Texas Lap Band Surgeons Talk With You

As many of you may know, my (now) five year old’s best friend was diagnosed with a horrific cancer last February for which she needed surgery, chemotherapy and radiation.  When the chemo was completed back in August, we had a swim party for her and the little crew of friends that have played together since they were toddlers.  The mommies all sat at poolside and…um….drank margaritas.  A lot of margaritas.

Three or so margaritas into the afternoon, we got the bright idea to form a half marathon team in honor of little Zoe and give the proceeds to Arkansas Children’s Hospital (where she had gotten all of her care).  Needless to say, the next morning – in addition to a whopper of a hangover – I now had a commitment to propel my body 13.1 miles forward in space.  How many steps had I run in the previous decade prior to this commitment? Um……none.

But I put on my big girl panties and “trained”.  Sometimes I trained with more vigor, sometimes – like say, the whole month of November – with a lot less.  But I concluded my preparation two weeks before the race with a long “run” of 13.8 miles.  I say “run” because I would slog (slow jog) for two minutes, walk for one, take lots of potty breaks, change the channel…..anything to relieve the “ouch” of the effort.  My time? 3 hours 17 minutes.  Not really good, but the best I thought I could do.  I really wanted to do 2 hours 48 minutes which would be about a 13 minute mile, but I really didn’t see how I would shave a half hour off my time in two weeks so I didn’t worry about reaching that goal too much.

Yesterday, March 7, was the big day.  Half marathon in Little Rock.  Wanna know how I did?  Too bad, ’cause I’m gonna tell ya’ anyway.

2 hours 43 minutes which equals a 12minute 28 second mile. For 13.1 miles!! Five minutes LESS than my “I’ll never be able to do this” goal of 2:48 and about 34 minutes short of my previous “best” effort.

So what did I learn?

(1) Goals: you’ve gotta have goals.  You will never be able to fix what you don’t measure, think about and change.  If my husband (y’all know him as Dr. Hekier) hadn’t pushed me to define what time I wanted to achieve – and what pace per mile I needed to achieve that – then I never would have pushed a little harder on the hills, never would have glanced at anything but the scenery and certainly not at my watch.  If you want to lose weight, define for yourself how much you want to lose and how fast.  Each pound equals 3500 calories.  So how many calories do you need to not eat each day to reach that goal?  A goal you can measure every day or even every meal is realistic to follow and act upon.  A nebulous goal of “I want to be a size 6 by Christmas” doesn’t tell you what to do every time you sit down for a meal.  “I need to eat 400 calories this meal so I can meet my calorie deficit for today to lose one pound this week” is a measurable index.  And if you don’t meet it? Fine, you can meet it the next meal. If your goal is vague you’re much more likely to just give up and not try again next time.

(2)Amazing results don’t only come from amazing effort – sometimes they come from just some effort.  I am not a natural runner.  My legs are short, my endurance is terrible and I tend to stop any activity that starts to hurt.  I can’t tell you how many times I’d stop running and just walk when I got a little winded or tired.  But it didn’t stop me from getting on the treadmill two days later and trying again.  Over 7 months, even these half-hearted efforts made me stronger, faster and more resilient.  You may not want to eat the perfect “in the box” meal each and every day, three times per day.  But just by cutting out the junk – the chips, the sweet tea, the soda, the ice-cream – you will lose weight over time.  The harder you push – the more you stay in the box and the more you exercise- the faster the weight will come off.  But even some effort is better than none at all. 

(3) Be accountable.  I did most of my training by myself which allowed for all of the walk breaks I described earlier.  One reason I kicked tail in the race is because there were a lot of people around me who were exciting and inspiring.  There’s a lot of fun to be had in shared pain (no, really!), a lot of inspiration that comes from seeing someone older/sicker/heavier do something better than you ever could.  But it’s also human nature not to slack off as much when other people are watching you as well as the natural competitive nature that comes from doing something with another person with similar goals.  So many diets fail because we do them alone.  One of the great things about the band is that it gives you a community.  If you go to support group, you can be inspired by others’ achievements, you can get excited by their solutions to problems (e.g. night-time snacking) or if you want, you can find a friend and set up a little competition.  Who can lose the most weight in 4 weeks or who can increase their exercise time the most… or whatever.  And remember, your office visits act as automatic accountability because every 4-6 weeks or so, somebody’s gonna be watching and sending you to the principal’s office if you’re off course.  If that’s not inspiration to straighten up and fly right, I don’t know what is!

(4) Turn to experts-then actually do what they tell you to do.  With my training I did the same thing many bandsters do: I said, “I know, I know”.  I knew I was supposed to gradually increase the distance on my long run every week, I knew I should do some interval speed work on the track to get faster.  But knowing and having a willingness to do something are very, very different.  Speed work hurt, long distances can get boring.  What I wanted to do was sit on the couch and read cheesy novels on my iPhone Kindle app.  But now that I’ve caught the bug, I’m willing to look back at what a really rigorous training program looks like and I’m willing to surrender.  Yes, once per week I’ll go to the track instead of another slow run on the treadmill and I’ll do my long runs when and how they tell me to.  D’you want to lose weight? Stay in the box, eat three meals plus one protein heavy snack per day, take your multivitamin every day and exercise.  Don’t drink with your meals and don’t eat or drink crap.  Do you want to do all that? No.  We repeat it over and over and patients say, “I know, I know” over and over, but until you actually DO it….nothing happens.  I wanna crash and read books, my patients want to drink sweet tea.  We both have to make a choice, which leads me to my last point…..

(5) Success is sweeter than you can even imagine!!  When you really, really, really just don’t want to give up that third slice of pepperoni pizza, stop for just one second and think about your ultimate goal.  I can now tell you from experience that reaching that goal is an absolute slice of pure joy and wonderfulness.  And I’ve got a tangible feeling to carry with me while I train for my next race, even during those dark early morning hours when it’s cold and my nose is running and my ankles hurt.  If you get into a size 6 or 8, then even if you gain a little back, you can hold onto that feeling of goodness that comes with achievement and use it to power your drive to get back there. 

Once you achieve a goal, nobody can ever take that away from you.  If you got to a level of health or fitness or thin-ness that made your toes curl with excitement, then that is who you are.  You are NOT the overweight person you were when you first walked in this office, even if you gain a little back.  You will always and ever after be that person that achieved their goals, you are strong, you are capable but you might have just gotten off course – temporarily.  Let that person be in charge to get you back to where you need to be, not the defeatest person who failed every other diet they ever tried.  I will always be a runner now – because I ran a distance that makes most people shudder.  I wasn’t the fastest, the most graceful, the most challenged – but I was a finisher.  You may never grace the cover of a fashion magazine, but once you lose your weight, you will always be a finisher, too.  If I could, I’d even share my medal with you. Maybe.