It's a Race, I'm Winning!

Last Saturday I did what was UNTHINKABLE last year. I ran 13.1 miles! It was the American Fork Canyon Race Against Cancer. I just wanted to share some of the highlights.

1. My awesome cousin Sarah and I woke up crazy early in the morning around 3:30 AM, to meet at the finish line of the race to be shuttled up to the starting line, which was at Tibble Fork park up American Fork Canyon.

2. In our little goody bag that they gave us when we picked up our packets the day before, they included a pair of gloves and an emergency blanket. I thought, "Wow, those are weird things to include in a goody bag for a race," and promptly took them out and left them in my room. I can't tell you how much I regretted that! Waiting up at the starting line for like 2 hours in the frigid mountain air was awful! Luckily after a while, someone went around passing out more emergency blankets to the dummies who took theirs out of their goody bag, and I got warmed up a bit.
3. Everyone was wrapped up in their shiny, silver emergency blankets, which made everyone look like giant baked potatoes.

4. When the race finally started at 6AM, the sun was coming up over the mountains. The first 8 miles of the race was down AF canyon, and it was cool and shady. It was beautiful!
5. I'm SO grateful that they had little sample packets of energy jelly beans at the water stations. I had one pack of energy chews, and went through them really quickly. I didn't realize how much I'd need!
6. Since it was the Race Against Cancer, they had a bunch of signs along the way with quotes from people who had either survived cancer, or from people whose loved ones had lost the battle with cancer. It was uplifting and encouraging to read about people's experiences along the way. A lot of people had shirts or temporary tattoos with the names of people they were honoring in their run. I was running in honor of my aunt Laurie, who died of colon cancer.

7. Sarah and I stopped at one of the restrooms at like mile 5 or something like that. There was a long line, and a lot of people that we had worked hard to pass on the way ended up running past us again. So as soon as we were done with the bathrooms, we pushed ourselves to pass all those people again. There was one lady in a black and white skirt and purple shirt that we kept leap-frogging with for the rest of the race. We'd pass her, then she'd pass us, then we'd pass her... I'm pretty sure in the end, we finished before her!

8. The first 8 miles were all downhill, and not only did that make it a heck of a lot easier, it helped our time, too. At mile 9, I really started feeling the effects of running for so long, especially since it got hillier when we got out of the canyon. I'm super impressed with us, though, because we still ran all the hills, except one. There was one hill between miles 11 and 12 that might as well have been Mount Everest. I had to walk that one. Sarah still jogged circles around me while I walked it, but that's okay.

9. Around mile 10, we saw my cousin Anne bicycling in her neighborhood. That was a fun coincidence. She turned around and rode next to us for a minute. It was encouraging to see another familiar face.

10. Around mile 11, I really started to regret not bringing pain killers with me. OUCH.

11. Somewhere around mile 11, we met up with the people running the 5K. I saw a few people that I worked with. I knew we were close to the end, but meeting up with them gave me a boost of energy.

12. At mile 13, when we only had 0.1 mile left, we had enough energy to "sprint" to the finish line (my sprint is more like a jog, but it was the best I could do!).

13. Nearing the finish line, I started seeing family and friends cheering me on. My friend Walker and his mom, my aunt and uncle Stephen and Nancy, my cousin Linda and her daughter, and Robyn and my dad. My dad was right at the end taking pictures of me, and Robyn was of course there being totally prepared to help me and Sarah out with water and stuff for the end of the race. I'm just now realizing that I didn't get any pictures of me and my dad! Dang it. But he was there, just on the other side of the camera

14. I got really emotional at the end. It had been a LOT of hours of training. More than physically hard, it had been mentally hard to push myself for months to work up to the 13 miles. There were days that I would cry after my run because it was so difficult. It was also extremely rewarding. I'd never pushed myself so hard for so long before. And it wasn't just me; other people were there for me, pushing me along the way, and running right next to me! It was a little overwhelming. So there at the finish line, Robyn gave me a hug and didn't let go for a long time.

15. It took a LONG time after we stopped running for me to catch my breath. Not only that, I was in a ton of pain. So I took some Tylenol that someone had brought for me and walked around for a little while.

16. THEY HAD FREE MASSAGES!!!!! It was TOTALLY worth running 13 miles for a free massage. I'm not even being sarcastic. I love massages.

Anyhoo, there you go. Those are the highlights of the day. I would have added the free Kneader's french toast breakfast that they had at the end as a highlight, but I can't have bread, so I didn't get to enjoy that! I did cheat and have a popsicle, though. Not quite the Kneader's breakfast, but it was still a treat.

New June

Several years ago I made a New Year's resolution to not make any more New Year's Resolutions. It's the best resolution that I've ever made. The reason why is because I didn't want to feel obligated to make resolutions just because of an arbitrary holiday. Don't get me wrong, I love the fact the at least once a year, we collectively push ourselves and each other to be better. I was just tired of being asked what my resolutions were, when throughout the year I make goals already.

So here we are in June, and I'm working on a couple of things already, the main thing being training for a half marathon. I do have a new resolution (a "New June's" resolution?) to write twice a week; once to update my blog, and once to work on my creative writing. I realized that I haven't updated my blog about my weight loss journey in a long time- since January!! Yikes. This is the cycle that I go through- something big happens, and I write all about it for a while, and then I get overwhelmed with keeping up with it, so I stop for months at a time. So I decided that once a week, as far as the blog goes, I'll just write whatever dumb thing comes to mind and not worry too much about perfection. Then hopefully I won't get overwhelmed.

A while back when I was in a human development class, I remember learning that in my age group, people are deciding what kind of contribution they want to make to the world. Most children, teenagers, and young adults spend so much time taking, needing, and absorbing what the world has to offer, and once people get to my age, there comes a time when they have to choose: do I keep taking, or do I contribute? When I go to libraries and bookstores, there's always an incredible feeling of KNOWLEDGE and EXPERIENCE. It's like I feel smarter just by walking inside. Don't you think that's amazing? Hundreds of years of knowledge packed into a book? A lifetime of thoughts, sadness, laughter, and anger on a few pages? Hundreds of thousands of minutes and hours pondering of how life really is or what it could be? Dreaming of new worlds? I do.

Obviously not every book impacts everybody, or is necessarily even worth reading (I'm looking at you, Twilight). I think that the stories and books could be just as important or life-changing to the writer as they are for the reader. JK Rowling was once asked where she'd be without her writing; her response was, "depressed." Hopefully writing the blog more faithfully will help me figure out how to live this crazy life, and the creative writing will be a fun outlet and a healthy habit to develop on top of all the running that I'm doing.

Wish me luck.

A Quikie

I posted a few progress pictures tonight and got a LOT of positive responses. I'm thankful for the support that I'm getting from everybody. Thank you, and you, and you, and you, and you... etc. I realized it's been a while since I've given everybody an update, so here it is, hopefully nice and quick.

So how am I doing? I'll break it down.

Physically

I'm doing fine physically, for the most part. I spend a lot of time being nauseated or dizzy. It doesn't take a lot to make me nauseated. Just one bite too much, or one sip of a drink too much, and I'll be in the bathroom for long enough that people give me funny looks when I leave.

As far as the dizziness goes, I thought that's probably from not eating or drinking enough some days, but now I'm not so sure. Today I was really good and stuck to my diet and everything, and I spent a good portion of the day dizzy. There was one point of the day where my whole world tilted to the left as I was walking down the hall. I had to hold onto the wall for a moment until everything was upright again. I'm sure I'm doing something wrong with my diet or water intake or exercise or something. Whatever. I'll be fine.

I thought that I would feel different at this point. Really the only difference I feel besides the nausea and dizziness is that my clothes are all nice and loose. I don't have much more energy that I can tell, and my feet still hurt at the end of my 12 hour shifts. I thought that would change at this point. No, I don't really feel all that different.

To me, I don't even look that different. I look at my progress pictures and I'm super nitpicky about my body (just like everyone is about their own bodies), and I still see someone who is 380 lbs. I'm just trusting you guys in cyber-world to notice my progress.

Two other downsides to consider: I'm losing some hair, which makes me kind of sad, and I have saggy arm skin. I know the arm skin thing is a sign that I'm being successful at losing weight, but I really hate it. They are my wings, my Relief Society arms, or whatever you want to call them. I don't like them.

Someone on the support group Facebook page posted something like this the other day (I couldn't find it, so I just made my own). Everybody on the page thought it was really funny, but I die a little inside every time I see it. It just makes me look forward to skin removal surgery when I get into maintenance mode.

Emotionally

Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggggggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Between the exercise, the saggy arms (and saggy boobs, let's get real here), the boring diet, and the bills from the surgery, there's a lot to "uuugh" about.

I can't exaggerate when I say there's just a whole lot of sucking it up and just doing it going on over here. I'm not saying it's not worth it. If it wasn't, I obviously wouldn't do any of it. People sometimes tell me they don't think that they could do what I'm doing, and they ask me how I do it. There's no magic answer. You suck it up and you get it done. You make a decision to do whatever hard thing you have to do, and you just put one foot in front of the other, so to speak. Maybe I'm missing some secret answer, like "Oh, you have to find joy in the little things, and it makes it easier!" or "The more you do it, the easier it is!" That's just a whole bunch of hogwash in my experience. It hasn't gotten easier. And from what I hear from others who have had the surgery, it never will. I've accepted that. A quote that I heard in support group a few months ago said, "Being fat is hard. Losing weight is hard. Choose your hard." Well, I've obviously chosen mine. It's hard, it will always be hard, but it would have been hard in other ways had I not gone through with the surgery.


Please don't take that to mean I'm not IMMENSELY grateful for the good things from the surgery. I really, truly am. I'm so grateful that I've had friends and family come out of the woodwork in order to be so supportive of me. This has actually served as a way for me to connect with friends that I haven't talked to in years and family who I don't really even know that well. I think, besides my health, that's been the biggest blessing by far. So THANKS A MILLION TIMES over and over and over to everyone. You've all been wonderful. I'm sorry for my whining and begging for attention. Sometimes I just really need it for the extra push to go to the gym, or to eat yet another bite of canned chicken. I really wouldn't be able to get through this without your support.

Angry Break Up Music

Alright, can I just take a moment to celebrate something?

No, I don't want to celebrate my amazing photography skills, although they're clearly evident in this picture. What I do want to celebrate is the fact that I'm wearing that particular workout shirt. Ok, not just that I'm wearing it, but the fact that I wore it in public. To the gym. And people saw me.

I realize that I'm at the beginning of the journey, and I have a long way to go before I'm considered a healthy weight. However, wearing this shirt felt significant. It means that I feel better about myself than I have in... ever. I'm starting to feel more confident, and better yet, healthier. I like these feelings. It's empowering. It makes me happy to stick to my sucky diet. It makes me want to go to the gym and work out for an hour. When I put on clothes that haven't fit me in a couple of years, it's a great surprise. My wardrobe has doubled since now I fit my old clothes again. But back to my point of the last paragraph: I work this shirt in PUBLIC. I usually cover as much as possible. This is a big deal, people.

Before I started writing this post, I reread my last post that I wrote 6 hours before surgery. I was so scared. Hopefully I put on a really brave face and that people didn't see the fear and doubt in my eyes. When I was wheeled into the operating room, it took all of the emotional strength I could muster to transfer myself to the operating table. I don't think I've ever had to put that much trust in people (the surgeon and his team) before, not even for my butt surgery. Although I know my surgeon is skilled and had a skilled team in the room with him, it's not an easy thing to ask of a person to put their health and future in other people's hands. With all of that said, I am so grateful to be feeling as good as I do right now, and I know I owe it to those people who I put ALL of my trust in. In my last post, I said that I was scared that I was making the wrong decision to have the surgery. Well, I'm so glad that I'm being validated in so many rewarding ways.

It's been an interesting 5-ish weeks since the surgery. I know I always say this, but I'll write more about it later. There's something that I wanted to bring up that was a fun discovery tonight. While on the treadmill at the gym tonight, I had such a blast listening to angry break-up songs. Hear me out before you dismiss me as being crazy. So much of what I'm going through with my diet and saying goodbye to the many, many pounds I'm losing feels like a breakup. As I'm listening to the songs, I start thinking about how they lyrics apply to what I'm going through right now. The best example I've come across so far is "Fighter" by Christina Aguilera. I'm just going to copy and paste the applicable lyrics, not all of them, so you see what I'm talking about. As you're reading it, just pretend that you're talking to your bad habits, or your fat, or whatever. (I swear I'm not crazy.)

After all you put me through,
You think I'd despise you,
But in the end I wanna thank you,
'Cause you've made me that much stronger

I've had enough
You were there by my side, always down for the ride
But your joy ride just came down in flames 'cause your greed sold me out in shame

'Cause if it wasn't for all that you tried to do, I wouldn't know
Just how capable I am to pull through
So I wanna say thank you
'Cause it

[Chorus:]
Makes me that much stronger
Makes me work a little bit harder
It makes me that much wiser
So thanks for making me a fighter
Made me learn a little bit faster
Made my skin a little bit thicker
Makes me that much smarter
So thanks for making me a fighter

I heard you're going round playing the victim now
But don't even begin feeling I'm the one to blame
'Cause you dug your own grave
After all of the fights and the lies 'cause you're wanting to haunt me
But that won't work anymore, no more,
It's over
'Cause if it wasn't for all of your torture
I wouldn't know how to be this way now and never back down
So I wanna say thank you

In the end you'll see
YOU-WON'T-STOP-ME

I am a fighter and I
I ain't gonna stop
There is no turning back
I've had enough

It's sooooooooo cathartic to listen to this song while I'm working out. I love it. Here's the video of it so you can enjoy also. The video is weird, but I like the song.

Here are some other great songs that I loved listening to tonight:

"Bye Bye" by Jo Dee Messina

"My Give a Damn's Busted" by Jo Dee Messina

"DONE" by the Band Perry

"We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" by Taylor Swift

"Gives You Hell" by the All American Rejects

"Another One Bites the Dust" by Queen (I sing this to the pounds that I'm losing, haha.)

Anyhoo, there you go. I just had so much fun with those songs. Add them to your workout playlist. You're welcome. Also, here are a few other great workout songs that aren't angry ones. Add these ones, too.

"I Love Me" by Meghan Trainor

"Weight of the World" by Chantal Kreviazuk

"I Would Walk 500 Miles" by the Proclaimers (because that's what it feels like I'm doing when I'm on the treadmill)

"Harder Better Faster Stronger" by Daft Punk

Welp, there ya go. Lots of music. Go work out. If I have to, so do you.

A Daring Adventure

You guys. 6 hours. I have 6 hours until I need to be at the hospital. They're going to cut me like sushi and sew me back together and WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING?! 

This surgery is going to change my life, and I'm willing to put in the work for it. However, it's crazy that I'm doing this elective surgery where they're going to rearrange my perfectly good insides. I can hardly believe that I'm letting them do this to me. I mean, I'm only 31, and despite my weight, I'm in pretty good health, right? I feel more or less fine every day. 

On the other hand, there are things happening to my body silently that will have a serious negative impact on my life in the future. For example, remember me talking about my fatty liver? I don't have any symptoms from that, but it's there, and it's a problem. What else is going on in my body that I don't know about, these silent diseases sneaking up on me? (Silent But Deadly, lol.) 

I have to keep perspective. I've already written about the complications and risks for both morbid obesity and gastric bypass surgery. In my head it makes sense that I need to put myself at risk for certain terrifying things in order to prevent the other slightly more terrifying things. 

It doesn't quite feel real that it's going to happen tomorrow. Today was a normal day, and tomorrow everything is going to be different. It mostly just feels like a dream to me. There's nothing else I can do to prepare; I've done everything that the doctor and nurses have told me to do. Maybe it won't feel real until I wake up from surgery, or maybe not until the reality of my food restrictions has settled in. I don't know.

There are a few things that I'm actually really scared of. I'm scared that this is a bad choice; that I could have, and should have, tried harder to lose weight on my own. I'm scared that I'll have depression (a possible complication of the surgery for lots of reasons); I've been super lucky in my life not to suffer from clinical depression, and the thought of it is worse than the surgery itself. And I'm obviously scared of the surgery itself.

I've posted some pictures on my Facebook to go along with this post, because for some reason both my phone and my computer are having issues right now. When I get the chance, I'll update this post to include those pictures. The pictures are my "before pictures" and some inspirational quotes that I've put up around my room so I remember to get out of my comfort zone every once in a while. 

All fears aside, I'm excited for the future. Helen Keller said, "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing." Bring on the adventure!

Forbidden Love: I'm Empty Inside Without You

I've gotten a few questions about my liquid diet, so here's the next post about weight loss surgery.

1. What can I have as part of the diet?

For the first week, the only thing that I had was the Walmart brand of Slim Fast shakes. When I bought them, I was SO not looking forward to them. But after I tried the 3 flavors that are available, it wasn't so bad. Especially the strawberry. They taste kind of medicinal, but they're still good.

The number of shakes that I could have a day depended on the brand of shake I bought. It's a low-calorie, high-protein diet, and every brand has its own mix of nutrients. I could have 6 shakes a day of the brand that I bought.

After that first week, I bought some meals from my surgeon's office that for some reason they say are still okay to have. They're all like beef stews and chicken pasta, stuff that's soft and easily digestible. They add extra protein (I think it's whey protein) so I get my 70 grams a day that I'm supposed to have. So now instead of 6 shakes a day, I get 3 shakes a day and 2 meals.

They also have a protein-packed oatmeal that I can have if I want to replace one of the shakes a day. That oatmeal is okay. It's not-very-flavorful mush. Which I guess that's what all oatmeal is, basically, so I don't know why I'm trying to describe it further.

I can also have zero calorie, non carbonated drinks (yipee!). For example, Zero Water; however, when I tried to drink that, my tongue got offended and tried to leave. I begged it to stay and I promised I would never drink it again. My tongue was miffed with me, but begrudgingly forgave me. So there's that.

2. How long do you have to do it?

There are different stages of the diet pre- and post- operatively. This stage, or as I fondly refer to it, the “I hate everyone who even thinks about food, but no, really I'm fine” stage, is the one I described above. I'm on this for 3 weeks. As of right now I'm 6/7ths of the way through this phase, thank heaven.

I may or may not describe the other phases of the diet that I'm supposed to be on when I get there. I know you're all holding your breath for that.

3. Why do you have to do a liquid diet?

I have my liver to thank for that. Stupid, fat liver.

No really. It's because of my fatty liver. Normal size people have firm, small-ish livers. Morbidly obese people have large, soft livers. Compare:

If someone has a fatty liver, it's kind of floppy, and drapes over the top of the stomach. This makes it difficult to do the surgery laproscopically, since the point of it is to work with the stomach. So the liquid diet makes the liver smaller and more firm in order to make laproscopic surgery possible. That means better, easier, and faster recovery.

4. Is it hard?

Well, yes and no.

Once you've resigned yourself to the fact that you're not going to be eating good food for the rest of your life (don't argue with me, you're not the ones who are facing a tiramisu-and-french-fry-less life), it's not too hard. At my food funeral, I was getting really stressed because I doubted whether or not I could stick to such a strict diet. But honestly, I don't know why it hasn't been as hard as I thought it would be. Maybe because I've told almost everyone I know about the diet and the surgery, so all eyes are on me? Maybe because my family is helping me pay for the surgery, and I don't want to mess it up? Maybe losing weight hasn't been hard all along but I never gave it a fair go? Maybe I'm stronger than I thought? I don't know. Probably all of the above.

Okay, so I started writing this post a couple of days ago, so here's an update within an update: It has its moments of being freaking hard. I haven't been as good at making sure I eat when I'm hungry; sometimes I go 5 or 6 hours without eating, usually because I'm working or out doing other stuff and I haven't planned my meals. I realize I need to be better at eating something before I'm starving. But you know what sucks? Chugging a Slim Fast when everyone else is eating Cafe Rio. Or ordering an herb tea without milk or cream or sugar from a cafe when everyone else is eating pumpkin spice rolls and Oreo brownies and quiche and ham and cheese sandwiches on croissants!!!!! (Those are separate things; sorry about my lack of commas.) All I want is a grilled cheese sandwich. A whole plate of sandwiches! No, make that a bed of them; I want to wrap myself in a blanket of bacon while falling asleep eating my bed of grilled cheese sandwiches in my cheesecake house, dang it! Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh.

[Eyes come back into focus]

Me: What? You guys are still here?

[Wipes drool from chin]

Me: Uh, yeah, I'm doing fine, thanks for asking.

[Stabs someone and runs away with their bagel]

[Marries the bagel]

What is Weight Loss Surgery?

This is going to be a series of blog posts, I think. I was trying to think of all the topics that I wanted to cover in regards to this surgery, and I started thinking about how long it would be to read all of that. So I'm going to break up the ideas I have so everyone can peruse them however you want.

Blog post numero uno: what is gastric bypass, and why did I choose it over the other weight loss surgeries?

Basically, there are 3 major options for weight loss surgery.

1. The Lap Band.

            They put an adjustable band around your stomach, and they can make it tighter or looser with saline solution that they put into the port under the skin with a needle.

            Here are some things that I didn't like about this option. Statistically, patients have had less weight loss and have kept it off for less time than the other surgeries. 

           Secondly, you have that thing in you forever. I don't like that idea because of the risk of infection. I mean, I know there's a risk of infection with any surgery, but especially one that purposefully leaves something behind inside of you.

          Thirdly, there's this thing called “productive burping.” It sounds horrifying. I won't go into lots of detail, but the three words to best describe it are “soooooooo much mucous.” I'll leave your imaginations to wander how they will.

2. Gastric Sleeve.

            Pretty simple idea. Cut the stomach in half (vertically) and take out the extra part. Then your stomach is like a third of the size that it was.

            I only have one reason I didn't want this surgery; it's is because of the chance that I might have worse heartburn after the surgery than before, for some reason. I already take daily medications for GERD; if I don't take it, I feel like someone is putting out a cigarette inside my chest every few minutes. I don't need that to be any worse than what it already is. I'm not sure why it can get worse after the surgery. Hang on, let me look it up. *Googles stuff* Yeah, I still don't know. Sorry.

3. Gastric bypass.

This is definitely the most complicated and invasive one. It's too complicated to explain, so here's an animated video that shows you the steps. 

I've heard this called the “gold standard” of weight loss surgeries. You get the most weight loss and you keep it off for the longest. There could be complications with this one, obviously, as with all surgeries. There could be small bowel obstructions, dumping syndrome, and a slew of other things. But I'm choosing this one over the other, less invasive surgeries simply because I'm more willing to deal with the risks of surgery than I am of staying overweight.

The Risks

Potential complications of gastric bypass:

small bowel obstructions

dumping syndrome

hair loss

dehydration

ulcers

nutritional deficiencies

However, if I don't lose the weight...

Risks of morbid obesity:

Diabetes

blindness

heart attack

stroke

sores in toes and feet leading to amputations

nerve damage in feet

digestion problems

kidney damage requiring dialysis

Wear and tear on joints that will probably require surgeries

Many of those that I listed are really the complications from diabetes, like the blindness and nerve damage and stuff. But if I don't lose weight, it's not a matter of IF I get diabetes, but WHEN.

I know it sounds like the complications of surgery are terrible, and they are. But compared to the complications that come from morbid obesity? I dunno… I'd rather be dehydrated than blind. I'd rather have nutritional deficiencies than have my extremities amputated. I'd rather have thin hair than a stroke. I'd rather throw up if I eat something my stomach can't handle (aka “dumping syndrome”) than be on dialysis for the rest of my life. So yeah, when you put the complications side by side, I know what the best plan is for me.   

To clarify, the sleeve and bypass share some of the risks I listed. It's not like bypass is exponentially more risky than the others, although reading through this made me realize that's what I've implied. 

Before the surgery

Before I even qualified for the surgery, there were a lot of steps I had to take and meetings I had to go to. The surgical weight loss program at Utah Valley Hospital makes you jump through some hoops. I don't think that the extra steps are bad at all. I think it's great that they make you see a psychologist to see how you're doing emotionally, and if you can handle the big life change coming up. Seeing a nutritionist and exercise therapist are important steps, too, because you need to know what's expected of you in order for you to lose weight after the surgery. And then they make you get some lab work done, which makes sense to me, too. I'm glad that I'll have this support system of professionals to help guide me through the recovery.

Although this wasn't a requirement, they highly recommended that I go to the support group for people that have had weight loss surgery. They only meet once a month, so I've only been to one meeting, but it was so helpful to see people on the other side of the surgery at different stages of their recovery. I even got a new wardrobe from a girl who was giving away all of her pre-surgery clothes.

As many of you know, one of the biggest things before surgery is that I have to be on a “liquid” diet for three weeks. (I put that in quotations because they have tv-dinner style meals that are “easily digestible” and “packed with protein” that I can have. Basically if you just mix your Lean Cuisine with protein powder, that's what they are.)

After the surgery

After the surgery, there will definitely be some issues that I'll have for the rest of life, and some things that I might have. For example, because the amount of nutrients decreases so much, I'll be required to take supplements for the rest of my life (like a mulitvitamin and calcium).

I'll have to be extra diligent with my water intake, making sure that I'm drinking a bit at a time throughout the day. I can't just gulp a couple cups of water down before bed and call it good.

I might have some hair loss, which is incredibly annoying to me, because I'm vain about my hair.

So there you go. Gastric bypass. Now you know as much as I do.