looked into it.  She gave me a website to go to for more information. I started there and continued to read everything I could find on the topic.

Several days later, I got a call from a very good friend of mine who is a family nurse practitioner.  She told me she had just gotten back from a seminar for medical professionals where current changes in the gastric bypass operation were explained.  She had cautioned me about the surgery before. Now, she was encouraging me to check into it.  She said that God had been urging her to speak with me about it.  She even apologized for talking to me, saying she did not want to offend me.

In addition to searching websites, I read books. I went to information seminars offered by various surgeons. I spent hours on the phone tracking down surgeons who would do the type of surgery I needed and were covered under my insurance.  After about five months, I found the surgical program I felt would work for me. It took four months before I was approved.

It took another three months to find the right surgeon in their program.  After being turned down by two surgeons, I was forwarded to their head surgeon who has done over 2,000 surgeries.  He accepted me. (Little did I know at the time, he is one of the foremost gastric bypass surgeons in the nation. He retired a month after doing my surgery!)

I finally had surgery Sept. 27, 2004 with no complications and a relatively easy four-day hospital stay.  It has now been over seven years since the surgery and altogether I have lost 200 pounds. More importantly, I am healthier than I have ever been. Gone is the diabetes and heart condition.

Despite some setbacks from double knee replacement surgery last year, I can exercise, albeit in the water. But still, I can exercise.  I am still learning how to eat correctly.  After the gastric bypass, I got by with just eating less.  That is still the case, but I’m also learning how to give up things that are bad for me.

For instance, I found about a year ago I could eat certain kinds of candy. I could eat one piece wait awhile and eat another.  That can be quite a bit of eating candy even if you wait 10 minutes between each piece. I had gained about 30 lbs back.

About two months ago, I decided I would give up candy, not for a little while but for the rest of my life. If alcoholics can give up alcohol, I can give up candy. In place of eating candy, I started exercising at least five days a week. Not just when I want to but as a scheduled event.  Thankfully, I’ve lost about 20 of that 30 I’d gained. So, my weight loss really is 190 rather than 200. But eventually it will be back to 200 then even more.

Let me just say that anyone who can lose weight any other way, should. At age 50 with a death sentence hanging over my head, I had no other option that would take the weight off quickly. At that point, I had done major damage to body. I needed an intervention.

Those who are younger and have less to lose should go on a healthy eating plan and find exercise they love.  If being healthy is indeed something you desire, it will take hard work, dedication, and consistency. Keep your agreements with yourself even when you try to talk yourself out of it.

I’m not done with weight loss. I have more to lose. I started at a high weight and so I’m still not where I want to be, but I’m far beyond where I was. I have so much more to learn and in subsequent posts will share with you some of the things I’ve learned and am learning. But, with the latest revelation and decision to give up candy, it reinforces what I know to be true. A chain that has had me bound all my life has been broken.

No more do I plan my life around what I want to eat. No more do I salivate at the thought of going out to eat.  No more do I accept invitations just because I know the hostess is a great cook.  Now when I go somewhere it is to interact with others, to get to know them better, to have meaningful conversation.  The devil thought he had me bound and he did for many years, but now thank God, I’m free.