It's been a long time since I've written about my waistline. I get lots of e-mailed inquiries about it but I never seem to be in the mood to write about something like that. Today, I'm in that mood.
My girth has been fluctuating over about a ten pound variance with no logical connection to how much I eat or how much I exercise. My doctor says this is not uncommon and that I should not pay it a lot of attention. I go up, I go down…but even up, I'm more than a hundred below where I was two years ago so I'm still happy with me.
One of the things I find amazing is that I had so little trouble breaking food addictions. I have certain faves, including the Creamy Tomato Soup that's available for the next day or so at Souplantation. But I don't actually feel the need to eat anything in particular…or, some days, anything at all.
There was a time I would have bet you serious money that I couldn't kick my habit of drinking a half-dozen carbonated, non-diet beverages per day…and if I could cut back, it would be by chug-a-lugging orange juice or something else with high sugar content. Even before I had Gastric Bypass Surgery, I gave up the Pepsis and in the 18 months after G.B.S., I slowly gave up o.j., lemonade and everything else liquid but for tomato juice and plain, old-fashioned water. I occasionally flavor the H2O with True Lemon or True Orange but otherwise, it's that or the occasional Campbell's Tomato Juice and I don't miss other drinks one bit.
Then one day close to three months ago, my "sweet tooth" completely disappeared…and I can tell you where it happened. It happened in Las Vegas during this trip. On Saturday morning, I brunched at a $7.77 buffet…and yes, I could have gone to somewhere fancier. But given my reduced stomach capacity, I didn't figure to eat enough to make a better place cost-effective and assumed even at a cheapo spread, there'd be enough tasty/edible choices to satisfy my meager dining needs.
There was…and there was also a wonderful dessert. They had a soft-serve frozen custard that was quite delightful and I made a mental Post-It™ note to return before I left to have more of that custard. Monday morn, before heading for the airport, I went to the buffet, ate my fill of fish and rice…and then realized I had no craving for the custard or any of other available desserts. You know those great little one-bite eclairs they always have in Vegas buffets? Didn't want one of them, either.
So I didn't have dessert. It was free and I didn't have dessert. Apart from one recent visit to a Chinese restaurant where I ate a fortune cookie without thinking, I haven't had a cookie, piece of cake or candy, lick of ice cream, slice of pie, doughnut or anything "desserty" since. Obviously, I get a certain amount of sugar or high fructose corn syrup in some non-dessert food items but I am in no way tempted to taste something because it's sweet. I never would have thought this possible.
I sleep better. I walk better. I have occasional odd muscle aches which my doctor says are normal and will subside. I still don't recommend Gastric Bypass Surgery to everyone because I don't think my experiences are typical. But I do recommend losing weight. It has all sorts of unexpected benefits…and every so often, you can surprise yourself with how you can do what you didn't think you could do.