Hey guys! This past week was full of lap band fun! Tuesday I met with the dietitian, Thursday with the psychologist and Saturday went to an awesome seminar put on by said psychologist. All 3 appointments were required by my insurance as well as my surgeon's practice and I am glad they were! I really do love how my surgeon's practice makes this journey not just about "surgery". It really is taking a wholistic approach to weight loss.
First off, the appointment with the dietician was not as good as I was hoping. I think it was because I really didn't not care for the dietician herself. She was awkward and did not communicate well. She kept making everything into a joke and spoke like a Valley Girl (like, totally!) But most of all, she didn't tell me anything I didn't already know. I need to stop drinking pop and eat more fruits and veggies!?!? No way, really?!?! I don't mean to be rude or negative about it. I really would like to see another dietitian sometime. I was looking forward to learning more and I guess I am just disappointed.
On an opposite note, I really enjoyed the visit with the psychologist! 99.9% of my weight issues are mental and behavioral. And this doctor was much more my style! The first hour was spent taking the psychological evaluation. That consisted of what seemed like an endless array of true/false questions that ranged from "I would enjoy being a journalist" to "I hear voices that tell me to do bad things". Haha! It was so random and at times super entertaining! I guess I answered correctly cause the results weren't mentioned...
The next half hour or so I spent talking with the psychologist. This was super beneficial and I really enjoyed that interaction. He asked me a lot of questions about myself and about my relationship with food. We went over my concerns about having the surgery. He said that he thinks I may struggle with the maintenance of it. He worries that I have a tendancy to get bored or lazy with things and that may sabotage my long term progress. He hit the nail right on the head with that one! We talked about ways I can help overcome that, like being an active participant in the support groups and behavioral seminars. Being in a leadership role helps me to stay motivated and accountable so we talked about me becoming a speaker after the surgery and being one of the "spokes-people" for the surgery. That makes me very excited and less nervous. Knowing that there are more ways for me to get involved and perhaps someday helping others really excites me.
Jake and I also went to a behavioral seminar held by the psychologist yesterday morning. The topic was "Eating Patterns and Behaviors". We talked about the reasons why we eat the way we do and that much of it stems from how we were raised. I identified that maybe a reason why I love fast food so much is that when I was a kid, getting McDonald's or pizza or something for dinner was a special "treat", reserved for nights when my parents would go out. Just an interesting thought. Luckily my parents were never the kind to make us "clean our plates cause there are starving children in Africa". Seems like a lot of people grew up like that and that's a big issue for them as an adult. Lots of people are engrained to finish all their food even if they are no longer hungry.
Anyways, this has been a ridiculously long post. I will try to write more often and try to stick to one topic per post ; )
Thanks for reading!!!
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