When people who are having weight loss surgery ask me if I tell people I had surgery, I tell them YES! For one, I can't lie. I don't know how and I am really not good at it. My father said I could never be a politician and that is so true. I am a very honest, too honest person who believes that nothing good comes from a lie. And.....I am a very confident girl. Even when I was at my heaviest, I was confident in who I was. I knew that being overweight meant nothing in regard to the person I really am. I am really pretty fabulous. See, I cannot tell a lie! In all seriousness I say all this because it comes with a warning. IF you are going to be open about your surgery, then you need to be prepared for people to say things that are a bit annoying. Sometimes hurt your feelings. You just need to go ahead and put on your Big Girl Panties (smaller ones for sure) and paint yourself with confidence.
1. People ask me all the time about my "diet" or say "I can't believe you can eat that, is it on your diet". Ummmmmm.....I didn't have WLS surgery to be on a diet. Clearly if I could lose the weight and be healthy on a diet, then that would have worked for me 1000 times before. For ME, I had weight loss surgery to basically force myself to live healthier. So, I am NOT on a diet. I just eat healthier, live healthier and will live longer and better because of it. In my personal opinion, if you go into this new lifestyle thinking you will be on a diet the rest of your life then you are almost setting yourself up for frustration and failure. I took the perspective that I wanted to live the MAJORITY of my life healthy but that I was still going to enjoy life, have fun and not obsess about being on a "diet". Dr. Rod (my surgeon for my Gastric sleeve) told me, "If you want a hamburger, eat a hamburger". "You will not eat the whole thing anyway". "Just don't eat one all the time". So.....if I want a burger, I have one. However, I haven't wanted one yet. I can really eat whatever I want to now though. Anything! So, my goal (lifelong) is to make the mass majority of my intake healthy and workout when I can. That way when I do want to enjoy something special, it really isn't a big deal.
2. People will see me and say, "Oh my gosh, you look great, what is your secret or what did you do to lose so much weight"? As soon as I confidently say "weight loss surgery" they say "oooohhhhhhhhh". Like a disappointed "oooohhhhhh". So I say to myself, "oh well". If anyone wants to ask me intelligent questions, I love to answer and educate and inspire others about surgery. However, it seems the MOST overweight, unhealthy people feel the need to "try" to educate me on the dangers of WLS, risk of gaining weight back, say you should just eat right and exercise... blah blah BLAH. I need a ballcap I wear that says, "Research Nerd" so they understand the FACT that I am not an idiot who just thought I'd run by the surgeons office one day and have 80% of my stomach removed and I may have done just a few minutes (A YEAR to be exact) of research on all my weight loss surgery options. Again, you must be confident and tough. And just FYI for anyone reading this who doesn't know, sadly WLS does not make you lose weight. It is simply a tool to help with the process. I am over the top dedicated, committed and obsessed with being a healthy person now. I have to make choices everyday to eat right, exercise and live better. Or I can choose not to. Ohhhhhhhhhhhh......yup!!
3. People will still say things like "you are so pretty or you are such a great girl, I hate that you think you needed to do this" or "you would have found someone to love you". Yall, that isn't flattering or supportive. Just go ahead and jot that down in the "Things Not to Say to People" notebook. It can go next to "are you pregnant (but you are not)" or "cute little boy (but it is a girl)" comments. Oh and the "I can really tell you have lost weight in your FACE" doesn't work either.
I'm not bitching.....def don't want to come across that way. Just making light of the reality of what you may face post-op if you choose to share with the world. My family and close friends would tell you that they wouldn't expect anything less from me than to tell everyone I had surgery and tell about about it on this blog. I am open, honest, about as REAL as it comes and.....did I mention I am pretty fabulous???
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