rehearsing for change

Now that things are done and settled regarding my approvals and I have my date, I can focus on moving forward. In the past week, I have started to make some changes. In my mind, this is sort of a rehearsal, but a lot of it is coming from stuff I already know and/or have read here. What do you think?

Experimenting with low/no carb, hi protein shakes and other post-surgery foods
Reducing my carbs now

Weaning off of caffeine
Joined a gym
Hired a trainer

My thinking: I need to be on a 20g carb diet for 2 weeks prior to my surgery. I'm not making the type of surgery publicly known, just that I need to have surgery. I figure if I start lowcarbing it now, tongues may wag less early on. I may fess up to the type of surgery later when it becomes too hard to keep it a secret.

I know there's a risk that my tastes will change, but I did enjoy my morning shakes back in my serious Atkins days, so I have been experimenting. I am digging the vanilla 0 carb isopure with unsweetened vanilla almond milk this week. Who knows what it'll be next week. I have ordered a ton of samples, too.

DH, DS and I took advantage of a groupon deal to join a gym down the road, and I signed up for the trainer option. Gyms intimidate me, and I need to get over that. My first meeting with the trainer is Friday. Best of all, this gym offers water aerobics (love those!) 6 days a week (4 evenings!) I want to get a head start on working up some muscle mass to help me after surgery when all I can do is walk. This brings me to a question - post surgery, is an elliptical ok? How about a bike?

What other presurgery lifestyle tips do you have?

So glad to hear that you are considering water aerobics.  You will not be able to go back in the pool for at least a month after surgery, but it is such a great way to exercise when you are heavy and have joint problems.  I would start the class now and then resume after surgery allows.  I just got back to my class last night after surgery on April 11.  Since you only weigh one tenth of your body weight in water, the freedom to move and stretch and work every muscle in your body is such a blessing.  I can't get as good of a work out any other way.  Hope you enjoy it and good luck with your surgery and recovery!

I think you are very smart for doing this!

I have also been doing my own "rehearsing for change" (I like the ring of that). My surgery is Friday. I started weaning myself off caffeine a month ago (works much better than going cold turkey). I ordered a ton of protein shake samples too. Some I've tried; some I am saving for after surgery. My doctor requires a week of low carb for my pre-op diet. I started it a few days early last Monday. I feel like going low carb has really helped me get my head in the game. I am not having many food cravings at this point.

Joining the gym is awesome - good job! I haven't been exercising much lately because I have extreme foot pain due to plantar fasciitis. I do love my water aerobics. How cool that your gym has so many classes! Mine only has two evenings a week.

I would suggest you continue to hang around this board and soak up as much knowledge as possible. It's reassuring to me to know what I can expect post-op.

Another thing I am going to do tonight or tomorrow night is write a list of all the things I hate about being obese, and create a video to my future self for times when I will struggle.

I do a considerable amount of visual coaching work with my teams at work, and I do something with them that I realized I need to do myself. It was sort of a "well, DUH!" moment.

I do two charts with them that I thought were particularly accurate here. I sketched them out and you can see them here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauriegray/8742606484/

For the play-at-home game, you can just draw these out on a sheet of paper each. Here is what I tell my team:

The first one is the advice you tell yourself NOW about upcoming roadblocks, BEFORE you hit them, while you are calm and not time pressured and panicky. When you do encounter them - and you will - you can pull this poster out and review it to help you remember what your plan was before things got tough.

The second one is identifying your personal cheerleaders, and writing the messages you think they'd have for you if things got tough. Put the messages in the signs they're holding. Make the messages sound like they're saying it.

So, I'm going to do this. And then I'm going to post them in a conspicuous location, and refer to them in the days ahead.

Feel free to use this! 

I started water aerobics the day I seen the surgeon for the first time (Oct 31), started low carb years ago (Diabetic), went on low cal  plan (1200) during the summer and have lost more than 60 lbs , hope to lose 75 before surgery this summer (hoping for June ) 

I need to stop drinking coffee 1 cup a day

 the sooner you start the changes the better off you are

good going