Pre-surgery fodder! may as well while can.

My date with the surgeon should be sometime in April. For the month prior to his ‘intervention,’ I shall be partaking of a ‘diet’ (yes I can use that word and be OK with it for that time) consisting of Optifast and a few veggies. The aim of that is to shrink the liver to enable easy access re keyhole surgery. It also has the ‘testing factor,’ to see if I can sustain a disciplined approach prior to my operation and to set in place some good habits that are going to be ‘for the rest of my life.’

‘Well how come you can’t do that now,’ some of you who don’t know me well may say. OK, my reply to everyone is---‘How many people over 40 do you know who have taken a lot of weight off and kept it off? How many people do you know who go to gyms and live their new lifestyle, but the next time you see them, they are even fatter?’

I know we all know a few people who have made the transition and are doing just fine, but don’t you find that they are very much in the minority.  I’m not one of those people---full bloody stop! I still get people telling me that I am weak and all of the crap that goes with that, but I just say---‘talk to the hand.’ I know some people are just worried, but I am not. I have talked through this with many people who have had the operation and they are all happy that they did it. They have few regrets and they advise me to stop looking at negative sites online. If you look for it you can always find a reason not to do something.

OK, on a lighter note. I am having some really nice ‘pre-operation food; nothing to excess, but certainly not denying myself. I am being more careful with quantities and I leaving some foods off my list, because they consist of food that I will never be able to eat. I figure if I am going to spend the large amount of money on my operation, it seems stupid to carry on like I was, so in a sense I am entering a transition phase so that the journey has less ‘hooks’ in it later.

Xmas dinner was simple and enjoyable; turkey with lots of veggies and a trifle of course. We didn’t gorge ourselves; indeed for everyone, it was not like it used to be. Maybe that’s a factor of aging. We just can’t handle the gargantuan meals of the past.

Ok, I am looking forward to New Year’s Day. Hopefully the family will be here and we are having a number 30 chicken; can’t wait to see the size of that. How the hell do they breed them that big---hormones? They say not! Yeah right.