VSGAnn2014

Since WLS surgery? Nothing. Not even the (relatively mild) gall bladder attack or GB surgery / recovery 4 weeks post-WLS.
But pre-op -- it was WAITING FOR THE DAMN SURGERY TO FINALLY FREAKIN' HAPPEN!
My surgeon was so backed up with huge demand. So jumping through all the pre-op hoops took a long time. It made me so crazy that I finally put myself on a diet and lost 11 pounds prior to the liver-shrinking diet.
Pre-op, I also practiced all the post-op eating behaviors -- eating slower, chewing lots more, not drinking with meals, drinking 64 ounces of Water daily, walking more (bought a Fitbit and got up and moved), took Vitamins, started tracking all my food on My Fitness Pal, etc.
I was like a kid who wore a Batman cape everywhere because he thinks he's Batman.
So when I hear about pre-op patients who are having a month of last suppers and whining about the liver-shrinking diet and worrying about losing their hair somewhere down the road and drama-llamaing about potential loose skin and not being able to close down the bars every weekend and other s**t like that, I just shake my head.
Don't they know how wonderful this surgery is going to be for them and that it will be worth any inconveniences and lifestyle changes required of them?
Again -- shaking my head.
(I may have had too much coffee this morning.)

LOL!
Calories in one cup of trail mix?
693.
There's your sign.

Check out this feature story in today's NYTimes. It reports on a very good research study with albeit a small sample -- 14 of Season 8's 16 "Biggest Loser" contestants.
(FYI, TBL's Season 8 was in 2009.)
Summary: Dramatic weight loss lowered their basal metabolic rate, and it never came back up.
But we already knew that, after decades of yo-yo dieting, right?
BTW, one of the contestants (Rudy Pauls) had weight loss surgery since being on TBL and is doing pretty well weight-wise.
I predict this is going to be a huge news story for some time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html?emc=edit_th_20160502&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=40256033&_r=0

When you're able to maintain your weight after losing your weight.
That's a bloody first!

Uh ... Not meaning to be harsh, just realistic, with this post.
Unless you're 18 years old, and you haven't lost and gained weight several (much less many) times before losing weight via WLS, you aren't going to wind up looking like a swimsuit model when you reach your weight goal.
BTW, most swimsuit model pix are airbrushed. About three women in the world look like we all think we deserve to look.
I gotta say I think there are some unrealistic ideas of what we're going to look like at goal. Most of us have really abused the bodies we were born with. We've stretched our skin and under-exercised our muscles for the most part, some of us for most of our lives. And we have not fed them the most nutritious foods or enough Water. Some of us have damaged our joints and spine. We aren't starting with a clean slate.
I say this really to say that we have so much to gain from WLS. But we should also be realistic about what we can expect as our best outcomes.

Geez! I'm so sorry to hear of your troubles. But you sounds SOOO knowledgeable and strong and smart about everything that's happened to you.
I can't support you with any knowledge or personal experience with your situation. But I can certainly support you virtually with kind thoughts and hopes that you will continue to heal well.
Basically, it sounds like you now just have a gastric bypass, which hundreds of thousands of people have and have gone on to lead quite normal lives. I'd certainly hope that is in your very near future!
Welcome to the forum. Again, you have sure been through the wringer! Glad you're through the worst of it.

@@gina171 ... thank you.
But I think you deserve your own Batman cape.

I've been hypothyroid for at least 40 years. I was sleeved at age 68. I've lost 100 pounds and been maintaining at 135 for over a year.

VSG patients' weight losses three years out are all over the place. The more you lurk and read here, the more you'll see that some have regained a considerable amount and others are still at or below goal -- and everything in between.
There is no single outcome. It depends on your willingness to continue to follow a lot of eating rules that you learn when you have surgery, your nutritional knowledge and the food choices you make and the portions you eat, whether you exercise (and how consistently), your susceptibility to binge eating and grazing (not the same thing, but both awful for your maintenance dreams), the support system you have for creating a new lifestyle, and your own good or bad luck with regard to your metabolism.
I also think it depends on how badly you want to be healthy and slim long-term. The sleeve helps a lot. But if you're determined to eat (or compelled to eat by an eating disorder or stress or other forces), you can figure out how to eat around the sleeve.
That's my take on it.

VSG patients' weight losses three years out are all over the place. The more you lurk and read here, the more you'll see that some have regained a considerable amount and others are still at or below goal -- and everything in between.
There is no single outcome. It depends on your willingness to continue to follow a lot of eating rules that you learn when you have surgery, your nutritional knowledge and the food choices you make and the portions you eat, whether you exercise (and how consistently), your susceptibility to binge eating and grazing (not the same thing, but both awful for your maintenance dreams), the support system you have for creating a new lifestyle, and your own good or bad luck with regard to your metabolism.
I also think it depends on how badly you want to be healthy and slim long-term. The sleeve helps a lot. But if you're determined to eat (or compelled to eat by an eating disorder or stress or other forces), you can figure out how to eat around the sleeve.
That's my take on it.

Fate?
Good luck on changing your life if you think "fate" is in charge of your decisions.
I'm serious.

Ultimately, this is WLS patients' last chance to resolve their lifelong overweight / health issues.
If you can't wrap your mind around the fact that this is not just another diet (which we have all failed at before) but radical surgery that gives you one last chance to explore and reset the emotional and behavioral issues that kept you from being healthy, then you haven't understood the most important part about this surgery:
The surgery will be on your stomach, not your brain (and, if you're so inclined, your spirit or soul) -- where all of the changes you need to be successful long-term must occur.
While you're losing weight, you've got to learn to live very differently than you have lived up to now. Those food funerals ... hmmmm ... not a good sign.
Your potential resources to change how you think / feel / problem-solve / plan / execute are:
* nutritional education
* psychological education
* a positive attitude
* healthy support from others
* environmental controls
* psychological therapy / counseling
* spiritual counseling
* relaxation techniques
* learning how to live in this moment (not the past or the future)
Very best to you.

Oh, @@jinxxy5 !
I just saw this thread. You have done amazing. The difference is like seeing two possible lives in parallel universes.
Yours is one of the most impressive WLS changes I've ever seen!
R E S P E C T !

Coming up on twenty years married and two years post-op. Our marriage is stronger than ever.

VSG patients' weight losses three years out are all over the place. The more you lurk and read here, the more you'll see that some have regained a considerable amount and others are still at or below goal -- and everything in between.
There is no single outcome. It depends on your willingness to continue to follow a lot of eating rules that you learn when you have surgery, your nutritional knowledge and the food choices you make and the portions you eat, whether you exercise (and how consistently), your susceptibility to binge eating and grazing (not the same thing, but both awful for your maintenance dreams), the support system you have for creating a new lifestyle, and your own good or bad luck with regard to your metabolism.
I also think it depends on how badly you want to be healthy and slim long-term. The sleeve helps a lot. But if you're determined to eat (or compelled to eat by an eating disorder or stress or other forces), you can figure out how to eat around the sleeve.
That's my take on it.

VSG patients' weight losses three years out are all over the place. The more you lurk and read here, the more you'll see that some have regained a considerable amount and others are still at or below goal -- and everything in between.
There is no single outcome. It depends on your willingness to continue to follow a lot of eating rules that you learn when you have surgery, your nutritional knowledge and the food choices you make and the portions you eat, whether you exercise (and how consistently), your susceptibility to binge eating and grazing (not the same thing, but both awful for your maintenance dreams), the support system you have for creating a new lifestyle, and your own good or bad luck with regard to your metabolism.
I also think it depends on how badly you want to be healthy and slim long-term. The sleeve helps a lot. But if you're determined to eat (or compelled to eat by an eating disorder or stress or other forces), you can figure out how to eat around the sleeve.
That's my take on it.

Yeah, there's certainly a lot of work to be done in maintenance.
And it's not just around what the scale says.
It looks to me like you're uncovering some issues that it's time to address. Your anxiety over what are minor, un-serious, not everyday, but still normal eating behaviors seems out of proportion to anything you did or even the circumstances of your weekend.
Every day cannot be the same. How boring it would be if it were, eh? The excitement, the adventure, the fun of life usually comes on those days and eras when we're not living a "normal" life. So unless you want to sew yourself up in a mummy case or cloister yourself in a a virtual post-bariatric food nunnery, you'll have to learn how to navigate unusual circumstances. And by that, I also mean -- learn how to try new things and Celebrate life appropriately.
Maintenance -- it's a whole other thing.
P.S. I've always thought it made sense for anyone who'd lost all their weight to gain X pounds and then lose X pounds. We should not live the rest of lives in mortal fear of gaining and then being unable to lose 5 pounds. Or 10. Or even 20.

@@shellyd88 ... your "nurse practitioner" needs to get reported to her supervisor / doctor(s). That is appalling behavior.

Shaking my head.
To the OP -- you can be miserable for no good reason or you can act like an adult. And yes, I know you're *only* 22 years old. You're still an adult.
None of that drama llama crap you're wallowing in is going to happen.
Just follow your surgeon's instructions.
Jeez.

Sorry about the bad link, folks.
Try this one:
https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20140408/hyde-park/chef-graham-elliot-loses-150-pounds-after-gastric-sleeve-surgery
Or just google graham elliott gastric chef sleeve

Shaking my head.
To the OP -- you can be miserable for no good reason or you can act like an adult. And yes, I know you're *only* 22 years old. You're still an adult.
None of that drama llama crap you're wallowing in is going to happen.
Just follow your surgeon's instructions.
Jeez.

I think the only way to start exercising is to start moving -- just a little bit. Then move just a teeny bit more. I honestly believe anyone can do anything if they just do that.
Last spring when I was recliner-bound (yup, could hardly move my ass out of it), I started counting my steps in my head (one, two, three ... thirteen, fourteen ... sixty-one, sixty-two). I literally counted how many steps I was walking each day. Kept a record. I found I was walking less than 1,000 steps a day.
These days, even before being sleeved (happens in a few weeks), I'm now hitting over 5,000 steps daily and sometimes 6,000 and 7,000/day. I've lost over 10 pounds in the last 8 weeks.
I'm now on Day Two of the pre-op diet. I have no doubt I will survive that, too.
It doesn't matter at all what you can and cannot do. Just do that today. Then tomorrow do a tiny little bit more. The next day, same thing. And along the way, be kind to yourself and don't hurt yourself.
If you want some inspiration, check out this guy!

I've been hypothyroid for at least 40 years. I was sleeved at age 68. I've lost 100 pounds and been maintaining at 135 for over a year.

I think the only way to start exercising is to start moving -- just a little bit. Then move just a teeny bit more. I honestly believe anyone can do anything if they just do that.
Last spring when I was recliner-bound (yup, could hardly move my ass out of it), I started counting my steps in my head (one, two, three ... thirteen, fourteen ... sixty-one, sixty-two). I literally counted how many steps I was walking each day. Kept a record. I found I was walking less than 1,000 steps a day.
These days, even before being sleeved (happens in a few weeks), I'm now hitting over 5,000 steps daily and sometimes 6,000 and 7,000/day. I've lost over 10 pounds in the last 8 weeks.
I'm now on Day Two of the pre-op diet. I have no doubt I will survive that, too.
It doesn't matter at all what you can and cannot do. Just do that today. Then tomorrow do a tiny little bit more. The next day, same thing. And along the way, be kind to yourself and don't hurt yourself.
If you want some inspiration, check out this guy!

Since WLS surgery? Nothing. Not even the (relatively mild) gall bladder attack or GB surgery / recovery 4 weeks post-WLS.
But pre-op -- it was WAITING FOR THE DAMN SURGERY TO FINALLY FREAKIN' HAPPEN!
My surgeon was so backed up with huge demand. So jumping through all the pre-op hoops took a long time. It made me so crazy that I finally put myself on a diet and lost 11 pounds prior to the liver-shrinking diet.
Pre-op, I also practiced all the post-op eating behaviors -- eating slower, chewing lots more, not drinking with meals, drinking 64 ounces of Water daily, walking more (bought a Fitbit and got up and moved), took Vitamins, started tracking all my food on My Fitness Pal, etc.
I was like a kid who wore a Batman cape everywhere because he thinks he's Batman.
So when I hear about pre-op patients who are having a month of last suppers and whining about the liver-shrinking diet and worrying about losing their hair somewhere down the road and drama-llamaing about potential loose skin and not being able to close down the bars every weekend and other s**t like that, I just shake my head.
Don't they know how wonderful this surgery is going to be for them and that it will be worth any inconveniences and lifestyle changes required of them?
Again -- shaking my head.
(I may have had too much coffee this morning.)