mialoveslenny

My surgery was almost exactly one year ago (1/15/15), and I was already down 40 pounds before I had the surgery, and have gone on to lose another 40. I am within 15 pounds of my goal. I thought I'd share some of my highs and lows over the last year - some things I've done well, and things I want to and am working to improve upon for my long-term success. 2015: Had the surgery; lost 80 pounds; bought a new house and moved (first house in California); trained for and ran in my first 5K; lost my mother in November. LOTS of big changes and emotions and stress to navigate through. I managed to do very well and had slow and steady weight loss and/or maintenance up until my mother went into the hospital in mid-November...thus began a 6 week shift in my diet. Not a tremendous amount of crap, but ate things I had stayed away from completely for almost a full year - i.e. sugar. What happened? I gained about 8 pounds and I felt pretty crappy by the end of December. Bloated and lethargic. What I've been doing since the first of January is a re-boot to my eating. No sugar or white flour at all. And in just 4 days I feel like myself again. No bloat, no discomfort around my middle, and I'm slowly detoxing off the sugar - you know it feels worse before you feel better getting that out of your system! Lots and lots of Water too. I'm committed to getting to my goal and maintaining a healthier lifestyle with both diet and exercise. I went from a size 20 to a size 4 - I gave away ALL of my clothes from a size 8 up, and have a lovely new wardrobe that I've built. I have no intention of sizing out of my current wardrobe! The freedom from everything that made me feel so uncomfortable and unhealthy last year has been achieved in so many ways. I can take the stairs any time I want and not pant and sweat. I get an hour of walking or some type of exericise every day and my body as a result has responded in kind. I can shop for clothes any where I want. I can comfortably sit in booths in restaurants, and can sit in a chair and cross my legs comfortably. I have so much more energy and confidence. Do I have the skin sag of a 51 year old woman? I do! But it's not anything I can't live with. You won't see me walking in a bikini on the beach - but I will wear a bathing suit that makes me feel good, and shorts and sun dresses in the summer, with no discomfort whatsoever. I used to get very red faced and sweat ALL the time. I just ran hot constantly because I was so overweight and out of shape. It's just not an issue anymore. If anything, I actually get chilly and need to stay warm where I used to have a fan on full time under my desk. I don't take any of the medications I used to for high blood pressure. It's consistently normal. I am in a normal and healthy range with blood sugars and cholesterol, so there is no longer a threat of treating those conditions. I'm continuing to learn to cook smaller amounts for my husband and I. It's not easy to retrain yourself to cook a smaller amount! But I'm working on it. We purchased "snack or lunch" sized plates and ramikins and we use them to eat our meals. Smaller portions look normal on smaller plates. When we eat out, we share one meal (I should mention he had the surgery in November 2014 and has lost 150 pounds), and we eat half of the shared meal, and bring the other half home and re-heat the next day and share for dinner. It's mind boggling how little we eat today. But I definitely got nervous over the holidays when week after week was going by as I was grieving the loss of my mom, feeling a little out of sorts and reaching for more and more of those foods that just don't make me feel good...a cookie here, a muffin there, it wasn't binge-worthy, but it wasn't helping me feel good either. Live and learn. Just thought I'd put out there in the universe, on the anniversary of the best decision I've ever made (other than getting sober 23 years ago and marrying my husband 5 years ago), to heal my body and my life from the inside out and lose the weight and do things I never thought I'd ever do...let alone at 50 years old! Everyone tells me they can't believe my age - that the weight loss has taken years off my looks. Which is a lovely thing to hear. So there you have it. I'm grateful. I'm still a compulsive eater in recovery EVERY DAY. I say with alcohol, I put the plug in the jug and never picked it up again...but with food, it's like taking a tiger out of a cage 3 times a day and then getting it to go back in after meals! It ain't easy! But it's worth it. I welcome any feedback on anything you are doing post-surgery, post-holidays to re-boot your body and mind back on track to keep moving forward. Happy New Year!

I have suffered with migraines for 22 years. They have improved substantially in the last few months, especially post surgery. I hardly ever have to take a Maxalt. I am sure that change in diet, losing weight, all of it has contributed to my greater well being. But I used to have 3-4 bad migraines a month, easily, and I (knock on wood) can't remember the last one I had. That is a miracle. Hope you will have a similar experience, as I know how very painful they can be. I'm so happy they are becoming a thing of the past for the most part. There are probably still things like changes in weather that I can't really control, but all of the diet triggered migraines I'm sure I used to get, are a thing of the past. Thank goodness! Best of luck to you!

So I'm starting to notice some hair loss. It started with noticing how much more was on my bathroom floor. I have fine hair, but TONS of it (what my hairdresser always tells me), but that's starting to change. I started my liquid diet in late October of 2014, as I thought my surgery would be sooner than it actually was, which was 5 weeks ago. But I have been really good about two Premiere Protein drinks a day (30 grams of protein per drink), so I was HOPING it wouldn't happen. But it just does. So I've started a Biotin supplement to hopefully help it from getting too intense. I hope it's not noticable to others, and just to me. But who knows? Anyone out there experience a thinning of their hair, where they could tell, but to the outside world it looked pretty much the same style wise? Or am I going to get bald spots or some crazy s&*% like that? Still don't regret having the surgery one bit. Just don't like this side effect at all.

So my husband and I went to Tender Greens last Friday and I may have jumped the gun on eating something other than soft foods...I had 3 bites of chicken breast, chewed it and chewed it like crazy, a bite of some grilled vegetables, same thing, chewed and chewed...and within about 5 minutes, I could feel that feeling...had to excuse myself and run to the women's room...it all came up without so much as bending over the toilet. Just BAM...was too early. I learned my lesson! Wasn't fun. I felt better afterwards though. Waited about 10 minutes, had a little tomato Soup and it stayed down fine. Went to bed hungry. Hasn't happened since though. Grateful I do fine with scrambled egg (and I say egg, because I can't eat more than 1/2 a scrambled egg) - and I hear those are hard for some folks to eat. Most dairy is fine for me...grateful for that too. Next Thursday is 6 weeks post-op, hoping to try a little something other than "soft" food at that time with better luck! P.S. I did make Eggface recipe for Tuscan White Bean Soup, but I used ground turkey and spinach instead of sliced chicken sausage. I cooked it in my slow cooker all day. It was absolutely delicious, jam packed with Protein, I have eaten a ramakin of it every day since I made it last Saturday! So no problem with ground turkey. Go figure. Guess it's something about white meat chicken that just doesn't go down easy?!

They make me feel icky too! I take Celebrate Multi-Complete with Iron and it's a 3 times a day deal. It kind of makes my stomach sour, but it's bareable. Noticable, but bareable. I chew the Celebrate Calcium pills (cherry flavored, like sweet tarts, but nastier!). Taking Vitamin D via drops because I want to use them up, but switching to a pill you take once a day 1,000 units, from Trader Joes. We'll see how those go. My husband, who was sleeved this past November, takes a once a WEEK Vitamin D supplement that releases slowly...so I like the idea of once a week! Lots of supplements...not my favorite. But hey...for the results from surgery and how good I feel otherwise, totally worth it.

Just got my bloodwork results back from my doctor...and this is only 1 month post surgery...but my numbers have improved big time! Total Cholesterol was 194, is now 169 (ideal is below 200) LDL was 113, is now 107 (ideal is below 100) Triglycerides was 190, is now 99 (below 150 is ideal) HDL was 43, is now 42 (THIS NEEDS TO GET BETTER, Above 60 is ideal) Fasting sugars were 105, are now 81 (YAHOO! My risk for diabetes has gone down substantially) So now I just have to get that HDL above 60, my LDL a few more points down below 99, and keep working to get my fasting sugars a bit lower and I'll be in pretty good shape. But my doctor told me beforehand not to expect much since it's only a month out from surgery. That I should see a great improvement in 3-6 months from now. So I'm pretty stoked that they are as good as they are already. My genetic risk for diabetes and heart disease is big, so I'm very happy to get into healthy ranges. Weight is down 53 pounds...another 30-35 to go to reach my goal. As I now say...onward and DOWNWARD!

My husband and I began the VSG journey together back in April of 2014. His surgery was done in November 2014, I just had mine on 1/15/15. I'm just three weeks out, but because I truly believed I'd be having my surgery sometime in November as well, I begain the liquid diet prep on 10/24/14 with my husband and just stayed on it until my surgery in January. As a result, I was down 35 pounds before I had the surgery, which was a great way to begin this very new way of life. I was already used to small portions and dealing with head hunger vs. real hunger, etc. That said, I got such a jump start with the liquid diet, and my body lost quite a bit of weight, pretty fast, now it's "adjusting" and stalling a bit, because I started at 249 back in April, was 203 the day of surgery, and as of today, I am 190. Even as I write this, I should just shut up and be happy! It's progress, not perfection. What is awesome? I've gone from a plus size 18-20/20-22 to a regular misses size 10. I both look and feel like a different person already. No more joint pain. Little to no need for a daily nap (except weekends...because hey...why not?). I can climb stairs like a boss! No huffin and puffin. I am on 1/2 the prescription meds I was on before and looking forward to taking even less. I've kicked obesity in the ass! Having my husband on this journey of committed nutrition, exercise and life changes is the biggest blessing. We were fat eating buddies for 10 years and we had a lot of fun, until we weren't, because we were getting older, fatter and fatigued. We are discovering each other in new ways...and we are very excited for each other's success and achievements. It's been a fantastic experience and given our life together a whole new level of blessings.

WOW! Go girl! You have really done an amazing job and you are such an inspiration. My surgery was 3 weeks ago, and I just love seeing and hearing people who are gettin' it done!