Dear Pamela,
3 months LBHR post op here- and very pleased to state that I am walking 3 1/2 to 4 miles a day. I have a broken collarbone (been broken for 6 months) that is really holding me back from getting into the kind of exercise I want (mainly yoga) but I am happy to walk! But, like you, the anxiety over eating/weight gain is always a mental force to be reckoned with.
I gained about 15-20 lbs in the year leading up to my hip resurfacing. I was mad and stressed and anxious and upset and I stuffed food in my face because admittedly, that is how I handle those emotions. I have a history of eating disorders that goes back decades... years of therapy to learn to cope with it- and to stop hurting and hating my body and to no longer let my judgement of my weight be the measure I use to weigh my self worth.
If I learned anything from this whole hip experience- it is how important it is to love my body- to work with my body not against it. I have long considered my body to be the enemy- the only time I liked it was when I was on the losing side of the weight game- and then I was constantly on watch to see when my body would betray me and start once again to gain. Losing the ability to walk- being in such pain- having to get this surgery and recover from it- I finally get it- I need to partner with my body, work with it- not fight against it- if I want to survive. And that includes being loving to myself if I am not as thin as my brain might want me to be...
You have been thru a huge event with this surgery and all the emotions and pain, etc., leading up to it. If your body is telling you it is hungry right now, I would feed it-- as healthy as you can. When I got discharged from the hospital I was told "this is not the time to start a diet." Your body is on overdrive right now healing from a very major surgery- and it needs fuel to do that.
Take this opportunity to send the message to both your body and your brain that you come first- not the scale and not the judgements that dictate what is the "right" body to have. In a few weeks you will be up and running again- literally- and then you can start thinking about smart, fun, healthy exercise that will allow your body to find its natural weight.
I hope you can find the love inside right now to nourish your body with whatever it needs to heal- be it food, forgiveness or just good old acceptance! Each day I set out to walk my way to a slimmer me, taking each day as it comes, and loving every inch of my body as I go. I may never get back to a body I had in the past- and I am finally ok with that. I am just sad that it took decades of hating myself- of having to go thru the pain of this hip stuff- to finally find the love. I can't believe it when I say it, and I say it often, this whole experience, the pain- the surgery- may well have been the most instrumental life lesson I have ever had in self love. xo
Topic: Post Op Diet - I think I'm eating too much. (Read 2446 times)
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