Can Finally Say Hey!

Hey all! I'm Elias, I'm 26 from sunny Cornwall. I've been wanting to introduce myself for a day or two now but had been confined to lurking in the peripheries due to a glitch with the verification email!
Can I start by saying thanks, as I've read up on some of your diaries in the run up to my surgery and it's a right comfort to find out there's a whole group of us in the same boat! You all seem like such a nice supportive bunch too!
As for me I'm just over two weeks away from my gastric sleeve and I'm hoping it'll be just the tool I need to turn things around. Had a few practice runs at the milk diet and have derailed royally right at the end! Hopefully with the importance of the real thing I'll muster that last bit of will power to see it through! It's taken a lifetime of bad choices to get here though so I'm not beating myself up about the practice runs (too much!)
That's enough waffling for now right?

 

Hi and welcome, I guess you on the “real” milk diet now as pre-op? Good luck, look forward to following your journey x

 

Ta muchly. Start the real thing on wed but have been stop/starting for the last month or so. Can't wait for it now as I won't be able to bargain my way out of it! Fed up of my own excuses! "Oh go on you won't be able to eat that soon" and other such rubbish. x

 

Well I've talked myself into starting my lrd a couple days early. New week so why not. An extra couple days can't hurt! (Especially when a lot of you have managed 4 weeks+ so I've got no excuse) Time to take this seriously. 16 days an counting. Can't wait!

 

Welcome to the forum and good luck with the milk diet.

Are you getting the sleeve private or on the NHS? Have you met your surgeon?

 

Thanks, much appreciated Day ones been fine but in practice runs I've buckled right at the end! Something feels different this time though - so here's hoping!

I've gone private. My mum passed away from lymphoma last Jan and I've used my bit of inheritance to tackle this once and for all. She had her own issues with weight she never got to fully deal with so I see this as her final gift to me and an opportunity to turn things around in her name.

I never even thought about the possibility of doing it out of country. Sounds like you made a wise move! I'm so far into it now though that there's no turning back. It's now or never!

I've met my surgeon, Dr Ian Finlay; he seems like a cool enough dude. Done plenty of these ops before so I think I'm in safe hands. He did say I'd be a prime candidate for the NHS route when I saw him but in all honesty I couldn't bare starting over again with all the caveats that come with it. He said it'd likely take at least another couple years. I guess what you gain in swiftness you lose in support though so I'm glad I found this place. Also had appointments with the dietician and a couple of nurses in the run up. Had my group and save blood test and MRSA swab last week and ordered my meds in liquid form so I'm good to go! Next time I'm at the hospital it's for the real deal all going to plan.

 

That's such a thoughtful way of looking at using some of the money that came from a sad loss to do some good. Even though I do not have any obesity related issues now my family history of it was one of the deciding factors for me to make take control right away. With you going private you know that failing an emergency your surgery date is fixed.

Does any of your family/friends know about the surgery? Are they supportive?

My partner is the only person that knows and so far its worked for me.

The head hunger from the milk diet I think preps you for the head hunger post surgery. Thankfully I've never had to do the milk diet but post op there are a lot of times when your body is full but your head is willing you to eat something. This post surgery life is a big mental game and you have to have really strong focus to stay on track. I hope you keep posting. Its great watching the progress of others.

 

Well done so far and thanks for sharing some of your story. I agree, it is nice you are spending your inheritance in this way. Hopefully you will be able to think about how proud your mum would be of you for doing it which will spur you on when the times get tough. I would well recommend booking yourself some counselling as well if you can afford it, because if you haven't sorted out why you comfort eat, you will likely struggle with finding new ways to deal with emotions you don't understand the basis of. The NHS route may be a long one but it does give you time to get your head around the process.

Tips that helped me were:

• small plates and cutlery - child sized are good and because they were colourful it added pleasure to the meal and I would take pleasure in deciding what colour I wanted to eat with at each meal.
• buying food in small sized portions such as individual sachets of porridge oats rather than a big bag or small tins of beans, tinned meat etc. It is so easy to eat more when there is more even though it is expensive
• tiny plastic storage boxes so you can portion food up and put it in the freezer. It is all about planning so you don't grab whatever is handy. When my stress levels affect my planning ability then i go off the rails.

 

Welcome to the forum @Elias and good luck with your surgery! My mom has always said to me that if something happened to her or if her plane went down either on the way to see me or on her way home, that she wanted me to use the inheritance for surgery. Thankfully nothing has happened to my mom and I was finally able to get on the ladder through the NHS, but I agree with the others that it's a very thoughtful way to use the money you've been given.

Sam's tips are very useful and even though I'm still some time off surgery, I've been using some of them in the run up to it to try and retrain my attitudes towards food and get over my bad habits regarding portion sizes. So far so good!

 

I definitely agree with these tips. When making food make sure not to make too much of anything if you can. Especially in the early stages. Your tastes can change week to week for something and sometimes even if you crave something your new pouch decides it hates it and then you are stuck with a freezer filled with food you can't eat right now.

Invest in a electronic scale, one that can be switched from grams to ounces. You could get good ones for under 20 quid. It varies from person to person but I find that 3/4 ounces of solid food is all I can fit at one time and when I was on liquids I could only take in 150ml at a time. Your eyes won't be accurate at first with portion sizes and it helps with food prep and reducing food wastage.

 

Really helpful...once again. Thank you xxx

 

Wow, thanks everyone. I tend not to think of myself as much of a soppy git but there's some real touching words there, especially about my mum. She was both mum and dad to me growing up and any good in me I owe to her. I miss her dearly, she was one of a kind.

What a cracking bunch you all are! As well as really appreciating the sentiment theres some exceptional advice too. I guess the psychological side of the battle is the one thing the surgery can't aid you with so those tips to help retrain you are invaluable and I'll give them all a go.

@OkieGirl your mum sounds like an absolute diamond bless her. I bet she's so excited for you I hope you get your surgery asap!


@slimkim I've not told many people. 3 people in my family and my closest bud. I'm happy to keep it at that as I'm not sure anyone else would understand. Most of the above took some convincing that I wasn't completely off my head for going down this road as it seemed ''drastic". It's easy for people to say "just move more, eat less" and other such nuggets of clichéd advice and unless you've ever suffered with your weight I guess you can't truly understand why we'd opt to go under the knife. They mean well but their well wishes aren't gunna stop the spiral!

@SAM55 I consider my mind to be a bit of a minefield so some additional therapy could definitely be helpful. That said though, this place feels like a sort of group therapy in itself!

x

 

I concur, I find this forum therapeutic.x

 

Hi everyone just a quick update. Am a week in on the official lrd milk diet. Just 9 days to go until show time. Feeling really low energy these last couple days and although I'm determined I don't feel as excited as I thought I would at this point. Between all the practice runs and the real thing I'm sick of milk!
Had an extra mug of bovril last night and feel like I've failed even though it's just bovril! Hopefully it doesn't affect things. Just won't buy any more as it's another variable that can be susceptible to binge like behaviour. It's amazing just how powerful the head hunger can get.
Gotta keep on keeping on though.

 

Well done on completing week 1, time will fly by, we are all different, I found the milk diet quite easy as it took away all the food choices, I don’t believe you have to worry about the extra cup of Bovril either there is nothing in that to affect anything, at Luton and Dunstable we had to have an oxo or Bovril everyday to replace electrolytes in the body. Keep up the good work

 

Thanks Bling you're a diamond. You're doing so well yourself I hope you're very proud The lack of choice is really freeing for sure; I just feel if you put a pin in me I'd explode like a balloon into a giant pool of milk! Ha. My mood is up and down like a fiddler's elbow at the best of times so I'm sure I'll be back to excitement as the day gets closer.

 

In the early stages of the milk diet it's not uncommon to feel a bit blah as your body adjusts and uses up your glycogen stores in your liver. If you look around the site, you'll find loads of different suggestions to make all that milk a bit more palatable, or at least tolerable, if you're not a fan of the white stuff. I'm just so glad that I've always been a milk fiend! I don't think the extra Bovril is anything to worry about. Now if you were downing something sugary, that'd be a different story. Keep going, you'll be on the looser's bench before you know it!

 

Cheers for that! It's really appreciated. I've always been a milk fan but have spent the last couple months doing practice runs and must have gone through like a hundred pints of the stuff by now! Too much of a good thing is all. Pinched the poor man chicken soup idea as well as the Nas crusha so got a bit of variety.
Not long now though. Perked up a bit through the day and can't wait to get on that bench!

 

I hate that head hunger!
Puts me in a right bad mood!

 

Yeah it can be brutal can't it. I've had to pack in the smokes for a month as a condition of the op as well so that's not helping things. That said, it all feels well worth it for the end result.