I stopped updating this blog over 18 months ago, because I had stopped going to Slimming World… again.
I did Slimming World a total of four times. And each time it totally worked. I followed the healthy eating plan, went to all the meetings, and I lost a lot of weight. A couple of times I lost around 6 stones (38 kg) within the space of a year. But then – for one reason or another – I’d stop going, and the bad habits would slowly return along with all the weight. It was a classic yo-yo dieting scenario!
So about a year ago my doctor said that he wanted to refer me to a bariatric team in my hospital to talk about trying to come up with a more sustainable way of addressing my weight.
I was pretty sceptical about it, but I met with them and learned a lot about the challenges that people like me have with weight problems. I learned that diets (or healthy eating plans like Slimming World) do work, as long as people continue to follow them. I also learned that certain weight-loss drugs work well, as long as people keep taking them.
However another thing I learned is that the only thing that has long and lasting effect on people’s weight is bariatric surgery!
This was a revelation to me. I had always thought that weight-loss surgery was one of those exotic things that celebrities had, or people with loads of money. I had never even considered it for myself. However the more I learned about it, the more I realised that maybe a surgical option might just be the way for me to lose weight and keep it off.
I went away and thought about it for a long time, and talked to my wife and loved ones about the pros and cons. After all bariatric surgery isn’t something that I can reverse if I decide I don’t like it, and it would fundamentally change what and how much I could physically eat.
I also checked with my private health insurance, and discovered that it was something they were prepared to pay for, so it wouldn’t cost me that much to do.
And then the whole COVID-19 thing happened, and like a lot of office workers I began working from home, I became less active, snacked a lot more, and my weight increased to the highest it’s ever been! So I decided that something needed to change, and I would go ahead and get surgery.
So around 6 weeks ago I had a gastric bypass operation. And it’s going well so far. It’s a big change, both physically and mentally, and I’m still coming to terms with it – but so far I have no regrets.
As for this blog, I’ve decided that this will be my last update. I’m not going to write about weight loss surgery here, because people visit looking for information about Slimming World, and it wouldn’t be fair to change direction. I’ll keep it online, as it still gets a fair amount of traffic, but I’ll not updating it, and it’s worth bearing in mind that Slimming World eating plans evolve and change over time, so it’ll go out of date.
If you do want to learn more about weight loss surgery, or my new journey to lose weight, then please do feel free to visit my new blog: Bariatric Surgery Blog
Thanks, and all the best for your weight loss journey!
Richard
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