ms.sss

some stuff i ate yesterday (ate everything shown)...

YUM! ** off to make devilled eggs... **

I absolutely LOVE to pull out my historical spreadsheets! thanks for giving me an excuse to do so!!! 1. Pre op weight, BMI or measurements 2. Surgery type VSG (Sleeve) October 24, 2018 3. Lowest post op weight, BMI or measurements and when it occurred 4. Maintenance weight, BMI or measurements and when it occurred Stabilized at about 115 lbs (BMI 21) around June 2020 and stayed that way for about a year or so. Unfortunately i don't have measurements for that time but i think they were similar to my lowest post op weight above. 5. Bounces (up or down) in weight, BMI or measurements and when they occurred around year 3 i averaged closer to 120 lbs (but rarely ever above 120), and have stayed that way until today (almost 6 yrs post op). This morning I weighed in at 119.4 lbs. 6. Methods used to maintain and what has/has not worked i track my food intake almost daily i weigh myself daily when i have access to scale (i also take my measurements once a month) i engage in regular exercise. i try to NOT eat to fullness (don't always succeed) if i want to eat something, i do, but i generally limit it to tastes/bites, vs full on meals. i generally ONLY eat things i really want to, and skip the stuff i deem "not worth it", as i consider it a waste of valuable stomach real estate. 7. How your life has changed (losing vs maintaining perspective) i eat carbs now lol (i avoided them like the plague during weight loss phase, and a year or so afterwards). its been a while for me know and i do notice that i am not as worried as i used to be about regaining weight. i think i've learned to trust myself in that i can make good decisions about my health and weight maintenance, and that i know i am flexible/resourceful/confident enough to make changes and adjustments WHEN things change. i guess that is it really, i am exponentially more confident than i was before: in terms of decision making, self-image, relationships, dealing with stress, all of it. I am so much more CHILL. Life is really good (plus im super HAWT, lol) 8. Words of wisdom/cautionary tales/stories of beating the odds Don't give into the angst. Don't try to do stuff that is beyond your abilities or desire. Don't compare yourself to others. Exercise. Drink water, Wear sunscreen.

ugh. the constipation blues. i didn't poop for 13 DAYS after surgery. omg. i developed an M.O. to battle constipation over the next several weeks: 1) every day, i would add 2 tsp Benefibre to my morning protein shakes. 2) if i didn't poop after 2-3 days, i would take a Miralax 3) if I didn't poop 2 days after that, i would take Milk of Magnesia. 4) if i didn't poop 2 days after that i would insert a glycerin suppository. 5) if i did'nt poop 6 hours after that, i would insert another one. LUCKILY, i didn't need to figure out what to do if the second suppository didn't work. omg. i did this for about a year. after a year i got more "regular" and didn't even need the daily Benefibre anymore. And when I say "regular" i mean i poop maybe every 2-3 days. which is a huge departure to pre-op when i used to poop MULTIPLE times in a single day (sorry TMI). i think so long you aren't super uncomfortable, you are good. but if you are starting to feel pain and/or discomfort, then you probably need to come up with a plan to combat it, whatever M.O. it may be.

wowza, your niece is talented! this cake here is my fave of the ones you posted! if i ever convince Mr. to marry me again, i would totally be on board to hire your niece to make our cake!! (but full disclosure, he is NOT on board. arg.)

i love to eat. i also love to go out and eat and try new restaurants and go to parties with food and outings with friends and date nights with the Mr. or The Kid. i love to travel and for me and my fam and friends, travel == food. given my preferred lifestyle, i can't (won't!) really do all the switching in of alternative foods. i mean if i'm in Italy, there is no way i'm opting for a cauliflower crust pizza. nor will i forgo butter or effing high fat cheese when in france. i looooooove tasting menus, and i have yet to find one that caters to the "bariatric diet", nor would i want to. for me, i just control portion size (and total calories) and its worked very well for me (so far). i realize that alot of people can't do this in fear of slippery slopes and whatnot, but for ME, its sustainable. its been said time and time again on here: do what works FOR YOU. it may not be what most are doing, or even what your medical team is saying...just find the place you are comfortable operating in and LIVE IT. you may not be perfect, but you can be perfect ENOUGH for YOU.

i have one too! (i think). tldr; ** warning this is long: skip to last paragraph if u short on time or bore easily lololozzzz ** mine pops out about 3 inches to the right (my right) of my belly button (about the size of a walnut)...always when im doing some fold over bend (like nose to knees), or bending the opposite way (like bridges), or some sort of sustained abdominal crunch (like boats). it would hurt, but ive always been able to push it back in EXECEPT once when it stayed out for about 36 hours. i booked appt with doc to check it out , but by the time my appt came around, it popped back in. then of course, their examination of me was inconclusive (couldn't find evidence of one). he told me if it happens again, take a picture, mark it with pen and come in. this was in january this year. and of course it hasn't happened since. which is both annoying and a relief since it used to happen pretty regularly...at least once a month or so for about 5 years. anyway, i did some reading and i have long SUSPECTED, based on its location and the timeline of its appearance, its an Incisional Hernia (yes i self-diagnosed myself ha). the location is about where one of the laparoscopic scars would have been had i not had a tummy tuck (my skin was yanked down so the skin scar is lower than before) AND i started getting it when my exercise efforts got more intense. i never concerned myself with it very much cuz it always popped back in. until that day it didn't. it was pretty painful. i had to keep pressure on it and bend over to provide some relief. i was so glad when it popped back in, but then upset i couldn't prove it was there, arg! doc says hernias don't get better, they just get worse over time, so eventually ill likely need surgery if indeed i have one...which we can't prove cuz that sucker is staying out of sight these days. but if/when it makes an appearance, the idea of keeping it "out" the entire time just to show my doctor sounds very unappealing to me! **shudder** p.s. on a side note, Mr. theorizes that the reason my hernia has been hiding for so long (its been 5 months since ive had one...my longest stretch of not having one since it began) is because of my increased core exercise work. i've developed some abdominal muscle and strength the past several months, and he thinks that when engaged, my core is strong enough to keep the hernia in when i do those particular exercises. so he thinks if i really want to pop it out, i should do a fold over and not engage my abdominals closed, but actually use my strength to push it out! and im like NOPE! not doing that. tldr; so...if u aren't squeamish like me, maybe you could try to push it out also so u can show ur doc? do you notice what things u are doing when it comes out? u could just keep doing those things...

i used to get that in the early days/months of wls. it got better as time went on. my doc called it orthostatic hypertension and is apparently a common condition during rapid weight loss and even just after a surgery (wls or not). but my blood pressure readings were always on the low side...not normal like yours. are u eating less than normal? i do recall u just had a recent surgery...did it start after that? p.s. at the time my doc said to add more salt to my diet...which was fine by me cuz i love salt 🤷🏻‍♀️

same! btw, i could have a private freak-fly moment with those brownies you made. 🤤🤤🤤🤤🤤

of course i demand pictures.

i notice that people are more "receptive": to bite sized/individual desserts vs. stuff you have to cut yourself to eat. i think pre-cut or bite sized stuff just appeals to everyone's laziness lololololzzzzzz. if i make a cake or something large that needs cutting, i usually pre-cut so that people can just grab and go.

you are correct lady. I LOVE THIS. did you do all this? it looks so fab.

omg, even though I know baking isn't your main profession, it TOTALLY should be!!!! you could totally start a custom cake/dessert business.

@Lilia_90: are you a professional chef? your creations and plating are Instagram-worthy!

i had to Google "hooding ceremony"...yay Sis! CONGRATULATIONS!!! and also CONGRTULATIONS to GT's mini-me!

this is very thought provoking for me! you know, it never even occurred to me that getting wls would/could have re-inforced negative body issue ideas to my daughter at the time i had it. like the other poster above, i just told her point blank (she was 12 or 13 at the time). i think it was along the lines of "i'm having surgery to reduce the size of my stomach to help me lose weight". and i remember her asking me why i wanted to lose weight and me saying that i am fat and i'm getting old and being fat and old will probably stop me from getting older....AND i just wanted to not be fat anymore and surgery will help me alot in achieving this. and that was that. now, my daughter is familiar with the concept of surgeries so maybe that is why she presented as aloof when i told her. when she was 5 or 6 she asked about my breast reduction scar and i told her i had surgery to make my boobs smaller because they were too big before and hurting my back, and now my back doesn't hurt anymore. also when she was younger she asked why she doesn't have younger brothers or sisters and we explained Mr.'s vasectomy. she was 10 when my mom had double bypass surgery and she knew that the doctors took a vein from grandmas leg to put in her chest to help her heart work better. she is also like her father, slim and naturally active and fit, so i dunno if me doing something to my body to "fix" weight would trigger her in any way... BUT i totally see now how WLS in particular may touch on self-image issues and ideas that we may perpetuate or even create about our kids bodies. i'm gonna go ask her about her thoughts later.

as for whether subsisting on a very low calorie diet for a prolonged period of time affects your BMR (metabolism) in the future, there are arguments for AND against. one particular study that i found intriguing was the "Biggest Loser Study"..that found that contestants that participated in the study ALL ended up with lower BMR's than before weight loss...EXCEPT for the one contestant who ended up getting WLS. that one person's BMR did not lower like the rest after his wls, in fact, in went back up. obv, the sample size was very small, and the subjects were only observed for 6 years, but still. something to ponder. you can read the study here if you are interested: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4989512/ or, if you want an easier NYT-read of the same study, here is a link to a more reader-friendly version: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/02/health/biggest-loser-weight-loss.html now for a personal anecdote: i was 300 calories A WEEK for the first two weeks, then 300-400 calories a DAY for a couple months, then 500-600 the next couple months, then 700-800 until i reached goal at at 7 months. i'm 5'2" and at 7 months i was 127 lbs. fast forward almost 6 years post op and i am consuming 2200+ cals a day and i'm just under 120 lbs. however i also do quite a bit of dedicated exercise (1.5 to 2.5 hours daily), plus other active stuff i just do for fun in daily life. BUT...when i wasn't exercising as much as i am now, i was maintaining at about 1800 calories a day...so at least for me, i don't think my BMR/metabolism was negatively affected after a sustained low cal diet...if anything, i think it got better...though i probably have all the exercise to thank.

according to this internet calculator: https://www.calculator.net/bmr-calculator.html ** at your current height and weight, if you did nothing but stand still and breathe, you would burn 1,478 calories a day (i assumed you are are a 30 yr old female to fill in the blanks). so THEORTICALLY if all you did was merely EXIST, and you ate less than 1,478 calories a day you would be in a deficit and lose weight (how much weight exactly would depend on your activity level, your genetics, your health and metabolism speed). with that said, i'm with @catwoman7 in that i agree that 2100 cal a day for someone with your current weight and height may be more than maintenance level cals (i.e, you will GAIN weight), unless you are exercising at least 4-5 times a week. see screenshot from the above calculator's results below. ** p.s. as always, pls don't think that this calculator is the be all end all of truth, its just a guide based on AVERAGES. roughly 99% of people with your similar height and weight will fall above or below this number produced by this calculator.

same. and "anything i want" includes chocolate and chips and fried foods and sauces/gravvies and high-fat things and desserts and pizzas and bread, etc. etc. BUT not in copious amounts (for the most part). BUT i also eat salads and veggies and lean meats and cottage cheese and tofu and fruits, also not in copious amounts (for the most part). mind you my weight loss phase days are long behind me, but even during weight loss phase, i would occasionally have foods that were "off plan". like mentioned above, i was closer to maybe eating "what i was supposed to be eating" maybe 75-80% of the time. though my total average calories were always low regardless of what i was eating.

This usually means you lost some fat and gained some muscle mass. Which is a good thing! yay muscles! over the last several months (due to my increased exercise regime i assume) my 7 day running weight average has increased by about 3 lbs, but my pants are falling off me again like those fun early weeks immediately after WLS (and my pants are already pretty small to begin with omg). but i also think this is a good thing though:...yay shopping for new pants! lol do you take your body measurements regularly? sometimes looking over historical body measurements over time paint a better picture than the number on the scale....

hiya! we all have different paths to goal, so it really does depend on a multitude of factors. with that said, i decided to transition into maintenance at 7 months post op, but it took me few months to figure out what my maintenance calories were, so, i continued to lose (unintentionally) until about a year post op (another 12 lbs to be exact). note though that i INTENTIONALLY increased calories after the 7 month mark, so results would have been different had i stayed at the calorie level i was before that, im pretty sure.

The Kid made an epic charcuterie board the other day which i tried to copy this morning in mini-version (need to use up all the stuff she bought) i haven't eaten any of it cuz im not hungry yet and the rest of the fam are still in bed, so it's sitting in the fridge for later. also made some foccacia dough that is proofing in the the fridge as well for tomorrow, AND i butchered a pork shoulder which is marinating for BBQ. busy morning, eh? now its time to veg on the couch with reruns of Top Chef. the mini charcuterie! 891 calories for it all.

100% agreed! same same same. except i was/am more like 1-2 hours spacing between eating after WLS (if i remembered to eat) and i was a TOTAL snacker prior to WLS. i cant tell you how many times i was told (directly or indirectly) that i was/am doing it wrong, that im just repeating the same bad habits (i.e., grazing and skipping breakfast) and that i am on a slippery slope back to obesity . its been almost 6 years now and im perfectly fine. not even close to being obese again. hopefully this will continue to be the case....because im not so ignorant to assume this M.O. will last forever. things change, and if i don't change with it, who knows? saying it again: we all so different with different things that work for us, find what works and do that. ❤️ p.s. [ DEEP THOUGHTS tangent ] ...sometimes i feel like im nagging or posing as a pseudo Yoda or something because im getting this feeling like i keep repeating the same thing in a way that can be perceived as condescending and know-it-all-ish (sorry!) i think i have maybe been on this forum too long (and/or too much).

i love gathering data and making observations!!! thanks for allowing me to let my freak fly! soooo: i clocked in at 2293 calories as of 9:30pm-ish yesterday. and whaddayaknow, this is actually an amount that i normally eat these days! HOWEVER, a couple things to note: 1) i took an almost 3 hour nap after i digested the offending breakfast. so my "eating window" was quite reduced....and my calorie burning hours were also reduced) 2) when i woke up, i went to town on a charcuterie board The Kid made and we all know cheese and cured meats and fig jam and crackers and nuts and dried fruit have a ton of calories. especially with the amount i ate, ha! sooo...i dunno if yesterday was a typical example of me eating in the morning and the ensuing result. a little anticlimactic...whomp whomp.

90% of my OOTD's is workout gear...sorry! i've been back on the exercise train for past 9 months...but have been riding the bullet train for the past 3. this is where it got me so far. check out my muscles! they've grown! am also adding a side-ish view to show off the tiny lump of a butt that i've cultivated. so i figure 100 gazzillion more squats/lunges/leg kicks/bridges/clams, etc and i could have a regular looking a$$!! 😂