PorkChopExpress

VSG helped me, but changing how I deal with food was the real shift. Start tracking now, what you eat and why. That mental prep pays off later.

Yeah, the wine’s likely the issue. Alcohol messes with your sleep, especially if you drink late. At 10 pm, your body’s still processing it hours later. Get out of bed for a bit, keep lights low, do something boring. Try again when you feel sleepy. Skip the wine next time and see if that helps.

VSG helped me, but changing how I deal with food was the real shift. Start tracking now, what you eat and why. That mental prep pays off later.

Yeah, the wine’s likely the issue. Alcohol messes with your sleep, especially if you drink late. At 10 pm, your body’s still processing it hours later. Get out of bed for a bit, keep lights low, do something boring. Try again when you feel sleepy. Skip the wine next time and see if that helps.

VSG helped me, but changing how I deal with food was the real shift. Start tracking now, what you eat and why. That mental prep pays off later.

I felt the same after my breakup, no appetite, no energy. Just took it day by day, small meals, short walks. It gets easier. Hang in there ❤️

I felt the same after my breakup, no appetite, no energy. Just took it day by day, small meals, short walks. It gets easier. Hang in there ❤️

I think a lot of us have that number in the back of our minds. If you're feeling good and healthy, that's what really matters. But if you want to push for that healthy BMI, go for it

Getting some fluid removed from your band is a good first step. In the meantime, try sleeping with your head elevated and avoiding trigger foods like caffeine, alcohol, and spicy stuff. If the Prilosec isn't cutting it, maybe talk to your doctor about a stronger medication.

I totally get the dilemma of needing presentable clothes for work events while knowing your size will change dramatically soon. Before my own weight loss journey, I stuck to versatile, forgiving pieces like stretchy trousers and flowy tops to accommodate size changes. For events, I’d often invest in just one or two classic items from affordable stores or clearance racks. It helped me feel polished without breaking the bank.
If you’re into bags and accessories, though, they’re a great way to elevate any outfit, regardless of size changes. I’ve always loved browsing product roundups for timeless options like Coach bags and accessories. They make even simple outfits feel more put-together.

Congrats on the hoodie.

I am about nine months post-op now and if I really wanted to, I could probably get over 2,000+ calories a day if I really wanted to, but that's really down to food choices and not volume. The good thing is, I'm now only about 55 pounds away from my goal weight and I find controlling my intake FAR easier now...and 55 pounds seems so do-able on my own steam, that I don't care if my "honeymoon period" is about to come to a close. I can take it from here, for sure.

I am about nine months post-op now and if I really wanted to, I could probably get over 2,000+ calories a day if I really wanted to, but that's really down to food choices and not volume. The good thing is, I'm now only about 55 pounds away from my goal weight and I find controlling my intake FAR easier now...and 55 pounds seems so do-able on my own steam, that I don't care if my "honeymoon period" is about to come to a close. I can take it from here, for sure.

It started really early with me and it was a combination of things. My family ate a lot of bread and baked goods, which my mom excelled at making and I loved. We didn't eat super healthy, and when my mom tried to make that stuff, I wouldn't eat it. I was a pill at restaurants, so McDonalds became the go-to for meals when they were out with me. I loved junk food. I was always just sort of a pudgy kid, not necessarily "fat" but heavier than my peers (and bigger in size, taller and broader shoulders). So I took a lot of teasing about my size/weight. I develped low self-esteem from the teasing about my body, but my classmates would react with amazement at how much I could eat at a sitting. I have a particular memory of sloppy joe days at school, which I loved but my classmates didn't...so I'd end up with a stack of 3-4 of them at least, and eat them all. I remember this primarily because a teacher came to me saying they didn't think I should be eating so much, and made me feel ashamed. But I had gotten attention for it from my classmates.
As I got older, I took more razzing from my peers the bigger I got...and I still wasn't THAT bad. But when I went out to play basketball in little league and we'd have to play shirts vs. skins in practice, I was almost always skins...and my flab would jiggle while I played, drawing laughs and jokes from teammates. Kids are just really blunt and cruel. I did lose some weight playing basketball, but my self-esteem took so many hits that I eventually quit athletics entirely.
By the time I graduated high school, I was 190 pounds or so...not terrible for a kid who was over 6' tall, but still heavy. However, it was when I went off to college that things really went south. I discovered that I couldn't do what I thought I was going to do (be a programmer) due to my lack of aptitude in math, and I became depressed. I started sleeping all day and staying up all night, which increased my depression. Which increased my eating, as a comfort. My mom would send care packages that invariably contained cinnamon rolls or Cookies, baked goods that she knew I loved. I ate like crap that year, and I went up to like 230-240 pounds. I dropped out and returned home, and started working random jobs...but I kept eating. Each threshold I'd near, 250 or 300, or 350...I would say, "This far, no further." And then I would blast right past them. I'd put on the breaks and reverse periodically when I got serious about a diet for 5-6 months, then I'd stall out, lose my willpower, fall off the wagon and go right back to my old habits again...and onward and upward.
Late last year, I decided it was time to put a stop to it and that the only way I was going to succeed, having dieted throughout the entire course of my life back to junior high, was to have surgery. I just couldn't achieve 200 pounds of fat loss through sheer will, it had become too monolithic. I needed the help. Now that I've done it, I feel such a sensation of hope, that it's not an "I wish I could lose weight" anymore, but an "I WILL lose the weight."

@@SalOdyssey Not really, everyone's body loses fat at its own rate. What you care about mainly is the trend over time, and the average per week. Just track it over a period of a month or so, that's a better gauge of how you're doing. But the body doesn't go on a 7 day schedule like most of us weigh. You may drop two pounds the day after you weigh, as your fat cells had been holding onto Water that day and then expelled a bunch of their contents the next.
@@Ignatius Nice! I wouldn't sweat the scale for a few weeks post-op though, the healing process combined with other hormonal issues can cause water retention and so you may find that you don't lose as much as you THINK you should have, given the restriction...but it'll catch up. It's awesome not feeling hungry though, that has really been the key for enabling me to fight my mental demons, because I'm not battling that hunger and the compulsions it has traditionally caused in me. You will probably go through some "feels" about eating, your old habits, fighting against a desire to go back to some old behaviors...there WILL be some psychological hurdles. Probably not until you start eating "real" food again and are feeling more healed up, but I went through some stuff the first couple of weeks, as a kind of mourning period over my old relationship with food. I'm going into week 7 now and I feel real good though, it's been empowering.
But yeah, I also have to be mindful to even eat, and although I like what I eat, it's really a totally different thought process now. It's an awareness that I need to get my Protein in for the day, I need to get my dietary needs met...but there's not a big "entertainment" component there. I want it to taste good, but it's not being done for fun, or to soothe, or whatever. It's just to feed the body. That's a pretty major change.

@@Ignatius Welcome to the club man! Follow your surgeon's instructions, put a high priority on getting your Protein needs met and you are probably going to be feeling great a week from now, your body will heal faster and better. Also walking daily, as much as you can tolerate.
You're going to go through some psychological stuff, as your old brain fights the situation...but you'll know it when you feel it, and you will see it really clearly for what it is. This surgery changes the entire game. Since the morning of surgery, I've been averaging 5lbs lost per week. That means my average daily calorie deficit is in the neighborhood of 2,500. My Mom saw me over the weekend and was amazed at how much I've lost since she spent the first week helping me recover, but when she watched me eat, she said, "I can't believe you're still able to walk around and function, on so little calories!" lol

The hormonal stuff hit me pretty hard for about the first 8 weeks or so post-op. Same thing, didn't really feel like doing much and I was randomly moody for no real reason (which is pretty atypical for me). After that, it lifted and I went back to my old self, but with more energy.
If it continues to bother you, be sure to mention it to your doctor during follow-up. My sense is that the hormonal dumping effects can be really common.

@@PorkChopExpress
I just wanted to pop in and say I really like this sentence. I hadn't thought of it that way before now I will be visualizing this. I'm a visual person so in my mind I see the obese mind who used to be in control, and the new, real me now taking over. Thanks for this!
OK....carry on

You just discovered what anyone who's had the surgery already knows...the surgery isn't a magic bullet. What has to be fixed isn't your stomach, it's your brain. Making your stomach's capacity smaller is only a tool to help you "get over the hump" when it comes to correcting your behavior. You have to be 100% aware of what you're doing and why, starting now...because you'll definitely need to be in that mindset, post-op.
Take this next couple of weeks as a personal challenge to discipline your mind, because it's going to be even more important after you've had the surgery. Make it a point of pride that YOU have taken control, and it isn't your "obese mind" that is at the wheel, anymore.

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

Sent from my SM-N910P using the BariatricPal App

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

@@PorkChopExpress good for you for taking control of your health and your life. I had gastric bypass in 2003 and it saved my life. I was in my thirties, on ~9 prescription medications mostly for comorbid conditions of obesity, and 285 pounds. I know that I would not be here today if I had not had the surgery. My life is completely different today. It is a life well-lived rather than a life half-lived, as it had been in the past. I always had the love of my family surrounding me unconditionally and for that I am eternally grateful. It made me strong -- and we have to be strong to get through this journey in the long haul.

Yeah, looks like we are on very similar trajectories then! I'm definitely going to avoid the scale, I'm probably only going to weigh at the doctor's office, but we'll see. The way I see it, my clothes tell me all I really need to know.

It started really early with me and it was a combination of things. My family ate a lot of bread and baked goods, which my mom excelled at making and I loved. We didn't eat super healthy, and when my mom tried to make that stuff, I wouldn't eat it. I was a pill at restaurants, so McDonalds became the go-to for meals when they were out with me. I loved junk food. I was always just sort of a pudgy kid, not necessarily "fat" but heavier than my peers (and bigger in size, taller and broader shoulders). So I took a lot of teasing about my size/weight. I develped low self-esteem from the teasing about my body, but my classmates would react with amazement at how much I could eat at a sitting. I have a particular memory of sloppy joe days at school, which I loved but my classmates didn't...so I'd end up with a stack of 3-4 of them at least, and eat them all. I remember this primarily because a teacher came to me saying they didn't think I should be eating so much, and made me feel ashamed. But I had gotten attention for it from my classmates.
As I got older, I took more razzing from my peers the bigger I got...and I still wasn't THAT bad. But when I went out to play basketball in little league and we'd have to play shirts vs. skins in practice, I was almost always skins...and my flab would jiggle while I played, drawing laughs and jokes from teammates. Kids are just really blunt and cruel. I did lose some weight playing basketball, but my self-esteem took so many hits that I eventually quit athletics entirely.
By the time I graduated high school, I was 190 pounds or so...not terrible for a kid who was over 6' tall, but still heavy. However, it was when I went off to college that things really went south. I discovered that I couldn't do what I thought I was going to do (be a programmer) due to my lack of aptitude in math, and I became depressed. I started sleeping all day and staying up all night, which increased my depression. Which increased my eating, as a comfort. My mom would send care packages that invariably contained cinnamon rolls or Cookies, baked goods that she knew I loved. I ate like crap that year, and I went up to like 230-240 pounds. I dropped out and returned home, and started working random jobs...but I kept eating. Each threshold I'd near, 250 or 300, or 350...I would say, "This far, no further." And then I would blast right past them. I'd put on the breaks and reverse periodically when I got serious about a diet for 5-6 months, then I'd stall out, lose my willpower, fall off the wagon and go right back to my old habits again...and onward and upward.
Late last year, I decided it was time to put a stop to it and that the only way I was going to succeed, having dieted throughout the entire course of my life back to junior high, was to have surgery. I just couldn't achieve 200 pounds of fat loss through sheer will, it had become too monolithic. I needed the help. Now that I've done it, I feel such a sensation of hope, that it's not an "I wish I could lose weight" anymore, but an "I WILL lose the weight."

It started really early with me and it was a combination of things. My family ate a lot of bread and baked goods, which my mom excelled at making and I loved. We didn't eat super healthy, and when my mom tried to make that stuff, I wouldn't eat it. I was a pill at restaurants, so McDonalds became the go-to for meals when they were out with me. I loved junk food. I was always just sort of a pudgy kid, not necessarily "fat" but heavier than my peers (and bigger in size, taller and broader shoulders). So I took a lot of teasing about my size/weight. I develped low self-esteem from the teasing about my body, but my classmates would react with amazement at how much I could eat at a sitting. I have a particular memory of sloppy joe days at school, which I loved but my classmates didn't...so I'd end up with a stack of 3-4 of them at least, and eat them all. I remember this primarily because a teacher came to me saying they didn't think I should be eating so much, and made me feel ashamed. But I had gotten attention for it from my classmates.
As I got older, I took more razzing from my peers the bigger I got...and I still wasn't THAT bad. But when I went out to play basketball in little league and we'd have to play shirts vs. skins in practice, I was almost always skins...and my flab would jiggle while I played, drawing laughs and jokes from teammates. Kids are just really blunt and cruel. I did lose some weight playing basketball, but my self-esteem took so many hits that I eventually quit athletics entirely.
By the time I graduated high school, I was 190 pounds or so...not terrible for a kid who was over 6' tall, but still heavy. However, it was when I went off to college that things really went south. I discovered that I couldn't do what I thought I was going to do (be a programmer) due to my lack of aptitude in math, and I became depressed. I started sleeping all day and staying up all night, which increased my depression. Which increased my eating, as a comfort. My mom would send care packages that invariably contained cinnamon rolls or Cookies, baked goods that she knew I loved. I ate like crap that year, and I went up to like 230-240 pounds. I dropped out and returned home, and started working random jobs...but I kept eating. Each threshold I'd near, 250 or 300, or 350...I would say, "This far, no further." And then I would blast right past them. I'd put on the breaks and reverse periodically when I got serious about a diet for 5-6 months, then I'd stall out, lose my willpower, fall off the wagon and go right back to my old habits again...and onward and upward.
Late last year, I decided it was time to put a stop to it and that the only way I was going to succeed, having dieted throughout the entire course of my life back to junior high, was to have surgery. I just couldn't achieve 200 pounds of fat loss through sheer will, it had become too monolithic. I needed the help. Now that I've done it, I feel such a sensation of hope, that it's not an "I wish I could lose weight" anymore, but an "I WILL lose the weight."