1) Don’t change what you eat but keep a diary of what you eat

2) Get a pedometer and measure how many steps a day you are doing

3) In the same place, jot down your mood 3 times a day, at the major meal times.

This phase ended about two weeks ago. It was a bit scary/embarrassing to see how I was eating. Too many snacks, too many lunches out. The pedometer didn’t work 100% actuarially  but it showed that I wasn’t doing enough exercise. The mood also showed that when I was down, I tended to eat more.

So left me at Stage 2, and will post about this again soon.

Molly

Firstly, as a result of the weight gain I started to snore. Poor Lidia (my Wife) sometimes can’t sleep the snoring is so bad. So one of the first steps was to see a sleep specialist to see if I have sleep apnoea. My snoring started and got worst as my weigh increased. The doctor said this is probably because the fat increases around the throat and as the throat naturally gets small over night, the fat causes it to get smaller again and this causes the snoring. I am now waiting to do a sleep test and the doctor said that the best thing to do for now is trying to lose weight.

Secondly, I went to see Dr Sharon Marks, from Monash University. Dr Marks is the coordinator of the Obesity Clinic at Monash Medical Centre. She weighed me and took my height and gave the verdict that I knew was coming. I was Morbidly Obese! I don’t know about you, but that term does strike a cord in your mind that isn’t pretty. It extracts an emotion like wow but the fact is that its true.

Sharon went on to explain about how it is considered a disease and that people suffering from it are always going to have trouble losing weight for a number of reasons:

1) Your Metabolism starts to slow down.

2) Seeing you weigh so much, its harder to exercise. Not only is it hard at the time but chances are that your body is going to hurt more the next day.

3) Just general moral and environment issues.

For these reason, some medical intervention is normally needed to get back on track. One option is to have surgery. The two options presented where Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Band (better known as Lap Band) or Intragastric Balloon. The first involves using a band filled with liquid to block the amount of food that you can eat and make you feel fuller. The Balloon goes into the stomach and again makes you feel much fuller. Both of these options where to us (Lidia and I) last resorts and but definitely not out of the question.

The other option was to use drugs or food replacement supplements. The drugs do things like make your body less likely to absorb fat or suppress your appetite. The Food replacements are thinks like bars and shakes and the likes that you take to replace normal meals. Drugs might come into in the long run but the first point of call is the Food replacement in the form of Optifast. It is a program that has bars, drinks and soups that you have to replace your meals. It sounds promising and the option that we have decide to go down. This was decided about two weeks ago so tomorrow I will follow on with what the steps where from our initial consultation.

Molly