Do you consider WLS the 'easy way out'?

[Sambucca]

This is a great thread and has really got me thinking.

In the early days, I would have punched anyone that told me this was the easy way out. Putting my life on the line because I was too greedy/lazy to lose weight the "normal" way (this is just me by the way, not saying everyone was the same as me); The liver shrinking diet; a month on liquids; a month on sloppy/puree; being sick when I made the transition to proper food; I cried often thinking I would never enjoy food again; feeling tired/weak as I was taking in such small amounts.... No way was that easy.

However, now at nearly 9 months post op, I am one of the lucky ones who is finding it easy. I can eat anything I choose, just in smaller portions, the weight is coming off steadily, I'm lighter than Ive ever been since I was 21 which no end of diets could do for me.

I do have fleeting moments of "oh my god, this is for life" - usually when I'm craving something like a curry, but these thoughts are brief and I wouldn't trade all the takeaways in the world for a day of being slimmer.

I'm rambling now, I know... but for me since about month 3 this has been easy for me. I do know that others are not so lucky though and do have problems.

The best advice I could give to those who are pre op is research, research and then research some more. Read the positive and the negative stories, and then get yourself prepared for a difficult and emotional first few months. If you can get through that then it does get better and it does become a way of life. I can honestly say that I love my Bypass now, and all that it has helped me to achieve.

 

[lamornamiss]

If anyone ever says I took the easy way out the will be picking themselves of the floor

Is using nicotine replacements (patches etc) to help stop smoking taking the easy way out?

Is having a c-section rather than giving birth naturally taking the easy way out?

Is having a double mastectomy before you have cancer (if you are in a high risk group) taking the easy way out?

I don't think so!
So no WLS is not taking the easy way out sometimes its the only way!

 

[fatbutnot4long]

its not as easy as i thought it would be but its still easier than dieting alone .. x

 

[wannabeslimagain]

There is no way on earth I can or will ever say for me deciding to have WLS has been easy. How could I think that risking leaving my huband a widower and my kids orphaned easy? I had to make a serious choice live another 10 years obese then leave my family through heart failure or any illness that being fat has, or risk dying on the table trying to prolong my life for me and them.
After making that choice and surviving I have had to realise I have to take tablets for the rest of my life, lose hair, throw up if I eat a spoon too much, eat child portions when out and have people look when i can still not finish it. The thought that you want to join in the fun you used to have with food around and you no longer can you have to re train yourself in everything you do from making meal choices and where to go for meals out, cooking real meals and not processed food, reading labels in supermarkets. Then there is the head hunger you always get surgery never gets rid of that and you have to learn to work with your new tummy it is now a tool not an easy fix, it will only work if you work with it just like a diet but the consiquences are more severe if you try and cheat. Once you reach goal on a diet you can relax a little and enjoy the odd treat, WLS if for life no odd treats ever. Now I do not call that easy at all.
Sorry for my ramblings I get carried away sometimes lol

 

[Barbie-Pink]

I don't think I like the term easy way out, however I do think my bypass is the easiest solution to permanent weight loss for me. I am very much ashamed that I could not loose weight without surgery, and I very much admire the people who do it with pure will power and determination. I think they deserve a lot of respect because loosing a great deal of weight and keeping it off is so so very very hard! I know this because I have always failed at it so respect to those who can do it by will power alone!

Having said that I think we all loose weight for our own reasons and who the hell died and said it had to be an endurance event?

Surely the over riding criteria should be that the weight loss is maintainable otherwise why bother with any method? Are we supposed to suffer? Do a penance because we are fat? Is it supposed to make us miserable forever? No I don't think so!!! The end game is to be successful and whatever works has to be good!

I did this to get healthy and I have. I know I can maintain this level of loss and this health benefit. Anything over and above will be an added bonus. I think I will have fulfilled my side of the deal, I am now much healthier than I was and I know I can sustain his long term. I have learnt my lessons.

If this wasn't an easier solution than a normal diet it wouldn't have worked for me, I know I couldn't do it without the surgery. So therefore it was my easiest solution, but it is a solution non the less, and I don't feel the need to hide or apologise to anyone for taking my opportunity and making the most of it.

 

[carol150]

If anyone ever says I took the easy way out the will be picking themselves of the floor

Is using nicotine replacements (patches etc) to help stop smoking taking the easy way out?

Is having a c-section rather than giving birth naturally taking the easy way out?

Is having a double mastectomy before you have cancer (if you are in a high risk group) taking the easy way out?

I don't think so!
So no WLS is not taking the easy way out sometimes its the only way!

love this .im with you it made me laugh.lol

 

[seawaves]

As i'm pre op i can't say how i will get on with my Bypass........however i'm a single parent with a 13 yr old daughter, who due to her fathers violence has not seen him for 5 yrs, so for me the decision has not been easy cos if i don't make it through, what happens to her?
Everyone i know knows i'm having this done my cousin said at the slimming world group she goes to "oh my cousin is having WLS the easy option!" when i heard this i gave her the info i had collected she soon changed her mind & gave me a big SORRY!!
I'm sure everyone is different with there WLS but i'm very very scared that it will not work for me or that i will not make it through the op, i've lost 12stone before & put it on plus more......i am a food addict & can't do it alone :sigh: Em x

 

[Roch]

Do i think WLS is an easy option and my answer is A BIG FAT NO !!!!

I have had quite a rough time and still at 12 weeks am seriously struggling food wise, as i cant manage any hot foods and have to eat mostly slider foods as protein makes me gag.
I had horrendous sickness from week 3 till week 8 and had to inject myself twice a day and was black and blue, and i still often am sick and its not because i have eaten 2 much as i cant eat much but it just happens.

For me this was really a life saving op as 12 weeks ago i was housebound, used a walking stick rarely went out and was dependant on others to help me. I had to walk up the stairs on my hands and knees and come down on my bum. I was having to take opiate based medication 40 mg twice a day as was in mega pain as i had osteoarthritis in most of my joints and chronic sciatica.

Thanks to my op i am now down 5.6 stone in 13.5 weeks and all together down 7.8, i no longer use a walking stick, can walk up and down the stairs, fit in the bath for the first time in 16 years and am lighter than i was when i had my son 18 years ago, and the best part of it is that i have reduced my opiate medication by half.

Wls saved my life but is def the hardest thing i have ever done,i am a single parent and i was so scared i would die on the operating table and for that reason i waited till my son was older and god forbid i did die then at least he was not a young child and is now very independent. I was going to go private on 2 occasions in the past 3/4 years but felt it was the wrong time as my son was still young and at school. This time around i felt it was def the right time for me.

Would i do it again if needed and the answer to that is YES !!!

 

[Stellap]

WLS is definitely not the easy way out. I've dieted many times (and lost more weight on other diets) but what wls has going for it more than any other diet is that when you stall or put on, you cannot then binge or fall of the wagon big time and undo all your hard work - you have to carry on doing it regardless and that I think is where it's strength is. It also (in my case) forces me to eat healthier as I can only fit so much in my stomach so I try to make what I do eat healthy as I worry about malnutrition.

 

[marky v]

4. Having a bypass doesn't mean I am going to wake up the day after surgery suddenly 7 stone lighter, I am still going to have to watch my diet very carefully and exercise....and we all know how easy that is don't we? None of us would have surgery in the first place, if it were!!!!

as my little sister says in this bit, if it were so easy to "eat less and excercise more" we'd all be models strutting our stuff, do pepole say to an Anorexia nervosa sufferer, "pull yourself together and eat more!!", nope, they dont, for us food is a mental illness/psychological problem just like an anorexic, (admittedly at the far other end of the spectrum, it's an eating disorder all the same) so the surgery option is the final throw of the dice at a normal life for us, and it takes guts/balls to admit you have that problem, and actually do something about it, good on us for taking that decision, the risks?? less than 1% in most patients of copping it on the table, more than likely 99% of copping it from an obesiety related problem, whether that be diabetes, heart attack, stroke, cancers, or one of the biggest killers of the obese, sleep apnoea, i'll take the 1% risk of dying in the op over the 99% of dying cos of the weight....not easy is it!!