Back at the Clinic

Well, it's that time of month again - no, not THAT time of month but rather, that time of the month when I head back to Circle of Care and have my next round of appointments in the program. This week, it's the dietician, a second fill and meet the psychologist. I'll start with the fill and first up was the weigh-in. Happy news - stats below:

24 Feb - initial consult
Wt: 103.8kg BF: 47% TL: 0kg
20 May - banded 2 months
Wt: 91.6kg BF: 41% TL: 12.2kg
I'm really, really, really happy with that. A little too happy apaprently cos I've been spending up big in the shops over the weekend and hubby gave me grief for the first time ever about my spending habits. Hmmmm.. anyway, I digress. Dr Tony was sick today so I had Dr George who was the assistant surgeon on my operation. I got peppered with questions not just about my hunger levels and what I'm eating etc but also on things like what controls hunger? Why do we not drink with meals? It was like a school exam! Onto the fill and I had another 0.75mL put in for a total of 6.25mL. This is definitely going to make a difference as to how much I can eat and also how fast / slow I need to eat and how full I am afterwards.

Next, the dietician - what a total waste of time this was! I was in a 'group' with an older guy who didn't want to be there and kept checking his phone as to when his wife was going to message him to pick him up and there was no interaction or group discussion like we've had in the past. We were run through a bunch of info that I've already forgotten and served up a handful of notes about 'common traps' that cause the band not to work effectively. we were flipped through a couple of case studies but seriously, we didn't get hardly anything to work with and it was quite frustrating. I'm hoping next session is better..

Finally, the psychologist - now this was fantastic. I went to a counsellor once before but didn't get a lot of out of it whereas today, there were a lot of real positives and I actually go to sort through some things and learned some strategies to help realign my thinking for success. The next step is to make it work by applying the strategies and letting go of past failures etc... and yes, easier said than done but let's see how we go! A bit of homework I got was to come up with a list of things that if I woke up tomorrow and was at goal weight, what would I do that I can't do now?

This was a tough one cos I actually asked myself that question a few years ago in a different context and ended up doing most of the things on the list like going back to do my masters at uni, resuming exercise, getting a new job etc. In any case, here's the start of my list and I'm going to add to it over time.
1. A healthy pregnancy (if and when it happens - not going to try for another 6 month at least or when i'm down to 75kgs!)
2. Buy a Country Road suit
3. Freedom in terms of not carrying the shame, guilt, painful awareness and stigmatism of being obese in a world that constantly judges to aesthetically high standards.
4. Complete a half-marathon