Change-- one step at a time

[WLS Support]

Lately, I have been talking to a lot of post-surgery weight loss surgery patients who thought that surgery was going to make them look like Jennifer Aniston in a matter of months.  I had one woman at a support group say that she thought for sure she would have been bikini ready in just a couple of months.  Obviously, these are unrealistic expectations of surgery or of many other interventions.  Change after surgery takes work.  It is not the "easy way out."  I try and encourage my post-surgery patients to take one step at a time when making changes.  You can't concentrate on the whole ball of wax at one time.   For most patients, they did not get to the point of needing surgery overnight and therefore, weight loss is not going to be an overnight thing either.  It is about making daily, small changes.  For example, make a commitment that you are going to actually drink 64 ounces of water a day.  I frequently hear about patients ending their day with headaches because they forgot to drink their water, but somehow they made time for Starbucks.  If you are not drinking your water then you get dehydrated and caffeine makes it worse.  Also dehydration can mimic hunger.  If you are hungry, ask yourself when was the last time you had some water.  I recently read on CNN.com that Dr. Sanjay Gupta makes sure he has water by his bedside to combat the seven to eight hour lack of water intake during sleep.  He said that having the water by his bedside reminded him to hydrate as soon as he woke up.  

What will your one change be today?