At my orientation for weight loss surgery I was given a sheet of paper that talked about goal setting and encouraged you to think about the strategies you were going to use to accomplish them… holy hell it’s just like what I do at work with my clients!  (insert laugh at myself here) So I was reviewing some of their suggested goals and these are the ones I’ve decided to work on in preparation for my upcoming surgery:

1.  I will practice chewing my food until it is mushy.

2.  I will begin practicing putting down while eating.

3.  I will keep a journal (blog) of my weight loss journey.  I may include feelings, concerns, questions, body measurements, etc.

4.  I will attend the support group at the hospital.

5.  I will stop drinking diet coke in preparation for the post surgical lifestyle.

6.  I will stop late night snacking.

I think that those six goals are a good place to start!  The first four were goals from their list of goals to choose from and the last two are goals that I came up with for my own self as I feel they are important.  The paperwork from the hospital asks me to answer some questions about each goal so I’m going to do them one at a time here so that I can figure them all out in time for my next appointment.

Goal One

Identify what you want.

After surgery I will not be permitted to drink carbonated beverages and right now I drink a lot of diet coke every single day and often go through an entire day without a single glass of water. I know that water is necessary to keep my body hydrated after surgery and for the rest of my life but the struggle is that diet coke is loaded with caffeine which is high addictive so it is going to take a good amount of effort to be able to refrain from drinking it.

What is my goal?

My goal is to eliminate diet pop completely from my life.

What would be the evidence that I am making progress towards my goal?

I would not crave a diet coke first thing in the morning.

I would be drinking more water than diet coke.

I will eventually be drinking ZERO diet coke.

Identify challenges and strategies linked to the goal.

CHALLENGES:

caffeine addiction, withdrawal symptoms, other people around me drinking pop, not used to drinking anything else.

STRATEGIES:

increase water intake, go to bed earlier in the night to get more rest (when possible), use pain killers to get through headaches.

What can I tell myself to help me achieve me goal?

If I don’t quit the diet coke then I cannot have surgery.

Diet coke makes me crave snacks and snacks make me gain weight – I do not want to gain weight.

By quitting diet coke and elimination pop from the house I am being a good example to my children whom I do not wish to have pop.

What are my internal supports to help me achieve my goal?

Positive self talk, push myself drink water first before diet coke, remember the fact that I’ve quit diet coke in both of my pregnancies.

What are my external supports to help me achieve my goal?

Mike has agreed not to bring any more pop into the house, my colleagues are all aware of the surgery and willing to support me at work, I plan to attend the weight loss surgery support group at the hospital.