livvsmum

Milk of magnesia works like a charm for me.

I've done my version of a reset a couple of times when I've felt like I let some bad habits sneak back in. It has helped to (1) break those habits quickly and (2) for whatever reason it helps the restriction to return more it seems. I usually just return to liquids for a few days. Some people go back through the stages of post op eating (liquids, purée, soft, etc).

I guess it depends. My surgeon told me he typically recommends waiting until 18 months post op. That is also the time requirement for my insurance. I'll hit 18 months in March & cannot wait!!

Here are my most recent ones. 140 pounds lost (12 months post op pics). Size 20/22 to size 4.

For me the turning point was reading the book, "When Food is Love" and starting therapy weekly with an eating disorder therapist. It's a LOT of hard work. Way harder- in my opinion- than the actual food/eating behaviors themselves. Good luck to you ! :-)

Here are my most recent ones from 1 year post op. 140 pounds lost.

Thank you for reading! I appreciate it!

That's great that it is not something you struggle with. I'm jealous! I don't think it's necessarily a positive thing to view it as an old me/new me kind of thing. In fact I think that kind of thinking has been somewhat harmful to me. That is what I am trying to get away from. But, I definitely have changed, grown, developed into a different version of myself. Self-hate, low self-esteem, caring for everyone before myself is something I have struggled with for years and years and years. So learning to love myself is definitely something new and something I work on daily.

I was very very bad over Christmas. I'm sad to say my weight this week is 140, which is +1 from last week. Now I'm left with 1 week to go and 5 pounds to lose! Yikes!

I agree with what the others have said. I've done a couple "re-starts" along the way. I found that doing them helped (1) eliminate any bad habits I picked back up of snacking, portion sizes, etc., and (2) gave my sleeve a little rest that seemed for whatever reason to help increase the feeling of restriction when the re-start was done. Basically what I've done is either go back on a couple (2-3) days of liquids (Protein shakes, sugar-free clear liquids), or start with liquids and work my way a day or two at a time through each of the post op stages (liquids, pureed, soft, full foods). I am actually starting with this tomorrow to kick these 3 pounds that I gained over the holidays. It has always served me well to "get back to basics" when I start to feel old habits sneaking back in.

I recently wrote this as a blog post and thought I would share it here too. It's taken me a good 15 months to start to make sense of how to view or "treat" the "old, fat" version of myself. It's easy to look back on that person and hate her. Talk about how much better i look and feel now. But I found that hating the old me was actually pretty damaging. Hope this makes sense! "This is a question worth struggling with. What if our badness and mistakes are the very things that set our fate and bring us round to good. What if, for some of us, we can't get there any other way?" (Goldfinch, p. 771). It has been such a huge issue for me to try and find a way not to "hate" the person that I was before - the person I let myself become. I am realizing that hating that person so much has been fueling a lot of my fears of failure and fears of waking up one morning and finding myself back at 280 pounds. I thought this quote was so beautiful and really helped me to start to see that the person I was before was not to be hated, but she was an essential piece of the puzzle - an essential starting point. Without her - without having experienced all of the things I did that led me to eating myself almost to death - I may not have discovered who I really am. I may never have found the beauty of a life actually lived and not just endured. I may never have realized the importance of self-care, self-advocacy, and self-love (still working on that one). I may never have realized how strong I really am. I may never have known the feeling of being an example of health and physical well-being for my daughters. I may never have known what my physical body is capable of. I may never have called myself committed to a goal. I may never have known I was an athlete. An athlete. Imagine that. I may never have known the real, authentic me. The me I am now. "What if our badness and mistakes are the very things that ...bring us round to good?" SO in the spirit of viewing the old version of ourselves as essential pieces of the puzzle.... What are your thoughts on the value of the you that you "used to be" and how he/she "brought you round to good"?

Sorry I'm late checking in this week. If it's too late to add it, I understand! This week I indulged a little too much in the wine at some holiday parties, which iis totally a waste and empty calories. Anyway, it left me at 139 for this week's weigh in which is up one pound. :-/ Sigh......

I was also a "healthy fat" in that I didn't have any co-morbidities"....but if you look at the statistics, at 140 pounds overweight, I had a much lower chance of being around for many, many years for my children. I have a 6 year old as well, and so I understand the mentality at that age. Surgery seems like a really scary thing for them. And it does have risks. But like others have said, so does living life obese. I will tell you that in the end, my kids have benefited just as much as I have from my weight loss. They got their active mom back. I play at the play park with them, climbing through the tubes, sliding down the slides. We ride bikes and run together. We've gone to amusement parks and I ride with them, I don't sit on the bench waiting anymore. They also have a mom who is learning to love herself and has shown them what is possible if you have a goal and work really, really hard to achieve it. I can honestly, 100%, say that the journey I've been on for the past 15 months has transformed my whole family. They are eating better, they have cut out the sugary drinks and foods, have become more active with me, and I'm able to love them better as I'm loving myself more. With all of that said, if you feel in your gut - in your heart of hearts - that it's not the right time, then wait. But if it's truly the response from your son that is giving you pause, you have to trust that you as the parent know what is best in your life wisdom and can weigh the risk and potential benefits not only for you, but for your whole family.

This week's weigh in is 138.8 which is down 1.2 pounds!! Woohoo

What's different this time is that you have a new "tool" to work with. So yes, the low-carb is what helps the weight come off quickly, but it's also the fact that you have a tiny tummy now too. For me, I have to take the abstinence approach to carbs in the form of processed sugar,etc. Once I have one thing it just triggers my food addiction and leads to a days or weeks long struggle to get back on track. So for me, I know that is just how I have to eat. Some people say they can have a little something carby and be fine with it and go right back to eating right. I guess it just depends on you. For me what has made the difference this time in keeping the weight off is working on what was going on under the eating. So I've been going to therapy weekly to address my eating issues and that is what has helped me the most, to be honest. But, to answer your other question. If you were a binge-eater in the past, yes, the sleeve will make a binge less damaging to some extent because you can't eat as much. However, you can still binge eat....you just do it over the course of a day instead of all at once. So, I guess my point is that it is a tool that WILL work if you work with it. And for me, a lot of that work was emotional work that I needed to do on myself. Good luck to you!

I agree. I did a b12 injection for several months after surgery and there was a huge change in my energy. I haven't done it for a while and I've noticed I am just tired all of the time. I'm thinking I may start it back up again. Thanks for the reminder!

I agree with what someone else said. It sounds like you have a lot going on in your head right now and I think it's normal to have a lot of kind of panicky thoughts at the last minute. I had a minor "freak out" about a week before surgery, but I went back to the list I made of all the reasons I wanted to have surgery and reminded myself of why I am doing it. Regarding losing too much weight. You are in control of that. If you follow the plan you will lose pretty quickly at first, but at a certain point, your body will balance itself out (ideally) and you will (ideally) settle at your healthy weight. Afterall, that is what this is about (at least for me it was). So I wouldn't worry about that part of it. Regarding boobs. Yes. IF you lose a ton of weight they will likely change, but everyone is different. I lost 140 pounds and went from a 40D to a 34B. So yeah. I'm totally ok with it though. That is honestly the least of my concerns. But if it is a real concern between you and your husband I guess you just have to weigh the pros and cons and see which is more important to you both....losing the weight or keeping your boobs as-is. Regarding your hubby's feelings. I think that my husband has struggled with feeling like I may not want him as much now that I am thin to some extent. He's told me that sometimes he worries about it. But we just talk through it and I reassure him that while I have changed a lot both inside and out, my feelings for him have not. And, yes, I do get attention when we are out places that maybe I didn't get before, but it's not something I've asked for and I don't play into it at all. If anything it has strengthened our relationship because I've started to love myself again and that translates to how I can love others as well. Just some thoughts. :-)

That is awesome! I remember that feeling very clearly! Are you doing anything specific like couch to 5k? That helped to get me started. Good luck!

I am not "perfect" by any stretch of the imagination, but I did not have this surgery to continue the same unhealthy eating habits I had before. I am not dieting. I have changed my entire lifestyle from the food and drink I put in my mouth, to running, to working hard in therapy to deal with my eating disordered thinking. Why would I want to do the same thing I did before when I went to such drastic measures to make a change? That makes little sense to me, but if it is working for you and you are happy then that is what is important. Not what I do. And I tend to only tell people what I'm doing when they post requesting the information or in response to a question that was posed.

Oh yes. I definitely went through that. I was terribly sad and emotional in the first few weeks after surgery. I think a lot of it came from honestly mourning the loss of food. I have always struggled with using food as a coping mechanism for a lot of things (stress, anger, hurt, happiness...pretty much every emotion...lol). So to lose that all at once meant I was feeling a lot of things that I usually would just numb with food. That's something I'm still working through, but definitely right after surgery it was intense. Hang in there!!!

I agree with what the others have said. Don't feel badly. You felt like you would have been enabling her if you gave her the information. I get that. At the same time, I also agree that ultimately no one in the world could have made me lose the weight and if they would have said "no" I would have just become very resentful towards them and it would have made more of an issue in our relationship probably. Everyone has their vices. Some are just more visable than others. I completely agree though. When I see morbidly obese people - particularly those that I know - I feel so badly for them because I know there is a way out. And I remember all of those feelings of being trapped and hopeless and self-hatred. Heck, sometimes I still battle them at 140 pounds! :-)

I'm sorry I'm late weighing in again for the 11/28 weigh-in. We were travelling for the holiday. My weight for this week is 140, which is down a pound. That is pretty much a "Thanksgiving miracle" ......lol.... but I'll take it!

I always just keep an eye on my Protein, carbs, and Water. I shoot for 80g protein, 30 carbs, and 100 oz of water. When I do that I don't really have to worry about calories, fat, or sugar, because it all kind of seems to fall into line.

Great post! Keep that list somewhere! You can come back to it when the journey gets tough! I found that really helpful throughout my journey, to keep checking in on my "bucket list". Then it was also extra rewarding to be able to look back and check things off. Good luck to you!

When I did my 1-year flipogram I used "Roar" by Katy Perry. It seemed pretty fitting. :-)