KindaFamiliar

@gomum Thank you!!

A few minutes of your time if I may (with apologies for the wall of words) - A few years ago, I underwent a Gastric Sleeve procedure in an effort to lose weight... I had let myself get to the dangerous weight of 255kg (562 pounds)... After sticking to my eating and exercise plan, the process was successful and resulted in a loss of over 110kg (242 pounds)... I still had a bit to go and was confident that I'd get there... Unfortunately, I then let life get on top of me... I started making worse and worse 'food decisions' and allowed my exercise to become less and less a priority... This has resulted in me regaining a reasonably significant amount of the weight I had lost... "So what?" you might be saying... Well, it's now time for me to stop making excuses... It's time for me to get my **** together... So with that in mind, I'm embarking on a brand new mission... I've named it "99by50".. Put simply, I'm aiming to get my weight down to 99kg (218 pounds) by my 50th birthday (18 Jul 2019)... To keep me accountable, I've created an Instagram page to keep PUBLIC track of my progress... I'll be posting regular updates on my progress, my exercise, what's working and what's not, my shorter term goals, some of the crap that would usually stay inside my head - all sorts of stuff related to my mission.. What I'm asking from you is this - If you have any interest in such a thing, please follow me... If you know someone who may have an interest, please forward this on to them (or tag them)... I welcome all thoughts, ideas, questions, anecdotes, advice - anything that you think may keep me accountable and on track... Here's the link - https://www.instagram.com/99by50/ If you do choose to take a look at the page, you'll see it's a little sparse at the moment... That will change as things go along... I'll be posting just about every day and will have much more detailed information up over time... Please don't feel obligated to follow the page... I'll not be offended if you don't... But as stated earlier, if you or someone you know has any interest, please feel free to like/share/follow... If you've got this far, thank you for your time... If you choose to follow and help keep me accountable - thank you... I hope to see some of you there... Kinda #99by50 #oldfatandcranky #itallstartsnow #publicaccountability

Chew ice... It helps with the need to chew and it also helps with your hydration...

@@KristenVSG2014 Yep!!

@@Ignatius Apologies for the delay in replying... Apologies for the possible length of this post... Once I get on a roll, who knows where I could end up... Anyway, here goes... Firstly, a little about me... I was sleeved on Feb 25, 2015. I was 45 yrs old. At my heaviest, I weighed 255kg.. That's 562 pounds.. (We use kg in Australia but as the majority here use pounds, I usually do the math to make it easier) I was one of the lucky ones... Despite my weight, I had NO co-morbidities... No diabetes, no cholesterol, not even high blood pressure... In the lead up to my surgery, my surgeon pulled no punches.. He made me fully aware that there were no guarantees he'd go thru with the surgery until he'd opened me up.. He was concerned about the fat around my lived and his ability (or inability) to get into where he needed to... To give me the best chance, he put me on a 'liquids only' diet for 4 weeks prior to the operation... I can tell you now, that was the hardest 4 weeks of my life... What made it worse was knowing that it could all be for nothing... Anyway, I stuck with it for the four weeks (had a couple of hiccups along the way, but nothing I hid from the surgeon) and surgery day came... Long story short(ish), the surgery was a success... I did three nights in hospital... Again, I must be one of the lucky ones... I had no complications... No pain... Nothing... The nurses kept insisting that I use the 'pain pump', so I did... But I didn't really think I needed to.. The worst part of the whole thing was, for the first eight hours or so, I was unable to even get out of the recovery chair... This wasn't so bad for me because I slept for most of it... But the poor nurse who had to hold the jug for me every time I had to pee - I reckon it might have been a different story for her... Poor woman... Anyway, three nights in hospital... I was hooked up to a machine for my sleep apnea and that SUCKED BALLS!!! The day after the op, I was up and about, walking the ward and peeing by myself whenever I wanted to (woooohoooo!!) The doc was really pleased as he thought I'd struggle because of my weight, but I didn't... (Again, lucky?) By day three, I was itching to get out, and out I got!! Self administered injection for (blood clotting) for ten days and the all was good... The progression of diet from liquids to solids was difficult, but nothing compared to the 4 weeks prior... Once I got home, I struggled a bit with energy/tiredness.. Lugging 560 pounds around on no food and just after surgery was always gonna be tricky but I got there... Once I started losing weight, I kinda looked at it as a percentage of what I wanted to lose rather than the actual poundage.. While the big numbers are great (really, who LOSES 230 pounds??) it's more realistic to look at it and be aware that I'm 70% of my way to target.. It's a much better way when you compare yourself to others (and you will, despite how bad an idea it is) and give you an idea of where you're really at... I really like your question re 'losing motivation when you get to a stage where you can lead a fairly normal life". It's not something I've ever thought about... But I guess the answer is "YES", it's certainly a possibility... I'm at the stage now where I'm finding myself able to exist quite comfortable, especially compared to where I was at... And I guess that is very possibly a contributing factor to my recent 'funk'... In short, this honestly the best thing I've ever done... Like many people, my biggest (only) regret is that I didn't do it years ago... Mate, I'm not sure what else you want to know or even if this has been any help to you... I've not read it back so it may not even make any sense.. If there's ANYTHING you think I might be able to help with, please don't hesitate to contact me, either here or via private message.. Take care... Jason

@@Ignatius I started at 562 pounds Have lost 230+ in 13 months I'm at work at the moment but when I get home I'll come back here and answer all the questions you've asked and any others you may think of...

@@private54 I'm in Qbn... Sleeved by Dr Mosse in Feb last year... Your best bet would be talking to whichever surgeon you're going with and seeing what they say... They may be able to give you a date now... I dunno how it works but I've no doubt they will...

Great job @@elo402 What a head start!! You're f***ing awesome!!!

Chat room... Now!!! Giddy up..

Great progress pics @@edodd Well done...

No... I will!!

@@Katnroyal I'm happy to crack y'all up... @@CowgirlJane Nah, no flouncing... I was so angry at myself that I left the chatroom, sent myself a stern email and then went to bed... Of course, I couldn't sleep until I was once again talking to myself, so I got up and dealt with it... Never let the sun set on an argument with a loved one... And let's face it - I'm one of my own favourite loved ones...

I had a look... I was alone... Talked to myself for a while... But then I got bored and started to troll myself... So I yelled at myself and left...

I'll now make a point of checking in there each time I'm here... Just to see if there's anyone there...

I don't know whether you any of you realize it but each and every one of you is fu**ing gorgeous... You're all incredible... Don't ever doubt it... And don't ever forget it...