bodycando

I’m 10+ months out and when I had surgery I was not anticipating being in so much pain (mostly because of what I’d heard from others) and I was completely blindsided from the extreme pain when I woke up. It took me a month to get back to work, and even then I built up my hours. I live in the Netherlands though so I *could* do that an still get my salary. In hindsight I’m really glad I took it slow. Even in the third week I was so weak and barely able to walk long distances.... good luck with your recovery.

Same story here, in 2015 I realized I was relying too much on consuming things (both food and alcohol) for stress relief and immediately signed up for a gym membership, eventually sought out counseling, and a year later quit drinking on my own accord. My stress levels were out of control (mostly money-related) and through counseling I was able to set up a life for myself with more stability. This included quitting drinking and eating for pleasure/nostalgia. This has been a huge challenge for me—and not taking on too much work continues to be challenging—but I feel I’m better equipped now to know when I’m dipping into the stress danger zone and notice my eating behaviors change. I think with alcohol it’s very easy for us to deny problems that are really there because it’s socially acceptable (or even expected) to drink in so many occasions. For me I know it’s best to just avoid it entirely because I can skip back into denial quite quickly. Best of luck with everyone dealing with this.

Same story here, in 2015 I realized I was relying too much on consuming things (both food and alcohol) for stress relief and immediately signed up for a gym membership, eventually sought out counseling, and a year later quit drinking on my own accord. My stress levels were out of control (mostly money-related) and through counseling I was able to set up a life for myself with more stability. This included quitting drinking and eating for pleasure/nostalgia. This has been a huge challenge for me—and not taking on too much work continues to be challenging—but I feel I’m better equipped now to know when I’m dipping into the stress danger zone and notice my eating behaviors change. I think with alcohol it’s very easy for us to deny problems that are really there because it’s socially acceptable (or even expected) to drink in so many occasions. For me I know it’s best to just avoid it entirely because I can skip back into denial quite quickly. Best of luck with everyone dealing with this.

I have an addictive personality. I felt like I was drinking too much about 4 years ago. I sought counseling and quit. My husband was actually kind of confused why I asked for help. I just knew I was headed in a dangerous direction.

I haven’t had a drink since 11/30/15. I don’t attend meetings or anything but if I ever felt like I needed to I wouldn’t hesitate nor would I feel ashamed. I don’t miss it, other than brief fleeting moments and I really think it helps with maintaining my weight.

So I will probably get a lot of kick back from this, but here it goes. Alcohol seems to be such a compromising issue for so many folks. The truth of the matter is, that NO amount of alcohol is good for you. Yes, there are antioxidants in red wine, but even very light alcohol consumption increases risk of throat, mouth, and GI cancers. Alcohol is a very strong chemical that is damaging to living tissue. Period. Think about why an alcohol swab is used on your skin before a shot. It cleans and kills. There is absolutely no reason for a bariatric patient, of all people, to drink alcohol. Yet, it is so hard to make the total break. It is the same argument I hear all the time with patients who smoke - "I just smoke 5 cigarettes a day," "I just smoke a pack every week," "I just smoke socially." When we all know that ANY amount of smoking is not good for health.
All I am saying is that if we make this huge effort to improve our health with WLS, and we are willing to make total lifestyle changes to be successful in the long run for life, why do we try to compromise and flirt with seeing how much we can get away with concerning alcohol? Is it our addictive nature? Is it social pressure? It is a bit of rebellion? I believe it is a issue that is worth exploring deeply for each person and really asking the hard questions about WHY it is so important to continue drinking at all when there is absolutely no benefit, and only harm that can result.
So fire away at me. I've said my 2 cent's worth and won't bring it up again.

As I have said before, as a GI nurse, I have seen the horrible effects of alcohol on post WLS patients - even years down the road. Those surgical tissues remain fragile and vulnerable. There is nothing like alcohol or NSAIDS to totally erode and ulcerate the tissues. The worst ulcers i have ever seen are on WLS patients who return to alcohol. It's not worth it, but if you want to play with fire, that is your choice. You may well end up with a bleeding, potentially life threatening, GI emergency. You have gone through too much for that. If you felt your life was worth having surgery for, then your life is certainly worth giving up alcohol for.

Steak is actually one of my favorite post-surgery foods! I sautée a 150 gram piece in a cast Iron skillet and eat around half of it and have the rest for lunch the next day.

I cannot tolerate rubbery scrambled eggs or some leafy uncooked greens in salads. Also if something has a lot of oil or butter on it (like very buttery toast) that disagrees with me as well. Sugar I can tolerate fairly well but it definitely makes me crash hard so I avoid it.

Hi all, from what I read on this board it seems like everyone here tracks their food intake and calories. I haven't tracked calories since my first weeks post-surgery, but I do track exercise and my measurements, and eat very mindfully. The reason is that I have a history of disordered eating and am concerned that I can get too obsessive with tracking. My therapist is also not a fan of calorie tracking. In the distant past I've gotten very obsessive with tracking, but in the more recent past I feel more a weird combination of laziness and anxiety around it.
I'm 9 months out and have had great success post-surgery (100+ lbs down) but am wondering if I should rethink my no-tracking stance as I get into more challenging territory closer to my goal weight. Anyone else in the same boat?

Patience is a virtue... just keep doing your best with your diet and exercise and you will get through it. I'm realizing now that I had a stall over the summer that lasted around two months. I didn't completely stop losing weight but my weight loss majorly slowed down after about month 6. I had been losing very fast, so I thought this was a normal adjustment, but something has clicked in the last couple of months and I'm losing much faster again. Could be also that I'm more honest with myself about food choices and exercise and have more of an exercise routine now. Anyway, best of luck--you will get through it!

Hi all, from what I read on this board it seems like everyone here tracks their food intake and calories. I haven't tracked calories since my first weeks post-surgery, but I do track exercise and my measurements, and eat very mindfully. The reason is that I have a history of disordered eating and am concerned that I can get too obsessive with tracking. My therapist is also not a fan of calorie tracking. In the distant past I've gotten very obsessive with tracking, but in the more recent past I feel more a weird combination of laziness and anxiety around it.
I'm 9 months out and have had great success post-surgery (100+ lbs down) but am wondering if I should rethink my no-tracking stance as I get into more challenging territory closer to my goal weight. Anyone else in the same boat?

Hi all, from what I read on this board it seems like everyone here tracks their food intake and calories. I haven't tracked calories since my first weeks post-surgery, but I do track exercise and my measurements, and eat very mindfully. The reason is that I have a history of disordered eating and am concerned that I can get too obsessive with tracking. My therapist is also not a fan of calorie tracking. In the distant past I've gotten very obsessive with tracking, but in the more recent past I feel more a weird combination of laziness and anxiety around it.
I'm 9 months out and have had great success post-surgery (100+ lbs down) but am wondering if I should rethink my no-tracking stance as I get into more challenging territory closer to my goal weight. Anyone else in the same boat?

Haha you've got a point! I'm going to give this some thought and potentially start tracking soon. One question--do you use measurement cups or a kitchen scale or both? I live in Europe and the way we track everything is metric / with a kitchen scale, which feels *quite* exact.

My PA tells me to count calories and my nutritionist tells me to measure. Since Portion Control is my nemisis I track calories and eyeball portions. I hate the idea of deprivation so I pay attention within reason. No sweets or higher carbs until maintenance. Do whatever works for you.

I don't track calories or weigh food and was never told to by the surgeon or the bariatric nurse. I was just told to 'eat small, eat healthy'. I keep a food diary and record my weight weekly, but that's all. Food doesn't control me any more, so I don't want to spend more time thinking about it than I do currently. It's just there when I need it.

I am firmly in the tracking camp. Unrepentant. LOL.
Knowing a cause and effect relationship with food is vital for my peace of mind and sanity. And it takes 2 seconds longer to do something. That way you can actively adjust when adjustment is necessary and you don't have to do a lot of guess work to figure it out. It's call empirical evidence rather than magical thinking and hocus pocus. Cuz I can spit in one hand and wish in the other and guess which one is gonna stand up?
No disrespect to your RD and I fully understand your issue.

Hi all, from what I read on this board it seems like everyone here tracks their food intake and calories. I haven't tracked calories since my first weeks post-surgery, but I do track exercise and my measurements, and eat very mindfully. The reason is that I have a history of disordered eating and am concerned that I can get too obsessive with tracking. My therapist is also not a fan of calorie tracking. In the distant past I've gotten very obsessive with tracking, but in the more recent past I feel more a weird combination of laziness and anxiety around it.
I'm 9 months out and have had great success post-surgery (100+ lbs down) but am wondering if I should rethink my no-tracking stance as I get into more challenging territory closer to my goal weight. Anyone else in the same boat?

Steak is actually one of my favorite post-surgery foods! I sautée a 150 gram piece in a cast Iron skillet and eat around half of it and have the rest for lunch the next day.

I cannot tolerate rubbery scrambled eggs or some leafy uncooked greens in salads. Also if something has a lot of oil or butter on it (like very buttery toast) that disagrees with me as well. Sugar I can tolerate fairly well but it definitely makes me crash hard so I avoid it.

I think it's a normal part of adjusting to the surgery to go on vacation and majorly screw up your diet! With that said, it's also probably a good time to check in with your nutritionist and/or therapist.
I went back home to visit my parents in June (~6 months post op) and had my first major extended weak moment--because of the insane amount of food available to me (and my lack of willpower) I ended up eating like my family (which is not good), snacking like crazy and making generally poor food decisions. Luckily this gave me a breakthrough to realize that I felt self conscious making separate food for myself because I thought it'd be rude (no idea why) and from that point on I was able to better moderate my bad food decisions. I just got back from vacation with my partner and I actually lost a few pounds over the course of 2 weeks. Thus, no sweat this time but do try to get to the cause of the slip and learn from it.

I think it's a normal part of adjusting to the surgery to go on vacation and majorly screw up your diet! With that said, it's also probably a good time to check in with your nutritionist and/or therapist.
I went back home to visit my parents in June (~6 months post op) and had my first major extended weak moment--because of the insane amount of food available to me (and my lack of willpower) I ended up eating like my family (which is not good), snacking like crazy and making generally poor food decisions. Luckily this gave me a breakthrough to realize that I felt self conscious making separate food for myself because I thought it'd be rude (no idea why) and from that point on I was able to better moderate my bad food decisions. I just got back from vacation with my partner and I actually lost a few pounds over the course of 2 weeks. Thus, no sweat this time but do try to get to the cause of the slip and learn from it.

I think it's a normal part of adjusting to the surgery to go on vacation and majorly screw up your diet! With that said, it's also probably a good time to check in with your nutritionist and/or therapist.
I went back home to visit my parents in June (~6 months post op) and had my first major extended weak moment--because of the insane amount of food available to me (and my lack of willpower) I ended up eating like my family (which is not good), snacking like crazy and making generally poor food decisions. Luckily this gave me a breakthrough to realize that I felt self conscious making separate food for myself because I thought it'd be rude (no idea why) and from that point on I was able to better moderate my bad food decisions. I just got back from vacation with my partner and I actually lost a few pounds over the course of 2 weeks. Thus, no sweat this time but do try to get to the cause of the slip and learn from it.

Haha I love this--I did the same thing. I've been quite open with my immediate family, close friends and a couple of colleagues who I trust, and also obese people who I'm less close to but would know that 100 lbs of weight loss in 9 months didn't come suddenly from taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
I will say that I'm very glad I told a couple of colleagues who I also consider to be friends/acquaintances because I felt safe eating lunch with them and knew I wouldn't have to field "how do you do it?!" type questions. Each of them also opened up about their own health struggles--one with fertility, the other with anorexia, and the other with being overweight but not so overweight to qualify for surgery. It really transitioned them from being acquaintances to friends, and they have not betrayed my trust.
I do regret telling my neighbor, who is a 75-year-old Dutch woman (for reference, I'm 34 and American). We see each other almost every day and she means well, but she didn't have the nuance or empathy to take in the news in the way I needed. She asked some awful, insensitive questions like "How did you get to be so big anyway? I never see you stuffing your face." But on the bright side she was next door in case anything went wrong. Now she gives me constant compliments and is always telling me how much skinnier and amazing I look--which I actually don't even really like, because it feels like demeaning pre-surgery me, who I also loved. I think the compliments are the most weird to deal with, personally.
This is an incredibly personal decision that will be different for everyone. You can feel it out as you go--just make sure each person you tell is trustworthy in terms of respecting both your decision to get the surgery, your current appearance and your privacy.

Haha I love this--I did the same thing. I've been quite open with my immediate family, close friends and a couple of colleagues who I trust, and also obese people who I'm less close to but would know that 100 lbs of weight loss in 9 months didn't come suddenly from taking the stairs instead of the elevator.
I will say that I'm very glad I told a couple of colleagues who I also consider to be friends/acquaintances because I felt safe eating lunch with them and knew I wouldn't have to field "how do you do it?!" type questions. Each of them also opened up about their own health struggles--one with fertility, the other with anorexia, and the other with being overweight but not so overweight to qualify for surgery. It really transitioned them from being acquaintances to friends, and they have not betrayed my trust.
I do regret telling my neighbor, who is a 75-year-old Dutch woman (for reference, I'm 34 and American). We see each other almost every day and she means well, but she didn't have the nuance or empathy to take in the news in the way I needed. She asked some awful, insensitive questions like "How did you get to be so big anyway? I never see you stuffing your face." But on the bright side she was next door in case anything went wrong. Now she gives me constant compliments and is always telling me how much skinnier and amazing I look--which I actually don't even really like, because it feels like demeaning pre-surgery me, who I also loved. I think the compliments are the most weird to deal with, personally.
This is an incredibly personal decision that will be different for everyone. You can feel it out as you go--just make sure each person you tell is trustworthy in terms of respecting both your decision to get the surgery, your current appearance and your privacy.

This happened to me too once i lost weight. It was so easy to get a vein. I was like... sooooo...i was just fat...lol

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I am 5 and a half months out and lost 89lbs

Had VSG and am 10 months out now...have lost 85# with 15 more to get to goal. Life has totally changed for the better.