Creekimp13

I'm not a huge fan of spray on tans. Maybe it's the way my skin cells shed, or maybe i don't exfoliate enough, or just have weird dry skin? I don't know. But when I get a spray on tan, I look Orange for a little while...then my skin sheds a little and I look weirdly speckled. I don't care for it. I also don't like the smell of the spray tan, particularly after a shower or swimming.
However...since I'm a white vampire, sometimes it's nice to have a little color.
I use Sally Hansen Airbrush Legs Makeup (in Medium)
It's just makeup for your legs (arms, bust, whatever you need)....but it looks much more like a real tan to me. It sets up well and doesn't get on your clothes. (If I wear white, I do dust it with a little translucent powder, but i'm not sure it's necessary) You can swim in it for an hour or two.
It scubs off with warm Water, soap and a washcloth...but you do have to scrub a little.
I actually like wearing sleeveless again cause of this stuff. It really does look nice on legs.
Another cool thing about Leg makeup...it reduces the look of scars, freckles, stretchmarks, veins
Being opaque, I bet it's a decent sunscreen, too.

I think sometimes it makes other people insecure about their own weight when someone near them loses.
Sort of this realization....omg, she's lost weight. Am I the fattest person in the room now? omg...she's nearly my size...and she looks really good....does she look better than me?
I think this is particularly true among younger single people, but it can also be an issue with middle aged farts and beyond.
No feeling worse...than when your friend has been feeling insecure about her weight/wrinkles/hairloss/age related woes/etc.....and her freaking husband notices you've lost weight. Ugh. "Damn, your friend looks good!"
He doesn't mean to be an asshat...but it's a knife in both of your hearts and you just feel rotten about it.

Ok I know I’m being petty but I’m feeling petty today so here goes. So far I’ve lost 150 lbs and I’ve decided this is how the comments from coworkers/acquaintances goes:
1-50 lbs: nothing
50-100 lbs: have you lost weight? Keep it up!
100-125 lbs: wow you are looking great what’s your secret?
125+ lbs: said in a disbelieving voice “how much more weight are you planning to lose? Aren’t you done yet?

I know that this is a problem that is great to have in the sense that a year ago I would have given anything to be this weight so please don’t take it that I’m not happy about losing or that I feel like people shouldn’t comment. But I’m still overweight, and regardless of if I was a normal weight or overweight or heck if I was obese I am getting tired of people making comments like I don’t have the autonomy to determine my own goal weight. And realistically it’s been so long since I was a normal size I honestly have no idea what my true goal would be because I will know it when I get there (hopefully!)

I tend to make a lot of jokes so I’ve just started saying really implausible amounts (I want to lose 200 lbs more and be lighter than air, I want to hit my birth weight of 9 lbs again and get back into my going home from the hospital outfit, etc) but in my head all I can think of is please stop commenting on my body for five minutes thanks.

anyway this is a first world problem I am well aware, and I know I’m just being salty but here I am.

But what about the sound nutrition advice given via lifestyle bloggers on YouTube who have this amazing cleanse to sell you?? Or a raw vegan paleo high Protein Keto diet consisting entirely of lemon Water? It sounds so legit. 😬

All kidding aside, great advice. And I think it also bears to mention that although you should follow the advice given by a credentialed professional, there are bad and good doctors out there and the same follows for dietitians as well. If you feel strongly that you’re getting bad advice, you might want to seek out another opinion.

Folks, PLEASE check the education credentials of the person giving you nutrition advice.
In some states, there is absolutley zero education required to call oneself "a nutritionist" and give people dietary consultations.
Many bariatric groups will use lay-trained staff to push a particular doctor's dietary approach. Don't use these people. They are unqualified and it's dangerous.
Nutrition is complex and individual and it's a SCIENCE.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/dietitian-vs-nutritionist#nutritionist
Check the laws in your state: https://theana.org/advocate
Ask to see the credentials of the people treating you at appointments.

Bariatric Surgery patients represent a surprisingly increasing number of patients in inpatient treatment for anorexia according to John's Hopkins.
Yes, anorexia and other eating disorders are a serious risk for our population.
Yes, treatment....including eating more.... will be a help even if you gain a little weight to find a managable maintenance level of calories.
Passing out is incredibly dangerous and can kill you or others if you drive. It's also incredibly unsafe on stairs, around heavy equipment, and in the company of unsafe people. Being that low on nutrition is hard on your body, particularly your heart. You can do permenant damage in short order.
Take your condition seriously. Your very demanding job and thinner body are of no use to you if you imperil your safety, health, and eventually your life. (it's tough on relationships, too)
Wishing you the very best.

Man, if I had a dollar for every critic who said this to me on these boards. It's a past time of a certain type of dieter....to send me hate mail and try to shame me for being outspoken.
"You're still overweight! You shouldn't be telling people what to do! How dare you not feel ashamed at that weight!"
Shakin my head over here.
If I wanted to be 140, I could be. Have been. Looked god-awful and felt like I was starving all the time.
If I wanted to be 160, I could be. Have been. I wasn't particularly hungry, got a reasonable number of calories, but thought I looked older.
I like a little more round to my angles. I like less sag, fewer wrinkles. Not real interested in cosmetic surgery. Picked the best option for me.
I like eating 1600 calories a day. I like having space in my diet for a couple pieces of fruit because I think phytonutrients are beneficial and important. I like how i feel eating a high Fiber diet. I like room to be a vegetarian some days. I like flexability. It's how I can face this as a lifelong change. It's how I can make peace with food forever....cause I know this plan is WORKABLE in pretty much all situations. I can eat on my plan during a holiday, a funeral, a birthday party....during a power outage, while recovering from an injury, during extreme emotional stress, on the road, and while dealing with my inlaws. LOL.
I typically weigh 165-170 pounds. I LOVE this weight. It is NOT "the best I could do because I couldn't get to a "healthy weight" ", it is an intentionally chosen set point. It's a choice. This is, I am 100% certain...the MOST healthy weight I can choose for myself.
That whole...Arnold Schwarzenegger's BMI was technically Obese when he won Mr. Universe figures in. BMI is flawed. It doesn't differentiate between light muscle frames and heavy muscle frames, bigger bones, smaller bones. Different ethnicities. Different body styles.
My feet, depending on the manufacturer are size 10 or 11. My shoulders are more broad than most men's my height. My butt, thighs and calves are overdeveloped because I rode huntseat and jumped horses for decades, even when I was quite heavy. My husband says they have a kinda superhero quality now. LOLOLOLOL
So here's the thing....If you feel inclined to send me a snarky note about how I shouldn't say anything....because I'm not American Media model skinny, you might have a problem.
As it happens, I have a good friend who models. He's 5' 10", weighs 157 pounds soaking wet, and they STILL wanted him to use coke for a week and fast...to look more sickly skinny for his last national ad campaign.
Our impression of body image in the media is grossly distorted and unhealthy.
And a lot of folks here....get a grossly distorted and unhealthy obsession with their eating habits, their BMI, the number on the scale, and how it defines them.
Please, please, please remember....health.
Physical health, strength, endurance, good labs, fewer medications.
Emotional health...loving yourself, enjoying your life, feeling challenged and happy.
Mental health...finding balance you can live with for a lifetime.
Love your strong healthy body. Love your good food choices that provide good nutrition to nurture that body. Love the flexability to make it work though the tough spots.
Avoid the fixations, the extremes, the inflexable rules, the disordered eating (and disordered not-eating)
You can trust yourself to get to where you need to be....without punishment.
Love yourself. Love yourself. Love yourself.

Folks, PLEASE check the education credentials of the person giving you nutrition advice.
In some states, there is absolutley zero education required to call oneself "a nutritionist" and give people dietary consultations.
Many bariatric groups will use lay-trained staff to push a particular doctor's dietary approach. Don't use these people. They are unqualified and it's dangerous.
Nutrition is complex and individual and it's a SCIENCE.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/dietitian-vs-nutritionist#nutritionist
Check the laws in your state: https://theana.org/advocate
Ask to see the credentials of the people treating you at appointments.

Folks, PLEASE check the education credentials of the person giving you nutrition advice.
In some states, there is absolutley zero education required to call oneself "a nutritionist" and give people dietary consultations.
Many bariatric groups will use lay-trained staff to push a particular doctor's dietary approach. Don't use these people. They are unqualified and it's dangerous.
Nutrition is complex and individual and it's a SCIENCE.
https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/dietitian-vs-nutritionist#nutritionist
Check the laws in your state: https://theana.org/advocate
Ask to see the credentials of the people treating you at appointments.

I totally agree with creekimp. You're at the point where a lot of people start backsliding and need extra support. The first few months or the first year most of us are pretty gungho about all this, but once we're in maintenance or at least close to it, the rapid weight loss ends, we're tired, and the thrill of rapid weight loss is gone. That's when the hard work begins - to either keep going or stay where we're at without starting to head backwards. Lots of us have found therapists to be very helpful. Find one if you need to....you've put a lot into this and don't want to go back to where you were before!!

I wish I'd know that not everyone pukes after surgery. LOL. I DREADED the idea of vomiting so much. I hate it, and everything I read seemed to indicate that it was pretty much a normal learning curve thing to puke a few times after surgery while adjusting to your new gastric limits. Because of my horror and dread about puking...I put off my surgery for nearly a decade.
Reality....the anti-puke meds they have now are absolutely amazing. Since having surgery 3.5 years ago, I have never been severely nauseated. I have never puked. Not once. I was not nauseated after surgery. Felt great, walked, drank every bit of Water I was allowed with no issues (other than it taking a long time at first with the little bity sips)
If I'd known what a good job they do preventing vomiting these days......it might have been a gamechanger.
Yes, it's possible you'll puke. But it's also possible to have a super easy time of it and never feel sick at all. I didn't. I'm so grateful for that.

See a bariatric therapist. What you are going through is pretty common. Two years out, a lot of the real mental/emotional work happens. You've fixed your body, now you need to fix your brain to maintain.
Identifying your triggers and coming up with alternate ways to get what you need (and fix what you're using food to medicate)....is essential for maintenance. Least it was for me.
Don't panic. There is time to figure this out, but you need to take baby steps toward doing it today. Don't go into a denial spiral and ignore your hard work coming undone. A lot of folks do that...when therapy could have really helped keep them on track.
Wishing you the very best.

I had to do two weeks of liquid diet. On day 3 I was so hungry I could have gnawed my leg off. Miserable, horrible, awful experience.
That said...it does shrink your liver, which makes your surgery safer (more room for your surgeon to work)
This, too, shall pass.
But I feel your pain.
Stick with it.
A day at a time.

See a bariatric therapist. What you are going through is pretty common. Two years out, a lot of the real mental/emotional work happens. You've fixed your body, now you need to fix your brain to maintain.
Identifying your triggers and coming up with alternate ways to get what you need (and fix what you're using food to medicate)....is essential for maintenance. Least it was for me.
Don't panic. There is time to figure this out, but you need to take baby steps toward doing it today. Don't go into a denial spiral and ignore your hard work coming undone. A lot of folks do that...when therapy could have really helped keep them on track.
Wishing you the very best.

See a bariatric therapist. What you are going through is pretty common. Two years out, a lot of the real mental/emotional work happens. You've fixed your body, now you need to fix your brain to maintain.
Identifying your triggers and coming up with alternate ways to get what you need (and fix what you're using food to medicate)....is essential for maintenance. Least it was for me.
Don't panic. There is time to figure this out, but you need to take baby steps toward doing it today. Don't go into a denial spiral and ignore your hard work coming undone. A lot of folks do that...when therapy could have really helped keep them on track.
Wishing you the very best.

I think it should be noted that a mile could be a lot different for someone who is 250 pounds overweight vs someone 80 pounds overweight. Age, comorbidities, fitness before surgery would all figure in. Best person to ask is your doc:) Best wishes!

it's very common. The reason oft stated is that estrogen is stored in fat cells, and a bunch of it is released during rapid weight loss. A lot of women post about mood swings and screwed-up cycles the first few weeks or months after surgery. It does eventually settle down and stabilize again.

I had to do two weeks of liquid diet. On day 3 I was so hungry I could have gnawed my leg off. Miserable, horrible, awful experience.
That said...it does shrink your liver, which makes your surgery safer (more room for your surgeon to work)
This, too, shall pass.
But I feel your pain.
Stick with it.
A day at a time.

I'm scheduled for a colonoscopy and since my previous one was " fair" they want me to the high volume two day prep. This is after my sleeve surgery and I can't see how I can drink 180 oz, in 24 hours. I normally have 64 oz in a day. My stomach just isn't that big anymore. I have a call into my doctor. What have others done for the two day prep, post surgery?

I scheduled my last colonoscopy appointment in the afternoon so I could break up the Golytely (or whatever it is) - I drank half of it in the evening and the other half the following morning (per instructions).
I had a morning appt the first time I went through this so I had to drink the whole gallon in one evening. Not doing that again...
In both cases, though, I had to drink a bottle of magnesium citrate the night before I started the golytely, and the mag citrate is only like 16 oz - so I did have two days of prep, but it sounds like it might be different from yours.

(in other words, I did day 1 - bottle of magnesium citrate. Day 2 - half gallon of Golytely in the evening. Day 3 (day of colonoscopy) - the other half gallon of Golytely that morning, colonoscopy in the afternoon

I agree! The whys are definitely important. I had to put surgery on hold for 3 months while I saw a therapist and I'm actually really glad I did. We ended up doing a couples session and identified at least one sort of "trigger" for me that I didn't really think about before. For me, I've realized that "mental load" can often wind up feeling really overwhelming if one thing sort of gets knocked out of place. I'll list up all these tasks in my head of things I need to do, and then if say.. I suddenly have to work overtime, I'll panic and stress eat as a result. And sure I'll tell myself that it's only this once, and I deserve it I'm working extra so I don't have time to cook and blah blah, but if those things were true then I wouldn't have ended up as overweight as I am. The truth is it wasn't "once".
The solution we've found that works for our household is me just keeping the "list" written on the fridge instead of in my mind. This means my husband can see what needs to be done without me having to ask, because I hate hate hate asking (it makes me feel like a mother instead of a partner). If he knows what needs to be done, then he'll do it, especially if he sees I'm stressed. That has helped ward off a lot of the overwhelmed feelings that led me to eat before.
I also came to a rude awakening post-surgery regarding not finishing food. We were a "clean your plate" household, and while I'm aware of it, I didn't realize just quite how much throwing away food I was enjoying would bug me. If there's enough for leftovers, then I'll store it, but sometime I literally have a bite or two left. It's gotten easier to discard the little bits as time has gone on, but the first time I had just a couple bites left I sat there staring at my food for a good 20 minutes or so, hoping the full feeling would magically disappear before I finally tossed it out.
I am still continuing to see a therapist, and will be doing so until I've got a comfortable hold on my various "whys" and how to address them. While I am definitely better off than I was several months ago, I still have a lot of room for improvement. Eventually I hope to get to a place where I'm comfortable just calling the therapist when I'm having a particularly bad time, but I'm not quite there yet.

I eat fast food all the time. But I make better choices. At McD's I'll eat an egg mcmuffin and a coffee with cream and splenda. At Wendy's, I love their grilled chicken strawberry salad and eat about 2/3 of it. At KFC, I've been known to eat two chicken legs, original, no sides...and an ice tea. At Burger King, I'll eat half an Impossible Whopper.
For some people....stopping at fast food is too triggering and leads to free for all binging melt downs.
For me, I've found that I need to face my triggers to feel in control of my eating habits.
I purposefully go to fast food places for lunches (not always, but regularly when working) and order sensibly. I know exactly the number of calories I'm eating and make sure the rest of my day fits. I read the nutrition information before I order, make a plan, and stick to it.
Fast food places don't bother me anymore. I don't feel threatened with feeling out of control anymore. I feel like I can eat there and still eat responsibly.
I like fast food. In moderation. With my eyes wide open.
I like feeling like I've slayed that dragon and it holds no control over me anymore.

I think it's important to talk about what we're eating. We do a lot of that. In minutia. We lable foods good and evil. We obsess about the "right" diet, calories, choices, etc....
But that's really the easy part.
The hard part is figuring out WHY we're eating. WHY we ate ourselves to morbid obesity, and what need we were trying to address when we put that food in our bodies.
I feel like if those needs aren't figured out and meaningfully delt with this whole process is really vulnerable to failure.
I feel like we never talk about why we ate so much.
I'm not saying we need pity party hour with extensive confessionals chronicallying every challenge, insecurity and poopy life event...lol.
But I feel like sharing those little eureka moments were we've identified some little unmet need that resulted in bad choices....would be a good thing.
For instance.... I used to get the KFC six million calorie dinner with the 12 pieces of chicken, 3 sides, biscuits and the chocolate chip cake....after grocery shopping. It was almost an unwritten thing. I deserved it. In some weird justification, I figured that I was shopping, carrying stuff in, putting things away, selflessly giving up time to a task I sort of despised for my family. Of course I deserved chicken!
But really, what I wanted at the core of things....was support. I wanted to feel appreciated, and rewarded for being a good doobie. I wanted to feel nurtured after a stressful task that I hated.
These days....we have a new rule at the house. The person who does the grocery shopping gets to relax and take a bath while the other person does the cooking. And you know what? It works. I feel appreciated, supported. And I eat a more balanced decent dinner and have a win. That feels good. I learned that I geninely don't like asking for help...and that I need to more often. Just writing that makes me cringe.
My bariatric therapist did a lot of talking about the "whys" of over eating, and finding ways to get the desired needs met that aren't self sabotaging.
I wish we talked about the "whys" more.

I hate "weightloss journey" too. I don't mind if anyone says it....it's my personal hang up, too. It's just so cheesily coined from My 600 Pound Life or something. My eye twitches over it. It's really not a bad term or anything...it just feels overused and cliche and makes me grit my teeth a little.
I picture two dogs and a cat on a log with a bear or something.
I have issues. LOL.

I think it's important to talk about what we're eating. We do a lot of that. In minutia. We lable foods good and evil. We obsess about the "right" diet, calories, choices, etc....
But that's really the easy part.
The hard part is figuring out WHY we're eating. WHY we ate ourselves to morbid obesity, and what need we were trying to address when we put that food in our bodies.
I feel like if those needs aren't figured out and meaningfully delt with this whole process is really vulnerable to failure.
I feel like we never talk about why we ate so much.
I'm not saying we need pity party hour with extensive confessionals chronicallying every challenge, insecurity and poopy life event...lol.
But I feel like sharing those little eureka moments were we've identified some little unmet need that resulted in bad choices....would be a good thing.
For instance.... I used to get the KFC six million calorie dinner with the 12 pieces of chicken, 3 sides, biscuits and the chocolate chip cake....after grocery shopping. It was almost an unwritten thing. I deserved it. In some weird justification, I figured that I was shopping, carrying stuff in, putting things away, selflessly giving up time to a task I sort of despised for my family. Of course I deserved chicken!
But really, what I wanted at the core of things....was support. I wanted to feel appreciated, and rewarded for being a good doobie. I wanted to feel nurtured after a stressful task that I hated.
These days....we have a new rule at the house. The person who does the grocery shopping gets to relax and take a bath while the other person does the cooking. And you know what? It works. I feel appreciated, supported. And I eat a more balanced decent dinner and have a win. That feels good. I learned that I geninely don't like asking for help...and that I need to more often. Just writing that makes me cringe.
My bariatric therapist did a lot of talking about the "whys" of over eating, and finding ways to get the desired needs met that aren't self sabotaging.
I wish we talked about the "whys" more.