Transitions

 

I have found since my WLS 2 years ago that as soon as I find a rhythm I am transitioned to the next phase. It isn't something that I plan on or decide, it just naturally happens. You can't calculate each step once you've had WLS and there is no way to predict what will happen. There is a simple code or rule just like in Fight Club - Work your Tool! If you work your tool then the process leads you through it. If you don't work your tool, you have to get back to working your tool. The tool is the key to the success, but to use it there is mental and physical work.

Over the two years there are phases. Some people call it the honeymoon or maintenanse phase, but really I don't see it that way. I see it like your body in motion. The pendulum began to swing at surgery and as it swings with time the body morphs, the mind morphs, and there are many other morphs throughout the way. Transitioning with WLS no one can truly prepare you for totally. There is no 100% cure of the fear of change, the actual change, and then accepting the change. It is just part of the process.

I've had many transitions in the last two years and here is a list (to name a few):

• pre-op to post op
• food stages
• excersize stages
• mental changes from "fat" to " thin"
• mental changes of acceptance of now
• mental changes of what is hunger and what isn't hunger
• clothing sizes
• shoe sizes
• hat sizes (believe it or not)
• jewlery sizing
• accepting size
• accepting skin changes the extra and the loose
• life changes - eating in and eating out
• learning how to cook
• learning how to shop
• learning how to re-shop with new post RH diet
• high sugar to normal
• normal sugar to low/RH
• dressing fat to dressing in numbers
• dressing fat to dressing current styles
• dressing for me now not waiting for the future
• letting go of the past
• accepting the present
• letting go of the past to allow yourself to see yourself today...the now...the present
• not liking pictures of myself fat
• liking pictures of all of me
• seeing myself in a new light
• no protein shakes to atleast a shake a day
• couldn't stand fake protein and now i rely on it for my RH
• eating better, healthier and trying new things
• working with new doctors

Those are the big ones I can think of off the top of my head. Each is a mental and physical transtition that has a story, a timeline, and an ending that begins a new transition. I'm in the midst of this transition from learning the new diet of life with RH to figuring out my diet...how will I interpret it? How will I modify foods to fit my life? How can I plan ahead and be safe? What research do I need to do to feel comfortable eating out and not being scared? This is the next phase of the transition. It is the necessary evil in the next step. Instead of feeling like I'm in food jail I need to embrace this wave of transition.

I'm not saying I have all the answers, but I am sharing what works for me and the transitions that I'm going through. This is not a comfortable place for me. It makes me feel really vulnerable, unstable, and I down right don't like it, but there isn't a choice not to. I have the choice to embrace this. I have the choice to make the best of everything. I have the choice to embrace this transition like I've embraced much harder ones, but I need to make that choice. I have to make a concious effort to embrace and not fight.