My mum has been in acute kidney failure for the last 20 years with her functionality dropping drastically late last year. The entire family got tested and I was the only match, amazing news that at least one of us can be considered as a donor! The doctors made it clear, although I'm as close to a perfect match as she could have hoped for, the only thing holding the transplant back was my weight...
Now, I have always had an unhealthy relationship with food, emotional eating is how I deal with the many stresses in my life, but if I wanted to save my mums life I'd have to make some serious changes. I'm 5'6 and at my heaviest I was 225 pounds, in order to have the surgery my doctors wanted me down to 180 for the surgery date with an end goal target of 145 pounds. This is because being overweight and having a high BMI has a massive negative effect on your kidneys and as I'd have to make one kidney last for hopefully 50 or so years I needed to show my surgeons I'm capable of losing the weight and keeping it off. This was my moment, the moment where I realised I had to make real changes, change my eating patterns, change my relationship with food, change my emotional support systems, I had to start making better choices!
Since finding out about the weight loss requirement I've started taking my weight loss seriously, using a combination of CICO and IF I'm now 187 pounds, only 7 pounds from my ideal surgery weight! It's not been easy and I've had a few days where it all goes out the window and binges happen, I've finally realised that that doesn't mean the whole process needs to stop and I admit defeat. It means you accept that you have set backs and you just have to make sure you track them, accept them and start again the next day! After a few of these you can start to recognise what triggers them and try to come up with healthier ways of dealing with it. For me, that meant acknowledging when things were getting too much for me and where I used to just binge on all the tastiest things I could get my hands on to deal with it, now I have healthier ways of dealing with it. I'll take my dogs out for a walk, get a delicious coffee, talk to a friend or for when things are really bad I've stockpiled a few delicious low calorie treats so that if I binge the calorie intake isn't anywhere near as bad as it used to be!
I know this will be a lifelong battle and a constant uphill struggle to firstly get down to the 145 pounds, and after to maintain it for the sake of being able to live as healthy a life as possible with one kidney. I just can't get over how far I've come and I can't wait to hit 180, the first of my major kidney related weight goals. For now, surgery is scheduled for Nov 18th and I can't wait for it to help stop my mums suffering, and after, to continue on my weight loss journey. This whole process will have been worth it and I get to save not only my mums life, but by keeping my weight down I'll hopefully be saving mine too.
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from loseit - Lose the Fat https://ift.tt/31eLKXV
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