Hop_Scotch

Shallow microneedling would be a waste of time and money. To have any effect on scars, elasticity and collagen stimulation requires a minimum depth of 1.5 mm (for thin skin, example: inner arms) to 2.5 mm. (thicker skin, example: stomach & thighs). At a depth of1.5 mm to 2.5 mm, I highly recommend a pharmaceutical grade numbing cream. Dr Pen is superior to Derma rollers. Not only do genetics and age determined the skin's ability to "shrink" but also how long you have been overweight. Microneedling has the best results on crepey skin rather than excess skin.

Not really. The only thing that's sometimes difficult to manage now and then are the "I'm feeling fat" days.
However, I don't believe in an "old me" and "new me". Of course we all change and evolve as time goes by (or hopefully we do) but the distinction between an "old me" (usually the fat one with all the undesirable and bad attributes) and the "new me" (usually the now thin, "good" one) can IMO be problematic if not to say quite toxic.
I'm not sure what you mean when you say "transition" so I can't say anything in regards to this.
Regarding the focus and motivation: why would you need that? After reaching a normal BMI you most likely have already settled into a lifestyle that enables you to maintain your weight (and hopefully health) and there should be no need to have to keep any special focus or motivation. That's something you need when you're white-knuckling something. The slight vigilance you might most likely need to maintain your weight (and I personally know practically no one who doesn't need that past a certain age so I don't consider it something "WLS-specific", mind you) should not be something that drains your energy significantly. If it does, maybe have an honest talk with yourself why that is.
The feeling of "being thin" though has in fact the potential to vanish into thin air. That's when the "I'm having a fat day" can settle in. As I said that's something I tend to struggle with.

I'm just 10 months post-op, and I feel the same way. I don't recognize that person. Others say the same thing. Even though I have been fat basically my whole life, this "new" me feels more like the "real" me.

Good question, and I've never really thought about that. I'm almost four years since surgery, and at this point my healthy eating habits are essentially second nature. I've completely changed the way I eat and think about food, and I no longer think about how much Protein I need every day or about avoiding carbs and sugar. (During the first year after surgery, I couldn't imagine that I would ever get to this point.).
The people that knew me when I was fat say that they no longer think of me as that person and are used to me looking the way I do now. Even I am shocked when I see my "before" pictures, and I no longer relate to that person. I'd say that this is not the "new" normal--it's just normal.

I can't stand to look at photos with an half eaten meal with teeth marks (sandwiches/burgers etc) for some reason it just grosses me out.

Almost every one stalls, some stall early on some a little later. There are thousands of posts on here regarding stalls and it looks like you are a little early to the infamous three week stall...for some reason a lot of people stall at three weeks post op.
It's hard not to be disappointed when the scales do not reflect the effort put in but noww is the time to make sure you have some non scale goals. Take some of the focus away from scales.
Keep to your post op plan and weight loss will catch up.
Edited to add, your body is still very much in the healing stage and there is still likely a lot of inflammation which can cause Fluid retention. Some surgeons suggest not weighing for at least a month, there is good reason for that and now you are all too aware of it.

Some people sweat a bit after eating Proteins, google Protein sweats.

I can't stand to look at photos with an half eaten meal with teeth marks (sandwiches/burgers etc) for some reason it just grosses me out.

^This. All this. Especially the bolded.
I get that confronting your own weight isn't nice, I get it. It's not nice to hear you're obese. But certain people on social media trying to insist it's a "slur" just makes me livid. I have NEVER had people yell "Eat a salad OBESEY!" or yell "OBESE!!!" at me from a passing car. It's a medical term. What hand-holding gently-gently kid gloves term is permissible now that everyone's offended by everything?
Had to rant. It really really gets on my wick.

Only lost 62lb in six months? Nothing only about that, I would say it was pretty significant.
Hair loss is common after any surgery, and for the majority of the people, the issue resolves itself in time. Sweets well tis the season and all that, what matters there is ensuring that you get back on track.
You've lost 62lb how can that be a waste of time and money. Surely your health has improved? Surely you are walking lighter and breathing easier?
While the end goal maybe a much healthier weight, sometimes its useful to focus on non scale goals. Improved health and fitness...lower blood pressure and cholesterol, able to walk faster or jog, fitting into smaller clothing sizes, able to play with children/grandchildren easily etc etc
Well done, keep up the great work!

Only lost 62lb in six months? Nothing only about that, I would say it was pretty significant.
Hair loss is common after any surgery, and for the majority of the people, the issue resolves itself in time. Sweets well tis the season and all that, what matters there is ensuring that you get back on track.
You've lost 62lb how can that be a waste of time and money. Surely your health has improved? Surely you are walking lighter and breathing easier?
While the end goal maybe a much healthier weight, sometimes its useful to focus on non scale goals. Improved health and fitness...lower blood pressure and cholesterol, able to walk faster or jog, fitting into smaller clothing sizes, able to play with children/grandchildren easily etc etc
Well done, keep up the great work!

I can't stand to look at photos with an half eaten meal with teeth marks (sandwiches/burgers etc) for some reason it just grosses me out.

Thank you ALL for the feedback. I needed that swift kick in the rear to get my head right. I was in a rough place last week when I posted and I was being so hard on myself. I’m just trying to figure out this new lifestyle one day at a time. I’m constantly worried that I’m doing something wrong, especially when I notice something different or changing. Again, your feedback truly helped!

Only lost 62lb in six months? Nothing only about that, I would say it was pretty significant.
Hair loss is common after any surgery, and for the majority of the people, the issue resolves itself in time. Sweets well tis the season and all that, what matters there is ensuring that you get back on track.
You've lost 62lb how can that be a waste of time and money. Surely your health has improved? Surely you are walking lighter and breathing easier?
While the end goal maybe a much healthier weight, sometimes its useful to focus on non scale goals. Improved health and fitness...lower blood pressure and cholesterol, able to walk faster or jog, fitting into smaller clothing sizes, able to play with children/grandchildren easily etc etc
Well done, keep up the great work!

If you haven't been to the gym or done weights before, it maybe worthwhile having a couple of sessions with a personal trainer. After a couple of sessions have the trainer give you a program which you can work on for a period of time and then increase the weights as your strength improves.
There are many beginner programs available for free online...bodyweight programs without any equipment or resistance programs using bands or hand weights.

If you haven't been to the gym or done weights before, it maybe worthwhile having a couple of sessions with a personal trainer. After a couple of sessions have the trainer give you a program which you can work on for a period of time and then increase the weights as your strength improves.
There are many beginner programs available for free online...bodyweight programs without any equipment or resistance programs using bands or hand weights.

Only lost 62lb in six months? Nothing only about that, I would say it was pretty significant.
Hair loss is common after any surgery, and for the majority of the people, the issue resolves itself in time. Sweets well tis the season and all that, what matters there is ensuring that you get back on track.
You've lost 62lb how can that be a waste of time and money. Surely your health has improved? Surely you are walking lighter and breathing easier?
While the end goal maybe a much healthier weight, sometimes its useful to focus on non scale goals. Improved health and fitness...lower blood pressure and cholesterol, able to walk faster or jog, fitting into smaller clothing sizes, able to play with children/grandchildren easily etc etc
Well done, keep up the great work!

I'm really worried that you're overtraining.
While physical exercise is a good thing, it's absolutely possible to overdo it. Some possible warning signs for you to watch for:
Feeling tired all the time Trouble sleeping Constant muscle soreness Symptoms of depression Mood swings and/or feeling irritable Feeling stressed all the time Why should you be concerned?
Due to your weight, you are at a lot higher risk of injury when exercising. Overtraining ratchets up the likelihood of injury quite a bit more. A significant injury right now could set you back months. Due to reduced food intake, you are at a pretty significant disadvantage recovery-wise compared to someone that does not have to contend with a very low calorie diet. Calories from food (not just protein), is absolutely needed to help post workout recovery. Overtraining can actually be counterproductive to weight loss because it significantly increases cortisol levels. I won't spend too much time talking about why cortisol matters, but even slightly elevated levels of cortisol can negatively impact weight loss. Plus, if you're impacting your sleep levels, this negative effect is exacerbated. Overtraining can actually be bad for your heart. We tend to think that if some cardiovascular exercise is good, more should be better, but that's not always true. Among other things, people that overtrain can cause problems like hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and AFib. While I don't think you're quite to this level yet, it's something to watch out for. Overtraining can actually impact your ability to fight off infection. Getting sick could also set you back quite a bit. If all of the above weren't enough, the likelihood of you stopping training altogether is significantly elevated if you overtrain. I certainly understand you think you're doing the right thing, but hardly anyone that's overtraining realizes it until they suffer the impacts of it. I also think many formerly obese individuals may be more likely to overtrain for a few reasons:
We are typically starting from a poor base fitness level, so it does not take nearly as much to overtrain. Most of us have tendency toward addictive behavior. (Yes, overtraining can be due to transfer addiction.) We are trying to "makeup" for a previous lack of exercise. We think that this will help us lose weight faster. As I mentioned, this behavior can actually slow down fat loss, rather than speed it up. Instead, our goal should be to build a sustainable level of fitness that accomplishes a few things:
To develop a good level of cardiovascular endurance that keeps our bodies and minds healthy To strengthen our muscles to make everyday living easier and more sustainable for the long-term To decrease the risk of illness and injury To burn more calories, both during exercise and at rest To look good naked (okay, for some of us, maybe that's pushing it!) One of the best ways to do all that is to ensure your current level of exercise is sustainable. From that sustainable base, we add in something called "progressive overload" to ensure we are actually benefiting from the exercise. When we overtrain, there's no room for progress, meaning eventually you either burnout, or your body adapts and the benefit becomes lost.
Sorry for the long post here. I know to you I'm just some random person on the internet and you're not likely to pay much attention anyway. Even so, the risk is real, and I encourage you to research this to make sure I'm not just blowing smoke. More than anything, even if you don't think you're overtraining, I'd hate for others to come away from this thread thinking your exercise workload is what they should be doing too. For 99% of us it's not.

Only lost 62lb in six months? Nothing only about that, I would say it was pretty significant.
Hair loss is common after any surgery, and for the majority of the people, the issue resolves itself in time. Sweets well tis the season and all that, what matters there is ensuring that you get back on track.
You've lost 62lb how can that be a waste of time and money. Surely your health has improved? Surely you are walking lighter and breathing easier?
While the end goal maybe a much healthier weight, sometimes its useful to focus on non scale goals. Improved health and fitness...lower blood pressure and cholesterol, able to walk faster or jog, fitting into smaller clothing sizes, able to play with children/grandchildren easily etc etc
Well done, keep up the great work!

Only lost 62lb in six months? Nothing only about that, I would say it was pretty significant.
Hair loss is common after any surgery, and for the majority of the people, the issue resolves itself in time. Sweets well tis the season and all that, what matters there is ensuring that you get back on track.
You've lost 62lb how can that be a waste of time and money. Surely your health has improved? Surely you are walking lighter and breathing easier?
While the end goal maybe a much healthier weight, sometimes its useful to focus on non scale goals. Improved health and fitness...lower blood pressure and cholesterol, able to walk faster or jog, fitting into smaller clothing sizes, able to play with children/grandchildren easily etc etc
Well done, keep up the great work!

Only lost 62lb in six months? Nothing only about that, I would say it was pretty significant.
Hair loss is common after any surgery, and for the majority of the people, the issue resolves itself in time. Sweets well tis the season and all that, what matters there is ensuring that you get back on track.
You've lost 62lb how can that be a waste of time and money. Surely your health has improved? Surely you are walking lighter and breathing easier?
While the end goal maybe a much healthier weight, sometimes its useful to focus on non scale goals. Improved health and fitness...lower blood pressure and cholesterol, able to walk faster or jog, fitting into smaller clothing sizes, able to play with children/grandchildren easily etc etc
Well done, keep up the great work!

62 pounds in six months is a totally decent rate of loss. I had lost around that much at that stage. Hair loss is normal and most of us go through it, and I daresay all of us have had a day or so of going over the calorie allowance due to a birthday, or Christmas, or a holiday.
There's absolutely nothing to lose hope about here - everything you've described is perfectly normal.

No, you haven’t wasted your time or money. So you ate some dessert & other treats over Christmas. It’s not Christmas every day & if you’ve recognised it for what it is (a special occasion exception) & gone back to eating as per your plan you’re fine. You’ll always be faced with these type of dilemmas (travelling, dining out, holidays, etc.). Over time we learn how not to beat ourselves up about it, make the best choices we can in the situation, accept it & move forward.
Part of the weight loss process is learning about your eating, what foods you can or can’t eat (or are or are t willing to eat) & how much or how often you can eat some foods. I described it as discovering what foods I could eat regularly, occasionally, rarely & which foods it was best if I avoided. I don’t eat sweet foods except at Christmas & certain special events - rarely. Some people work out they can have a small serve of say pizza with the family or they work out healthier ways of eating old favourites like a bun less burger - occasionally. I don’t eat high processed carbs like bread, Pasta & rice - avoid.
Oh, and I’d lost about 68lbs at 6 months so not much difference. Seems like you’re pretty much on track. And the accelerated loss of the hair you would naturally be shedding usually lasts about 3months +/-. Your new hair is still growing just at it’s usual rate. Losing some hair, which regrew, was a small temporary price to pay for my weight loss.
You’ve got this.

38 isn't old at all, definitely not too old for surgery. I am almost 58 and am contemplating it.

I am sure you will find there are plenty of people who do not have any religious beliefs that think nobody should have weight loss surgery, they think people should have the fortitude and willpower to do it 'the hard way' - Just eat less, just exercise, just say no, just trust the science of calories in calories out.......etc etc
This is why what I do with my body is my business, no one elses. This is why I don't tell people about my personal / medical business.