Weight Loss Surgery

Q: Is weight loss surgery a sensible option?

A: Only when you've exhausted all other channels and options.

That might come over as a disappointingly negative answer, if surgery is a weight loss path you've been considering.

But, just think about this for one moment:

Any surgery carries undeniable risk.  There's a risk associated with undergoing general anaesthetic. Another risk associated with massive loss of blood. More risk associated with infection in wounds following surgery. And then there are the risks of post-operative complications.

All in all, a lot of risk for something that may well be voluntary!

Of course, any professional doctor or surgeon would explain such risks to anyone contemplating so serious a step as weight loss surgery.

But, when you've pinned all your hopes on one method, it might be that the negative aspects don't sink in, because you're focussing on the benefits you imagine such a course would inevitably bring.

Weight Loss Surgery - Considerations

So, let's just analyse what brought you to reading these words:

• You probably searched for information on 'weight loss surgery'

• You are interested in learning more because you think you've tried everything else there is out there, and you're desperate to lose weight

• You are hoping it's a cure-all, and that your life will be immeasurably improved by such a step

So, how about those points above?

First, it's not hard to locate information on weight loss surgery.  There's a lot of it about.  And most of it is probably in favour of the surgery, since it's written by those who are in the business of providing such services.

Then, you've convinced yourself that there's nothing left that you can try, so it's surgery or nothing. We'll consider whether that's true a little later (but I'll bet it's not).

Finally, being overweight and its effects are unlikely to be the only problems you'll experience in your life, so shedding the weight by undergoing surgery is unlikely to be your ticket to an earthly paradise.

It's even possible that you became overweight as a result of some other  problems in your life.  Unless they are in the past, it may be that you once again fall prey to their pressures - and rely on food to comfort you.

Weight Loss Surgery - Confusion

Let's now consider your opinion that you've tried everything else...

You've dieted, probably many times.  You lose a little weight for a while, then you're stuck. You become so miserable that you lapse into your old eating habits - and it all goes back on, sometimes with interest!

You've tried all the exercises you could read about. You've joined gyms or health clubs, bought treadmills and steppers, jumped rope, bounced on mini-trampolines.  You've lifted weights, you've sweated and strained...

... there surely can't be anything else, can there?

Well, yes there probably is a reasonable and so-far untried -

Weight Loss Surgery Alternative

And that is 'doing it properly this time'.

Q: How's that? Properly? What was wrong with how I did it last time? Or the time before that?

A: It didn't work, so by definition it was wrong.

Probably, most of the approaches you tried before were broadly similar. The main difference might have been the types of food you were supposed to eat on specific days, or the name of the celebrity who was endorsing that particular 'program'.

They all had things in common, like eating less and exercising more.

But, what did they tell you about the one secret that virtually guarantees long-term weight loss? Did they tell you how to achieve consistency?  I bet not.

Most programs are like a temporary boot camp, an unpleasant, short-term experience with the promise of lifelong, sylph-like fun once you're released.

As you probably know to your cost, the weight tends to go on faster than it came off, once you complete the program (or, more likely, quit it early in frustration).

And I'm betting you either -

* blamed yourself and your lack of willpower, or 

* told yourself that program wasn't right for you, and 

* looked for another.

Finally, you could not take any more of that destructive cycle, which is how you came to consider...

Weight Loss Surgery 

If you have recognized all or some of your own circumstances in that description, it does confirm one thing: you are not alone.

Millions of people have been the same route.  Which is why the weight loss industry is worth billions of dollars annually!

And it doesn't trade on success - quite the reverse!

Okay - so tell me about 'consistency'

Well, consistency is what 'goes out the window' when you quit yet another weight loss program or diet.

You probably lived through a frustrating cycle of eating little, lapsing, then reverting to your old eating habits, only to start starving yourself again when you became desperate enough.  That's not consistency - that's bad habits.

Rather, consistency is when you take an approach that you're convinced is a) healthy, b) do-able and c) rewarding.

Doesn't sound like what you've experienced so far?  No wonder.

Consistency requires that you realise that lapses will be inevitable, so you plan them as part of your program. That way, you can't give up in disgust, because a planned lapse isn't weakness - it's part of the program!

Consistency requires that you do things right most of the time.  You don't need to be completely rigid in your approach. 

Weight Loss Surgery - Avoidance

I don't think many would argue that weight loss surgery should be a last resort.

So you owe it to yourself to ensure that you've tried everything else first.

And I'm betting you've never tried a weight loss program that was based on an approach of consistency.

Find out more about how to customise your own 'successful in the long-term' weight loss program here.

You know you're worth it!

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