Sometimes You Have to Jump

There are 7 steps for the Kaiser Bariatric program. They say it is self paced and you are the one who drives it. I find that to be fairly true, more often then not I have had to call to get my appointments rather than someone calling me to schedule. I dig that though because it makes me face each step.

Step 1 (completed in June)

* Get a sleep study
* Be current on all health maintenance
* Take the Weight Management Course (12 weeks)

The sleep study could have been done one of two ways, a home sleep study or a sleep clinic study. My husband did the at home study but I opted for the sleep clinic (an hour drive away!!). We originally thought I had so mild a case it may not be detected on the home sleep study. I was fooling myself! I had 52 disturbances an hour!! When exactly was I sleeping? No wonder I was always so tired. The sleep clinic wwas much more homey than I was picturing in my head. And my technician was great! Plus, I didn't have to go through the process of guessing the right air pressure because my tech had that all figured out.

I have talked about the Weight Maintience class before briefly, I really liked the class and I think I may take it again in the future. The support from others in the class was great and being able to ask questions of someone who was educated in the field was wonderful. The down side of it was it was kind of hard to make sense of how I knew I would need to eat post surgery and how the book wanted me to eat. In the end I resolved to eat better than I did "yesterday". It is kind of like taking things a day at a time and made me feel less pressure to be perfect.

** Emotionally, this step was easy. The hardest part was calling up to register for the class.

Step 2 (completed July)
Attend an Orientation meeting

I had previously done this step the first time I entered this program so I was not really suprised by any of the information. However, I feel like the first time I wasn't ready to hear the information. I felt overwhelmed before and this time I felt hopeful and ready.

This process could take longer than I hoped but it will be the correct length of time in the end. If I am not ready for the next step, I won't take it.

** The time between Step 2 and Step 3 has been the hardest for me. You had to fill out a survey about yourself and all I kept thinking is "What if they read this and find me lacking..." There is a certain vulnerability to having to honestly look at your body and your life. This is the step where I decided to make a blog. I didn't necessarily need anyone to read it but I felt that I had something I wanted to say without someone interjecting. So for all of these posts, I wrote exactly what I was thinking proofreading only the sentence I was on and then posted them without re-reading them. I didn't want to be tempted to change my words.

Step 3 (set for September)
From now until September I am working on dry meals (fairly easy as long as there is not a drink in front of me), weighing portions, and activity.

My calf finally healed and my ankle is doing better but isn't completely healed so I am trying to strengthen it while not going overboard. The end goal is to start going back to the gym. I really enjoyed when I went before. My anxiety levels were better and I was much more relaxed. I am excited to get back into it and add it to the knowledge I gained from my Weight Management course.