MemphisWLS

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You sir are a MACHINE! You've done incredibly well - please keep us posted on your progress please?

(And in regards to the haters - sometimes I think people get caught up counting others people's blessings instead of their own. Sad but it happens. Just keep letting your light shine [emoji295])

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The funny this is about people that hate let me break it down. First off I gained weight after I left the Navy due to being single father, stress etc, doesn't matter... I always knew how to eat healthy, workout etc...just because you aren't doing something right don't come at me... I was 381 April 1st got down to 369 the day of my surgery on April 12th and now I'm 280.... I'm happy I can walk 5 miles a day and drink Water, Protein etc and I love sweet tea I eat I just know not to eat wrong....

It's been fun doing this and it's paying off so far

Today I had an "ah-ha" moment. It took 4 years, but I think I get it! It was triggered by this before photo popping up in my Facebook memories from 5 years ago, (coupled with my most recent post-op photo taken last week, down 120 pounds since surgery in 2013). (attached below)
....And then reading the following quote on a friend's post:
"Maybe the journey isn't so much about becoming anything. Maybe it's about unbecoming everything that isn't you so you can be who you were in the first place."
I've struggled for years since losing the weight after surgery with questions of "is this the 'real' me, or am I just pretending and the 'real' 'fat' me will resurface sooner or later?" "Can people really change long-term?" It felt like the obese, sad, self-hating "me" was a monster waiting just below the surface to re-emerge. Give enough time and the right circumstances, the "real me" monster will rear it's head and I'll find myself back at nearly 300 pounds.
Guys! I get it now! It's not about change. It's not about the "sticking power" of change. It's not about willpower or determination. It's not even about counting carbs, Protein, calories, and ounces of Water. Sure those are tools that help. But it's not about that.
It's about doing the hard emotional work to figure out why I was hiding myself behind 150 excess pounds. It was about allowing myself to have a voice and using it. It was about demanding self-respect and respect from others. It was about leaving behind, painfully as it was in some cases, the toxic people in my life who emotionally damaged me. It was about processing the feelings that I didn't allow myself to feel for 18 years.
Once I realized this, once I did this work, I could little by little shed the layers that hid who I was. I don't hate myself anymore. I'm not even angry at myself for letting myself get to be 300 pounds like I was when my journey started. I realize now that I was coping. I was doing the best I knew how to do at the time. I look at that person in the "before" picture below and I feel compassion because I know she did her best.
I'm able now to let go the "fear" - and trust me, it's a literal fear - of that "real me" monster re-emerging from just below the surface. I can let it go because I realize, this is the real me. It was actually opposite. It was all the hiding I was doing under the emotional eating and the 150 excess pounds that was hiding the "real me."
So I have to on some level disagree with those who say this is a process of change. Sure, you have to change your behavioral choices with food and exercise or none of this will work. But for me it was not "becoming a new person" or "changing" who I am as a person. For me it was about simply allowing myself to feel and allowing myself to return home to who I was before I was hurt and who the universe intends me to be.
Feel free to check out my blog linked in my signature for more of my journey!

Perfectly said. Someone came up to me the other day and said, "don't you wish you would have lost the weight before your daughter's wedding." Meaning, don't you wish you looked skinny in her wedding photos. I thought about it a long while and realized, I have no regrets. That was me a year ago, this is me now. I don't cringe looking at the pictures, I think, girl, you had some issues. Slowly, I am figuring them out and letting them go, one by one.

I almost want to offer my service of "ass whoopings", give me a call, I show up, punch the person in the mouth and leave LOL. Some people have such nerve!!!!

I say to this topic and people who ask dumb question. Saying negative comments or questions makes me itch especially when people know if they were given the chance to have the surgery they would too. Nobody wants to live this way and people can make you want to get violent with stupid questions. All of us who are struggling or had the surgery be strong, hold on and ignore idiots.

Today I am 24 month, 2 years post-op. I just went back today to read what I posed a year ago. At that time I was super happy with my weight loss at the time. 4 months later I was not as thrilled with my weight loss. I was fairly miserable and in the middle of a complete identity crisis. Now 8 months later I feel a lot better about everything.
At this point I am pretty scared about long term success because there is so little support for long term “successful” WLS patients. If you are regaining or never reached goal that is a lot of support but if you are “successful”, it is mostly a pat on the head and “keep doing what you are doing”.
The change from being super morbidly obese to being a “normal” size and under 200 pounds has been very mentally taxing. Like I said there is little support for it. There is little support in the bariatric community because most people never do it and there is virtually no support outside of it because it is a real rarity. I spent a lot of time and money trying to find a therapist that could help and there are basically zero with any experience, so I was left on my own to find my own plan to work it. Which luckily I was able to do. Everyone, even medical professionals (perhaps especially medical professionals) seem to think losing weight solves all your problems and that is really not the case at all. Losing created all kinds of new problems for me that I never even knew existed.
Weight at 1 year post-op 231
Weight at 2 years post-op 186
If I was just going by the scale as a measurement, I would be disappointed right now because I have only lost 45 pounds in the past year and I wanted to be down 50 by now. I stopped eating for weight loss about 5 months ago, and while I am not necessarily trying to eat for maintenance, I am not eating to lose either. In that time period I have still managed to lose 10 pounds. The goal right now is to lose another 15 pounds total over the next year, and hopefully lose another 5 pounds before the end of the year. I could lose it faster if I tried but it is better for my mental health to stay weight stable.
Physically I am already at a size I like. 8/10 is pretty perfect for my height/frame. I am pretty sure with skin removal I will be a 4/6. I have lost a lot of inches, and more interestingly my body shape has changed and adjusted a lot. I have a 34 band and I don’t even think my band size was that small in HS. I can’t ever recall buying anything with a 34 band, so that a huge shock, NSV for me.
Last fall I really wanted skin removal surgery very badly. Now I see that would have been a tremendous mistake. The surgeries I would have picked last year and the results would have been lackluster. I definitely see the advantage of waiting for plastic surgery. Your skin, fat, body distribution changes. The body is amazing thing and watch it repair and rebuild itself is amazing to witness.
I always took a lot of pictures of myself. I have never been camera shy even at my heaviest. Now I take multiple pictures a day as a way to become accustomed to how I look. Pictures and my clothing sizes are my size validation. My face is so different now, the shape is totally different. It has gone from round to square, which requires different makeup application and accessories.

Inch loss
I have lost 65.5 inches total since last year

Difference Bust (fullest part of bust): 6 Pecs (just above the bust line): 4 Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) : 5.5 Waist: 10 Abdomen: 5 Hips: 8 Right Upper Thigh: 4 Right Lower Thigh: 4 Left Upper Thigh: 4 Left Lower Thigh: 4 Right Calf: 2.5 Left Calf: 2.5 Right Upper Arm: 3 Left Upper Arm: 3 Totals 65.5 I have so many NSV almost daily it is impossible to list them all. I appreciate the wonder and amazement of what I can do now. In some ways I look forward to when this is more normalized but I kind of hope it never is so I don’t forget. I love my new sports car, I worked hard for it, and I look great in it. I would have never been able to fit in it comfortably before or get in and out of easily. My lap dog really enjoys my lap now that I really have one. I can fit anywhere and shop anywhere.

My total losses
HW 377
SW 358
CW 186
Size 28/30 at Surgery
Currently 8/10
Measurements Difference Bust (fullest part of bust): 26 Pecs (just above the bust line): 19 Ribs (top of rib cage just below the bust) : 26.5 Waist: 35.5 Abdomen: 28 Hips: 25 Right Upper Thigh: 12.5 Right Lower Thigh: 13.5 Left Upper Thigh: 12 Left Lower Thigh: 12.5 Right Calf: 4 Left Calf: 4.25 Right Upper Arm: 9 Left Upper Arm: 8.5 Totals 236.25

Alex that was me in February. I am exactly 5 months out and can drink as much as I want. It will get better. Everything gets better with time with this surgery. And yes the hunger will come back too, enjoy this period!!!

Alex that was me in February. I am exactly 5 months out and can drink as much as I want. It will get better. Everything gets better with time with this surgery. And yes the hunger will come back too, enjoy this period!!!

They never show up until they have regained 75% of their weight. Every flipping time.
The one vegetarian that used to post here that was sleeved around the time I was never got goal or anywhere remotely close. I don't think they ever even lost 50% of excess weight.
Prove us wrong carb people, prove us wrong. I'm rooting for for you.

Everyone has different instructions. Those were my instructions and most instructions are written like that. I also feel like that is an easy way to be successful. WLS is an amazing tool to lose weight, and it seems like a lot of people are hell bent against using the tool to the best of its ability.
Also for me, this is basically how I grew up eating. I forgot about it and didn't think much about it until Post-op for surgery. I grew up in a family of thin athletic people, even into old age. Which also reinforces to me this is the correct manner in which to eat. Additionally, a lot of my family is Native American, straight on the Reservation, and we value the sacrifice that animals make to provide us nourishment, so it makes sense to eat protein first. I spent a lot of time with depression era Grandparents who saw meat as a luxury and a blessing not something to be wasted.
People can eat however they want and do whatever they want. There seems to be some habits that long term successful impose. No one has to follow them or even care. I took notes and decided to go the easy route. I didn't spend tens of thousands of dollar and get chopped and screwed to fail. I follow best practices in IT, I will follow them in my post-op life too.

Sooo true Alex. I have a digital scale at home and I measure all my food. That way it's easy for me to have a pretty much good estimate of how much I should be eating when I am not making my own food or weighing at home. For me though I figured out I have to be very careful with the food choices I make and I choose wisely and carefully before I eat now. I wasn't really tracking earlier cos I thot it was unnecessary and honestly I can remember every single thing I have eaten in the last week. But after reading a tread here I followed [mention=255228]outsidematchinside[/mention] suggestion to log using LoseIt, I purchased the premium and pretty much track everything I put in my mouth. I stay within my calorie budget because I pretty much eat the same things everyday. I had a bit of a stall for two weeks, stayed at 216 and almost went crazy. But thank god for keeping track of everything I was eating or we could have missed the pattern. My doctor figured out my muscle milk that I had just started was the culprit. I couldn't understand why with it being only 160 calories but well I stopped it, my stall broke and I lost 3lbs in two days and back on track again. I hope to see more progress when I start exercising regularly. I am working on that so far I am putting in about 2 days a week. I hope to up it to at least 5 days a week soon.

I am trying to come at this as, this is my new "normal." All my friends ask - when can you start eating pizza, mexican food, etc., when can you start drinking again. It drives me crazy!!! I continually tell them, I can have anything I want right NOW. I'm making the choice NOT to have them because those foods/alcohol are what got me here in the first place. Might have to find new friends - those skinny b*&^es!

The pre-op diet is working .. losing about 2 lbs a day, but I am not sure if I can keep it up. I don't have physical hunger pains .. they are all mental. Its like I look forward to eating which is really turning out to be my biggest problem. I also have the biggest cravings for salty food which of course all junk food lol. I guess eating a bad of fritos is better then a bag of jolly ranchers. I never craved salt or even put it on anything before my surgery, so that is new.
At this stage I have come to realize that my eating plan is really my life plan, I seemed to be suppressing this. I think in the back of my head I was saying to myself .. just get through this and you will be better! Over the last week it is becoming clear that restricting what I eat is a good thing and just because they make Fritos, doesn't mean you have to eat them =D
What ever happened to finding normal...

So you were able to eat puréed food the day after surgery?
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Ok this post is hilarious...now that I think about it none of my friends or husband wears a fitbit and they are all healthy weight and do work-out daily. Oh my....about to dump mine.....lollll. Thanks for the post gave me a good laugh this morning.

Fellow sleevers unite! I remember you all, surfing through these forums for hours worried about my surgery but excited for the potential health and physical change. Now I'm on the other side almost 5 months out and want to share my story with those that are waiting in anticipation or a few days out wondering whats next. I was sleeved on 09/29/2017. At my surgery I weight 363 and my weight when I started the liquid diet was 380.4. I think I ended up topping out somewhere around 387 in the days or weeks before the liquid diet. As of this morning I weight 273.8. So roughly 107 lbs in 5 months. I'll take it! Size wise I am currently a 38 waist, and XXL top. I was a 46/48 waist and 4XL a few short months ago. My overall goal is 225 (I'm 6'2). Here is my lame attempt at a Letterman style top ten list but backwards. Time flies, enjoy the ride, and the compliments

Losing weight is cool. Growing saggy man skin tits not.
Pretty Pimpin’ by Kurt Vile is on my sleeve journey mix tape.
Its great being able to sit in a chair and not worry about breaking it.
I used to love Soup. That was before eating it everyday for 4 weeks.
Only fat people wear fitbits. I wore mine, and it was stupid. I've never seen any active person actually wearing one. I probably exercise more without it.
You can weigh yourself everyday. I did, its OK. First thing in the morning, post dump, post shower. I’m suprised I haven’t gone through a costco size pack of AA batteries.
Levi’s that aren’t loose or baggy fit = AWESOME!
I am no longer that fattest person everywhere I go, There are a crapload fatter than me.....I know as I just got back from Disney.
Sex gets better with every 20 lbs.
Holy shit, I’m not sweating!

I'm want to share my story so that any of you who are in the fence about this can have a full picture of what can happen both bad and good.
I had gastric bypass dec 2014. My surgery was very very painful. The first two days I vomited a lot of blood and they had trouble getting my pain under control. They gave me a lot of narcotics. My dr, dr Thoman from Santa Barbara, barely checked on me. I was at cottage hospital in SB.
I went home after five days in the hospital. I was going okay but then. The mental challenge of not eating was no joke. It was something I was so used to. They had given me a ton of narcotics and I kinda used those to cope with the emotions of not being able to eat.
About a week later I started to have major pain in my upper stomach. I went back to cottage and they found stones in my gallbladder so out it came. I went home but the pain remained. My doctor was very absent during this time. I told him about the pain and I kept taking more and more narcotics to deal with it. He blamed my pain on the narcotics but I felt trapped in a catch 22. Take them or not take them.. either way.. pain.
Finally after several exploratory surgeries my dr decided to revert my surgery and make it into a gastric sleeve. After that my pain was gone but I was by now hooked on narcotics. I ended up having to go to a detox facility to get off of them. Worst week of my life.
I could barely eat anything during this time and dropped weight rapidly. After I was free of the narcs and started to try and eat. But I could not get anything solid to pass through my stomach. Months went by and finally I said- okay something is wrong. Every time I ate solids I threw up. I elected to go to a new doctor after my bad experience with dr Thoman. I just felt he didn't care and no loner trusted him and his bedside manner was terrible.
I went with dr Swartz in Fresno and he was great. I diagnosed me with a sever structure and did an endoscopy which opened it up. He said I had a ton of scar tissue from dr Thomans style of revision.
After that I gradually began to eat some solids and after many months is continued to approve. Needless to say I lost a huge amount of weight very fast and was loving that. However I had severe malnutrition. My hair fell out in clumps and my legs went numb. I have dumping syndrome and I also still
Sometimes vomit if I don't chew enough of just having a bad day or mix liquids with solids etc.
I feel the American health care system to be very lacking in post operative care. Also they pass out narcotics like they are candy which had a lot to do with my issues.
It's been over 2 years. I went from 240 to 115. I've since gained back to 129 and am holding there. I no longer diet, I just eat to fullness and try not to think about food very much. I run and lift weights daily and that has been the key for me to feel comfortable without having to stay on a diet forever which is impossible to do.
Reaching maintenance was the hardest part of this process and I had very little advice to help me besides to stay on a diet forever. Ones appetite does return and one is able to eat much larger quantities that early on. For instance, now I can eat almost a whole chipotle burrito. I decided dieting wasn't for me and embraced intuitive eating philosophies instead which help me maintain in a place I am happy with.
I still live with this surgery in a daily basis. food gets stuck at least a couple times a week and I have to throw up do to the pain. I can't eat too much or eat with liquids or I will have dumping syndrome. (Yes you can dump with a sleeve). I am happy but good is always an issue. I feel quite sick after I eat sometimes. It's always a struggle for me. I'm not sure if this is due to my complications or just the surgery itself. My best friend had bypass and she says the same thing.
On a positive note I have an amazing body. I really really enjoy my body and my energy and health and I would do it all again even though it was hard. I can run, chase my kids, work my active job, wear any clothes I desire. I feel very attractive.
If you are considering this surgery because you aren't able to live a healthy and energetic life at your current weight, than do it. It won't change how you feel about yourself on the inside and it could end up being replaced by other dependency issues... but at least you will be physically stronger and healthier. I suggest therapy for anyone that is going to do this. Healing comes from within.
Remember you will never again be able to eat to your hearts content. You won't be able to feel like you do now when you eat. This surgery will not help you maintain your weight loss forever and it's vital that you have realistic expectations. Try and make peace with food. Don't see it as an enemy but as a vital component to health.

I dealt with very little loose skin. Mostly on my neck and tummy. I am now having plastic surgery for it in Mexico which I will post about in the plastic surgery section.

On a side note, I you are considering vsg surgery in Mexico, I would highly recommend it. My care here has been extraordinary.


  

Awesome. You look fabulous!!

Same thing happened to me I thought I was dying, I couldn't drink anything for the first week. Thank God my my obsessive stalking on BP before surgery and all the files I kept on the vets suggestions, I remembered I had read somewhere about another person w/the same issue....my problem was the cold drinks. I found out that I could take sips of very hot liquids with no issues. Popsicles, Jello n cold Water were a no and still are for me today. It will get better. I still don't know how I made it past 2 weeks post surgery.....take it easy you are still healing.

Sooo true Alex. I have a digital scale at home and I measure all my food. That way it's easy for me to have a pretty much good estimate of how much I should be eating when I am not making my own food or weighing at home. For me though I figured out I have to be very careful with the food choices I make and I choose wisely and carefully before I eat now. I wasn't really tracking earlier cos I thot it was unnecessary and honestly I can remember every single thing I have eaten in the last week. But after reading a tread here I followed [mention=255228]outsidematchinside[/mention] suggestion to log using LoseIt, I purchased the premium and pretty much track everything I put in my mouth. I stay within my calorie budget because I pretty much eat the same things everyday. I had a bit of a stall for two weeks, stayed at 216 and almost went crazy. But thank god for keeping track of everything I was eating or we could have missed the pattern. My doctor figured out my muscle milk that I had just started was the culprit. I couldn't understand why with it being only 160 calories but well I stopped it, my stall broke and I lost 3lbs in two days and back on track again. I hope to see more progress when I start exercising regularly. I am working on that so far I am putting in about 2 days a week. I hope to up it to at least 5 days a week soon.

Good bye. ..McDonald's Sweet Tea. I will miss your sweetness. You are my most favorite drink in the world. I spent good money on you week after week. But that's all over.
Good bye....candy. Oh candy. Our relationship is almost 40 years old. Many times you have been my best friend. Any and all types of candy. I have loved you all. There is something so fabulous about eating candy...but the reality is that you were a bandaid to my life. If I got upset, happy, mad or sad...you were always there. But that's all over.
Good bye Cool Ranch Doritos and Lime Tostitos. You two were good for a night time hang out. But that's all over.
Good bye Soda...esp Wild Cherry Pepsi. I mean come on your WILD and quick and easy to find at every check out aisle in every store. But that's all over.
Today I am breaking up with all of you. I am starting my Day 1 of PreOp. Your power and control over me are no more. I am ready to make new friends. Friends that will take care of my body, heal my body, nourish my body....not slowly try to kill me. You and I have had a lifetime together. But your time has ended and mine is just beginning....and you will not have any power left over me.
Sincerely,
The girl who loved you too much but realizes she deserves more.

I have been low carbing off and on since 2001, so most of my experience is prior to WLS. I would say once you burn off the sugar in your body and get over the sugar withdrawals you start functioning normally. Maybe 6 weeks you notice you are firing on more than all cylinders. It is subjective and I can only go by my experience and the experience of my friends. If you read the stuff by the Bulletproof guy he swears by it, but he is also into a lot of other bio-hacking, some based in science some whacky. The difference with post-op on WLS surgery is takes you a while to be able to eat enough calories to really be clear in your mind. At least 800 calories daily for me, to fuel working and just regular activities. When my calories were below that I was fatigued a lot.
I don't have celiac and I don't have a gluten allergy and most people that claim to have gluten allergies have never been tested. I mean think about it, if people were allergic to gluten, most of the population would be sick, it doesn't make sense. Most people are reacting to too much sugar.
I don't tolerate sugar more specifically HFCS. HFCS makes me sick. It is too much sugar too fast and it floods your system. People say sugar is sugar and that is kind of true, but how different sugars react in your body is very different.
I try to stay at 25 net carbs per day and no more than 75 on a carb day. I only count net carbs because I really need my Fiber and net carbs makes the most sense. Really with just eating meat and veggies, it is pretty hard to break even into 25 carbs. I really have no idea how people end up eating so many carbs. I had ribs yesterday so today I am just eating fish and a lot of veggies so I will post later what my carb count is with all the veggies I eat. If people are seriously just eating meat and green veggies is impossible to have a high carb count, counting net carbs or actual carbs.
I think if you seriously low carb for a long period like WLS patients should be doing you are going to have to carb cycle some, or your body just gets used to it and nothing happens. I am still experimenting with this.
This day is bad because I had a Fit Crunch Bar

I have one day a week that I usually have carbs, I had to add some carb cycling because I was stalling a lot. Saturday I had fish tacos and pizza all day and it was pretty glorious.

This is the nutrient break out for that day.

This is a high carb day for me and my net carbs are 32.5. I also went to Starbucks in the afternoon and had a Trenta Cold Brew, but I always order it black and add my own half and half.
This is a day I didn't really feel like eating much

/r/keto has been a really big help to me. I can't eat the fat they eat, but there are lots of good tips there. I use the Keto Calculator to calculate my macros to set in LoseIt. It is awesome because well most people can't handle the huge fat deficits that we can, they would be too hungry, but WLS patients can go on and take the max fat deficit. The weight loss forecast it comes up with there is also really helpful. It tells you at the points you have to increase your calories.
I want to add that I am not just coming up with how and what I eat on my own with stuff I have found on the internet. Things I have researched have lead me in this direction but I also am in contact with two University Professors.
My biggest issue right now is I don't eat enough calories for my RMR or my activity level. It is pretty hard to up my calories but I am trying to slowly. I don't have a diminished metabolism at all and I want to keep it that way. The best way to do that is to keep adjusting your calories higher as you lose. Leaving them low for a long period, lowers your metabolism.