Those of you that have met me know that I’m a very big guy. I’ve never had a problem with who I am, but I turned 40 this year and it’s time to do something about my weight before my health suffers permanently – or worse.
On Monday morning I will be going into hospital to have a gastric sleeve operation. This procedure involves the removal of around 80% of the stomach, and drastically limits the amount you can physically eat. It’s not reversible, and it’s forever.
When I come out of hospital, my stomach will be about 50 ml (a few tablespoons) in size, as opposed to the two litres or so that it is now. Over time it will increase to around 250 ml (one cup), and there it will stay. For the next eight weeks I won’t be eating anything solid. Eventually, I should be able to eat just about anything, but only in very small quantities. Unfortunately I’ll probably lose my tolerance for ridiculously spicy food.
The date for my operation was set five weeks ago, which left me only two weeks of “normal” eating before the final preparation began. Avoiding the temptation to eat everything I could get my hands on, I planned a variety of memorable meals, although life got in the way (as it does) and there were no grand experiences to report on – my “last meal” was from the local Chinese takeaway!
For the last three weeks my daily diet has been mostly Optifast plus a small amount of lean meat and two cups of non-starch vegetables (okay, there were a few moments of weakness but that’s the last we’ll say of that). The purpose of this was to bring on a process called ketosis, which starts your body burning its fat reserves, and helps to remove fat from the liver which makes the operation easier and safer. For the first week I struggled with headaches, hunger and fluctuating blood-sugar levels (not to mention cravings for just about anything I saw on Instagram, or drove past on the way home). Things improved as my body became used to its new diet, and spicy vegetable soups, diet jelly & sugar-free lollies helped to ease the monotony.
I’ve been told that by Christmas I’ll be a new man. Followers of MasterChef USA will know that judge Graeme Elliot had this surgery last year, and the change in him is remarkable – even better, he can still taste and judge!
This isn’t the end for Morsels, although there won’t be any new breakfast reviews for a while! I’ll need to be a little more creative over the next few months (and work through my backlog of unfinished posts) and where necessary my wife can exercise her taste buds on my behalf. I’ve also started a new blog to force me to write more often and to document my day-to-day journey, which I hope will be of of interest – or even better, inspiration – to others. You can read more at Morse’s Code.
As for what the future holds…we’ll have to wait and see. In the words of the great David Gray, I’ll see you on the other side.
Wow, that sounds like quite the big operation. Good luck and we’ll see you a new man on the other side!!
Good luck with your recovery mate. Please keep up your ‘World Fast Food Round Up’ posts. I love them & they aren’t too tempting as you would have to get on a plane to test the products!
Cheers