SimplySue

What she said[emoji322][emoji322] (Congrats & great screen name.) I have the 24601 t-shirt[emoji6]

What she said[emoji322][emoji322] (Congrats & great screen name.) I have the 24601 t-shirt[emoji6]

3years since surgery...
HW:390
Current:189

It was great to read all your stories ...I start my journey on Monday Feb 1 ...I lost 6lbs already from the pre-op diet and starting to get pretty excited for this procedure on Monday ...I was a low BMI also I am 5 ft 7 212 pounds as of today . I walk everyday and hoping I can get back to walking right after the surgery. I have told none of my friends about the surgery since I was afraid they would try to talk me out of it ... I was always a thin person in my 20's only to ballon up after a bout with breast cancer ... I did the full round of chemo and radiation and felt it was justified to eat what ever the hell I wanted and boy did it show ....my oncologist said weight loss was my first defense against re-occurrence so with the support of my family I am making this big step. Grateful to have this forum to share with peace to all ????

100 pounds is such a huge number. Heck it's an entire teenager! I began my journey on May 26, 2015 when I skyped with a nutritionist from BariatricPal. She set me on a path and plan for my pre-op diet and with much determination I never looked back. I still have 30 pounds to my goal weight and my plan is to make that by the end of the year. I used Dr Jesus Martin Lopez in Tijuana. My experience with them was sooo amazing. Dr Lopez is a talented surgeon and he is kind and cares about his patients. I have since recommended him multiple times and even traveled with a friend to have her surgery in February. I remember thinking when I had the surgery that I would be happy losing 75 pounds and making it below the 200 mark. Honestly any thoughts of losing 100 pounds or even making it to goal seemed impossible to me at that time. Goal weight seems possible now! Having gastric sleeve was the best tool I could have chosen for my weight loss journey. And please always remember that it is merely a tool. I am 10 months out and now consume between 1200 and 1300 calories a day. My weight loss has slowed to about 5 pounds per month. I have used the last 10 months and the new tool to develop new eating habits.....To change my mind and my attitude about food. If I were consuming the same 1300 calories in cheesecake and hamburgers I would NOT be losing weight. All calories are not created equal! I have not had a coke or Diet Coke in 11 months. Diet cokes were my weakness and much like an alcoholic I had to give them up completely. Probably three times I have had a bite or two of desert. But I have not touched candy bars. Not in the entire time!! My stats: start of pre-op diet 5-26-15; surgery date 6-15-15; high weight 268; age 52; height 5'0"; goal weight 130 pounds.

I think most of the time they are just trying to be nice by saying you don't need it. It's rare that you will say you're having WLS and someone says "well it's about time fatty". That wouldn't be very nice.

I just want to say i am so thankful for all of the replies and I love this site! I want to say now that i am on solid foods I am no longer sick and feel soo much better. I am also no longer regretting having this surgery which was a gift because i now realize how unhealthy i was doing my body before. I will say the first 3 weeks are the hardest but into week 4 it gets sooo much better!

Yep been there.. Cried and cried asking myself what the hell did you do ??? I scared my boyfriend, for days, the poor thing., we laugh about it now.
I know it's not what you want to hear, but give it time, 2 months of adjustment out of the rest of your healthy skinny life is all it is.. This is a huge lifestyle change its not going to be easy, but it sure the hell is worth it !!

I just had a mini melt down myself! I once loved food and now I hate it (I'm at the purée stage). I felt today like "I WANT OUT". I cried so hard my eyes swole up. This is not just a physical change but a mental change. This forum is truly what people need. I cried and than clicked on my bariatric app. It's not easy but I'm sure we will all get there.
"In the end we only regret the chances that we didn't take."

I had sleeve 19 months ago and have only thrown up one time. So it's definitely NOT normal to be throwing up every day. As for regrets, even without throwing up, I had a period of "buyer's remorse" as most people do. The early weeks are rough, but it does get better and better.

@@Kathy812 thank you and congrats to you on your own success!
I really appreciate everyone who took the time to read my story here. I felt really vulnerable being so honest and worried no one would read or care - but you all really honored my experience and I am so thankful.
I took advice shared here about celebrating - went to the farmers market and bought some flowers and yesterday splurged on a pedicure. Didn't spend too much overall but really felt like a treat! I also started work a collage, which I will post when done as a creative outlet of my experience with WLS.
I also forgot to mention that I have incorporated gratitude practice into my day as much as possible to re-train my brain. Today I am grateful to BP and this forum for us to learn, inspire, heal, laugh and sometimes cry about this crazy WLS experience.

Happy one-year Surgiversary to a strong, resilient, capable woman! This is awesome.

Exactly one year ago today I got my sleeve.
As part of my process of losing weight, I have decided to post my story. Warning, emotional dump below. Thank you to everyone who reads. I am so grateful to BP and to everyone who has the courage to share as I learn and am inspired by your stories – so I decided to post my own. I cannot imagine going through WLS without BP and you all.
Figuring out why I got fat – and how to heal myself
I have literally spent the past 30 years in different types of therapy trying to figure out why I do not take care of myself, love myself or feel worthy of love. Through the process, I have learned a lot about myself, done some hard work yet was still very overweight (high 421) and struggled daily with basic self-care.
I am a social worker and have also spent the past 25 years working in the helping profession, yet I was not helping myself. I am so grateful to be able to say now that I am taking care of myself, really for the first time in my life of 44 years. Thank you WLS.
I have been in talk therapy on and off since I was 14 when I tried to kill myself because of nightmares and flashbacks from childhood trauma that scared the hell out of me. I was in a group for sexual abuse survivors for many years because of the sexual abuse from my grandfather - a known sexual perpetrator that my mother moved into our house for free babysitting. I have done focused healing work on my abuse from him and the immense abuse and neglect from my mother. I have done somatic body work and EMDR for trauma, couples therapy with my husband to work through how my trauma and his trauma trigger each other, a formalized emotional eating disorder program for my binge eating (and of course Weight Watchers numerous times, nutrisystem, South Beach, Optifast, you name it) and copious amounts of psychoanalysis, CBT, solution-focused therapy, hypnosis, acupuncture, psychotropic medications, self-reflection and journaling, self-help books etc…
And I weighed 421 pounds.
Enter my decision to get the sleeve. I had been resistant, buying into the myth that if I tried hard enough, I would figure out how to take care of myself and not overeat. After struggling with enough energy at 421 pounds to run a non-profit, take care of my family and go to school for a masters in social work, I took a year off from school and signed up for the weight loss program at Kaiser. I always heard that in order to take care of others you must take care of yourself, but for some reason I thought I could be the exception. I was finally motivated enough for WLS.
A year later I got my sleeve at 385 pounds, and today, exactly one year after my surgery I am at 253 pounds with another 100 to go. I could never be here without WLS and my learning to finally and truly start taking care of myself. I realized that the solution was inside me the whole time – realizing that at my core, I felt I was a bad person and had to show everyone else this by my weight. I was using my weight as a boundary because I couldn’t say no or take care of myself.
In addition to WLS, I have started mindfulness training, worked hard on self-compassion (based on Dr. Neff’s work) and letting go of the shame that kept me big (Brene Brown’s work). I still have a long way to go, but today I wanted to honor how far I have come from the scared little girl who was traumatized to the adult I am today who finally is not scared to be healthy and take care of herself. Happy one-year surgiversary to me!

Tomorrow marks one year for me! Picture in green was taken the morning of my surgery. The selfie taken was after my run last Thursday morning.
 
Have you tried Prilosec?

So glad to read the updates. Congrats to everyone.
Today is my surgiversary & I am at 170.6 . I have been losing an average of 2-3 lbs a month for the last 5 months but since I'm a half glass full kinda girl, I'll say that I'm happy I am still losing, albeit slower then I'd like.
I Went for my 1 year follow up yesterday and they were pleased. I am hoping to lose another 25lbs but surprisingly my bariatric team does not want me lose more the 10-15. Something about my metabolism will struggle to maintain that weight and they suggested I go by how I look and feel.
Weird thing is when I weighed 170 in the past, I was wearing a size 14 & now I'm wearing a size 10. I don't want to get smaller then a size 8, so maybe anothe r 10-15 lbs may be it for me....I'll have to reevaluate when I get there.
My B12 was high, but they weren't too concerned & suggested switching my Vitamins but the rest of my labs were great.
This has truly been one of the best decisions I've made in my life.
Happy anniversary to us all.
@@stephh

Hi...I am 62 years old, sleeved at 58 years old and I just had my 4 year surgiversary. I reached my goal weight of 139 exactly one year after being sleeved (lost 84 lbs) and have been at goal for 3 years with a bounce of a couple of lbs up and down. My daily diet now is about 1300 calories that I eat, or 1600 if I have wine which I do several nights a week. I usually have Greek yogurt with fruit and a little granola for Breakfast, or my favorite corn crackers (not rice crackers!) with cheese or salmon. lunch is always a small salad with 2 corn crackers. Except for Monday and Thursdays (my NO WINE NO COOKIE DAYS) I always have a coffee and a cookie in the afternoon. dinner is chicken, fish, maybe meat but not so much, and a vegetable. More if we are entertaining. If I gain some weight I do the 5:2 diet for a week. (If you don't know it, just Google it). Hope that helps! I love my sleeve and I love my life.

I've been off grid for awhile. I was sleeved March 25, 2015 and I am down 125 lbs! Went from a size 24 to size 10...this was the best decision of my life! I moved from SE KS to Brooklyn, NY last month. I commute using mass transit which involves lots of walking and stairs. Could not have done it prior to surgery. Now it's a breeze.

Long sleeve shirts in plus sizes that are bigger in the chest, but not the arms & unlike @@JamieLogical I need pants that are looser in the waist, tighter in the hips!
& since when is a 12 "plus size"??

Hi everyone!! It's been a long time and our year is fast approaching. How is everyone?

Always fun to see where everyone is at...hope everyone is having a great summer!
I am having a great time shopping in new clothes as I have officially gotten rid of every piece of clothing in my closet! Now that was a NSV! Last year I was between a 22-24W, and now I am comfortably in a size 11/12, sometimes even 10.
I had my annual physical and saw a doctor who hasn't seen me in a year...she actually did a double take when walking into the exam room. Quite different from when I delivered my son and weighed 300.
I also traveled on business last month and loved not feeling like I needed an extra seat on the plane or having the stewardess ask me if I needed a seat belt extension.
Finally feel like I can eat normal too...get full easily, but can pretty much feel like a normal person sitting at the dinner table.
HW: 256
Surg wt: 224
Current wt: 155

@@definiendum, you aren't alone, I have been in a 2 FREEKIN MONTH STALL!!!! oh sorry, didn't mean to scream

If this is your first plateau 7 months out, consider yourself lucky. I just broke my second 7.5 months out and by "broke" I mean I finally got past the barrier by 2#s

Friday was my 6 month (at 7 months? post op follow up visit. My BP was 110/57 HR was 76 Amy cholesterol 135 overall LDL 43 HDL 85 all other blood panels were in the normal range A1c was 4.1and my body fat is down to 20%! The Dr. was extatic about my results! He said that by far I am his most successful patient at the VA! My skin is healing well I have some loose skin but looks like it is still young and will probably not need to have any removed as it is not hanging and my muscle building will help for it to "go back to normal"!
Another NSV is my energy level, my family and are are getting ready to move across country (for me to continue my education I was accepted to Colorado State University) and I have been loading the moving pods all weekend and have done most of the heavy-lifting myself. I am not tired or sore I worked all day both Saturday and yesterday and was like the energizer bunny, I just kept going and going.

How fun to read all the updates. @ -the sleeve was my 1st surgery ever, so I wasn't sure how it would go. I did wonder in the 1st week-"what was I thinking?!?", but not since. A lot of folks say they regret not doing it sooner, but I just feel like this was the right time for me. I'm nearly 7 months out, I can eat most foods- just not a lot. My weight loss has slowed, I hit my 1st real stall in April & finally broke today! Down 91 lbs total from HW, 81 from surgery weight , planning my 1st 5k at the end of this month???? biggest thing for me was getting the energy back took a while & my hair is thinning greatly, but that too will return.

Long sleeve shirts in plus sizes that are bigger in the chest, but not the arms & unlike @@JamieLogical I need pants that are looser in the waist, tighter in the hips!
& since when is a 12 "plus size"??