The last time I had an adult size meal is almost a month ago. I remember it clearly. It was a large plate of hummus, a few falafel balls, a pita, and a diet sprite. We could probably debate the diet sprite in the presence of the other food, but I remember regretting this meal as soon as I finished it. Hummus is delicious, healthy, and surprisingly not as fattening as you would think. It is however, heavy and potentially explosive. Falafel is similarly combustible. It’s been almost a month since that meal, and a few things happened.
While I still like hummus, and while I still eat it almost daily, I measure the amounts I eat in teaspoons rather than pounds. Since I don’t eat bread, pita is out of the question. Soda is out of the question as well. And last but not least, at this point in time, falafel is suicide…
I don’t miss the larger size meals at all. In fact, when I look at a large amount of food in one place (someone else’s plate for example), I can think of many things, none of them is eating it.
I am not hungry. Only lately I started to notice that on occasion, I feel as if a bit to eat would be nice. But exactly that. A bite. My meals are small and frequent, like babies’. A half cup of yogurt, a few teaspoons of hummus, tahina. Last week I added a ground chicken burger and a few spoons of mashed potatoes. I fill up quickly.
I separate drinks and food. Otherwise, I’d up not eating at all… I drink either twenty minutes before a meal, or an hour after. It’s working out pretty well.
I feel much more energized, surprisingly happy, more optimistic, lighter, and younger.
I dug up old clothes, a few sizes down, and I wear them with pride. My wife mentioned that my belt can actually be seen. I lost a chin.
And roughly 20 kilos. Or about 45 Lbs. In less than one month.
No need to be alarmed. It was the upper side of the expected, given the fact that I don’t eat very much.
I will not write more about my progress in the near future. I may refer to it later, when I get to my target weight in a few months (hopefully). But I must pitch the following to whoever is out there looking for a solution for obesity. You can spend you life and life savings at the gym, on dieticians, acupuncture, Voodoo, low carbohydrate food, magicians and witches. You can go hungry for a while. You will feel as if you have no will power. But maybe you should know. Chances are, you will lose weight, and gain it back. And then some. Then you would make a decision that you are losing the excess pounds, and you will again indeed lose them all. And gain them back. Almost for certain. The overeating-dieting-exercising-medicating-overeating again, is way too lucrative a market to be given up. Each cycle you would go through will contribute thousands of dollars to the food/drug/self improvement industries. They won’t give you up so easily. They will sell you fast food loaded with fat and sugar, they will sell you gym subscriptions, psychotherapy, drugs for your heart disease/hypertension/diabetes/high cholesterol, and they will convince you that the “problem is in your head”. They will tell you to run/swim/ride a bicycle.
And one day, like me, you’d understand. If you want to break the cycle, you have to do something extreme. You have to take the personal responsibility to understand that living hungry is not a good way to live. Bariatric surgery is a way to break the cycle. I’d done it. If you are obese to the point it puts your life in danger, you should consider it too. This surgery is not a cosmetic surgery. This surgery is a life lengthening procedure. Please don’t confuse the two.
I’d be happy to provide advice on a personal basis. Use the “email me” button on the page. I promise I would answer every question. The ones I believe are worthy for a larger community will be published on the site.
כל הכבוד חבר יקר, אני גאה בך והיית מאוד אמיץ בהחלטה שלך, – זה גם מאוד נחמד שאתה עוזר לאנשים אחרים. מרק ואני מאחלים לך רק בריאות ואושר.