Fat Loss Bomb

Weight Loss Surgery, Not All A Piece Of Cake.

I was having a look back through a bit of a diary that I kept during my weigh loss surgery journey.  I think it’s important for people to know, that weight loss surgery may seem like an easy option, but it’s not.  He’s a clipping from a not very good day.

Today hasn’t been the best of days.  Nothing really happened, out of the ordinary; well, pretty much nothing actually did happen atall.

My mother rang, and I could blame it on that, but I had my hand in the chocolate jar long before that.  It’s probably because I’m tired.  2 o’clock this morning I was awake with the good old acid reflux.

I have developed a routine before bed that at least prevents the acid from being acidic and causing me to asphyxiate on the fumes, but it doesn’t stop the wave of gunk rushing up my throat as I lie there asleep, and cause my eyes to fling themselves open as if trying to get air because it feels like I’m drowning.  It’s not an uncommon thing these days.

I have to sleep propped up on three pillows and a folded up quilt to keep my upper body raised, but I’m not sure it has much effect.  The only thing that seems to really help, is just not to eat anything after mid day.  That’s fine of course, but some days, I’m lucky to be able to get anything down before mid day.
It takes about 20 minutes at that time of the night for the brain to accept that the situation will not improve while you continue to lie there.  In order to get more sleep before the alarm clocks signal the start of another day, I was going to have to haul myself from the warmth of my pit and go downstairs.

Sleep is usually possible propped up in the corner of an ‘L’ shaped sofa, using a multitude of cushions to stop my head from falling to one side.
So, on that particular occasion, I did sleep till the pitter patter of size 11 feet thundered down the stairs and grunted at me something about wanting a note to get out of games.

The ever growing pile of clothing that is now too big for me is great to see, but it comes at a price.  I still don’t regret having the weight loss surgery, but I often wish I had been strong enough to get the job done without it.

Weight Loss Surgery

Should you tell people what you’re planning?

There is no right or wrong answer on the topic of should or shouldn’t you tell your family and friends if you’re planning to have weight loss surgery.

However, there does seem to be a growing wave of opinion that leans towards ‘strictly on a need to know basis’, and even then, only maybe!

Most of us spend time with family and friends. Most of those family and friends will be aware that a) you are overweight, and b) you are unhappy about the situation and have tried many times to do something about it.

These days, with so many cases of weight loss surgery, of whatever type being in the press and on TV, most people would be vaguely familiar with the concept. You might think then that to hear that a friend or family member wouldn’t be overly shocked to be told that was what you were planning.

I did tell people I was going to have weight loss surgery. Not everyone, but people who, at the time, I trusted.

In my experience, the people included in my ‘friends and family’ group, fell into one of two camps.

There was the camp that were 100% behind me, and were only too happy to help and support me in whatever I felt I had to do to get to where I wanted to be. Then there was the other camp who looked at me horrified.

Initially, I gave them credit for being worried about the outcome. I.e. would I live through it? There is no denying that weight loss surgery is a risky business; so I took their apprehension for worry and concern.

However, the truth was it wasn’t me they were worried about atall. It was themselves.

You see, when I was fat, and before weight loss surgery had even entered my mind, I had fairly low expectations of myself and of other people. Most of my family were fairly hefty also, and consequently, family get-togethers generally focused on meals of one kind or another. We could all sit and eat, knowing that none of us should really be stuffing our faces continually, but we all did it anyway.

We all felt safe and secure, surrounded by other fat people.

When I mentioned weight loss surgery and they realized that one of the fat people was going to become un-fat, they couldn’t cope. I wondered if it was because seeing someone break away from the group highlighted the fact that they weren’t going to be changing, yet deep down they wanted to. They were having to face that for whatever reason, they weren’t able to make the change, although they were desperate to. One of them said ‘Hmmm, weight loss surgery? Have you tried just eating less?’

I nearly fell of my chair.

For thirty years I’d been very overweight, for nearly forty years this person had known me, yet they didn’t know me well enough to think I just might have tried that already!

For most of my life, I’ve been overweight. When my sister entered her teenage years, she started piling on the pounds also. Throughout our adult lives, we were always starting diets and falling off them most spectacularly. Sometimes I would do well, other times she would do better; but all the time, down to me understanding completely the misery I felt at being fat, I always willed her onwards, even when I was stumbling; and I thought that she did the same for me.

On a night out, when I’d lost many stones by that point and was fitting into my tight jeans and generally feeling much more presentable and certainly attracting a lot more male attention, I had a jacket tied round my waist. My eyes didn’t yet quite believe what the mirror was showing them, and I was still a little paranoid about having tops tucked into bottoms.

After a few drinks, the Dutch courage arrived and I went to take off the jacket. My sister looked at me and just gave a little shake of the head, ’No, leave it on.’

Thanks heavens I thought, she can obviously see a muffin top that I can’t, and has saved me from looking like a fat fool poured into a pair of too tight jeans. I went to the bar, relieved.

Waiting to be served, a man I’d never met, stopped as he went past. ‘Why have you got that tied round there?’ Indicating the jacket. ‘It makes your backside look twice the size it is.’

I laughed it off, thinking, ‘oh, ok, I understand now.’ I got my drink and returned to where my sister and her friends were. I said nothing, but made a mental note. Inside, my heart was breaking at all the years of deceit, but I smiled even more on the outside because I knew that I was grabbing my second chance.

All the years I’d believed that she had been genuinely wishing me onwards and upwards, just like I’d been doing for her, came tumbling down. I could then see that it was just about her feeling safe because I was fatter, and that made her look smaller.

So if I was to have weight loss surgery again, would I tell people? I would be very careful of who I told. Some people just can’t cope with feeling left behind. Some people worry that you will change and they won’t know you. The truth is, you will change; but not into someone new, you will find the freedom to be the person you always were but was hidden away under a layer of fat and chocolate, and that’s a good thing.

For me, weight loss surgery has opened my eyes wide. People who I genuinely thought would be a part of my life forever, showed me their true colours and I bid them farewell.

On the other hand, people who didn’t know me atall but have seen my face in the street and have watched it shrinking have come up to me saying how proud they are to have watched a person jump at a chance and run with it. Others have said how they wish they were brave enough to do it; and those are the people that truly understand the sadness that being so overweight can make a person feel.

So, should you tell your nearest and dearest you’re going to have weight loss surgery?

How well do you know them?

How will you cope with their reactions?

Can you cope without them if it comes to that and would it actually make any difference if they knew anyway?

Why am I always trying to lose weight?

Why do you want to lose weight?

I think that if we’re all brutally honest, unless there is some medical condition, about which I’ve got no place commenting, there is only one reason that you, me or the person sat beside you at ‘Fat-Fighters’ is fat. That, my friends’, is simply because we eat too much. That means, to get slightly more technical, that we consume more energy than we use up in the daily doings of our lives.

You see, in the olden days, before cars, phones, computers, washing machines, combine harvesters, drive through fast fooderies, desk bound jobs and sugar, chocolate, alcohol and lard all being available to us on tap, we had to get off our botties and toil the soil for what we put in our mouths. In the olden days, the number of people who needed to lose weight was nothing by today’s standards!

That is no longer the case. We don’t have to take the washing down to the river and bang it on a rock. We don’t have to walk 10 miles to fill the kettle or grind up grains of wheat to make enough flour to feed our 16 children. We simply open the freezer, find something that was ‘buy one get one free’ at the supermarket last week, so we might as well cook them both; and chuck it in the microwave. Oh, and don’t forget the ice cream; it’s always on offer somewhere if you know where to look! It’s no wonder we are so overweight.

So the simple answer as to why we’re always trying to lose weight is that we don’t want to be this way. Our logical brains are screaming at us to close the lid on our flip top heads when the cake trolley is rattling past when it’s the MD’s birthday, but we can’t-just a small one then, because it would be rude not to join in. Ok then, so we can all be hogs at the trough together! Yay!

In the environment that we live in, that is pretty much a toxic one, where we are surrounded by too much food and not enough opportunity to use up the energy it provides, it seems that not only do we gain some sense of social belonging from taking advantage of any opportunity to have a good nosh-up, we also crave the social aspect of all having a problem, sharing it, and then trying to lose weight together.

Of course, we’re not all like that. Some people would rather gouge out their eyes with a spoon than sit in a semi circle discussing 101 things to do with a diet yogurt, but people are generally a fairly sociable crowd and take comfort from doing things together.

When I wanted to lose weight, I was always an all or nothing kinda gal. I’ve always been a bit of an obsessive character, so I was always 100% on it or 100% off it. Trouble is, I didn’t get to be the size I was by being on the wagon as often as I was off, so the pounds just went on, then I’d lose some, then put on even more. The battle to lose weight was something that was always a part of my life. I joined all the clubs, bought all the books, tried all the pills, lotions and potions and filled up the shed with a wonderful collection of gym equipment, (after all, we only need so many places to dry wet coats, so out to the shed they went!)

I always knew that the fat me wasn’t the real me. Some people seem to be ok with being overweight and that’s fine. I’m not one of those people like the reformed smokers, you know, now that I’ve managed to lose weight, I have to go round making others feel bad because they’re not trying to. I just always knew that one day, I would come across the thing that would work. The time would be right and I could be the real me.

Sometimes, I think that partly why I was always trying to lose weight was that it gave me a purpose. I was a stay at home mum, and I could blame it all on eating the children’s leftovers, or not having the time to look after myself, or depression and boredom; and to a certain extent all those things are true. What I really lacked was a direction just for me. I didn’t want to not be a wife and mum, but I had nothing that was just mine, so I guess I took on the constant battle of trying to lose weight, and who knows, maybe by never letting myself succeed, it meant I would always have something to work at; and let me tell you, I worked at it!

When I reached 23st 7lb, I felt dreadful and trying to lose weight was the last thing on my mind, despite the fact that it should have been the one thing I couldn’t afford not to do. Every waking minute was obsessed with either what I could eat next and when I wasn’t eating I was just concentrating on getting through the day with enough energy to be able to haul myself up the stairs to fall into bed, exhausted.

That was the time when I hit rock bottom. I felt so awful that I was so fat, but just as bad for not being able to lose weight when it was supposed to be the thing that would make it all better. I can now see that I really needed to feel so crap that I had nowhere else to go but to find the solution that was right for me.

The things that were going on in my head were all just so mixed up and dis-ordered. That’s not unique to me. I’ve talked to a lot of people about weight issues, and it seems that we’re all a little mixed up in the brain department!

When I was trying to lose weight, I did need support, but I didn’t need the pressure of going to a weekly group. I always joined them, to get the books and try to gain the focus I needed to hit the ground running. I always knew that after the first couple of weeks when that initial drop of half a stone had passed, and the loses would reduce to a more normal rate, I would get fed up and pig out on something or other. I would then not be able to go to the class and promise myself that I’d lose a bit more and then go back. I just never did. One bad day would lead to two, then three and then oh well, I’ll start again on Monday. You know what I’m saying!

Even now, when from the outside it may appear to others that I’ve won the battle to lose weight, it is something that I live with everyday. Food will always be an issue to me. Unlike people that give up smoking, or drinking or playing too much bingo by never going near a pub, or bingo hall or buying cigarettes; a person can’t just say, right, that’s it, I’m not going to buy food anymore! It’s a tricky one alright, and as long as there is nice food on the shelves in the shops, the battle to lose weight will continue…

The Problem with Weight Loss: Your Body Will Do The Opposite.

By Alwyn Cosgrove
Weight Loss

Homeostasis is the property of a living organism, that regulates its internal environment so as to maintain a stable, constant condition.

When you don’t drink enough water in the short term — often the body retains water. It attempts to maintain homeostasis by counteracting the stresses we put on it.

When you drink a lot of extra water - your body excretes more water to maintain balance.

When we weight train — we actually break down muscle tissue. And the body responds by building new muscle. It attempts to maintain homeostasis by doing the reverse of the stimulus we placed on it.

When a male takes supplemental testosterone — the body shuts down its own production in a bid to maintain homeostasis.

When we immunize children against disease — we actually inject them with a small dose of that disease. The immune system recognizes the vaccine as foreign, destroys it, and ‘remembers’ it. When the virulent version of an agent comes along, the immune system is thus prepared to respond. In order to prepare the body to defend against a disease - we expose it to the disease - and it responds by doing the opposite - it destroys the disease.

In almost every situation I can think of, the body tries to maintain homeostasis by “doing the opposite” of the stimulus.

How does this apply to weight loss?

Now we know that while you are doing it — low intensity exercise burns primarily fat.

Higher intensity exercise actually burns more carb stores than fat.

But in every head to head comparison, high intensity exercise results in more fat loss than low intensity exercise - even though the more intense work may burn a lesser percentage of fat during the exercise session.

Burning glycogen results in a larger amount of fat lost than burning fat directly.

The body responds by “doing the opposite”…

Break down muscle to grow more muscle. Burn glycogen to lose more fat.

I designed Warp Speed Fat Loss training program to specifically take advantage of this ‘law’ of nature so that when your body “does the opposite” you’ll end up with faster and greater fat loss.

About the Author/More Info:

Warp Speed Fat Loss is a complete 28 day diet and training system crafted to help you lose 10,15, or 20lbs of body fat in just 28 day. To start losing weight fast visit Warp Speed. Alwyn Cosgrove, M.S., C.S.C.S. is a nationally renown fat loss expert whose work has appeared in magazines such as Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness, Muscle & Fitness, Maximum Fitness, Men’s Journal, Self, Oxygen, and Muscle & Fitness HERS. His Warp Speed Fat Loss system is a complete Done-for-You A-Z Fat Loss Blueprint that gives you exactly everything you need to eat and exactly what to do for exercise to lose weight in record time.  Warp Speed.

Why am I always trying to lose weight?

Why do you want to lose weight?

I think that if we’re all brutally honest, unless there is some medical condition, about which I’ve got no place commenting, there is only one reason that you, me or the person sat beside you at ‘Fat-Fighters’ is fat. That, my friends’, is simply because we eat too much. That means, to get slightly more technical, that we consume more energy than we use up in the daily doings of our lives.

You see, in the olden days, before cars, phones, computers, washing machines, combine harvesters, drive through fast fooderies, desk bound jobs and sugar, chocolate, alcohol and lard all being available to us on tap, we had to get off our botties and toil the soil for what we put in our mouths. In the olden days, the number of people who needed to lose weight was nothing by today’s standards!

That is no longer the case. We don’t have to take the washing down to the river and bang it on a rock. We don’t have to walk 10 miles to fill the kettle or grind up grains of wheat to make enough flour to feed our 16 children. We simply open the freezer, find something that was ‘buy one get one free’ at the supermarket last week, so we might as well cook them both; and chuck it in the microwave. Oh, and don’t forget the ice cream; it’s always on offer somewhere if you know where to look! It’s no wonder we are so overweight.

So the simple answer as to why we’re always trying to lose weight is that we don’t want to be this way. Our logical brains are screaming at us to close the lid on our flip top heads when the cake trolley is rattling past when it’s the MD’s birthday, but we can’t-just a small one then, because it would be rude not to join in. Ok then, so we can all be hogs at the trough together! Yay!

In the environment that we live in, that is pretty much a toxic one, where we are surrounded by too much food and not enough opportunity to use up the energy it provides, it seems that not only do we gain some sense of social belonging from taking advantage of any opportunity to have a good nosh-up, we also crave the social aspect of all having a problem, sharing it, and then trying to lose weight together.

Of course, we’re not all like that. Some people would rather gouge out their eyes with a spoon than sit in a semi circle discussing 101 things to do with a diet yogurt, but people are generally a fairly sociable crowd and take comfort from doing things together.

When I wanted to lose weight, I was always an all or nothing kinda gal. I’ve always been a bit of an obsessive character, so I was always 100% on it or 100% off it. Trouble is, I didn’t get to be the size I was by being on the wagon as often as I was off, so the pounds just went on, then I’d lose some, then put on even more. The battle to lose weight was something that was always a part of my life. I joined all the clubs, bought all the books, tried all the pills, lotions and potions and filled up the shed with a wonderful collection of gym equipment, (after all, we only need so many places to dry wet coats, so out to the shed they went!)

I always knew that the fat me wasn’t the real me. Some people seem to be ok with being overweight and that’s fine. I’m not one of those people like the reformed smokers, you know, now that I’ve managed to lose weight, I have to go round making others feel bad because they’re not trying to. I just always knew that one day, I would come across the thing that would work. The time would be right and I could be the real me.

Sometimes, I think that partly why I was always trying to lose weight was that it gave me a purpose. I was a stay at home mum, and I could blame it all on eating the children’s leftovers, or not having the time to look after myself, or depression and boredom; and to a certain extent all those things are true. What I really lacked was a direction just for me. I didn’t want to not be a wife and mum, but I had nothing that was just mine, so I guess I took on the constant battle of trying to lose weight, and who knows, maybe by never letting myself succeed, it meant I would always have something to work at; and let me tell you, I worked at it!

When I reached 23st 7lb, I felt dreadful and trying to lose weight was the last thing on my mind, despite the fact that it should have been the one thing I couldn’t afford not to do. Every waking minute was obsessed with either what I could eat next and when I wasn’t eating I was just concentrating on getting through the day with enough energy to be able to haul myself up the stairs to fall into bed, exhausted.

That was the time when I hit rock bottom. I felt so awful that I was so fat, but just as bad for not being able to lose weight when it was supposed to be the thing that would make it all better. I can now see that I really needed to feel so crap that I had nowhere else to go but to find the solution that was right for me.

The things that were going on in my head were all just so mixed up and dis-ordered. That’s not unique to me. I’ve talked to a lot of people about weight issues, and it seems that we’re all a little mixed up in the brain department!

When I was trying to lose weight, I did need support, but I didn’t need the pressure of going to a weekly group. I always joined them, to get the books and try to gain the focus I needed to hit the ground running. I always knew that after the first couple of weeks when that initial drop of half a stone had passed, and the loses would reduce to a more normal rate, I would get fed up and pig out on something or other. I would then not be able to go to the class and promise myself that I’d lose a bit more and then go back. I just never did. One bad day would lead to two, then three and then oh well, I’ll start again on Monday. You know what I’m saying!

Even now, when from the outside it may appear to others that I’ve won the battle to lose weight, it is something that I live with everyday. Food will always be an issue to me. Unlike people that give up smoking, or drinking or playing too much bingo by never going near a pub, or bingo hall or buying cigarettes; a person can’t just say, right, that’s it, I’m not going to buy food anymore! It’s a tricky one alright, and as long as there is nice food on the shelves in the shops, the battle to lose weight will continue…