Wellness is not a one size fits all method or way of life. Nor is how someone manages weight. Of course, we all know the basics of living a healthy lifestyle has to do with nutrition, movement, sleep, water, stress, and various other factors. However, we all do not have the same journey when it comes to health especially if you struggle with heavier weight or weight gain. I know for me I have always straddled the fence of wanting to give up and just indulge in ice cream and pasta every day and night and not care about my health. However, several years ago my whole mindset shifted on health and wellness. I knew I did not want to be m unhealthy in any facet and that I needed to come to terms with my condition (PCOS) and just stop muddling along and take action.
I for one will say I love fitness and its never a struggle to get some type of movement in daily. I have a love hate relationship with kitchen. I have however found a way to love it more by planting a garden and loving what I eat daily because I put effort into it. For me though all the effort I was putting in was just not calculating into results – I did not even see many non-scale victories. So I made a choice to look more into weight loss surgery and how it could potentially help reverse some of my PCOS ( there is no cure no matter how much a DR wants to hand out metformin ) .
What is PCOS?! – it is a disorder that can be confirmed by having a lack of period, hair growth everywhere but your head, and sometimes cysts on the ovaries, and various other markers. For me it has always been a tell tall sign with lack of periods, weight gain and hard to shed the pounds, hair (hello, stock in a razor company, and thinning hair. It also hosts other difficult things lime migraines and low energy and things that mirror a chronic illness. Many women do not even know they have it and most doctors have certain go to things to help treat – Ill touch more on that a different day.
For me I knew that I needed to do something – that losing a larger percentage of body fat would help it. But what had I not done already that would be different this time? For me I made the step to investigate weight loss surgery. I want to say this is NOT THE EASY METHOD it is only a TOOL. There is a process for it and varies with insurance. For me I had to have six nutrition visits, a psychological evaluation, endoscopy, blood work, and chats with my support system. Hopefully, the beginning of 2021 I will be going in for Gastric Bypass.
Online you will see tons of information on different surgeries (please note I am not a DR yet or a nurse). The most common are Rouxen-Y Gastric Bypass and the Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy. Gastric Bypass rearranges your GI tract and allows for food or majority of it to bypass the stomach and small intestine. A pouch is created, and the top of the stomach and the new lower section of the small intestine is connected in. It allows now for food to bypass the tract that absorbs calories and nutrients. The other most common and newer procedure is Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy it essentially removes most of the stomach and closes the remaining part and creates a vertical sleeve like shape. Of course, there are side effects and much to learn after the procedures are done – which I will be covering.
Overall, I decided on this path because I owe it to myself to want to be the healthiest version. So, I hope you stay tuned into my journey and with all that is to come.