CowgirlJane

I wore shorts and summer tops before plastics. My arms made me self conscious but I started to realize that I obsessed about them more than others noticed! I did often wear shapewear but the.main trick was to make sure my pants were not snug. ...avoiding the skin muffin top. I wore alot of dresses as that worked well. I still think people obsess way too much on this topic. Going from morbidly obese to "normal" improves your life immensely. I would say it improves looks 80-90% and plastics gets yo the last 10% or so. Think about what a difference 80-90% improvement in looks could mean in your life- so worth it!

Thanks, that makes sense. I went to support groups preop but only one post op. Decided I am not a support group kinda person but I can surely see the value of what you are talking about.

Woohoo coops! Love the confidence! You got it so flaunt it.

Guess who I heard from? My bad boyfriend Steven was all full of sympathy for my losses and lovey dovey toward me. It has been about two months since the last time we broke up...maybe longer, it's very confusing I am not even sure. Anyway, time has given me a great deal of perspective. Is it evil of me that I view this like an episode in a soap opera? Like seriously, I do love him but my stars...this is the man that told me I wasnt allowed to talk about "anything bad"' - I will never ever get over THAT. grow up Peter Pan. I am genuinely a smiley happy girl but..I am a human with real life stuff going on...So fyou if you can't handle a full human life experience... I was sweet about it because I know he just doesn't really get it...but don't tell me you want me back because you don't even know what it means to be in a loving relationship...even if you do feel love. So when I share my"boyfriend" woes it is with humor not angst so I hope it is taken that way. I am not sure I ever want to live with or be with a man permanently. I am starting to love single life...it is a process...but my mindset is really changing. I am so enjoying my friends, my horses, even my work. I am not sure I even have time for a"full-time" boyfriend. I am going Kayaking with Theo today. Love his company but I think we are going to be friends and not in a real relationship. I am picky about compatibility and I realized a very basic pitfall between us and I don't need the grief so just don't want to go there. Keeping it platonic (we had a fiasco happen on the date where I was ready for more..Haha) for now anyway. My counselor really wants me to date casually which is a foreign idea to me, but I am beginning to see the possible merits. I would say that next to my college years, which I loved and being a young mother, which I loved....this might be the happiest time of my life in spite of many obstacles and woes. I was scared of being single and went through a hell of a transition time...but now....liking being "the boss of me" and not giving a rip about compromising my life for someone else. Being single combined with the self confidence my new body gives combined with the"my give a Damn is busted" attitude I am developing has just opened the world up for me. I have so many new friends, acquaintances, people to dance and"party" with etc. I am mIssing a travel partner but I am thinking I don't need one!

I get sick from the anesthesia but warned them. They hit me hard with the anti nausea drugs so I didn't vomit.

You will have some excess skin but not sure you can predict how much or if it will really bother you. Rovo is so right, becoming trim and healthy, even with excess skin, is the big pay off. You'll look really good just by losing weight and more importantly improving your life. Exercise has many benefits but it doesn't shrink skin. It does tone you so you look better. Your skin does tighten some with time too

Unsolicited advice. ..my mother was not allowed friends by a controlling and abusive husband (my dad) and so her daughters became her confidants and friends. WRONG. Don't do it if you can avoid it. I loved my Mother beyond belief but when I look back I was asked to "carry" burdens unfair for my age.

Funeral '#2 was today. The love and support from my imaginary Internet friends means so much to me. THANK YOU!

Since it has been ages since I even looked at one of her books, I can't really say. I have had counseling as I was one of those that believed that surely I must be broken inside to weigh 300#. I had a counselor give me this book called "Ed". yes, the author had named her eating disorder "Ed" I just didn't relate. I can (and have!) talked about my childhood for years and yet I was still hungry. I still had this overwhelming drive to eat. Like, an hour or two after a meal, I was ready for another one. The eating disorder counselor would ask - what do you feel when you are hungry? HUNGRY! I don't think she ever believed me. Anyway, post sleeve - I do see a counselor 1-2 times a month. Guess what we NEVER talk about? How food is love, how food is a substitutue for a decent father or whatever. When I talk about needing to work on the "mental" part of all this what I am referring to is how much my life has changed and how it is good, but also difficult at times. For awhile, it was strange to look like an attractive woman and it made me feel awkward, like I had lost a protective shell. I am talking about accepting on a very deep level that I need to eat just alot less than other people do in order to maintain a trim weight. I am talking about finally being in a position where there is a whole wide world out there... what do I want out of it? So, this is why I don't relate well to the whole eating disorders movement. I surely had "disordered eating" and I surely used food and obesity to numb emotions. But bigger than those things, I was hungry almost all the time and that primal urge drove alot of my behavior and it just doesn't anymore.

I will be 3 years out in December and have been posting on this and another sleeve forum for about 3 years. My perspective comes from my experiences, but also from gleaning much from others. So, now I think I have a better grasp on your question too. I absolutely could not have done this without the sleeve. IT has been an amazing "tool" for me. I went through a fairly long period of time when food lost all appeal. You will often see posts of people lamenting how food tastes bad now, it is such a bother to eat, will I ever love life again sort of thing. THAT is a golden opportunity time to change some habits, break some addictions and really think about the role that food should play in your life. The sleeve gives you a reprieve, a window of time where you physically cannot eat as much and for most of us, don't really even want to eat. I had a few occasions during the first 6 months I was sleeved of vomiting (maybe 2-3 times) due to eating too fast. It happened because a certain "compulsion" to shovel food overtook me and it didn't take much for my tummy to toss it back...ha. Don't rely on that though. For most people - that all changes one day. Your appetite returns. Food starts tasting dang good again. If you aren't careful, you start to learn "how" to overeat again. So, I hope this is a more thorough explanation. for me, the sleeve gave me a reprieve from that 24/7 DRIVE for food I used to have. I lost alot of weight. I liked it, i like how i feel, how I look, how athletic I have become, how my life has changed. Now, coming up on my 3 year anniverary in 4 months - I would say that maintenance is alot more about that motivation than the contrainsts my tummy puts on me. I still have very good restriction and am not going around starving all the time - but - I know how to overeat with the sleeve. If you read posts on the veterans forums, you will realize that MANY people know how to overeat with their sleeve. Once you have been obese, it doesn't take "much" overeating to start regaining. That is our reality - we still have the disease of obesity and the weight would love to come back! For now, I am doing good, very happy with my sleeve and maintaining well - cautiously optimistic about my long run results!

Ignore other people's results and focus on your own. I lost weight I guess sorta fast, but flip side is i had SO MUCH to lose that nobody even noticed it until I lost the first 50#. We all have a different journey and the key is to make the very most of YOURS! good luck!

None of us want to fail. I "failed" with the lapband and was pretty determined to not repeat that cluster. I have lost over 160# since being sleeved and currently maintaining successfully, so I know it is possible! anyway, what I am really responding to is the title of this thread - the comment about "loving that super full feeling" - red alert. I cannot speak for any other surgeries, but for the sleeve and the band, that super full feeling is not the goal. I just want people going into this whole thing with a very clear picture of the situation is all.

I think there are several components Losing weight fast releases a bunch of stored estrogen which creates strong emotional feelings No longer being able to use food to "numb" feelings The rapid change in appearance, while wonderful, is also scary We are complex, the chemical changes that must be happening inside our bodies must be enormous during these times. I have noticed that feeling good makes me feel good; whereas feeling bad makes me feel bad. Viscious cycle you might say. Once you are on a downward spin, momentum can take you further if you don't do something to change the path. Dont be ashamed to seek help - in the end life will be so much better even if it feels rough right now.

I am not being clear. Plastics, once you heal you are pretty much done. Bariatric has so many emotional and longer term implications I love having a strong local team that extends way beyond the surgeon himself.

Agree. Not trying to promote mexico or any other place but I wanted the extra care post plastics I got in mexico and could not afford here. For bariatric surgery. ..I have a strong bias for local but for a different reason...follow up and support! !!

This is a tough one. The surgical skill and comptence is hugely important, but once that is done.... it is the general staff who provides much of the ongoing support. I found it invaluable and loved being associated with a whole practice full of very competent people. This kind of error could happen anywhere, but i would want to feel good about the whole team. Believe it or not, the finance person and the general office coordinator were hugely important to me post op... as they were both awesome cheerleaders!

I am vain. At a certain point, I felt that looking "skinny" makes me look old...ha. You have clearly met all the health benefit goals, so what makes you feel like you look good? You are right, excess skin looks like fat so don't be tricked by it. I weigh about 140 now which is a BMI around 23. i read somewhere that "most" women find a BMI of 23 is where they look the best. I found that to be a comfortable thought since I am not sure I trust my own eyes.

I don't know much about RNY but eating to satisfaction (lack of hunger) and not "full" is is a key long term strategy for sleeve. You will likely lose fine, it is the maintenance thing.. And I can and do eat anything as a sleever. ..no dietary restriction or intolerances except ice cream makes me feel ill. I think i am now mildly lactose intolerant and I was not before.

Pride and spanx!! LOVE IT

I thought I was feeling better but I am not. Damn

I am over 2 years out. I got weaker, then strong and then weaker again. I know exactly WHAT caused it and now it is time to refocus on strengthening exercise.

Well the important thing is you are not giving up. I highly recommend a low to moderate carb diet like south beach or something similar. I could no longer lose or maintain via diets but if a person CAN that is even better.

I wish I could go with you on your next appointment to give them apiece of my mind! Lucky for me my surgeon knew that I had lost all ability to lose weight via diet. I had to do the 2 week liver shrinking diet and I about died of starvation...only lost 8# in2 weeks even though I suffered terribly. I have had great success post sleeve and I don't believe these extended preop suffering diets predict long term success. Hang in there,don't get depressed. It's YOUR life on the line here, they are there to support and care for you through this process. It's just their job, but it's your future we are talking about.

Talk seriously about this at your preop appointments. I have been successful with the sleeve and one of the reasons is learning to eat"till absence of hunger". If you seek out that full feeling consistently I think you risk losing the feeling of restriction and maintaining weight loss is very difficult. I worry that the sleeve is not the right procedure for you (but I am working from a sample of one person, it is the surgeon and nutritionist etc to discuss this with) I was over300#, maintaining at about 140# now.

I am pretty busy this time of year and just had a relative pass away after an intense round with brain cancer...but when fall comes I would be interested and can help put something together. I was visualizing perhaps a meeting somewhere like Bothell and a second one more like the south end - not sure if federal way is far enough south. My thought was sort of two groups maybe they each meet once a month or every other month but different dates in cases there are people who would go to each. I liked that someone suggested seatac but I wouldn't go that far regularly -would surely do it once for a kickoff though! Don't mean to be a wet blanket but there are existing awesome support groups out there that welcome people regardless of where they had surgery. Just as a practical question....why would people prefer this group over those?