CBT

Well here's an update! I had a plastic surgery consult today. The surgeon (who works very closely with my bariatric surgeon) told me not to lose any more weight. I kinda thought that's what was happening. She said a lot of very helpful things. Showed me how my body will change. Some science and some clinical experience and some anecdotal. I like her. So she wants me to up my calories again. Over 1800. A lot has to do with how active I am and that my metabolic rate will triple to heal from the plastic surgery. She said I will lose a minimum of five pounds from the surgery. So now I will put effort into maintaining. Thank you for the feedback.

I think some discomfort is healthy. Surgery is scary; still, you're making an informed decision with professionals. You're (we) making a huge life change with an outcome that isn't known because it's a deey personal journey. That free fall can cause a lot of anxiety or simply uncomfortable feelings. That has a lot to so with having solid information and how you're thinking. It's also totally normal part if making change. Sometimes it's so hard to put your self and your needs first so we invalidate ourselves with stinkin thinkin. You cannot fail if you let your self be successful. Make it mental. You may feel disappointed at times but you will also feel amazing, shock, proud, confused, happy....good luck. Good health. You got this!

Ha! We have similar rest days. I used to be Sunday-Thursday but there's a new power vinyasa class at my club on Sunday with a highly talented teacher so....the sacred and highly protected training days are M, W, SA. Lol. The other days flex with my work-life schedule. Generally I rest Tue/Thu but, like you mentioned, if I feel good and well rested, I go six days. I have access to group classes (power yoga, Pilates, barre tone, strength conditioning) from about 5:30am-7pm. No excuses. I protect one rest day a week. No matter what I work out 5 days of the last 7, 60-90 minutes. Because I had my rotator repaired in summer, I'm diligent about 24 hour recovery from resistance training but never go more than 48 hours in any muscle group. When I'm sick but no fever, I train lighter, more healing arts but I don't stop moving. I feel better. Moving Qi. I'm pretty well in tune with my body symptoms of overtraining. I do get pretty regular massage and acupuncture. So the shorter answer is I train with structure that has a lot of flexibility. Lol.

Plastic surgery.

You can have a chill cocktail

Once your insurance approves you, generally that approval is good for two years. If they require a center if excellence that's what you have to pay attention to when selecting a new surgeon. That and that s/he is in network.

My husband and my doctors and you guys and another sleeve group I belong to.

Welcome baaaaack! I'm so glad you're here! Congratulations on yer date. You can just tell them and they'll make you loopy, wait til you're loopy, or under general. You totally got this. Woohoo!!! Get yer life! Yay!!!!

And yes, I often feel sad and frustrated for people who do not have aftercare with their surgical practice. I have follow up for five years with my surgeon. I still work with the endocrinologist, in her practice, every 4 months. He is helping me maximize my fat loss while minimizing my lean muscle loss. She also has a sports physician and a nutritionist. This practice is one more tool that keeps me on track and helps me self-correct if I need to.

I am sleeved. Of all the things I really like about living with my sleeve, I feel super empowered around choosing my food. I really, truly know what it is to be disinterested in eating CAKE! lol. Seriously, sometimes I'm curious about why I really don't want to have some ice cream my kids are eating, so I kinda reality test it and take a bite and sure enough, nope. It so freeing to eat by choice. I don't feel hijacked by the carb monster. No sabotage. There is candy and chocolate and kids carbs in my kitchen. Untouched stocking stuffers. If I want a chocolate kiss, I have one or four and then I'm done. Done. It's amazing. Normal. Healthy. Wellness. Yup. I love my sleeve. I did quite a few eating and body image measures as part of my psych eval. The psychologist thought that I'd have to remind myself to eat more than most because of how I scored. I really didn't understand hunger. How it felt. She was right. I had to learn to eat by the clock. I do get hungry now. Still it's easy for me to not eat all day and the sleeve restriction would not allow me to make that up at night. I don't want this because I am an athlete and I train hard and I want to eat. I want to protect my heart and vital organs (lean muscle mass). I choose the sleeve because it's kinda the middle of the road. I talked with my surgeon about all options. She agreed the sleeve is middle of the road. Meaning if I didn't end up where I wanted to be or with the results she set for me, I could get banded or have RNY. I don't for see that now, but felt relieved, in all that failure thinking and anxiety I had back then, that I would still have options.

Have my first PS consult at 10am tomorrow. I'm feeling underprepared. What were your consult questions? What questions postop did you wish you'd asked preop? Everything goes. Really. Please.

This is such a recurring lesson for all of us who live in western culture. We are individuals. The foundation for health is similar and still my way won't be your way. When the board gets all bonkers and preachy and catastrophic about how people are going to die because they don't so it the right way, that's when I take a break for a couple months. I really appreciate that we each have a path and that we learn from each other's experiences. Take what we can use and leave the rest. Thanks for the comment

You know, the other wild card is that I had two surgeries after VSG. Both were six months apart and reconstructive and required a lot of healing time. I doubled my protein both times for healing and I never went back to the carb monster. So I wonder if that kept me in line, behaviorally because I was already not exercising for4- 6 weeks each time I will attest to the power of protein, though! My last surgeon was absolutely shocked at my recovery. He brought in a surgical resident to review my case. Kinda interesting cause you learn a lot when a doc is teaching another doc in front if you. Anyway, there are three phases of PT and I only had to do phase one because I was in the 99th percentile for healing. I put that down to protein and following his orders. VSG is hands down the best decision I have made for my life. I am really happy

That looking like death thing, that's exactly what I don't want. Lol. The endo put me on supplements because my body just revved up. I am not willing, at this point, to stop dancing and only weight train. That would be the next fix because I burn a lot of muscle at rest, because I have a lot of muscle, so then when I dance for an hour, it puts me in overdrive. I eat up to 1700 calories a day. The endo told me if I eat over 1800 every day (gah!) I will start to gain. That's based on my BMR and other stats. He's followed me from 1/2012 to now and he's been dead-on with all his number craziness. Lol.

I love it!

I've been called scrawny. Asked if I'm healthy (implying I'm sick). Told I look like I'm wasting away. Just people being insensitive. I really don't allow myself to focus on it. No stinkin thinkin. They have their demons. Unhappy, I suppose. I also hear: "OMG you look so hot! You rock those pants! Hey, skinny. You look sooooo good. I bet you feel great!" I know what I'm listening to!

I saw my BFFs DH today. I haven't seen him in a year. After saying hello he started digging in his pockets. All of them: pants, shirt, jacket. I asked him what he was looking for? He said, "five bucks so you can get a cheeseburger or something!" It was really funny. I know it's a compliment coming from him. It was all the theatrics. So funny.

It gets better and eventually goes away. We used to joke around my house about it. It'd get so loud my kids would do the "there was an old lady who swallowed a (fill in the blank)."

Okay: tucked in shirts and belted blue jeans )

There is so much variation! It's amazing to me. You sound similar to my mom. She was 98 pounds most of my childhood. She's about 110 now. She's wispy and thin. I'm more athletic build and I don't want to be wispy. What a journey!!!

I do see an endocrinologist about every 4 months. He's part of the surgical practice. He calculates my BMR, etc. He told me I'd have to eat above 1800 calories a day to stop my weight loss. I have a lot of muscle. I don't want to lose any muscle. That's important to me. The endo can always guess how many calories I've been eating by how much weight I've lost since I last saw him and the BMR. I'm surprised every time. (I have a rough idea from MFP) I guess I will make an appointment to see what he thinks, too. I like to read the range of responses. Thank you for sharing.

Also I should like to say that I did not read through the thread. I only answered the OP so as not to appear to be challenging anyone with my opinionated self

I track my food and exercise in MFP. I track everything but only look at whether I hit my protein goal. I do not believe (not does science) that all calories are processed in the body equally. So the calorie in and calorie out of MFP is bunk as far as I'm concerned. I like have a general idea of calories but I do not think eating a snickers and then running it off is healthy tracking. KWIM? I'm not suggesting anyone here is doing that, I just think that MFP can be misleading this way. I also get lazy about building recipes so I sometimes cheat :-0 and log something close. Like split pea soup from a restaurant versus the one I made. The point is, I do this sometimes. Otherwise i'd be overall misleading my self. Blah blah blah. I pay attention to protein.

I am still losing about two-three pounds a month. I'm pretty dang small/petite so I'm looking for input from you all about how you arrived at goal? Did your body just stop losing? Did you make an effort to increase calories? I've always said my body will decide. I didn't have a personal goal weight. My surgeon's goal was 170. I'm 140 and 5'2". Size small/x-small and 4 jeans. I work out 5 days a week 60-75 minutes. How I eat and exercise all feels very comfortable and easy to me. I like my lifestyle. It feels healthy and balanced. If I want to go for insurance to cover PS, I have to be stable weight for 6 months! I must be close. If your weight loss slowed down like mine, how long before you stopped losing and found that bounce?

I too want to refocus tracking. I have been trailing off at the end of the day. That's the part of the day with the most "risk" for head hunger behavior. I have not succumbed to it; still, take one thing away and it becomes a slippery slope. I also would like to have plastic surgery this year.