jenkbacon

Sleeved in March 2015.... The best decision I made in 2015!!! If your thinking about it....just do it!

Looking back I don't understand how I didn't realize I was so fat!



This is from today just after my visit to the gym. 1 year and 2 days since surgery. According to my surgeon's scale, it is a 112lbs difference since surgery. According to the gym scale it is 116lbs. But like someone else on here said, that's just a BM waiting to happen!
I can honestly say that the entire experience has been perception altering. I did not realize how much pain I was truly in on a daily basis. Most of my aches and pains are gone, high BP issues are gone, and the awful feeling when my blood sugar was too high is gone as well. Truly the best thing I have ever done for my health.

Great thread, I've been away for a while so this was a good read. I sure wish I still believed all those pre-op fairy tales; the sleeve will do all the work, once you lose the weight it's gone forever and being thin will make me happy. Go ahead and laugh but I actually believed all that. But I am "lucky" because I had a good doctor that set up great support and this site that educated me otherwise.
I am sad for those that have the surgery and don't lose weight, even when it's their own undoing. We all have our unhealthy relationships with food or we wouldn't be in a place of needing surgery to lose weight. I think some people don't become aware of their food issues and continue with the same bad habits. I'm so happy that I'm no longer in denial about my unhealthy relationship with food and I'm working to improve it (slowly but surely). I believe anyone that tears down other people does so because they are unhappy with themselves. @@Elode, every time your family members minimize your success or send you food pictures, the underlying message is that they are sad they haven't had the same success as you.

Hey @@Elode thank you for this "timely" post, its a massive reality check for me! I've been in some funk lately since my beautiful mum passed away and i've put on 6lb as of this morning ????. I take full onus for this. After 12 months working hard on me, I know what I've done wrong and why, i just don't understand why I'm sabotaging myself and eating the crap I'm not supposed to be eating and not exercising as much as i should be. I need to snap out of this but i just don't know how ????. I pray that i can get back on track and stay on track and that starts this morning, its 5:45am and I'm getting ready to go for 1.5hr walk. Hopefully next time i post on these boards i will have lost what i've recently put on!

I am realizing this fear too. I'm almost 6 months out and over the last few weeks my eating habits have started to slide. I haven't been tracking food as diligently, and I've been snacking on carbs (a tootsie roll here, a handful of chips there, a cookie). I gained 1.2 lbs last week. There hasn't been any all out binges, but the grazing and "I will just have a little" mentality has sabotaged my weight loss this week. I love the fact that I'm no longer a plus size now that I've lost 90 lbs. I'm still 13 lbs from my goal though, and even that is at the upper limits of my BMI. This week has been a reality check, and makes me afraid that if I can revert back to this habits and gain so quickly in my "honeymoon" period maintenance is going to be another beast altogether. Time to get refocused!

Thank you for posting this! I haven't been on the site in a while because frankly I'd gotten cocky! I've been losing steadily and just stopped tracking or paying attention to what I've been eating. My weight had remained stable down about 78 pounds. I was 100 pounds overweight prior to surgery. I just told my self I didn't need to lose that last 22 pounds. I was fine. I stopped weighing myself and everything! This morning I weighed myself and I was up 5 pounds. Needless to say, it was time to start paying attention! I started tracking again and went to the gym and visited BP again and the first thread I see is this! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Thank you, thank you thank you!!!!! I am NEVER going back!!!

Thank you for posting this! I haven't been on the site in a while because frankly I'd gotten cocky! I've been losing steadily and just stopped tracking or paying attention to what I've been eating. My weight had remained stable down about 78 pounds. I was 100 pounds overweight prior to surgery. I just told my self I didn't need to lose that last 22 pounds. I was fine. I stopped weighing myself and everything! This morning I weighed myself and I was up 5 pounds. Needless to say, it was time to start paying attention! I started tracking again and went to the gym and visited BP again and the first thread I see is this! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Thank you, thank you thank you!!!!! I am NEVER going back!!!

Thank you for posting this! I haven't been on the site in a while because frankly I'd gotten cocky! I've been losing steadily and just stopped tracking or paying attention to what I've been eating. My weight had remained stable down about 78 pounds. I was 100 pounds overweight prior to surgery. I just told my self I didn't need to lose that last 22 pounds. I was fine. I stopped weighing myself and everything! This morning I weighed myself and I was up 5 pounds. Needless to say, it was time to start paying attention! I started tracking again and went to the gym and visited BP again and the first thread I see is this! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Thank you, thank you thank you!!!!! I am NEVER going back!!!

@@perforce I agree! Moms are just moms! They want to protect their babies. I knew my mom would be for it because she didn't want me to be like her in that aspect. My father didn't really say anything. There really wasn't anything to say. Once I made up my mind that was it. I freaked a little the day of surgery and questioned it but I'm so incredibly thankful that I went through. It's been a life changer . I'm sure once you're done and your mom sees the new you she will be even more accepting. Sometimes you have to just stop listening to everyone and start doing what you want to do. Only you know what it's like to live in your body. You only get one body in this lifetime so take care of it! I did all kinds of diets and junk that only worked temporary. I watch the nurses at work struggle everyday both men and women. They weigh in the morning, stress about it then at lunch order pizza and stuff candy in their mouths all day and wonder why the next day they haven't lost any weight. I'm serious! I just want to shake the crap out of them! I think man, was I that stupid?! Of course you're not going to have lost any weight, you ate 5,000 calories yesterday!! It's a horrible cycle and I'm so glad I got off that rollercoaster!! These are all the reasons why I don't ever want to go back there!! Just thinking about them suck the life right out of me! No thank you, I'll pass!

@@jenkbacon Wonderful! I'm happy it was here for you in your time of need! It was meant to be it's easy to get comfortable with not doing things. Mine started with tracking every single thing to leaving some thing out because I didn't like the numbers, to just tracking morning and afternoon skipping night when it's the worst, to not tracking anything because I couldn't seem to stay at my normal 800 calories any more and I just didn't want to know. That lasted about two weeks and I've kicked myself in the butt again. I literally talk to myself like a nut and tell myself You are NOT going to do this! You are screwing up and you know It! Get your shit together before you screw up everything you've worked so hard to do! Yeah, I'm a hard ass with myself lol! Well I have to be, I'm stubborn!

Thank you for posting this! I haven't been on the site in a while because frankly I'd gotten cocky! I've been losing steadily and just stopped tracking or paying attention to what I've been eating. My weight had remained stable down about 78 pounds. I was 100 pounds overweight prior to surgery. I just told my self I didn't need to lose that last 22 pounds. I was fine. I stopped weighing myself and everything! This morning I weighed myself and I was up 5 pounds. Needless to say, it was time to start paying attention! I started tracking again and went to the gym and visited BP again and the first thread I see is this! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Thank you, thank you thank you!!!!! I am NEVER going back!!!

Thank you for posting this! I haven't been on the site in a while because frankly I'd gotten cocky! I've been losing steadily and just stopped tracking or paying attention to what I've been eating. My weight had remained stable down about 78 pounds. I was 100 pounds overweight prior to surgery. I just told my self I didn't need to lose that last 22 pounds. I was fine. I stopped weighing myself and everything! This morning I weighed myself and I was up 5 pounds. Needless to say, it was time to start paying attention! I started tracking again and went to the gym and visited BP again and the first thread I see is this! Thank you from the bottom of my heart! Thank you, thank you thank you!!!!! I am NEVER going back!!!

Truthfully even my mom and my relationship has changed. She is morbidly obese and has been my whole life. She's 5'4 and a good 450-500 lbs. I never realized how much our relationship revolved around food until I had this surgery. My parents live about 40 mins from me and I've seen my mom maybe 3 times since surgery. I realize now that the only time besides holidays that we saw each other was when she drove to town and I would meet her and her friends for lunch. I don't eat out anymore so she stopped asking me. She assumes I can't really eat anyway so I wouldn't want to go. I'm not sure how many times she's been to town but she doesn't ask me. We are planning thanksgiving though. My mom is a big sweetheart. She's always been a kind hearted nurse. A retired PICU RN at that I was hoping and still am that she will have surgery. I know she's happy for me but I think there is a tiny bit of envy there too. She called me and told me her blood pressure is high now and her legs are always killing her. She says she doesn't come to my house because we have 5 steps up our porch and she doesn't think her legs could make it, she's only 64 but her weight is finally catching up to her after all these years of being a "healthy fat person". I knew it would. So when people questioned my decision to have WLS since I wasn't "that big" (sure 267 isn't that big lol) I knew my reasons but I don't have time to explain it all to everyone. It was a personal choice that stems from seeing my mother cope with obesity all these years. Once I started packing on the pounds I got scared. I love my mom and I admire her, I've always wanted to be as good of a nurse as she was, as caring, as good hearted but the one thing I didn't want to be was obese like her. She's proud of me and supported my decision from the start. Every Time I call her she's "starting her Atkins diet again" it breaks my heart because I know it won't last. I wish she would just do this with me.

I have a tremendous fear of regaining the weight that I've lost. I was going through some recent pictures of the 3 family members of mine that have had WLS. Two had Gastric bypass and the (blonde pink shirt) had sleeve surgery 6 months before I did. All have regained weight, they don't look like they even had surgery. None of them ever reached any goal. These are current post (last week). The part that aggravates me is the excuses they come up with and the comments about how I'm just "lucky" that I lost so "easily". I see all the food post. It's not my place to call them out on the food they are eating. Seeing this can be discouraging at times but most of the time it makes me want to do anything possible NOT to end up like that. Maybe I'm wrong for using them as my motivation to succeed but it does scare me. I never know what to say when the remarks come in about how well I've done and all my so called "luck". What do you do?! I keep these pictures as my reminder of what can/will happen if I don't stick with my plan. Which just helped me stop at 6 1/2 Cheetos! Of course I've blocked all identity from the pictures for their privacy. Its not "luck" it's a constant "just say NO!" Attitude I have to food. It's not easy, it's never going to be easy. That's my reality. It's just a tool nothing more and nothing less.

My best friend's sister had GB about thirteen years ago and for a very long time she was really thin. And even for a couple of years she was "too thin" (way below a healthy BMI) and I admired her for her determination, strength, commitment and dedication to a new way of life. She owned a restaurant where she was the main cook, menu planner and she did catering on the side. She was always surrounded by great food, great ingredients, people eating, people needing her to try things, sell her food related items; her whole life was FOOD! FOOD! FOOD! And yet she remained vigilante to her new self.
Until recently. In the last few years, her weight has started to creep back on and her health is on a slow decline. It shocked me to see she was gaining weight and when I asked if everything was alright she was candid with me. She bluntly told me "Ash, your surgery did not cure any food issues you may have had, it will not prevent you from gaining the weight you lost and it most definitely will take a great deal of will power (more than you have ever had) to keep the weight off."
While I knew what she was saying before she needed to say it, it needed to hear it from someone going through it.

So last night I took my teenage daughter (14) to the movies. We were in the process of getting ready and she starts freaking out! She says " MOM!!! What the heck?!" I being in shock was like "What , what happened?!" She says "You're wearing my freaking underwear!!" I immediately flipped the tag over and sure enough they were hers! She bought the same ones as me only two sizes smaller. I, being thoroughly amused started doing the booty shaking victory dance. She however was not near as amused as I was. That's ok though because I got a new NSV AND I inherited a new pair of undies!! For some reason she insisted that I keep them! So when I say "funniest" what I really mean is funniest for me. Ha!! Winning!!!

@kimmyco- what an amazing story! Good for you!

@laguerr13- Thanks so much. I understand exactly what you mean. I started my journey in July of last year just prior to the one year anniversary of my father's death. He was the "healthy" one and he just dropped! It shook my world up, but made me realize I needed to do something! I was in a very dark place a year ago! As difficult as this journey has been I would do it again in a heartbeat! Good for you! 72 pounds is amazing! You should be very proud. I'm so sorry for the loss of your mother. I was not prepared for how deeply losing my father affected me. That one year mark was rough. I am forever grateful for the amazing group of people on this site! They have supported me in more ways than I can even say! Keep going on your journey and you will definitely make it!

@@tcon it's taken about a year to lose 70 pounds. I lost 11 in the 6 months leading up to surgery and 10 on the preop diet. I've lost the other 49 in the 6 months postop! It's been slow and steady all the way! So not complaining!!!

i have lost more since then. Almost 15 more. Almost to goal

@laguerr13- Thanks so much. I understand exactly what you mean. I started my journey in July of last year just prior to the one year anniversary of my father's death. He was the "healthy" one and he just dropped! It shook my world up, but made me realize I needed to do something! I was in a very dark place a year ago! As difficult as this journey has been I would do it again in a heartbeat! Good for you! 72 pounds is amazing! You should be very proud. I'm so sorry for the loss of your mother. I was not prepared for how deeply losing my father affected me. That one year mark was rough. I am forever grateful for the amazing group of people on this site! They have supported me in more ways than I can even say! Keep going on your journey and you will definitely make it!

Great thread. I made my decision early last year when with all my back issues I went to a back surgeon and he said unless I get the weight off, surgery is pointless and suggested WLS. I had thought about it before but that was the kick I needed to get me on board. My back would go out like once a month and be stuck in bed for a few days using a walker to get around etc... My highest right before surgery was 308 lbs . Had the surgery done last November. As many of you may have followed my post surgery nightmare, I went to hell and back, but have no regrets now. I finally hit one-der-land at 199 which I hadn't seen in 25 years since I was 20 years old. While I've gone through some clothes already, I'm in the middle of redoing the walkin closet and went through all the rest of my "big" clothes today. It's a great feeling. Clothes that would fit me before that were too small, now are too big. I can shop in regular stores and regular sizes. When I would go in the pool or beach, I'd always wear a shirt or put it on immediately when I got out. Now I lounge at beach or pool without a shirt. Iove the confidence I have with my body these days. I'm about 40 lbs from goal weight but already look pretty good. From 3X to comfortable in an XL and can wear some L shirts. From 52" waist feeling tight to a 38" waist with room to spare. The transformation is real and worth it. Much more energy now as well. I hated being the heaviest person in the room all the time. And I do a bunch of business travel and would dred the seats and was too embarrassed to ask for seat belt extender so would hold a magazine over my lap to hide that I wasn't buckled. Now I've flown in a middle seat with room to spare. I have mini weight-loss milestones. Every 10 lbs, ie seeing a 9 on the end of scale . Then the 100 lbs lost, then came onederland, next is 184 lbs that's when no longer considered obese, just overweight, and then 155 which is my goal, which is considered a healthy BMI. Anyway thought I'd share some of my confessionals. Onward and downward!

Great post! Now here is mine. Mine isn't much of a personal one, but more on the lines of health. In May of 2013 I had to have lung surgery where they were forced to removed half of my right lung. Because of my weight, 222, things had to be done differently than that of someone healthy. I was required to give the hospital a copy of my living will and will, or surgery would not be performed. I had to be put on the bypass machine during surgery because of my weight and the complications that could cause. While in Icu for days, my doctor continued to remind my husband and I that it would be a longer road to recovery for me because of my weight. Embarrassing to keep having to hear it. But he had to say it. He was right. It took me one full year to recover. May 2014, one year after surgery, I decided it's time to do something. Had my sleeve done the end of September 2014 and I am now down 75 pounds. With only 7 more to go until goal. I am healthier now than I have been in so many years.

Here's my latest NSV...I just put 10 pairs of size 24 jeans & capris (all the same brand and style haha!) on an online garage sale!!! I'm in a 20 now and soon will be 18! It feels great going down, down, down! I started in April in a 26/28!!!