bellabloom

Wow!! Great results. Glad you are happier. That's what counts

If you don't mind me asking how long did it take you? I started out at 241 and have only dreamed about having the same experience you have!

I did have it short and too the point and then I changed it and it became wordy. I did have a part about what I wanted in a woman but then I didn't want to turn off someone. I'll have to revamp it. I tend to have a dry sense of humor and I'm not sure that comes out in text. My emails to women have been asking something about what they have in their profile. I purposely avoided commenting on their looks.

https://www4.match.com/profile/about/ndh5gUe81mPUyibF_Bv49Q2?
I can post my profile publicly. I've changed it a few times. I tried going a bit silly and then figured maybe they didn't think I was serious. I then made it more serious but it became long so I trimmed it.

Ok so i have been going through so many pictures and post! And everyone has done an amazing job with there weight loss! I'm a lil taken back by PLEASE DONT BEAT ME UP FOR THIS ITS REALLY A CONCERN I DONT WANT TO LOOSE TO MUCH WEIGHT! I SEE LADIES WHO WHERE 320 and are now 150 and they look super skinny and faces look sunken in a lil makes them look older IM SCARED THIS IS GONNA HAPPEN TO PLEASE GIVE OPINIONS THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT TO PUT ANYONE DOWN JUST DONT WANT LOOK UNHEALTHY Sw 286
Cw 261
Gw 185
Sleeved 1/11/17
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

My doctor never gave me a goal. I wanted to be at 125 from 240. That's the goal I set.

I got to 114.

I've now gained some back and am about 125-130 (I think). I quit weighing. Its just a number anyway. I feel great at this weight so that's all I really consider these days.

Can you get to your goal? Of course. But it is just a number. Get to where you feel your best and is maintained easily for you.

You look beautiful!! I love white pants too. I'm terrified to wear them though cause once I got my period with them on when I was much younger. It was a disaster lol.

Stay sexy, wear white, don't get your period. )

You could gain the weight back and it would tighten up. but I doubt you would want to do that. Over time it does get a little better.... but not much. I'm sorry to say.

Plastic surgery scars are cool!!! You will still be a hotty don't worry.

I was married at the beginning of April in 1999. One of our wedding gifts were season passes to Six Flags over St. Louis. At the time, we were young and actually lived in the same town as the amusement park, so we were so excited to be able to just pop over whenever we wanted. The first time we processed our passes, we headed directly to Batman the Ride. Back in the day, the seatbelts attached to the overhead locking mechanism clipped in between the legs. As we were trying to get on, it was evident that my seat would not close. The kid working the ride asked me to hold on. He pushed it tight against me by using his feet against the seat in front of me and clipped me in, at the same time, my fat legs were clipped into the locking clip. I was in terrible pain and terribly embarrassed, so I didn't say a word. I endured the ride with it's twists, turns, and loop de loops. I walked away with a severely bruised inner thigh and and even worsely battered pride.
I never rode another amusement park ride.
Years passed, I had kids who very badly wanted to go to Six Flags. I decided that I would buy season passes about 4 years ago because I was trying to lose weight and I thought that while I can't ride the rides, it would be a good opportunity to get some exercise and walk around. For the first two seasons, I didn't even try to ride anything. I just walked from ride to ride and held stuff while my hubby would ride with the kiddos.
Two years ago, I started my first steps into making a real change in my life. I have always been against weight loss surgery, so I started on a ketogenic diet and started walking like it was my job. I lost about 35lbs, tried to ride Batman, wouldn't close (now the clasp is at the top). I got out, did my walk of shame and moved on.
At the end of 2016, my dad told us that he wanted to die. He was retired, 59 years old, in renal failure from refusing to take care of diabetes for years, and three hours a day, three days a week were too much to ask for him to continue his life. We went on a roller coaster of our own for about two months where he would go on hospice, be almost dead, and then freak out and go to the hospital, swear he was going to go to all his appointments, and then go right back on hospice after the first dialysis appointment. In February of 2016, he passed and at the end of that, I had gained 60lbs. At his funeral, I looked at my husband and said, "If there is something that you could do that would save your life, so that you could be there for your family...why wouldn't you?"
Duh. Light bulb.
30 days later I was at a seminar and I started the 6 month medically supervised diet and jumping through all the other hoops. I had my vsg on 10/26/2016 and at the beginning of December, I went toe to toe with this elusive beast and was once again denied. ( I needed like an inch)
Yesterday, on my 5 month surgiversary, I slayed the dragon! I laughed and cried the whole time. After, I rode every dang ride I could find and I had a blast. (I didn't even realize it was my surgiversary until I started writing this)

I regained 15 lbs as well and freaked out. I started actively dieting again and I was miserable and very depressed. I decided not to go back to that way of life and to try another approach.

I threw away my scale and tape measure , read everything I could on intuitive eating, and stopped valuing myself and judging myself over a number. I decided dieting was a bicycle in hell on fire that I didn't want to ride again.

Since embracing the anti-diet approach of intuitive eating I no longer worry or care much about what I eat. I don't binge and I don't diet and I don't really think about food much. My weight (as far as I know) has remained stable. I stoped dieting and started eating when I was hungry and stopping when full and honoring my cravings. I started eating mindfully.

It's the best thing, besides wls, I have ever done for myself. I'm not sure what I weigh now but that's what I look like. And I don't eat twenty twinkies a day or lose control around food. I eat what makes me feel good.

Lately I've been focusing on rebuilding the muscle I lost during my weight loss phase. I do weight lifting every day (on different muscle groups) and then I run for about 20-40 minutes using an app that helps me run in intervals. It's awesome. I've seen great improvements in my muscle tone and my stamina.

Hahaha. I remember do that too. It felt great I love shopping for clothes now and being able to run miles and miles.

You look handsome and happy. Good for you

What healed my relationship with food was practicing mindfulness and intuitive eating, and to stop dieting and focus on feeding myself enough to where I had no desire to binge. Your therapist sounds like a great one.

Wls is a great tool to lose weight fast but ultimately you will need to be able to eat what you like and still maintain your weight and not be hungry all the time. Getting a therapist who understands I intuitive eating and mindful eating is an excellent thing to do prior, during, and after wls.

Hi. I found this thread through another thread. Can I just be super blunt here? From reading all of these comments in sounds to me that eating very little is what needs to happen for anyone to loose the weight (Hypo, Hashi, AF myself). If the point is to starve yourself then why bother to get a major surgery and risk complications? Starvation is the ONLY way I have ever lost weight in the past. I am not trying to be sassy but just being real. Comments? Thoughts? Contemplation? I have reached a breaking point with my body's failure to cooperate with trying to get the weight off with lots of exercise and calorie counting plus clean eating.

My metabolism is quite fast even after a whole year of almost all liquids and only about 400 calories a day.

That said- if I were you I would really consider carefully if you want and need to do this. Your bmi is not high for your height and frame. Weight loss did not fix my joint and back issues. I still have them. Not everything is weight related. In fact most things are not IMO weight related.

Have you sought physical therapy? Are you sedentary? If so have you tried slowly increasing your activity and weight training? Those could help way more then weight loss.

After surgery you can put weight on again and most do. It's a major thing to do to your body and I feel only should be done in drastic cases. There are other ways than dieting to lose weight.

Just take it easy. Vacuuming can wait. The incisions are tiny so your fine in sure. Just rest.

I don't see it as a diet, it is a way of life. Thinking like that I don't have to have cheat days or cheat meals or diet.

I don't feel like I am suffering or deprived. I legit don't like most carbs, didn't before surgery and still don't. I really enjoy just eating meat, veggies and the odd Protein bar. I have a healthy relationship with food.

If anything you said in this thread is true, then I am really happy for you, but I find it pretty hard to believe given your track record.

"If anything I've said is true" hahah. Girl I don't have time to sit around and make up stuff for the internet. Why would I make anything up? That's pretty silly don't you think...

I had bypass.

Then I had a sleeve.

Then I had a stricture.

I relapsed into anorexia.

I have really bad dumping.

My food still gets stuck a lot.

I sought therapy for anorexia/bulimia/Ednos.

I sought more therapy.

I found a new way to think about weight and body image.

I gave up on dieting or caring about my weight.

The end.

I'm not sure what you think my motivation for lying would be. But it's annoying you keep saying that about me on my posts. A lot of old vets were really mean to me and I let it get to me... I was really struggling last year. I could have used more support.   

But whatever... I'll share some photos so those of you who want to know more about me can see that im a real person with a real story. Go back and read my old posts if you want. I don't really care. I'm here to help those who need advice. My own experience is just one of many.

Anorexia at its finest.

Me now.

Believe me or not... that's what I went through.

I am really happy for you to have put your anorexia/binging issues to bed (I remember your posts from way back). Do you feel that having the sleeve then gastric bypass then a third op going back to having a sleeve has contributed to the issues?
I don't see it as a diet at all. I got that word out of my mind soon after surgery. I just follow an eating plan not diet. Diet to me means denying yourself things... eating plan means putting the best foods into your body to get the best health and wellbeing out of it. I don't deny myself anything but I do CHOOSE to eat healthy.
Kate

I mean finding someone that loves you for you, weight loss surgery isn't going to help you with that.
The only thing WLS did was give me a wider variety of men in more quantity to choose from.

Losing weight you trade one set of problems for another.

Men are visual. I know a lot of men ask me out because of how I look and how that makes them look when they are out me. That is just life.

I will admit, I find thicker women more attractive. Not sure where this idea came from that men are attracted to skinny women. This may not be a popular opinion, but I think a lot of the body image issues are created by other women. It seems like a lot of magazines and TV shows talking about the perfect female body are run by women. I've been on Match and when I do searches, I put in curvy or full figured. To me the women who lost themselves as curvy or full figured seem like a normal size to me. Also, if they are willing to say they are curvy or full figured, it likely means they are comfortable with themselves.

I prefer men with more body fat myself. I think it's sexy. Guess why? It is. Only stereotypes and the media and society tell us it isn't. What's SEXY comes from the inside. Not the outside.

I also find a man who eats more fun to hang around... so there's that too.

All 85 people I have emailed live within a 30 mile radius of me. The positive here is that in one week I found 85 women who live near me that I felt were worth getting to know. That doesn't include the ones who I deemed were out of my league or who I was on the fence about because they didn't have much in their profile and I was too tired of emailing. All the ones I emailed on Match were online within 24 hours and all but two have read my emails. I figured I would back off for a couple weeks and maybe a new crop of matches will come up. I've changed my profile multiple times, tried different approaches in emails, uploaded new pictures and nothing. I'm close to my normal weight so I have a full body pic. I would say a good amount of the women I emailed probably have a higher BMI than I do. I even made sure on the body preference they chose no preference or a few extra pounds. I'll have to go back in a week with a different approach. Like George Costanza and do the opposite.

There is where I feel like Tinder gets a bad rap. People can only talk to you and you can only talk to them if it is mutal. So you don't have all these misses, only hits.

Sex only. If that isn't your vibe be sure and state that in your profile. I've used okay Cupid, match and tinder. I've met people on all three but tinder seems to have to the most normal folks.

And by that I mean not insane and completely desperate and about to kill you type people.

I would definitely advise posting a full body picture and show who you are. Post pictures showing who you are, not just what you look like.

I'm want to share my story so that any of you who are in the fence about this can have a full picture of what can happen both bad and good.
I had gastric bypass dec 2014. My surgery was very very painful. The first two days I vomited a lot of blood and they had trouble getting my pain under control. They gave me a lot of narcotics. My dr, dr Thoman from Santa Barbara, barely checked on me. I was at cottage hospital in SB.
I went home after five days in the hospital. I was going okay but then. The mental challenge of not eating was no joke. It was something I was so used to. They had given me a ton of narcotics and I kinda used those to cope with the emotions of not being able to eat.
About a week later I started to have major pain in my upper stomach. I went back to cottage and they found stones in my gallbladder so out it came. I went home but the pain remained. My doctor was very absent during this time. I told him about the pain and I kept taking more and more narcotics to deal with it. He blamed my pain on the narcotics but I felt trapped in a catch 22. Take them or not take them.. either way.. pain.
Finally after several exploratory surgeries my dr decided to revert my surgery and make it into a gastric sleeve. After that my pain was gone but I was by now hooked on narcotics. I ended up having to go to a detox facility to get off of them. Worst week of my life.
I could barely eat anything during this time and dropped weight rapidly. After I was free of the narcs and started to try and eat. But I could not get anything solid to pass through my stomach. Months went by and finally I said- okay something is wrong. Every time I ate solids I threw up. I elected to go to a new doctor after my bad experience with dr Thoman. I just felt he didn't care and no loner trusted him and his bedside manner was terrible.
I went with dr Swartz in Fresno and he was great. I diagnosed me with a sever structure and did an endoscopy which opened it up. He said I had a ton of scar tissue from dr Thomans style of revision.
After that I gradually began to eat some solids and after many months is continued to approve. Needless to say I lost a huge amount of weight very fast and was loving that. However I had severe malnutrition. My hair fell out in clumps and my legs went numb. I have dumping syndrome and I also still
Sometimes vomit if I don't chew enough of just having a bad day or mix liquids with solids etc.
I feel the American health care system to be very lacking in post operative care. Also they pass out narcotics like they are candy which had a lot to do with my issues.
It's been over 2 years. I went from 240 to 115. I've since gained back to 129 and am holding there. I no longer diet, I just eat to fullness and try not to think about food very much. I run and lift weights daily and that has been the key for me to feel comfortable without having to stay on a diet forever which is impossible to do.
Reaching maintenance was the hardest part of this process and I had very little advice to help me besides to stay on a diet forever. Ones appetite does return and one is able to eat much larger quantities that early on. For instance, now I can eat almost a whole chipotle burrito. I decided dieting wasn't for me and embraced intuitive eating philosophies instead which help me maintain in a place I am happy with.
I still live with this surgery in a daily basis. food gets stuck at least a couple times a week and I have to throw up do to the pain. I can't eat too much or eat with liquids or I will have dumping syndrome. (Yes you can dump with a sleeve). I am happy but good is always an issue. I feel quite sick after I eat sometimes. It's always a struggle for me. I'm not sure if this is due to my complications or just the surgery itself. My best friend had bypass and she says the same thing.
On a positive note I have an amazing body. I really really enjoy my body and my energy and health and I would do it all again even though it was hard. I can run, chase my kids, work my active job, wear any clothes I desire. I feel very attractive.
If you are considering this surgery because you aren't able to live a healthy and energetic life at your current weight, than do it. It won't change how you feel about yourself on the inside and it could end up being replaced by other dependency issues... but at least you will be physically stronger and healthier. I suggest therapy for anyone that is going to do this. Healing comes from within.
Remember you will never again be able to eat to your hearts content. You won't be able to feel like you do now when you eat. This surgery will not help you maintain your weight loss forever and it's vital that you have realistic expectations. Try and make peace with food. Don't see it as an enemy but as a vital component to health.

I dealt with very little loose skin. Mostly on my neck and tummy. I am now having plastic surgery for it in Mexico which I will post about in the plastic surgery section.

On a side note, I you are considering vsg surgery in Mexico, I would highly recommend it. My care here has been extraordinary.