Okay so my first year was phenomenal! I did so good! And this past year? Well... not so much. My loss slowed around the end of last year and continued to be slow/creeping for the first couple of months. Chalk it up to holidays, the stress after a move, poor planning, it wasn't a great time. And I should have followed that up with renewed vigor, but instead I re-introduced two things into my life that has made this year, frankly?, a complete waste!
1. Carbs! I started re-introducing them back in February. Just a little at first. But what was an occasional thing turned into an every day thing, turned into an (almost) every meal thing, turned into an (almost) every meal/every snack thing. It's a slippery slope. And the worst part about this is that I don't even enjoy them that much! They're just convenient and EVERYWHERE.
2. Snacking. Before I was mostly doing the strict 5-6 meals/snacks per day. It would occasionally deviate, but for the most part, that was my mainstay. After introducing carbs, the desire to snack became so much stronger. The more carbs I ate, the more I snacked, the more I snacked, the more I ate carbs. It was just a gross gigantic avalanche of snacking/carbing.
3. Facebook! Can I blame the fact that I re-introduced Facebook on this? I recently read (a real article, though I can't remember the name of the publication at the moment! I THINK it was NYT.) that surveys suggest that Facebook takes up more of our time than exercising, reading, and socializing per day COMBINED. COMBINED. That's... INSANE. To know that I've wasted good quality exercising (and reading!) time on Facebook (which I don't even really LIKE, which is why I avoided it for SO LONG.) is mind boggling to me. I haven't deleted the app from my phone yet, but I'm doing it tonight! I'll keep messenger because for some reason people prefer that to texting these days. STILL. This is unacceptable in my world view. How did I allow this to happen?
I have not technically gained weight this year because I looked back and I'm around the same I was this time last year. So that's... something? But with gains and losses, I did gain back about 25 lbs. You could say ALMOST 30, but the only reason I ever dipped that low was because I had mycoplasma pneumonia (the one with gastrointestinal symptoms) for 2 weeks in the middle of the year. Apart from that one week period where I had lost weight because of Illness, I'd been hovering at about 255 for a pretty long time this year. Then, when I stepped on the scale one week ago I was shocked to discover that I was weighing in at 278.5. 23 and half pounds higher than my (non-pnuemonia-induced) lowest weight!
The little progress that I did make this year, just kept being erased by my poor choices! I hadn't stepped on a scale since I'd been sick. I was in deep denial!
I immediately joined a dietbet (which I'm going to lose because I'm losing too quickly!) and started eating right again. No carbs, veggies, Protein (at least 70/day), getting in my fluids, only eating 5/6 times/day. I began losing weight so rapidly that I couldn't believe it. Still can't. That was Dec 1st. When I weighed myself this morning. I'd already lost 12 lbs! This is TWO YEARS out from surgery. I haven't had ANY TIME this week to exercise (though I do babysit after work so I usually get all my steps in.) This tool still works! It still does EXACTLY what it's designed to do! And the REALLY remarkable part of this? Half way into this week, my dentist had to prescribe me an antibiotic AND a steroid. A steroid! Yet I still managed to lose 12 lbs. I feel like I JUST had surgery. These are astonishing numbers even if it's mostly Water weight. Even if I'd just lost 6/5 lbs this week I would have been astounded. 12 is beyond anything I ever expected.
Some things I've noticed this week:
1. I still don't miss carbs (much!)
It's hard to step away. But honestly? I just feel so dissatisfied with what I'm eating when I'm eating carbs. I've always been more of a meat and veggie girl. Carbs are just so abundant, so easily accessible and convenient, and so weirdly addictive even if you don't really love them, that it's just a habit I fall into that is almost exclusively environmental. I just need to REMEMBER that I control my own "food environment" if I make the time to plan!
2. I have to remember to take my Vitamins.
I still have them, I just have lapsed in taking them. Now that I really need them again, it's more important to remember!
3. I am going to the bathroom very infrequently, much like I did the first year post-surgery.
4. My capacity really is not as high as I feared.
When you nibble, stretch out your meals into long social affairs, snack frequently, eat slider foods, it can really be a bit of a mind trick. You start to believe that you can still eat like you used to. But you can't, you're just adapting what you CAN do, to what you WANT to do. If you want to eat more, you'll make it happen. You have to MAKE YOURSELF use your tool the way it was intended.
If I eat good quality veggies and protein, eat from start to finish (no stopping to chat OR BROWSE FACEBOOK for ten minutes in between bites!), I can still only eat ABOUT a solid cup of food before I'm comfortably full. Might take a few extra bites to make me UNCOMFORTABLY full depending on what the food is. I made a double-batch of Skinnytaste's Stuffed Pepper Soup (without rice) last week. Which is not very brothy and more like a stew. Yesterday I had a cup of that for lunch. (my ladle measures exactly one cup). By the time I finished the cup, I was UNCOMFORTABLY full. I actually should have stopped a few bites before I finished. Because it was stew-like, it was way more dense. For dinner today I had about 2 ounces of roasted chicken breast (which doesn't equal a half cup if you cut it up in chunks), about a half a cup of sauteed brussels sprouts, and a little less than a tablespoon full of homemade pimento cheese melted over the top. I was perfectly full by the time I was done. Not too full. Not still hungry. Just right.
5. I'm worried this will not last. I don't mean I'm worried I will fail again. I'm sure I will and I have a plan for that. (Get back on that horse, not 10 months later, but two minutes later!, etc.) I'm worried that I'll somehow do the same thing I did this week and for some reason I won't lose. I think I told myself for a long time this year that it wasn't ME and MY CHOICES that were causing me not to lose. It was something else. So I just have to remember that I am in control and I think these worries will go away. I'm really excited to get back to the gym too. Babysteps!
I'm so thrilled at this NEW START. I wonder if anyone else is in the same boat I am, or is in the same boat I was a week ago? Has anyone had long-term success with a re-start? After a period of not losing or a period of slight re-gain? What are you doing? What's working? What's not? How did you "re-boot?" Did you do the pouch test? What warnings do you have? Etc?
I feel like a newbie. It feels kind of good!
SW: 416
CW: 359
Height: 5'9
Apple shaped body.
Pre-op diet:
December 3rd=last day of solids.
December 4th=liquids.
(He doesn't require a rigorous pre-op diet.)
I started this process in April and time has flown by. I'm looking forward to being a more active mom. (I have two sons; 5 & 1).
I've only told my family and one close friend.
I don't care about wasting food. Not wanting to waste food is part of what got me fat. I hate leftovers. I don't eat them. I cook everything I eat fresh (luxury of working from home). Someone on here that I now have on ignore tried to give me crap about not taking home leftovers from resturants. Like I never did before surgery and I am not going to start now. Sometimes I will take the boxes just because servers seem so upset if you don't eat all your food but I toss them in the dumpster before I even walk in my Apt.
It takes time but you just have to get over it. You wasting food isn't going to feed someone else. They didn't have access to that food anyway, it was yours, and you aren't wasting it, you are just not eating it. Cleaning your plate in America doesn't feed some starving kid, they are still starving. You being obese however shortens your life.
If you are eating in excess of what your body needs you are wasting food and storing it as fat, which is what most of us did pre-op. Food is fuel, so eating more than you need is still a waste.
Just because you are over served you are not obligated to eat it.
Come up with something in your head that makes it okay for you.
For me I am just YOLO. Leftovers are gross I won't touch them.
I didn't tell anyone but my husband before surgery and told my two close friends after. Don't care what anyone else thinks and don't want to deal with their opinions or judgement. Like I always tell my kids, your body your rules. I am a private but outgoing person and I might some tell some people when they notice I've lost weight. Others will be told "strict diet and exercise" which is the truth.
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I had the VSG in August of 2016, and to date the only ones who know about it are my physicians, my husband, and my parents. I didn't have a need for anyone else to know, and nobody else had a need to know. I have complete confidence that my best friend since the age of 12 and many others in my life would have been fully supportive, but I simply wanted to keep it private. I've had health problems in the past, and felt like I had to manage the concerns of those who were worried about me, giving them reassurances that I'd be fine. If I told others I think I'd be in that position again. I'd feel obligated to explain the surgery, the minimal risks of it, my reasoning, and so forth, and to give updates. I also know that even well-meaning, trustworthy people can let something personal you've confided to them slip out. Once you put something out there, you cannot take it back, and you cannot control it.
I've only directly lied once, when at the beach and my friend got a glimpse of my stomach before I pulled a tee shirt over my bikini top. I have faint scars still. I told her they were from having hernia surgery. She accepted that, and the discussion was over in a minute. When people have commented on my weight loss I've told them the truth - that I've been using MyFitnessPal to track what I eat, biking to work rather than driving, and working out at the gym more.
If you want to say something about your surgery, then say it, but I recommend thinking it through first to consider how each person is likely to respond, and to not feel obligated to say anything about it at all.
Have fun with it like I am. Tell them that you are intentionally slimming down so that you can work in the adult film industry again. That will leave them questioning, again??? Usually when I'm asked how I am losing the weight I respond with "The Mexico Water diet, I crap out all of my fat".
I only told 3 friends and 2 family members. Only 1 of them knew before the surgery. Although I knew everyone would be supportive, I didn't want to be the centre of attention and discussion. I did tell everyone I was working on weight loss with a nutritionist and that I've changed the way eat to 3 small meals and 2 Snacks each day.
I've been telling people I don't want to talk to about it that it is a need to know basis, and they don't need to know. Just because someone knows you and is curious, they are not entitled to personal information.
Your life, your body, your business, your story. I just tell people who ask how I have done it that I work out and eating healthier.... both true! GS 09/06/16.
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criolelaie got a reaction from leonelbreton in 10 month out, and feeling good.