Nat Locke: Curly hair, trouble sitting and silky heels — the unusual impacts of gastric sleeve surgery

A couple of weeks ago, I had my 18-month check-up following my gastric sleeve surgery.

They like to keep an eye on you every six months or so to make sure you’re doing OK and to do roughly 4000 blood tests to ensure you’re getting enough vitamins and essential nutrients.

I’m happy to report that it was all good news. My bad cholesterol is down and my good cholesterol is up (thanks, avocado!); my insulin resistance is gone and my fatty liver is now just liver. So medically, I’m hitting all my goals.

It did give me time to reflect on other ways I’ve been impacted too, so here are some of the things I’ve noticed as a person who has had significant weight loss in a relatively short period of time.

Firstly, it’s no longer comfortable sitting on hard surfaces. I know. I’m starting with a real negative here. But it turns out that when you lose the padding off your butt, your bones start to connect with the concrete steps down at the dog park and it’s just a touch disagreeable.

On the plus side though, my heels don’t crack nearly as much as they used to. The ladies down at the nail salon barely have anything to do these days, whereas they used to have to get out the heavy-duty equipment — something akin to a deli meat slicer — to carve chunks of dead skin off my battered heels.

Now my heels are silky smooth. There’s polish peeling off my nails at the moment though, so you can’t win ’em all.

One of the more significant differences has been my hair.

First, a heap of it fell out about five months after my surgery which was expected, but not much fun. And now that it has grown back, it turns out my hair is ridiculously curly. I mean, it’s always been a bit curly, and I know I was complaining about the impact of the Vietnamese humidity, but OMG, it’s now so curly that I was recently asked if I’d had a perm.

My tolerance for alcohol has diminished quite a bit too.

My friends see this as a good thing, because I used to have a superhuman ability to drink, and wake without a hangover. I know, I was insufferable. Well, no more. The upside is I’m now a cheap drunk, which is a definite bonus in the current economic climate. I have to get used to the idea of pacing myself though, which is a thoroughly new concept.

While we’re on the subject of the cost-of-living crisis, I’m pleased to report that I definitely spend less on food these days.

When I do cook something, it lasts for several meals now. Where I used to get two serves out of a recipe, I now get four or five.

This means I have to accept that I’m going to be eating the same thing over and over again. I reheat it for breakfast. I reheat it for lunch. I reheat it for dinner the next night.

The good news? I don’t have to cook so often. The bad news? It feels a little like Groundhog Day.

Luckily, the food is tasty because I’m an excellent cook (if I do say so myself).

And I know what you’re thinking. You’re dying to tell me to just freeze it and eat it later, but I would like to point out that my freezer is already full of things that I have frozen in the past. Freezing is not the issue. Thawing things out and heating them is the issue.

And then there’s going out.

The question I get asked the most by people considering gastric sleeve surgery is whether I still enjoy food. And the answer is categorically “yes”.

And as such, I love to eat out, but I have to be mindful to go to places where it’s easy to order dishes to share.

Luckily, there is no shortage of these types of establishments anymore. I have become rather adept at serving myself roughly a mouthful of each dish, because I really like to taste good food.

But I’ve now accepted that the first mouthful is the best anyway. Rarely do I go back for more, unless it’s the whipped feta I tasted at a Peruvian restaurant a few weeks ago. That was amazing.

The speed with which I feel full is a new sensation, and one that I’ve had to learn to manage. And I’ve also had to adapt to the awkwardness of explaining to waitstaff that even though I haven’t come close to finishing my scrambled eggs, it’s not because I didn’t like it. I now just breezily declare “Oh, it was delicious — I just have a tiny stomach” which seems to reassure them that I am not displeased.

I’ve given up on buffets though. There’s just no way I can get my money’s worth. These days, I very much value quality over quantity.

And I’m OK with that.