What would it feel like to start the new year without a resolution about weight loss? Millions of overweight and obese individuals can’t begin to imagine such freedom, but my VSG patients have the luxury of dedicating the coming year to family, career, hobbies—anything except weight loss! Here’s what it looks like when you’re living your best life after gastric sleeve surgery.
Old Resolution: Try a new diet.
New Resolution: Commit to the ultimate tool.
If you’re still trying to decide whether a vertical sleeve gastrectomy is right for you, I could list a million and one reasons to do it. But among the best reasons is that you’ll never have to diet again. Let that sink in for a minute. Healthy food choices are required, of course—and we show you exactly how to do it! —but a “gastric sleeve diet” is essentially an easy, permanent way to eat less. The surgery reduces the size of the stomach and removes most of the area where the hunger hormone, ghrelin, is found, which means patients typically have less appetite and get full faster. We refer to the gastric sleeve as a tool because it’s something you work with in order to lose weight and maintain a healthy lifestyle forever. No more dieting. Just sleeve success!
Old Resolution: Buy a juicer for a post-holiday cleanse.
New Resolution: Find new recipes you love.
Before the sleeve, the holidays come with a huge dose of guilt and regret. Why did I eat all that?! And how will I ever lose even more pounds? Things like cleanses and “quick-fix” plans might have seemed like the answer at one time. But I can say with authority that they don’t work long-term. Instead, sleevers can look forward to fun new ways to fuel their healthy lifestyle. Low-carb lovers may want to experiment with new ways to fix chicken, while plant-based sleevers might enjoy taking their taste buds to India or Morocco, courtesy of fresh recipes featuring beans and veggies. Keep it interesting to stay on track!
Old Resolution: Pay for another gym membership you won’t use past January.
New Resolution: Discover an activity that moves you.
Throwing money at weight issues, whether it’s high-priced diets or some fitness guru’s latest miracle, is a common move when you’re overweight. If it costs a lot, it might work for you, right? Wrong. Endobariatric patients know that an expensive gym membership isn’t the key to a healthy weight. Don’t get me wrong: exercise is important. But swimming, walking, cycling, hiking—things that cost little to nothing—are just as effective at helping you reach and maintain your goal weight. The trick is finding a form of exercise you enjoy enough to keep doing it. If it’s a class at the gym, great! But you can meet your exercise goals just as easily by power walking your neighborhood with a friend after work.
Old resolution: Lose a ton of weight. Somehow.
New resolution: Stick to what’s working.
When you’re overweight, so much of your time and energy gets funneled into finding the “right” diet or exercise plan. Or even the right bariatric surgery. But once you’ve had gastric sleeve in Mexico with the Endobariatric team, you no longer need to fumble around in the dark looking for a miracle plan that might, possibly, maybe help you lose weight. Taking that “gotta find something that works” out of your annual New Year’s resolutions feels like unravelling a mystery you’ve spent your entire life trying to solve. Because the truth is that no plan will help the vast majority of severely overweight or obese people. It’s not you; it’s them (and your body’s chemistry). But once you’ve been sleeved, all you have to do is stick with the tenets of gastric sleeve success, and you’ll never have to resolve to “get this weight off—somehow.”
I invite you to follow us on all our social networks, we are on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest, we also have our YouTube channel where I’m the host of the #AskDrA Show, where I (Dr. Alvarez) answer frequently asked questions that are sent to me with the Hashtag #AskDrA, subscribe to it! we talk about very interesting subjects.
If you want a more personalized experience and you have Instagram, follow me (Dr. Alvarez) to see my day both in my daily routine and in the operating room, add me! We will have a great time! My username is: gmoalvarez.
“Changing lives…one sleeve at a time”.
