Shemy-away

It's not all pretty - it's not all easy to go from morbidly obese to...well..not morbidly obese. I know when I was pre-op I was always looking for the terrible side effects so I had in my mind the potential of what difficult steps I had ahead for me. Now that I'm 7 months out and down 109 pounds, I know the reality of what I had to adjust to.
1. Cute shirt in department store ad catches my eye. It's plus sized, it was drape over me, it's not an option.
2. Lane Bryant emails are now just more spam.
3. Can't say "LMAO" anymore cause it's already gone...
4. Automatic toilets scare the crap out of you! There's no longer that one minute delay after my big ol fat butt gets off the toilet. The immediate "Whooosh!" is so unexpected!
5. Bummed out MIL when she offered to give me the 16's she had gotten too thin for an was now in her goal weight of a 14 and had to tell her I was now at a 12 (okay, so maybe I did kinda enjoy that moment...PS- now a size 10)
= )
Post ops, feel free to add to my list.....

Yes. Small world!! Country folk!

Don't waste your time worrying about how long it will take you to get to goal, when you have the rest of your life to get there. In my world, there is no end. This IS for life.

I'd love to follow your journey as well as see pictures from start to finish. I noticed in the picture section, some of the pictures in a persons album isn't dated so I have no clue as to the start and beginning of their journey. Anywho, I am looking to lose 130 to 160 lbs, and wanted see someone who had about the same goal. I'm 282 now, and 5'6. How long did it take you? I can imagine it would take me about fifteen to eighteen months to lose that amount.

I am at 4-1/2 weeks, and I don't think the post-op diet is too bad. So, I won't say it sucks for me.
I do feel upset when people post that they are cheating with food, or if they want to do something else their doctor has said not to do, like smoking or drinking.
Perhaps some people did not have the same preparation as many of us did. I had six months of diet doctor, nutritionist, counselor, psychiatrist, blood tests to prove no smoking, etc. I was told that bad reactions like throwing up too much could kill me.
The big thing I think I am reading is that some people have not dealt with their emotional eating. And, as a (hopefully) former emotional eater, I know how destructive and overwhelming that habit can be. And, I don't know if I will be hit with the emotional eating again, but for now I am very obedient!
So I too worry when I read of people "cheating", but I am not condemning. If we were all capable of impeccable willpower, we wouldn't be on this board talking about how we are coping with having ~75% of a major organ removed.

Maybe I'm overstepping boundaries here or being a little too deep, but I always get concerned when I see newly post-op people talking about "cheating" on their food/meal plan. We've had major, invasive surgery, people - the term "cheating" to me makes me think of being on Weight Watchers and deciding to eat a medium pizza by myself with breadsticks and a 2-liter of Pepsi, and not count the points. "Cheating" after VSG surgery means the possibility of causing infection to the newly-made staple line, which is a good-sized healing incision inside your body. The same "cheating" can also cause leaks.
If I can give a short piece of advice . . . . the first couple months just plain SUCK. Eating applesauce, refried Beans and string cheese every day for 2 months is terrible. I had more than one breakdown. However, I also kept reminding myself over and over again that these foods were needed, required even, to allow my body time to heal.
Sorry if I've offended anyone, I just feel like sometimes people take this surgery too lightly from the standpoint of the healing that needs to take place both inside and outside the body before you can be 100%.

I am on my 7th day of my liquid diet and it has been hard. I know it will be worth it in the long run! But what an emotional time. I have lost it a couple times now and am very thankful that my parents are here helping me out with my children. So I have a week to go until I get sleeved in Mexico. I am sooo excited. I am already down 10 pounds and if I keep going the way I am now maybe 20 pounds will be gone before I have my surgery. That is awesome in its self. I have no fears of the surgery. I just cant wait for the date to get here!

congratulations!!! I can't wait for mine!

Like Mini-Me, I was outpatient with the same surgeon. In at 7:00, at the Golden Nugget by 12:00. Took a nap and was out to dinner with my wife and even played a little at the tables that night.
Set myself up for success in my hotel and it worked out great.
Loved not being in the hospital. There are sick people there.

When the bariatric coordinator and nutritionist were talking ounces, they seemed to be talking "liquid" measure, which is by volume (measuring cup), not weight (scale). We all have measuring cups, but many Americans are not so familiar with the kitchen scale.
The bariatric coordinator gave me a small 7" diameter styrofoam plate that she had marked up as a visual guide. I will try to attach a cell pic.
Anyway, from what I can see, in my case, they kind of expect us to use measuring cups, but I will be weighing my Protein on my gram scale and using measuring cups for vegetables and starches. That is, when I get on real food again!

Yep, wholeheartedly agree with Tiff. I've gained and lost the same 100 pounds that I have now almost currently lost 3 or 4 times. The thing is, is that I had no control over what my head was thinking about food -- for the first time, I feel in control of what I'm thinking about food -- I don't really care about it for the first time -- it's fuel, nothing more, nothing less.
Could I have done this the "old fashioned" way? Sure -- but I would have regained it -- and I wouldn't have lost it as fast -- and I wouldn't be as active as I am now --
Do we blame a person who needs glasses to see? No.
Do we blame a person who uses hearing aids to hear? No.
Do we blame a person who needs meds to live a normal life? No.
Why should we blame ourselves for doing something medically that is going to help us lead normal, active, healthy, productive lives?? Nope, I don't blame myself.
Nope, I won't accept that "coulda woulda shoulda" speak -- we all did it because we needed it just like any other medical procedure or device. That's what I think.

No more guilt or feelings of taking the easy way than when I get in my car to drive to Walmart. No more guilt when I use a hand truck to move a heavy piece of furniture, or when I pay/tip the baggers at the commissary for bagging and hauling my groceries to my vehicle.
I never considered this easy. I fought for every pound I lost. I had my own set of struggles, and while I lost fast, hard, and fairly "easily". Losing isn't the difficult part, keeping it off, changing our habits, and really thinking about what we put in our mouths every day is the hard part.
I tried the "old fashioned" way too many times to count, and I failed miserably each time. I realized that I needed assistance, a permanent tool to help me.
I do think that maintenance is pretty effortless as well because I have addressed my own set of food issues, and I know my triggers.
Self-awareness was and always will be my key to long-term success. I could easily gain weight at this point. I promise it's not difficult to gain a few pounds here and there. Becoming complacent is a dangerous and slippery slope. I know that I could suck down a 2000 calorie milkshake every day of my life without consequence except I'd get fat again. The big change for me is the "want" has pretty much diminished for junk options. I indulge, I drink, I have soda, I don't beat myself up over half a Snickers, but I also know that behavioral patterns, and continual "not so great" choices can undo all my hard work.

It's been 95 days since my surgery, or 13 and a half weeks, or three months and three days. I have now lost 53 pounds, from an alltime high of 289 down to 236 as of this morning. I come around these boards but I haven't been posting much because I've been in kind of a little observation pod myself, testing out food, working the sleeve, and something else: pouting because my weight is in the 230's and not the 130's.
Usually when I come here I read people saying they're completely pissed about the same thing. So I wanted to put my spice into the pot here and tell you that even though it seems like it's coming off really slowly, and even though day to day you could measure your loss in eye droppersful the fact is it's pretty likely that when you get to three months, you will be somewhere around a fifty to sixty pound loss.
If the loss is faster than that, it's usually because you had more to lose to begin with. If it's slower than that it won't be slower by much. Maybe it will be 45 and not 55. That could be because you had less weight to lose to begin with, or you have some other condition that's comorbid, like diabetes or hypothyroid. It's all good, you're getting better.
If you are reading about somebody who lost seventy or eighty pounds in two months, they are losing the same *percentage* of weight you have to lose. And the prediction by bariatric surgeons for how much you will lose over a certain amount of time is pretty much uniform: *Most* of it will be gone at one year. Not in four months. Not in six months. One year.
I want to tell you why this is a good thing. First of all, if you are eating the starvation calories you would need to eat to lose one hundred pounds in six months your metabolism would be shredded by the time it was over. The minute you stopped and tried to "maintain" you'd really be in trouble -- you might have to stay at six hundred for a year after that, and keep slowly adding calories, and be stuck for the rest of your life eating eight or nine hundred "maintenance" . Besides being trapped at a much lower metabolism, your nutrition would have to suck over time if you had to live that way forever.
Also, when you lose slower, your skin has time to bounce back. Extremely fast weight loss means your outer layer looks like a stretched out sock. But extend that loss over time, over the space of a year -- you end up with taut, glowy stuff that's better than any fashion makeover. You might not ever get the skin of your childhood but the real sag and pucker will be minimized as much as it can be. You might have completely given up on bikini dreams at this point, but...consider the arms. Consider sleeveless. Consider the one piece. Patience can pay off.
I am not a calorie counter. I am not a lowcarber. My BMI was just under 40 when I went down to Mexico so I would say I'm an "average" candidate for this procedure. I've eaten taco bell, gone out for wine, gone on vacation, eaten Pasta and pizza and chips. What I've noticed when I do stuff like this though is that my body starts asking me for chicken and vegetables.
And the other thing I've noticed is that *no matter what* I do, the pounds are still coming off.
When I got back from vacation last month, I was starting to worry. When I left on May 19, I weighed 249. I hung out with my relatives and ate seafood and had wine spritzers, went out to eat every day and lived the life of riley for two weeks. When I got back I weighed 247. I thought I was slowing my loss and I probably was, a little but...maybe not as much as I thought.
So the month of June passes and my decision is not to freak out, not to go lowcarb, and to eat normally, work out a little while I push the Protein and the Water. I went out with my friends and had a couple glasses of wine with them but I'm worrying. Now I'm not losing that twenty to thirty pounds a month, that ten pounds a week. Now it seems like *nothing* is happening. June 15, suddenly it's 245. I'm still thinking maybe I need to lowcarb...maybe I need to push my calories down from 1200 to under a thousand. Maybe I need to do something.
But I don't. I walked a couple miles outside til it got too hot out, and I swam in the pool twice. Ate like I didn't care.
Now it's 236. In six weeks I lost eleven pounds. And I really did nothing at all but live normally. I did not scour the internet for lowcarb recipes, I did not get on some punishing regime to tweak my abs. I didn't do anything but eat and live.
So I just want to say that you *can* make this into a clean, disciplined Jillian Michaels experience, where you only eat cottage cheese and you run on the treadmill for an hour every day. You can force your calories down to five hundred and brutalize those pounds off of you in record time -- you can do that, it's possible and you have medical supervision.
Or you can NOT do it. It's coming off either way.

Hello,
The hospital should have a patient advocate that you can call and I would call them ASAP. Make your voice heard. They are caring for YOU and your opinion and concerns should be addressed. You know your body better than they do.
I hope it all gets better from here. Remember you are your biggest advocate.

So you know my bias - I did not even tell my own mother for over three months that I had surgery. My dad still does not know at one year out. My child did not find out except by reading my diet paperwork when i was out of town which was left out by me accidentally.
This decision was so deeply personal to me. My husband did not find out about my desire for WLS until the day before consult and I sought out counseling prior to consult to ensure my dedication to this path. I paid for WLS here in the US, caught by not being medically obese enough to have surgery paid for by insurance yet doomed to slowly gain weight in oncoming years.
So - why did I only tell my husband and two dear friends? Because this was all about me. Did my decision affect others, yes but indirectly. Am I ashamed I needed help? Somewhat.
Today when a friend annouces to a store clerk...she has lost 80#'s this last year or to TSA agents who see my DL picture and do a double take - I confess about WLS. To those at work, church, neighbors, family members? No, I say I was under doctors care while drastically reducing my intake. I do not minimize the diet or work faced to lose weight, regardless of surgery or not.
I was not and am not ready to face the rawness of the emotions which are so transparent to those who know me well. To acquaintences, YEAH VSG surgery. I scream YES for those who need WLS. Putting on my mask of bravado is easy for stranger so yes, I open up easily to others of no consequence in my life or those who have had a history with me. My weight really bothered me more than I admitted to anyone, enven myself. But the choice is yours always on surgery or another diet to lose weight.
WLS is not shameful, just emotional and personal.
Hugs on your choice. I have no regrets.
And as my surgeon says - It takes courage to show who you really are.

Thank ALL of you for your response. I am going to do just what you guys recommended, I'll keep you all posted too. I didn't even think about the patient advocate such a good idea!!!!!!
Christy

we all have doubts......I still think I am losing slowly, but I am convinced at least what I have lost is really and truly gone forever. And here is a really big secret.......I would lose more if I made more of an effort and actually got off my ass and exercised like I did before my surgery, but I'm NOT mentioning that to my surgeon. lol He is happy with my loss the way its going

Hello,
The hospital should have a patient advocate that you can call and I would call them ASAP. Make your voice heard. They are caring for YOU and your opinion and concerns should be addressed. You know your body better than they do.
I hope it all gets better from here. Remember you are your biggest advocate.

Hello,
The hospital should have a patient advocate that you can call and I would call them ASAP. Make your voice heard. They are caring for YOU and your opinion and concerns should be addressed. You know your body better than they do.
I hope it all gets better from here. Remember you are your biggest advocate.

Hey everyone!!
Im new to the site and new to the journey. I've started the process and am now waiting for my meeting with the surgeon. I'm not really sure where I am in the process, it seems the military has different requirements for approval. I friend requested almost everyone in this forum and if I missed you please friend request me
This site has been very helpful and informative, but connecting with other African-Americans that are being sleeeved is priceless!