ma08

From 597lbs to 251lbs. Yeah this surgery can work for you as long as you allow it to.

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This +1... found the binge/food funeral to cold turkey 2 week liquid diet was a huge mental boost going into the surgery. 2 weeks of all liquids is one of the hardest things to do, but it is such an important mental step. Here's me the other day (Oct 1st) on my first surgiversary... from over 400lbs to around 215lbs. Even if I don't lose another lbs, I'm already a good 30 lbs lighter than when I graduated high school 18 years ago.

I actually decided a couple of weeks before the two week pre-op diet that I was going to indulge my various cravings, as a sort of "last blast" before everything came to a stop. I must have eaten at Buffalo Wild Wings like four times, had various favorite dishes at different local restaurants, ate junk...just indulged, basically. Not the healthiest move, no...but I knew I was never going to do it again. That was going to be THE END.
I was going to save my favorite sushi place for the last day. As the end of my splurge neared, I started finding that I had kind of "burned out" on it. I wasn't really craving anything, just eating routinely, and I started to come to the realization that by needing to do that splurge, I was acknowledging how great food's control had become over me. It was at the wheel, and not me. I started asking myself, why did I feel the need to do that? Was what I was giving up so important, in light of what it had done to me?
I didn't go to the sushi place, my last day. I went to a Subway and had a turkey sub, chips and one last Coke. The next day, I started the liquid diet and no matter how hungry I got (and I got REALLY frickin' hungry), I never once cheated. Not once. I just buckled down, got serious, and dedicated myself to the change. The hunger was only temporary, I knew it was only two weeks, and after that I wouldn't be feeling it anymore. Sure enough...I don't. Surgery was 9 days ago, and I don't feel hunger at all. I'd be lying if I said I'm not going through my own mental process right now of sort of "mourning" food, and my old lifestyle and stomach size, but none of that did any favors for me...it just made me obese. If I list the pros of eating whatever I eat in one column, and the cons in the other, I easily fill the page with cons...and get maybe three pros. It's all in the mind.
So for me, doing the pre-diet binge was helpful in clearing a mental hurdle and sort of preparing myself for the process...but again, not a real healthy thing to do. Still...upon weigh-in before surgery, I had lost 35 pounds from my high, a month earlier. So it didn't do THAT much damage

Amazing progress, guys! I am still losing albeit slowly, started at 422 but had been as high as 450 two months before the surgery, right at about 285 now. Not sure where this will end up, I expect to be at my goal of 260 by my two years post-gastric bypass date in April 2017. It is slow but sure now, and in reality the very rapid weight loss was rather debiliating for me, I prefer this slow and steady and getting all of my food and exercise habits cleaned up and habitual. Not complaining, the fast weight loss was part of the plan and the surgery, but that period lasted 6-7 months for me, then slowed.
I do know all of my co-morbidities are virtually gone, my blood fats perfect, diabetes 95% better, blood pressure actually low, edema gone, still have sleep apnea but it is likely genetic in my case, and movement is so easy now.
Still dealing with body image -- in my head, still a big fat guy. At times, I need to pick something up off the floor and reach for a grabber, even though now, all I have to do is bend over and pick it up, no problem. I can weed the garden just by bending over and pulling the weed...but in my head, my first response is that I can't. I saw myself in a reflection on the front porch glass, and did a double take, yes, that is me now.....but everyone says that we gradually get our brains turned around to match the new reality of fat no more. I am almost 6'4" with a huge frame, size 8 1/4 head and size 18EW feet, and am always going to be a very huge guy, but no seat belt extension on planes, no problem with mid size SUV, no problems with booths at restaurants, and I even get in and out of the bath tub without trouble.... I do like this new guy.

No longer a member of this club. Had a little extra time this week so I upped my exercise from 60 minutes a day to 90 minutes. Lost over 8 pounds this week. My goal was to be under 400 in time for surgery. I haven't even started the liquid diet yet and my surgery is still a month away and I'm under by the slimmest of margins.