RHCD

So haven’t been here in a while. But two today (after some small regain it was a good reminder). I was able to walk all over campus keeping up with my team (couple miles) without getting out of breath or breaking a sweat.

Second I had put down my size as a medium for my polo shirt. It was a women’s medium and when I heard that I was a little worried because women’s cuts are notoriously tiny. Not a problem.

Last week and I went and bought new jeans as the ones I bought last fall (32”) are just too baggy. I bought and fit into 29”. I can’t believe my waist is now smaller than my 32” inseam. Awesome NSV for me as the scale is pretty stagnate.

Then I was sharing this story with one of my close friends (who affectionally calls her self a skinny bitch) and she tell me she has pants in that size too. I literally stopped walking and just gave her this look of WTF and commented “I just have no idea how to process that”. Seriously a year ago I was two weeks post op and today life is completely different.

I haven’t talked about it at all on social media even when the comments started coming in about why I looked drastically different.

I belong to a body positive group and it’s too hard to articulate in writing all the reasons I did this that aren’t about being physically smaller. I had plenty of confidence and felt beautiful before my sleeve but I know I’m in the minority.

I took guidance from a close friend who had dramatic weight loss with out surgery who didn’t post her transformation on social media. Not because either of us are ashamed.

Now in person I talk about it but there was a small group (The Mr and a few select friends but no family) who knew ahead of my surgery. Afterwards I’ll talk about it pretty freely because going from a size 24 down to a ten in under a year is dramatic. I literally don’t look the same.

I knew ahead of time who I could trust with telling. The supportive folks vs the not.

So I’m at my one year and I did most of my exercise via walking. And honestly it wasn’t until the 6+ week that I even had the energy to deal with walking and didn’t get real distance/time until well past 12 weeks.

I have yet to go to a “gym.” I’m back at my yoga studio that I was at at 300lbs+. I now go several times a week with yoga and cardio classes.

You’re doing fine. Don’t beat yourself if not perfect.

So this is a weird one. Last night while taking a bath if I had my knees bent and touching and there was an honest to goodness visible gap. Like I could see thru it and had to really contort myself to close it.

On 04/13/2019 at 11:50, Frustr8 said:

Pulling on my slacks, having them be loose instead of tight and uncomfortable in "rise" the crotch seam. And the best-ess part, going to stores and not automatically searching how large each piece goes, I believe someday even if I am not "normal" or "average" I still will make it to "midsize" personhood and from where I started that looks a fine place to be. Maybe, just maybe, my relatives will not call me Wide Load, do you think they were thoughtless or just didn't much care for me? It hurt me to my core I wasn't accepted better😭😪😥👗

I’ve been struggling the last few weeks as the numbers are flat gain flat gain loss ... rinse and repeat. But I keep going back to how clothes that a few weeks ago were tight in the legs, belly or arms are now plenty comfortable and are not tight or pulling. I’m wearing heels regularly and my feet aren’t angry at me. I get antsy if I haven’t been active and look forward to moving my body with a walk/workout etc.

The weird one is recognizing I’m now thin enough (size 10 US) that thin privilege is real and a total mind frak. I’m no longer invisible in public and that’s just really odd to have the shift in under a year.

I had a shot at about 12 weeks post sleeve. (I was traveling and it was a group celebration thing). It instantly hit me. Like insta drunk I could see the world shift and feel it hit my blood stream.

After that it’s been a few schooners or less that I don’t finish here and there. I wasn’t a big drinker before and even less now.

I’m not a drinker

Yesterday while in for my 10/11 month check up I was scheduling my 12 month follow up. The receptionist looked at my photo in the system and said “dang you look totally different!”

The other lady in the waiting room who was having a pre surgery appt asked if she could ask me some questions. Total convo about yeah the number change is amazing (and frustrating) but more than that are all the NSVs that I’ve had and at.

On 03/14/2019 at 09:48, MegPRN said:

Today is my 10-year wedding anniversary. Yesterday I went shopping for a cocktail dress for a special weekend we have planned.

When I was in high school, my friends and I would go to the mall and try on prom dresses in the department store junior section, just for fun. The largest size they ever had was a 14. I would ask my friends to try to zip the dress up, and it wouldn't zip, ever. I blamed my boobs or my large frame (shoulders/ribs too wide..) but the truth was, I was just too heavy. It still makes me feel shame, even 20 years later.

Well, yesterday, I found a beautiful cocktail dress in a size 12. I decided to try it on, despite having flashbacks to high school. It was tight and I couldn't reach to zip it myself, so I stepped out to ask an attendant to zip it for me. Y'all - it fit, with space to spare. I feel like Carrie Bradshaw in this damn dress, and I bought a pair of sky-high heels to match.

And the best part? This normally $298 dress was on clearance at Nordstrom Rack for $35!

My other half broke his ankle and couldn’t drive during the time I had initially scheduled. Pushed me out about 6 weeks.

So not insurance related but one of those life laughed at my plan...

Yep! I keep thinking I can’t have had this be this “easy”. Other than my gallbladder emergency surgery at month 5 it’s been fairly straightforward. Follow the plan and tweak where it ya need to. Don’t get me wrong plenty of hard moments of figuring things out but not anywhere near some of the side effects you read about.

In fact when people start thinking about a sleeve and ask for my input I tell them I’m so far on the right side of the standard deviation that holding me up as normal is setting them selves up for heart ache.

Yep! 10ish months out and omg always so cold. I was a chilly person before now it’s just comical because I always have a heavy warm scarf just in case. This is on top of multi layers. Btw fleece lined leggings are amazing.

I stopped somewhere around the 12 week mark. I had a two week international trip and knew there was no way I could find something especially since anything dairy based caused me issues.

Honestly I struggled with them because of my intolerance to dairy (particularly whey and it’s counterparts) despite trying several styles. As a smoothie they’d take me so long to finish that’d it throw off my meal timing and Water intake.

Have a new one... I had to take a decent work headshot for our internal IM and network. This was after replacing my badge picture two weeks ago. Two weeks ago I got questioned on my costco card not looking at me.

Traveling in a few weeks and just had a panic moment about how much my DL or passport don’t really look a lot like me.

I’ve settled on most days a high Protein yogurt (siggi’s Icelandic style) add in some chopped nuts. I may add a sausage link. I also tend to eat at my desk in the morning. That habit I haven’t broken...

Basically I was tired of eggs and now really enjoy them other parts of the day/week.

On 01/24/2019 at 08:29, WeGettingThere said:

Damn 6-9 weeks for appointments? That's alot.

First appt was right after thanksgiving with about 6-8 weeks of approval appts. Then I could have scheduled it within a month after that but choose 2 because of some stuff going on I wanted to wait after. Then the Mr broke his ankle and couldn’t drive so I choose to push it back another month until he was functional. All told just about 5 months

Starting out I wanted to at least be the avg loss which put me in the 220s. Anything beyond that was way to hard for my brain to wrap around. Once there then it was can I get into straight sizes and under 200. I’m now in theory 20 lbs to the not overweight per BMI chart. At 185 my team and I are so happy that our goal has changed from a pure weight number to a fat to muscle percentage that will likely put me over a bit in the 170s... I’m consistently in 12/10s and mediums. At this point it’s going to be where can I land that is where I look/ feel healthy and maintain it.

While I haven’t been doing my normal exercising the last week today I made the choice and climbed 5 flights of stairs. May have been sucking wind but still did it,.

I got thru my rapid loss phase with some wrap dresses and tops from eShakti . I could wear them for 8-10 size changes. I also would only buy the bare minimum for a season. I will say that at some point I was feeling very frumpy at the 50 lbs loss mark and went shopping. It was glorious and I’d even buy too tight cause I knew in a few weeks it wouldn’t be.

This morning while buckling my shoes I noticed I only had 1 maybe two holes left compared to when I started this I had to pull down tight to get to the last one.

That’s doesn’t even factor in how much easier it is to bend over and buckle them...

Yep I was 1 week shy of my 41st.

On 11/26/2018 at 23:36, rs said:

How long did your weight loss honeymoon phase last?

This weekend at a party I was standing to wait for a friend of mine to move so I could pass her thinking there was no way I’d be able to get past them in the small space. Maybe 12-18” of space.

Another friend (who knows of my surgery) leaned in and said “RHCD you can fit thru there”. I told her nope I’m fine I’ll wait. Some how I eventually decided to give it a go and walked thru and didn’t bump anyone. Mind blown. Much cheering/fist bumps from friends.

So maybe physically smaller but mentally not there.