RHCD

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.

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

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.

So the 6-8 weeks included meeting with initial surgeon, then a nutritionist, a psychologist and a physiologist. I also had to do bloodwork. This was all over the time between thanksgiving and New Years so part of the delay was just the normal trying to schedule things year end rush.

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.

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.

Yep I was 1 week shy of my 41st.

So I’m the person who the night after my surgery every time I actually fell asleep my O2 would fall too low and all the alarms would go off. Loudly. So I got like no sleep until I got home and could sleep on my side. Then there was my gallbladder fun at four months. I cried in my surgeons office because of the pain and frustration of trying to get diagnosed and a plan...

I had mine on a Thursday we by back working from home the following Thursday and Friday. I’m so glad I had those two extra work from home days. I probably should have taken more time as I was just exhausted. No pain just exhaustion.

Corn or flour tortilla? At six months I can totally eat a corn tortilla based enchilada. Flour not so much. The first few month I had lots of meals with retried beans, some ground meat, cheese, avocado and salsa. It’s still one of my go to easy meals. And by lots I mean frequent not so much on the volume.