Djmohr

I just wanted to say that I thought the fist year was tough and my goodness it was! With all the lifestyle changes that have to be made to lose all of your weight and all the changes to your body.
I have learned since than as many vets warned me....Maintenance is even harder yet. Mostly because you have met your weight loss goal and now you need to figure out how to live in this new world. You don't have the motivation of the scale or changes in clothing sizes.
Your motivation is more focused on staying healthy and not fitting in all those new clothes you bought.
It is way harder than I thought it would be but it is doable. It is doable because my tool will always be there for me to help me control myself. As long as I make good decisions, I should be in great shape 10, 15, 20 years from now. That is my goal......and thank goodness I have a tool to help me acheive it!

@@Babbs
Right back at you! I absolutely love how straight forward and honest you are and always look for your posts. I am usually sitting here yelling at my laptop "you tell em Babbs!"
On top of that you are one hot tamale! I still love that sassy haircut!
I have been growing mine out but it's annoying me so I am thinking of going short again. Leave it to us women, we can never make up our minds.... Ha

I am 28 months post op. Got down below my goal to 158. Over the holidays i gained now nearly 10lbs back.
I know 100% it is because of my choices and it is hard to get back on track but doable. Just remember your pouch is still there, you just need to use it properly.
I also hate the idea of the 10 to 15% regain.....I am going to fight like hell to get back down where I was when I reached goal.
The only advice I can give is get back on the plan. High Protein, lower (good carbs), lots and lots of Water and move as much as you can.

Not sure why you are asking if it is ok....
Your doctor already told you isn't and I am not so sure I would be doing anything I am not supposed to at 14 days post op.
My recommendation is that you follow your doctors orders and not your friends advice.
But I am guessing you are looking for someone to tell you its ok. I am not going to do that.

I totally understand where you are coming from. I have always carried my weight in my upper arms and for the last 35 years or so I have hid my arms from anyone other than my husband seeing them. The bigger they got, the more embarrassed I got.
I had Bariatric surgery almost 2 years ago and got to goal last March. This summer has been hard because I am at a great weight yet when you look at me, you would still see these giant arms that were both saggy and filled with residual fat that just would not leave my body.
2 weeks ago I had an appt. with a plastic surgeon who has excellent ratings. I live in Pewaukee wi. Not far from Chicago at all. Her name is Dr. Maida Parkins and she is in Delafield WI. I met her on Monday and on Thursday I had my brachioplasty. You would not believe the results. My arms are tiny, well defined, the skin is perfect and they look like I am in my early 20's.
I cannot wait to get the dressings off in 2 weeks. I will tell you it hurts like hell, itches like crazy, in fact I am sitting with ice packs on both arms as I type. It is worth every single ounce of pain I have gone through and would do it 100 times more!
Dr. Parkins is an artist and extremely caring and she totally gets it! It would be worth the couple hour trip for you. My brachioplasty cost $5950.00. She will also be performing an Abdominalplasty and breast lift with implants in the near future for me. I am attaching my before pics and after. Unfortunately the show upside down and I don't know how to fix that. I would be happy to share them via email along with the post surgery ones that show the bruising if you are interested. Just PM me with your email address.
 

@@TLW
I hope you start feeling better soon. See.....I am not the only one. Plastics is very painful. I have had many surgeries in my life. I have plates and screws in 4 different levels of my spine. And that hurt like hell for a very long time. Plastics is a different kind of hurt. Think about your skin being pulled off the tissues. It burns, like really burns. I swear when i had my arms done in July, it felt like i placed both of my arms on the hot stove and left them sit there for 20 minutes. And that burning and itching was night and day for the first 3 weeks. I slept with ice packs on my arms....if you call it sleep. LOL
My arms look fantastic and it was totally worth it but even today, they still swell and they still dont feel normal. Which by the way is normal, LOL. It takes a long time to recover from these major surgeries.
My next phase is scheduled for January 19th. I will be having a full abdominalplasty with muscle repair, a breast lift and breast augmentation. It is expected to go 7.5 to 8 hours and i will be staying in the hospital this time. Although i am dreaming about the results, I am already very nervous about the painful recovery. I have enough pain in my body but my excess skin on my tummy and breasts are pulling on my back. Tightening up my core will definately help, and I get the benefit of looking better too.
Even with all this being said, it is absolutely positively worth it.
My poor husband, on week 3 of my arms told me I did not need to do this for his benefit. He did not like seeing my pain. I informed him although he may like the results none of it is about him. LOL.
I have been caring for everyone else since i had my first child at 16....that is how i ended up at 315lbs. Now, its all about me getting well and feeling fantastic. I have worked hard my whole life and i deserve it.
Thankfully, he totally agrees.

You are likely very weak if you are having a hard time with drinking Water. Did they say you were dehydrated?
That could definately cause your feelings of weakness and even the nausea.
I would call your surgeon and let him know that you are feeling like crap. When you say you are having a hard time with Water you can try the following:
- Try different temperatures. (Many cannot tolerate the cold, in fact my pouch actually spasms if I drink ice water or even cold water from the fridge). I still 28 months post op, drink room temp water and it goes down well.
- If it is the taste, use enhancer drops like Stur or even real fruit
- If it is water in general try non calorie drinks like crystal light. Anything to get fluids into you
Where is your Protein at? By now you need to really start getting that in. I had a lot of trouble with Protein until I found what worked for me. You have to try different kinds, brands and approaches
- What worked for me was switching to a ready made shake called Premier Protein. At first it was very heavy so I was told by my bariatric nurse to milk it down using fairlife skim milk which has added protein. Initially I would use 1/3 Protein Shake to 2/3 fairlife. After a week I was able to do half and half and them flip it to 2/3 Protein Shake and 1/3 milk. Finally a week later I was able to go completely to the shake.< /p>
You have to find what works for you. But water and protein are the most critical things to help you start feeling up to par again.
If you need to be put on a anti nausea medication you should call your doctor. Zofran works fantastic and it should help with the dry heaves.

I would definitely do the pouch test to start with and detox yourself. Your pouch will always be there, you just have to retrain it and get all the crap out of your system.
Once done with the pouch test, I would go back to measuring and tracking my foods and I would stick to dense Protein and vegetables and some whole fruit. This will actually keep you fuller longer.
If you have not read this, you should because I believe it will help you relearn and execute given how far out from surgery you are.
http://www.amylhwilliams.com/pouchrulesfordummies.html
You can do this! You did it once so you know you can.

When I saw this topic I could feel my blood pressure rise. LOL!
It irks me when I see or hear people say this, especially on TV or magazines. They have absolutely NO idea how hard we work to get healthy nor do they understand that obesity is a metabolic disease.
There is such a small percentage of people who are successful long term losing weight and ultimately keeping it off. I believe it is less than 5%.
Honestly, this is frustrating. The medical community outside of bariatric teams are somewhat clueless about it too. If only they would do better education maybe the public would understand that it is a metabolic disease and to cure it long term surgery is really the best option.
UGH......just adding to your rant. LOL!

As of this week I finally hit a normal BMI and i promised myself when that time came I would finally share some pictures. By the way, I still do not like having my picture taken but before I hid behind everyone and because I was tall it was easy to hide the rest of me. Now I definitely am willing to get in the shot and I no longer cringe when I see the pictures.
The only pics I could find before surgery were taken on a cruise with my hubby, Son and Granddaughter. These were taken 1 month before my bypass.


My after was taken earlier today, down 137lbs and finally at a BMI of 24.9

If it happens it usually hits around 10 to 12 weeks post op and will continue through the massive weight loss phase.
It might be a little soon to tell for some of you at this point. Also, you might be one of the lucky ones that does have any.
I will say that I lost nearly 2/3 of my hair from month 2 to month 13. I did not have bald spots but my hair was thin. While I was losing it, new hairs were popping up all over. I can honestly say that my hair is as thick if not thicker than it was before surgery. In fact my stylist swears it is significantly thicker. Also the texture changed and I went from some body in my hair to very curly hair. To the point where it is difficult to straighten it......

Every individual is going to be different. Years ago I was truly addicted to fast food so for me it was eliminated from my outings because I have found that I can go to other restaurants and get better quality food that I enjoy and have the outing still with my family without opening that door to that addiction. The only one I will go to is chick filet because they have awesome grilled chicken nuggets that are so good and friendly to keeping me on track, even before surgery they were the only thing I'd eat there. At home I still make nachos or burgers or what for my family and the thing is I have control over the quality of the food. For burgers I get the very lean 97/3 ground beef and I weigh out my patty and use the quality cheese that I select and make sweet potato fries baked and not fried. I don't eat a bun anymore and I focus on eating the patty first then just a few fries and I am very satisfied and stayed on track. I have found swapping things out works for me, keeps me on track and I am very satisfied. I let myself have a treat now and then but I do try to keep it to something small at one meal and not a cheat day. The very few times I have tried anything fried it made my stomach hurt badly and to me it's just not worth it.

Why!?!? Why do that to yourself? I just fon't understand it.
Shit, there are days when i drive past checkers and wish i had fries. But i don't need it.
What i really don't understand is why make the post in the first place if you know most people aren't going to give you the supportive answers you're looking for?
What's the point of even being in a support group then if you're doing all that? We all want to see everyone succeed but that's not the way to go about it.
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

RNY leaves with a golf ball size pouch for a stomach. It also reroutes your intestines on purpose to promote malabsorbtion so you don't absorb all of the food you do eat.
For me, it has been a wonderful experience and a great tool to help me control my eating. I am 28 months post op so I can eat more than right after surgery but maybe I can eat 1 cup to 1 1/2 cups of food depending on what it is. If it is dense meat, I can eat just two to 3 ounces and I am full and stay full longer.
With RNY, the hunger does come back after the nerves regrow however it is not that gnawing hunger that I had before surgery. Also, just a few bites and I am full again.
I love that I was able to have this surgery and lose all my weight and I love that so many others on this site have had the same success both with RNY and the sleeve.
Best of luck to you!

When I saw this topic I could feel my blood pressure rise. LOL!
It irks me when I see or hear people say this, especially on TV or magazines. They have absolutely NO idea how hard we work to get healthy nor do they understand that obesity is a metabolic disease.
There is such a small percentage of people who are successful long term losing weight and ultimately keeping it off. I believe it is less than 5%.
Honestly, this is frustrating. The medical community outside of bariatric teams are somewhat clueless about it too. If only they would do better education maybe the public would understand that it is a metabolic disease and to cure it long term surgery is really the best option.
UGH......just adding to your rant. LOL!

Don't hold back, tell us how you really feel.

I just wanted to say that I thought the fist year was tough and my goodness it was! With all the lifestyle changes that have to be made to lose all of your weight and all the changes to your body.
I have learned since than as many vets warned me....Maintenance is even harder yet. Mostly because you have met your weight loss goal and now you need to figure out how to live in this new world. You don't have the motivation of the scale or changes in clothing sizes.
Your motivation is more focused on staying healthy and not fitting in all those new clothes you bought.
It is way harder than I thought it would be but it is doable. It is doable because my tool will always be there for me to help me control myself. As long as I make good decisions, I should be in great shape 10, 15, 20 years from now. That is my goal......and thank goodness I have a tool to help me acheive it!

I try to play the quiet game with my husband a lot.......doesn't work so good. It is usually I who quits before him.
Clearly backfires.....

Going back to high Protein, low carb has worked for me. After the holidays I was up about 5 lbs. By increasing my Protein, lowering my carbs to approx. 40g a day and increasing my fluids (never a problem for me, but i'm drinking even more than usual), I've lost 3 lbs since Christmas. I know it's unlikely to keep coming off at that rate, but I find high protein low carb works for me and makes me feel my best also.
I'm in for both support and accountability!

@@jenn1
LOL. This is what I just posted in the "What do I do when I hit maintenance" thread. Timely.
Well, and just to give you an idea how fast things can go south:

I was towing the line really well around Christmas. Like staying the same weight within literally a half pound. I was so proud of myself!

Then winter hit here in Boise.

We got more snow in the last couple of weeks than we've gotten in literally 2 winters. @jenn1 can vouch. We were trapped in our neighborhoods, people couldn't get to work, school was closed for 6 days, and we were shoveling snow every couple of hours for a week straight. I was having to forgo the gym to take my son to work because his sedan couldn't get out of his subdivision for a week. Every time I would get enough gumption to go to the gym, I'd decided to not go because the roads were so treacherous. I figured shoveling snow would suffice.

Between not going to the gym for almost 2 weeks, and a little comfort and frustration eating, I am up 3 pounds as of this morning. Just like that. The good news is I think there's a break in the weather, and I actually made my ass go to the gym today and I feel better But it will take me a month to get this off. Honestly.

Life happens, but we have to learn to adapt and roll with the punches without it totally derailing our progress. This is the hardest part of the whole thing.

Thank you Sent from my 5054N using the BariatricPal App

When I saw this topic I could feel my blood pressure rise. LOL!
It irks me when I see or hear people say this, especially on TV or magazines. They have absolutely NO idea how hard we work to get healthy nor do they understand that obesity is a metabolic disease.
There is such a small percentage of people who are successful long term losing weight and ultimately keeping it off. I believe it is less than 5%.
Honestly, this is frustrating. The medical community outside of bariatric teams are somewhat clueless about it too. If only they would do better education maybe the public would understand that it is a metabolic disease and to cure it long term surgery is really the best option.
UGH......just adding to your rant. LOL!

I just wanted to say that I thought the fist year was tough and my goodness it was! With all the lifestyle changes that have to be made to lose all of your weight and all the changes to your body.
I have learned since than as many vets warned me....Maintenance is even harder yet. Mostly because you have met your weight loss goal and now you need to figure out how to live in this new world. You don't have the motivation of the scale or changes in clothing sizes.
Your motivation is more focused on staying healthy and not fitting in all those new clothes you bought.
It is way harder than I thought it would be but it is doable. It is doable because my tool will always be there for me to help me control myself. As long as I make good decisions, I should be in great shape 10, 15, 20 years from now. That is my goal......and thank goodness I have a tool to help me acheive it!

When I saw this topic I could feel my blood pressure rise. LOL!
It irks me when I see or hear people say this, especially on TV or magazines. They have absolutely NO idea how hard we work to get healthy nor do they understand that obesity is a metabolic disease.
There is such a small percentage of people who are successful long term losing weight and ultimately keeping it off. I believe it is less than 5%.
Honestly, this is frustrating. The medical community outside of bariatric teams are somewhat clueless about it too. If only they would do better education maybe the public would understand that it is a metabolic disease and to cure it long term surgery is really the best option.
UGH......just adding to your rant. LOL!

Yup. Same thing happened to me and I am so thankful! I had severe gerd and my bypass cured it among many other health issues.