SarahSleeve

Heres 100lbs gone forever.

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Here you go! Lost 94, but close enough!

Try to start slowly exercising. It will help. I started the gym 4 months after surgery and I can't believe how much it has helped define my results. I added a pic for you to see

Thank you for the replies! I know I have a very long journey ahead of me but just knowing that I'm 100% ready and there are others I can turn to when I have questions makes me feel like I really can succeed! Here's to being healthier and happier by this time next year

I'm 41 (pushing 42) and I needed to lose at least 100 lbs. I've lost 90 in 8 months. It's the best gift I EVER gave myself. I don't regret the surgery or the power it has given me to control what I eat. I have my life back.

I was sleeved over 18 months ago. My husband didn't think I needed WLS. In fact, he shared with me that my decision to have WLS diminished his respect for me, because he had always thought of me as an incredibly strong person and he felt that having WLS was me "giving up". A lot of his perspective was my own fault. I had lost and regained many times since we were together. Every time I regained, I always had some excuse: an injury, an illness, recovering from surgery, etc. The problem is, I always milked those excuses for far longer than necessary and I took full advantage of them. Meanwhile, he bought into them. So where I *knew* that my regain was 99% to do with my own failures, he thought it was 99% legit.
Also, I was a secret binge eater and I went out of my way to hide a lot of my eating from him. I would eat big fast food lunches, then bring the evidence back to work with me to throw in the trash. Or I would take trash straight out to the bin in the garage instead of putting it in the kitchen garbage where he might see it.
So I did a really good job of tricking him into thinking I had a better handle on my eating and my weight than I really did. Which meant he didn't see how much I truly struggled with it, both mentally and physically.
By the time I had my VSG, I knew myself well enough to know that it was the right decision. But it has taken me losing all my excess weight and maintaining it for 6+ months for my husband to catch on.
We had a great talk at dinner on Saturday night. I had completed my 8 mile run for my half marathon training and was rewarding myself with a date night of dinner and a movie. While I was on the treadmill, doing my run, I had watched a couple more episodes of My 600 Pound Life. I was discussing the episodes with my husband and we got into the talk we always get into when discussing that show... how do people let it get that bad. We talked about how spouses and parents are "enablers" and how Dr. Nowzaradan always berates them for that, but in real life, what choice do they really have? It's easy to be on the outside looking in and say "well he should just stop buying sweets for her" or "well she should stop cooking him two dinners a night" or whatever. But when you are inside that reality, caring for someone you love and wanting to keep them happy, it's easy to see how they end up in those roles. My husband confessed that had I continued on that trajectory, he doesn't think he would have had the strength to try to intervene. Plus he might not have even realized how bad it had gotten until it was much too late. As it is, he says he looks at pictures of me now at my highest weight and he can't believe it. He doesn't ever remember seeing me that big. He sees those pictures and thinks "how did I ever let her get that big?" And since he never consciously registered how big I was and how much damage I was doing to my health, he can't truly say that he wouldn't have let it keep getting worse without realizing it.
He then went on to say that he'd like to think *I* would never have let it get that out of control. And my response was, "I'd like to think I'd never let it get as far as it did, but I did!" I told him I probably would have made many more valiant attempts to lose weight. I probably would have gone through many more cycles of losing and regaining. But eventually the cycle was going to have to break in one direction or the other. Either I was going to lose the weight for good and keep it off or I was going to keep packing on the pounds and give up on losing. Without surgery, the latter was the FAR more likely scenario. Eventually I really would have had a chronic excuse, like a bad knee or back or hip and I would give up entirely.
We came away from the dinner with me finally feeling like he understood why I'd had the surgery. Why it really was the best decision for our future. And even though it took him a while this time, once again he understands that I am always right.

Well......you can always wait around and become as bad off as I did a dozen or more years down the road.
If I'd have taken action of some substantial and fundamental way at age 33......I would't have found myself feeling old and broke down by my mid 40's. It took finally being wiped out with the fun symptoms of a disc injury that finally, finally got me focused on making a lifestyle change.
I went with a sleeve.
I have only one regret. One.
It is why....why.....why did my stubborn arse not do this much sooner ????
I'm just now able to reflect back and uncover some of the reasons I didn't take that action at 33. Part of it was that I had great self esteem and was very active. 60+ workweeks on average, days spent hunting, golfing, fishing, boating, etc. If something fun popped up on the radar.....count me in. I was there. At some point, however.....the bad eating habits and activity level just failed to be in sync and I failed to reconcile this. I knew how to lose weight and would do so......but discipline was like a switch that was thrown own and off.......and when it was off, wow.....serious pounds would show up.
Health issues and recovery from these really narrowed down my fun. Since there was no formal gym time taking place....and the fun outdoors had always been my main source of activity....bad situations occurred.
Now I'm starting to get back to where I need to be. The sleeve has been a most powerful tool. I realize now that my health isn't the only benefit I'm seeing. Turns out that I was having serious self esteem issues as well. I was letting myself stay stuck in rut......carved out a pattern of living and was hiding within the confines of this small window of life.
Now....I am going through examining everything about my life....it's all on the table. It's all up for negotiation. The unhealthy aspects are being eliminated. I'm finding that change is needed and I no longer fear that change. Some of the changes are small.......some are tremendous and a little bit scary. It's been a great time of self discovery and examination of what I'd like to do to set myself up for the future.
Spare yourself the next decade of sliding off into bad habits and unhealthy way of living. I went down that road and paid the price. I was absolutely blessed to be allowed this second chance.
I'm not saying to have surgery. Only you can make that decision. Gain the most insight and educate yourself as much as possible before committing to wls. Don't hesitate to make a change, though. Commit to getting healthy and act on this. Put forth the effort in ways that are safe and will give results. If you are not already doing so...then begin frequent exercise and establish a good way of eating. Get these fundamental behaviors in place on your own.......you'll need them if you do decide to have wls....and you'll benefit from them anyway.
I wish you the very best and hope that you gain support from your family. They may have to warm up to the idea and be better informed as to what wls surgery is and what it can offer. Seeing you become dedicated to healthy behaviors will certainly help gain their support.
You are among friends here, too. This is a very special place with some of the coolest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing.

Thank you for the replies! I know I have a very long journey ahead of me but just knowing that I'm 100% ready and there are others I can turn to when I have questions makes me feel like I really can succeed! Here's to being healthier and happier by this time next year

Thank you for the replies! I know I have a very long journey ahead of me but just knowing that I'm 100% ready and there are others I can turn to when I have questions makes me feel like I really can succeed! Here's to being healthier and happier by this time next year