Sheribear68

Oh and I totally forgot in my excitement of reaching <25 on my BMI: I’ve lost 100 pounds since I started my pre-surgery appointments last July. Whoop!

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Boomer Sooner baby!

Yes thanks for posting that. Don’t care how many outdated and obscure studies get posted, because I promise that for every person who suffers from some completely rare vitamin deficiency, morbid obesity is MORE dangerous to your health. We have to choose our hard. I’ll choose to be careful with my nutrition and take my vitamins and live without the extra 100 pounds.

Ready for game day!

Guys I’m so excited Not at goal yet, but I FINALLY am at a “normal” BMI

Was so excited about this that I can’t NOT post. Normal BMI. BOOM!

Dang. I just made some AMAZING caprese salad and hubs smoked some ribs.

That Panera turkey chili looks good. Dayum.

So this was a rather large dinner as I was trying to recuperate from a fast from Wednesday. Shrimp, water chestnuts, shirataki noodles, and onions in a cream sauce and side dish of Asian sesame salad. What the picture doesn’t show is that I added 2 scoops beef bone broth powder to the shrimp mixture to amp up the protein. Ate all but a couple of bites of the salad

Love the Black on black look! Sadly I have a white cat who thinks I’m her property so I rarely wear black.

Hahaha. Like many here have told me, It FITS! Looking great!

So yesterday I ate for a ten hour window as I was trying to get some protein and calories back in. Today is gonna be 18:6. Mostly because I hate eating in the morning and I have Pilates mid-afternoon so I won’t even get back home til 2pm my time. How is everyone doing today?

Thanks for the responses guys. It’s really hurtful right now and even though I knew it wasn’t me (I try very hard to fly under the radar, but it’s not exactly like you can “hide” losing over 90 pounds) it’s nice to be reassured. I make very sure that I don’t mention anything about losing weight, buying new clothes, or how good I feel to anybody except you guys and very very close family members and 1-2 friends who I know are absolutely rock-solid love me no-matter-what kind of relationships. As I was stewing over this (because it’s cut me to the core and I’m kind of past the point where I can lie to myself and make yet another excuse up for this girl to avoid me now) I started making a list of positive changes in relationships. 1. I’ve got lots of friends all over the country and one of my long-term-yet-not-very-close friends and I have been reconnecting weekly via text and FB messaging bc she’s lost over 90 pounds (not WLS, just totally gave up sugar and now regularly does duathalons) and that relationship is awesome bc we send each other selfies and report on our progress and hold each other accountable. 2. All of you guys here. As if I didn’t realize how important coming here daily and posting was, the new IOS update really brought that home when my ability to be here is limited to when I can get on my pad. 3. The people I’m seeing daily at the Pilates studio. Okay, so it’s not as easy to make new besties at the age of 50 as it is at the age of 5 (which is a shame really) but seeing these ladies daily in class brings on a feeling of camaraderie that’s really nice. 4. Myself. Probably should’ve listed this relationship first, but the relationship I have with myself is a complete 180 from where I was this time last year.

See that’s why I asked the question in the first place because I was so weirded out by people talking about.....* gasp... eating carbs. When I was 28 I got pregnant with my daughter. I got gestational diabetes and gained almost 100 pounds. I went from 154 to 248 and actually gained another 5 pounds right after I had her. In 9 short months, my world changed completely and I was rapidly, suddenly MO. Since then I’ve battled almost constant hunger (prior to WLS) and fluctuated between 210-275 pounds. I truly think that being incredibly stubborn and dieting and exercising to the point of exhaustion periodically was the only thing keeping me from ever going higher. For me, the concept of non- veggie carbs in moderation is so completely scary and foreign. I truly hope that someday I can do things like incorporate fruits and legumes back in my diet, but even those scare the bejesus out of me ATM.

Okay, so I’ve got to vent and y’all are my online therapists, don’t ya know? How many of you can point to several relationships that have been changed for the worse by WLS? I’ve got many fans and supporters, but there are a few friends who I swear treat me like I’ve got the plague now. The latest in particular is a friend who lives in the next state. She’s got elderly parents here and comes every few weeks to check on them. Long story short, they just sold their house to live in assisted living and my friend was here a whole week. In the past, she’s come through for Easter, July 4th, and other random visits, yet I never find out about them until it’s too late to get together. This time—knowing it was going to be emotionally rough for her— I offered to help out in any way possible and she said “sure”. Then I proceeded to hear nothing from her about getting together until I finally broke down and texted to see how she was holding up emotionally and did she need me to bring her anything/take her out to dinner/buy her a bottle of wine, etc.... The response was that she was packing up to head home and would be too busy. Now I’m trying not to be paranoid, but before I had WLS, this never happened and I know for a fact that another mutual friend (who is still MO) took her to dinner the other night. My friend is MO and has been for her whole adult life. The only reason she even knows I had WLS was because we met back at the start of March and i confessed why I couldn’t really eat much (I was only 4 weeks PO then) Funnily enough, that’s the last time we’ve seen each other face to face. I’m trying my best to give her the benefit of the doubt, but it’s really getting tough to do that.

Okay so I definitely was not a novice drinker before WLS, and I’ve indulged a few times since. I’ve had VGS, not bypass. First drink: hits hard and fast. Will usually be pretty tipsy after 4oz wine, but the effects wear off fairly fast. For some reason, a second drink doesn’t phase me more than the first and I’ve only ever had >3 drinks once (NOLA in July). I had a night where I had a glass of wine with dinner (took over 90 mins to eat and drink together) then I had 3 old fashions at a jazz club. I kinda-sorta remember the walk home, but it would’ve been a lot more hazardous had hubs not been with me.

I cannot heart this post more than once! Lolololololol Seriously Fluffy.... that was MAGNIFICENT ❤️

Please DO NOT stop taking reflux meds without speaking to your doctor. The damage that can be done in stopping FAR OUTWEIGHS any potential (and the link is definitely not proven yet) harm. I’m the person who had been a life-long GERD sufferer. My surgeon did an endoscopy and luckily I didn’t have damage so I was sleeved almost 8 months ago. I still take a PPI a couple times weekly because if I stop altogether my reflux hits. Take them every day for the first 6 months, then discuss the next step with your surgical team. For me, the risk of still having the GERD was worth the sleeve vs bypass because I really didn’t want to have to deal with all of the malabsorption issues. That being said, everyone has to choose their type of surgery based off of many factors and each kind has its pros and cons. There just might be a day when my body decides it doesn’t need to produce an insane amount of acid anymore, but there could just as easily be a day when the PPIs don’t work anymore and I have to be revised. Either way I’m willing to roll with it and do what needs to be done to maintain as healthy status for myself as I possibly can

Disclaimer: I had a completely complication-free surgery and recovery. Within 3 hours of surgery, my team took me off of all pain meds except for plain Tylenol in my IV. The most significant “pain” I had was a feeling as if I had been punched repeatedly in the solar plexus and it hurt every time I tried to swallow liquid. Which sucked bc you have to drink 68 ounces liquid before they let you out. I slammed 2 ounces per hour (yes it hurt, but I had to do it regardless) and then finally got to where I was drinking 4-6 ounces/hour as time was running out. Again, it hurt, but I knew I’d hurt worse without it. Luckily I have a cast-iron stomach (sleeve now) and didn’t puke once. The chronic pain in the solar plexus lasted about 2 weeks, but the funny thing is that even though I’m close to 8 months PO, I can still duplicate that pain if I eat too fast, eat too much, or swallow too big a bite of food. I welcome that pain though, because it acts as a reminder to slow down The first 2 weeks just really stink, but they’re totally worth it

That’s amazing insight. See, I equate obesity with metabolic syndrome and metabolic syndrome = insulin resistance which is caused by too much processed sugars and carbs. I’ve got the kind of body where if I introduce any refined sugars or starches, the cascade of insulin resistance hits and hits HARD. Then I have to mindfully try to override that lizard-brain that doesn’t want to listen to anything rational bc my body is sending out major signals to eat,eat, eat bc starvation is imminent. Once I finally came to terms with this brutal (and quite unfair) reality the answer was simple: Have WLS for the metabolic reset and treat all carbs like the devil. ??? It amazes me that any of you guys can eat small amounts of carbs because even when I go over 30gm carb daily (and healthy carbs at that) I find myself struggling like crazy over the next couple of days to get cravings under control. In a way I’m lucky: I never had any kind of food addiction per se: my problem was I always felt like I was starving and any time I tried to cut calories it would work for a couple of weeks, then my body would fight back and I’d have all sorts of stuff from general lethargy and light-headedness to full on flu-type symptoms until I started eating to my body’s set point. I just can’t go down that rabbit hole again and one thing my surgical team made crystal clear to me was that during this honeymoon period, my body is secretly recording everything and once it’s over, my future set point will be in a large part due to what I ate during these first few months. Which is why (except for a handful of days when wine was consumed) I don’t ever plan for >30gm carbs daily. Soon I’ll hit maintenance and I’m going to have to try to increase my daily calories (I’m usually between 600-800 daily) but I’ll add in fat for the calories before I get back on the carb roller coaster.

Fabulous look! You’re shrinking for sure!

I’m also going for the tucked look today. Even if I don’t have a single belt to go with this outfit

Yeah, pasta is something that I decided was never going to be in my diet again. I had a wedding to attend in July and they had bbq buffet. I tried one bite of Mac and cheese from my husbands plate and it was gross. Everyone else said it tasted good, so I know it wasn’t just bad Mac and cheese, lol I also had part of a piece of bread with almost the same response. I got caught in a situation where I had to order out, and I got a turkey sandwich and tried to keep just enough bread on it so it wouldn’t fall apart. Again, it tasted awful and got stuck so I finally abandoned my dignity and ate the turkey and cheese with my fingers. I’m still about 10-15 pounds from maintenance and have zero idea how I’m going to “get over” my fear of carbs. Will be interesting

Okay so I caught up for 2 days. Really hating that I can’t use the app on my phone ATM I’m going to adjust my vitamin regimen on days I OMAD or 24 hr fast. Didn’t realize any of them would throw me out of fasting. Bummer, I figured only the chewable would. Today I had planned on a regular ole 16:8 (my usual) but I had a weird work day broken up with 2 doctors appts, and a total of 3 Pilates classes. It’s supposed to be my staycaytion week, but we got extra hours in our budget to give flu shots, so I worked in two 2 hr increments today doing mini flu-clinics. As a result, I flat didn’t have time to eat (bc of such a weird scheduling day I didn’t pack food) and by 2pm, I was sitting in my PCPs office with my stomach gurgling LOUDLY. Lol, it was definitely complaining, so I grabbed a quick container of milk when I got back to my store and then got home and ate dinner at 7pm. So..... besides the milk, I had almost another 24 hr fast without the benefit of loading up the day before for it. If I got in 40gm protein today, I’ll be shocked. I’ve got a similar day to tomorrow so I’m definitely bringing a PP shake