lilbearzmom

My surgery was on 12/17/12. I want to preface this by saying that everyone’s journey and way of living and eating after surgery is a personal choice, and no way is wrong if you are happy and continuing to lose weight in a healthy manner. This is just my experience in the year since surgery. Weight loss is not linear. Throughout this first year I lost in a stair-step pattern. It was literally stall 2-3 weeks, lose 1 week. I had to learn that if I was doing everything right (eating at a deficit), it would eventually come off- and it did! LOG YOUR FOOD! I use MyFitnessPal every single day. It is responsible for 99% of my success up to this point. I started at approximately a month after surgery and have not missed a day. I went on vacation for 2 weeks in June and logged the whole time using the app on my phone. Perseverance throughout is key. Most people slip up from time to time and eat something “off plan”. It’s normal. We are human. Life happens. Just don’t let it derail you. Start again the very next meal. Pick yourself up and dust yourself off. Don’t beat yourself up. The only failure is not getting up and trying again. Carbs are not evil. No, not even refined carbs. Yes, really. In fact, no food should be off limits. If you can, have a bit of what you’re craving, or find a “healthified” replacement for it. I can guarantee you won’t have room for a lot of it anyway. I had this surgery to save my life, but I also don’t want to live it miserable. Find your happy medium. This is for the newbies: follow your doctor’s advice, especially in the beginning. There’s more than one reason your doctor wants you to eat in stages (liquids, purees, soft foods, etc.) Sure, it’s safer that way, but he/she wants you to learn HOW to eat. We have to learn how to eat all over again, in a way. Our tummies don’t operate the same in the sense of feeling full. It’s a learning process that I am STILL adjusting to a year out. LOG YOUR FOOD! Restriction at 12 months out is still very much in evidence. If I stick to the Protein first rule, my meals are still very small. Losing weight after the sleeve is not rocket science. Don’t over-complicate it. Having the sleeve makes it easy to lose weight, but only if you work it every day the way it is supposed to be worked. Make healthy choices (including carbs) 90% of the time. Indulge every once in a while if your sleeve can handle it. Have a small piece of a dessert of your choice on special occasions. Just don’t do it every day. Eat out if you want to and don’t stress out or be afraid of it. The sleeve allows you that “buffer zone” of not being ravenous before meals so that you can pause and think before ordering. Plan out what you’re going to eat ahead of time. If anyone is interested in knowing what I eat at certain restaurants, message me. LOG YOUR FOOD! Find exercise that you like to do. I absolutely despise the elliptical and all indoor gym equipment. I do Zumba and C25k, only using the treadmill if the weather is bad. I found things that don’t feel like exercise to me. I think that the word for eating < 1000 calories after 6 months post-op is “anorexia”. You don’t have to go that low. I have been eating more than 1200/day since June and have lost perfectly fine. I refuse to ruin my metabolism. The truth is that the more weight you lose, the more you need to eat. As you move from being obese, there is less energy in the form of fat for your body to turn to in order to supplement your very low calorie diet. Your organs may begin to suffer if you continue eating less than say, 1200 calories/day. It gets harder to adhere to your plan the further out you get. I am fully healed in every sense of the word and feel like I can eat anything. It’s scary. Don’t be afraid to talk to a professional if you need to. There’s no shame. It’s going to take therapy for most of us to cope with this life change. None of us got fat because we were so happy with our lives- it’s the opposite. You will go through periods of depression. It’s normal, since we can no longer turn to food to cope. We are being forced into feeling all of our emotions rather than being able to “stuff them down”. My therapist has helped me immensely by just being an objective ear. LOG YOUR FOOD. I also want to say that I admire you all and am amazed at the bravery you have all displayed by deciding to undergo this miraculous and lifesaving surgery. Your lives are worth it! Everyone have a fabulous holiday season and keep on rocking those sleeves!!!!

Thanks for all of the kind replies! I should have added my username for MyFitnessPal in case anyone wants to add me- my diary is open at all times. find me- lilbearzmom

OK um...Bariatric...Pals? WTH happened? Anywhooo I am now a size 10, well, I found a pair of 10s that fit. Left me last summer (2012) at 290 lbs, right me this morning, 154.4 lbs

You can do this! Early on it feels like a insurmountable mountain. But the sleeve makes it easy IF YOU WORK IT LIKE IT IS SUPPOSED TO BE WORKED. Before you know it, you will be well on your way. I can't believe I am almost a year out. It has truly flown by.

One more thing to add- I eat about 1200-1400 calories per day and I am still losing- slowly, but at this point my diet is easily manageable and sustainable and something I can see sticking with for a lifetime.

So I am 5 lbs from goal. Well, to clarify, an initial goal that, 100 lbs ago seemed like an incredible dream. It is still about 14-15 lbs above the top of a healthy BMI (I am 5'4 and the goal is 160). My thinking in picking this weight was 1) I thought I might be happy at that weight; 2) it seems like a higher goal weight might be easier to maintain and 3) my doctor was/is happy with this goal. What I figured I would do, ultimately, was get to 160 and then focus on reducing BF% rather than a number on the scale (which would probably result in a little more weight loss). Now that I am so close, I am wanting to revise that number down. Like maybe I want to go down to a "normal" BMI. I am also afraid that I might never be happy with my weight and always afraid of regain. It's like I am afraid of maintenance- it's got to be harder than this and I am already struggling from time to time (I am terrible about getting exercise in and am feeling hungry often now. You could say my sleeve is fully healed and happy.) I have always given the advice to others with the same question- you should make your goal weight where you feel most comfortable and where you are not afflicted with any co-morbidities. It makes a lot of sense, but what if you are never comfortable? I am free of my pre-surgery co-morbidities (DM & hypertension), so there's that. This probably should have been a blog post because at this point I'm rambling...LOL I need some insight- really tired of obsessing about my weight and food and and and...

I just looked at mine closely today and it's not good. I feel like I have loose skin EVERYWHERE. I'm like a deflated balloon.

Do you like dark chocolate? I have bought a bar of high quality Ghiardelli's and eaten it slowly, broken up into pieces, The pieces are fairly big and are approx. 70-80 calories. But chocolate isn't a trigger food for me.

I think that the doctor really has your safety in mind when he says he wants you to lose 100 lbs before surgery. You need to go along with what he says and lose what you can before surgery. I was a hair below 300 (HW 302) when I had my 1st consult and lost 23 in 6 months before surgery, and my surgeon was thrilled with that. I didn't even have to do a pre-op liquid diet...good luck- you can do it!!!

I took the screening and it said I was positive for an ED which does not surprise me in the slightest. I feel like I'm the opposite of an anorexic. Is there a classification for a ED-NOS? That's me. Even post-sleeve I am preoccupied by food. The difference is that I log and pre-plan almost obsessively. I think I might have some control issues...LOL I do see a therapist BTW.

Almost 9 months out and I eat very little rice (by choice). It's just something I avoid in general due to its high glycemic index and general lack of nutrients. The last thing I had with rice was 3 pieces of a sushi roll a few weeks ago. It doesn't bother me, at least in the small amounts I do have. I miss it- still love it, but I have a feeling it would make me ill if I ate a normal size portion..too sticky and heavy.

OMG! Amazing! Would love to see a before photo.

I was also told by my surgeon's office that whether you have been drinking with meals is the 1st question they ask if you are regaining. Do what you can to break the habit.

Seriously? I am almost 8 months out and a serious 5:2 er. Not good enough? Hm. Well! )

I am just overweight!!! Yay- and 13-14 lbs from initial goal! Also I am using the intermittent fasting plan to get these last stubborn pounds OFF. My weightloss "paused" for about a month, but am back on track now and on my way! BTW, I am almost 8 months out and I am still in love with my sleeve!!!

Going to add you! I'm lilbearzmom- anyone else reading this thread can also add me. I'm a vet at 7 months out and I eat pretty "normal". My diary on there is public as well.

Replying because I am HOPEFULLY going to be working my 1st job as an RT soon, need ideas. Thanks for starting this thread!

You kind of scare me. LOL Congrats on the preemie.

At over six months out from surgery I should know most of the answers. Unfortunately at 6 months out and 20 lbs from initial goal I am really starting to think about my loose skin and how I am going to deal with it. Thing is, I don't understand what it is, exactly. Is it stretched skin or ACTUAL extra skin or both? Did my body produce extra skin cells as I gained weight or do you have a set amount that stretches? Please enlighten me. I have probably 8-10 lbs of the stuff seems like. The only good thing about that is that I can say, well, maybe I am actually 10 lbs lighter....LOL

I posted this on the veteran's forum, but I wanted to put it out here as well. During my years of gaining weight and being obese, I developed a very negative self-image, which of course perpetuated and became a cycle, making me eat more and become more obese. I felt worthless, like I didn't deserve anything good to happen to me, no one should like me or want to be around me, or want to hire me. This is where, even 7 months after surgery and 120 lbs gone, the feelings of worthlessness and inability to believe that someone would see my worth are still here. I just graduated from school, passed all of my exams for certification and licensing, and am looking for a job in Respiratory Therapy. I had an interview in May which didn't result in a job, and I felt like I was treated very unprofessionally by HR (although I get the feeling it's normal in this day and age). I had another one yesterday which went really well I felt, but despite feeling like I SHOULD get the job, based on how the interview went, I can't shake the fear that I will never hear from them again. Logically, there is no reason to feel this way. Maybe it's a way to self-protect. I was wondering if anyone else feels or has felt this way. I see a therapist 2x per month and I will be bringing it up with her at my next session. Thanks for reading. I just had to get it out there. My husband doesn't understand.

Yeah, I haven't been around much- I've been spending most of my time over at MFP, but I do at least lurk here everyday and occasionally post to see how you all are holding up. I can't truly stay away- you are all my "peeps" and are the ones who understand me and my journey better than anyone. Love to all and keep up the fight, because you're worth it!

People say this to me all the time too. I don't mind because they are right in my case.

All I can say is, get used to it. It's rare that people lose week after week. I am a stair-stepper at 6.5 months out. I tend to go up & down 1-2 lbs for a week or two, then drop like 4 lbs in a week. In my experience, it's SO much better to weigh in once a week or less. Weight fluctuates so much, even in the course of a day. Put the scale away so it's not so easily accessible. Mine lives in a closet- if it gets left out, I MUST step on it, which leads to feelings of frustration. I will start weighing every day once I get to goal, which is just 28 lbs away....))))

I was allowed "thin" type breads at 8 weeks. I still avoid most bread, pasta, and rice, although I have eaten all of those things since surgery. It honestly doesn't appeal to me- the "doughy-ness" of the bread is a turn-off. Hard to explain...lol

Maybe I should have had my surgery in Mx and not boring old Columbus, OH...