EmzBee

Congrats! You look awesome!
I, too, worry about sagging skin. I went from I want my breasts and arms done to oh hell no I need my face done. I can tuck the other spots up. My face is showing lines I never had. I have a long way to go (68 pounds) and I'm afraid I will look scary. I'm having a terrible stomach problem and have an endoscopy on the 5th of November. I'm worried I will need a revision. My stomach burns down lower in my stomach and makes me feel nauseated. I had gerd before surgery, so I'm really scared about this.
Bonus, I too feel so much better about myself. I just broke the threshold to just obese. lol
But having had had a bmi of 54 I will take it.
Way to go February friends!

Sorry to hear about the stomach problems Gaby! That sounds nasty

When I went in to hosp. for my tummy issues I was in a room with a lady who had some ulceration around her lower join. She was about 5yrs or so post op, I think. Hopefully your tummy issues are something they can solve quickly and easily

Anyone else fairly dependent on laxitives to keep things moving? I'm taking a laxitive sugar Syrup most days now. I was having some... issues. Like, everything was 'saving up' and when I did go I'd get such intense stomach cramping I had to have a bucket by the loo to dry retch into and it'd take me several hours to feel okay again. Can't believe I put up with that cycle for as long as I did... urgh.

Anyway! I made it to the 160s, woo! I think I need to up my Protein. Stuck to shakes for a couple days and the weight fell off me... likely I'm just not getting enough protein in from food alone.

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9 hours ago, Mikeyy said:

I started my own strict diet 7 weeks ago shakes and tuna all healthy...and I've got two weeks left until surgery..as of today I'm down 53lbs

80-90lbs from my ultimate end goal

Amazing! Go you!!
I seriously believe that killing the pre-op diet is key. Lose the 'easy' weight pre-surgery, so that you have the 'tool' of surgery to lose that more stubborn weight that's been hanging around for longer

I've just turned 30, and I'm smaller than I was when I was 17. It's amazing to go out in public and not have to worry about if they'll have chairs that will support my weight or if I'll feel comfortable at a table. I went back to my hometown a month or so ago and walked everywhere. The city felt so much smaller than I remembered, because I could travel everywhere by foot!

Keep us updated with how you go, Mikey! And stay away from those TimTams 😂😂😂

I went hard on the Optifast and lost 40 pounds pre-surgery.
3 months post-surgery I was down 85 pounds
6 months post-surgery I was down 121 pounds.

I've gone from a BMI of over 50 to around 28.

Best of luck! You've got this! 🙂

You Go [mention=352148]Sheribear68[/mention] You remember I been reading you February feed from very early . I admire the way you made this journey . You make it look so doable. Thank you . I go in on November 11 (thus my name), any advice from the Queen?

Hey@november11, wow! You're surgery date is going to come up so quick! All the best! [emoji4]

If you have a question for Sheri directly, I'd suggest you reach out to her via direct message.

I'm really proud of the community us February peeps created here together and it's important that it remains a community (rather than a hierarchy) so everyone continues to feel that their personal journeys are valued and important. We all have setbacks and we all have successes -- no one journey is more valuable than support and friendship we've built together over many, many months of sharing our journeys, and I'd hate to see any one of our February members start to feel excluded.

Obviously we all know this is a public forum, but we do put some fairly sensitive information (and pictures!) out there for all to see. It can be confronting when someone else comes in and we realize those intimacies we've shared have traveled further than we expected.

Perhaps there is a Novemeber group you could join, or better yet, start one! With your enthusiasm I'm sure you'll develop a thriving November community!

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Great to hear how everyone's going! Even although I haven't been posting much lately, it's been good having a big ole catch-up... I got really behind on our wee thread.

How are our other infrequent February posters? You all still out there?

September was a slow loss month for me, but I finally today lost a total of 60kgs! Only 9kgs (19 pounds) to go and I will have lost HALF my body weight. How crazy is that?!

Also, I turn 30 next week. If you'd told me I'd be seeing my 30th in 60kgs lighter this time last year I wouldn't have believed it. Heck, if you'd said I'd be 20kgs lighter I would have been stoked! So crazy just how much life can change in a few short months.

Hubster and I are thinking of climbing Rangitoto here in Auckland for my birthday. That, and going to see the Joker movie (mainly because I know my husband is desperate to see it. Lol.) Hoping I can lose my 19 pounds by my 9-month check-in in November... probably a bit of a tall ask, but hey, I'm always up for a challenge 🙂

Sending you all positive thoughts! ❤️

Thought I'd upload a shot if me wearing that dress. Same one I wore onstage in my band all those years ago [emoji4]

Went to a conference and wore it at a cocktail party. Lots of people there didn't even recognize me!

I've finally transitioned from 'obese' to 'overweight', by BMI standards, anyway! I'm still losing significant weight atm (I think over 10 pounds last month) but I'm expecting a stall soon. My stalls are getting longer and longer... it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest if I lost nothing this month at all.

Hope everyone's doing well and keeping positive!

Where's Recidivist at? Have you moved to winterless Australia yet, my friend?? Can't wait to hear about your move! Stay away from the TimTams. Hehe! [emoji23]

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Way to go! You shouldn't be embarrassed to post...you're looking awesome! Thanks to the rest of you posting photos. I work in a large Federal agency so I run into certain people every few months or so. Today one of these people did not even recognize me. That was a little weird, but it goes to show how dramatic my weight change has been.
I remember going to my first required support group after the surgery and how one guy said he was struggling with wanting to wear big clothes all the time. I thought that was odd, but I get it now. It feels so good to wear shorts that are actually loose and not digging into me. It feels wonderful.

I met up with a friend yesterday. She's seen pics of skinny me and saw me three months or so ago... and I was standing right in front of her and she still didn't see me! I could see her scanning around looking for me and I'm like 'umm, hi? I'm right here!' [emoji23]

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Emzbee, congratulations--you look fantastic. However, I know that you've had quite a few challenges along the way. How are you feeling these days? Are you still having any issues?

Physical eating problems are fine! I just don't eat tough stuff. Corned beef/silverside slow cooked, not steak or lamb. I go through phases of eating a lot of a particular Protein. For a while there I did really well with chicken, now not so much.
Had the wost dumping syndrome ever after eating four teaspoons of an ice cream I'd been able to stomach a full serve of about three months after surgery... seems I'm super-sensitive to sugar!

Where I'm still struggling is mentally. I struggle to Celebrate how far I've come. I struggle with significantly lower lows for no particular reason. I tried a non-ssri and it completely wiped me out, so I'm back to trying to manage on my own. Overall I'm good, but I never know when the next bad day is going to come and derail the progress I've made and send me flying two steps back.

*But* I'm still happy I did this and I'm here! [emoji4]

Hope you're excited about Australia, Recidivist! Sorry to hear about your friend... I'm sure her actions have more to do with her than you. In saying that, some cultures are different. Hubs and I are going to Christchurch soon and I'm totally expecting our close Korean friend to try to feed me up and tell me I'm too skinny. *sigh* Guess I'll have to cross that bridge when I come to it! [emoji4]

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FANTASTIC! And I see you are at the gym. If you are working out on your arms, do you see loose skin or are you building muscle there? I see no loose skin on you.

I rarely work out my arms and I have quite a lot of loose skin. You can tell from this side photo that my arms look massive -- lots of this is loose skin. Plus a tummy sjot to show what I'm carrying underneath! *sigh* Maybe one day I'll be able to afford a tummy tuck!
 

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This is me the day after surgery, as a comparison...

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It's my surgiversary tomorrow and I've lost 75% of my excess weight!
Setting a new goal of 69kgs, which would mark losing HALF of my bodyweight.

Wishing us all continuing happiness and success [emoji4] 

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Hope the GI goes well, froufrou! Sorry to hear about your problems 😞 Here's hoping they figure it out!

After my tests I went back to soft foods and Proteins mixed with gravy/moisture of some kind. I don't have as many problems with throwing up now. Though my husband bought some duck home the other day and it really did not sit well with me! Lesson learned!

Hey everyone!

Interesting hearing the talk about ssris... I'm intolerant to ssris (I get some fairly extreme side effects, like sleeping 18-20 hrs a day. I attempted suicide while on an ssri -- thus why I'm so hesitant to muck around with any drugs) *but* I've had hit a couple of seriously rough Patches lately and I'm in talks with a doctor about trialing medication.

I think they're hesitant to put me on anything because ssris are, like 'the first line of defense' in NZ, and GPs usually won't prescribe anything else. That and my GP isn't comfortable prescribing anything because of the surgery. *shrugs* I guess until they figure it out I'll just have to cope with, like, not being able to function like a normal human.

I had the same 5-month weight loss slow down/stall as many did, but in the past week I've lost 4 pounds! I really do think my body was still a-changin' even when the scale wasn't, but have to admit that it feels nice seeing the scale move a little

On 7/13/2019 at 9:40 AM, Recidivist said:

I recently noticed something. I commute to work on the Washington, DC Metro. When I was big, people generally wouldn't sit next to me unless there were not other options (kind of like being picked last in gym class). Now I'm one of the first to have someone join me. That's progress, although I always enjoyed having the seat to myself.

I wrote a Facebook post about exactly the same thing a few weeks ago! Can't be bothered retyping so here's a screenshot...

Yep! NSV = non-scale victory 🙂 Because sometimes it's more important to keep track of things that feel better than just a number on a scale! Especially when mental health things come in to play -- can't measure those improvements on a scale.< br />
Super important for me right now, because I once again haven't lost anything since 28 June which is, what? About a week and a half? I know from weight tracking in fitbit that I have little 'stalls' or slow downs like, around twice a month. This has been the longest, and I keep going up and down about 2-3 pounds. But I'm not too worried, because soon enough I'll probably lose again and I'll be like 'oh, fudgesticks! I don't wanna be just skin and bones!' Lol.

This surgery totally stuffs with your brain, I swear.

All the best for your upcoming move, Recidivist! I hope you have a pleasant, as-least-stressful-as-possible journey! 🙂

I have a NSV to share, too [emoji4]

Hubby took the week off last week and we went to Rainbow's End (as close as you can get to a themepark here in NZ.) Last time we went would have been about 2 years ago. The rides were hard for me, I had constant anxiety about my weight and I didn't do any of the extreme ones. Back then, we decided to try the fear fall just before we went home. Yeah... I was so big I couldn't fit in the seat [emoji22] It was super-embarrassing having the ride guy trying to squish the harness down on my too-fat body.

Well this time, I not only fit, but my anxiety was under control and I managed to zoom around the park and do all the big rides with hubby... some more than once! Pic of the fear fall for reference [emoji28]

Now I just got to find the time and money for that spa day and seeing the otters! [emoji16] Hehe!

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20 hours ago, Sheribear68 said:

Looking great!

I feel ya on the boobs, except I went the opposite way.

In 2010 after finishing chemo and radiation I qualified for a free boob job and I opted to go way smaller.
Prior to diagnosis I was 225 pounds and had 40G cups.
Yeah. G cups.

After chemo I was 245 pounds and still had the damn G cup on one side and DDD on the affected side.

My plastic surgeon tried his best to talk me out of the current b cup I have now.

I told him I grew these darn things early, have carried around these humongous boobs for 30 years and then to add insult to injury, one of them tried to kill me.
Told him he could carry the stupid things around for the next 30 years, but that I was DONE with the burden.

Lol, he did the surgery and I haven’t regretted losing them for 1 single second.

What’s funny is that I’ve now lost almost 70 pounds from my high last summer and I’m STILL a solid B cup.

Oh, and if I want bigger boobs for an outfit I just wear a nice padded bra and then can take it off at the end of the day. 🤣🤣

I signed up for the gym yesterday - comes with a free PT session, so I got that out of the way yesterday evening. Wore both an underwire bra and a sports bra over the top to keep the girls in order, but I've lost so much from around the chest that they planned a grand escape anyway *sigh*. All the loose skin really makes 'em difficult to tame!

I'd love to get a breast reduction, but I'd have to pay out of pocket... and because I'm doing all this in the hopes of getting pregnant, it might make sense to save my pennies and hope to reduce when we've finished adding to our family. Lol.

After a couple days of getting a few bites shy of half a cup of mince and riced cauliflower in at meals, my pouch is like 'nope!' and I've struggled to eat over a bite or two of anything over the past couple days. It's so draining to go from doing well to, like, crashing and burning!

Back to liquidy foods -- milky coffees, Protein Shakes and yogurt -- for me, until my restriction starts to lift again. Doing my best to get fluids in... gotta keep the determination up because otherwise I'd just flop into bed and never get out again. Lol.

Lovely to see so much activity in here and a few new faces! I swear, without you lot I'd feel completely on my own. No one I know has had surgery like this, so hearing about your journeys is an absolute anxiety buster for me 🙂

Oh, yeah -- and I haven't lost a darn thing over the past few days! Expecting a pretty stagnant week or two after so much movement in the past 2 weeks. Reeeally want to get under that 90kg/200Lbs mark, but life's just going to torture me for a little while. Heh XD

1 hour ago, Darci kendall said:

My favorite is your no longer Obese your just now over Weight lmao 😂

Darci, I am absolutely busting to break that darn BMI30! How good will it feel to no longer be 'super morbidly obese' or 'morbidly obese' but just plain old 'overweight'?! If I get under 30 before I turn 30 I can die happy. Hehe

Nice to see you back, Marine -- I, too, was wondering how you were going!

Sorry about the dumping. I've only had one or two instances of dumping myself. Nevertheless, not pleasant! Hoping you see the other side of it soon 🙂

And Anna -- you're looking amazing! Enjoy the new car and the new legs! ❤️

1 hour ago, Recidivist said:

Okay, I found a "before" photo when I was singing in a local choir. It's not my fattest, but it gives you an idea. I want to note that I was wearing sort of a man's girdle, which is why things look rather flat beneath my stomach. (I can't believe I'm admitting this.) And yes, it was very uncomfortable.

WOWWW, Recidivist! This is absolutely incredible! You've done so well ❤️

I don't know about getting down to 140 myself, but I'm so looking forward to joining you in ONEderland soon 🙂

Can't get over how healthy and happy you look. You're definitely something to aspire to!

*does a happy dance* so glad to see our February friends lighter and healthier and happier!

No stricture!
Which means I'm back to soft foods and measuring everything... maybe putting the roast lamb in the blender [emoji23]
I have such mixed feelings, but I'm happy that I don't need any further time in hospital.
Now to try to find the right balance to fuel my body.

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No Barium swallow 'till tomorrow, so I'm on ward leave at home, trying to get as much Fluid in as possible.

Going back tonight. Hubster is suuper-stressed right now. Not really about me, more about his own stuff -- but it all adds up. My goal for the day is to hold down the fort, hang out some washing, and try to do the things that will take the most pressure/stress off the both of us.

I hate being in the no man's land of not knowing how things will go, but that's reality at the moment, and I'm having to remind myself that it's important just to focus on keeping my stress and anxiety levels in check.

I'm still loosing! Even after pumping me full of 2L of fluids. I've got less than half a pound to go to break 200. Anyone got any great ideas about how to Celebrate once this hospital hiccup is all over?? I'm thinking of going to see the baby otters at the zoo or trying out a roller coaster I can fit on now! 🙂 Got to keep the positive ideas and energy flowing! We've all come so, so far ❤️

Thank you!

I've been in hospital overnight on fluids. Surgeon saw me this morning -- he thinks it's probably *not* a stricture... but we'll just be checking to make sure.
It's weird, though, because my dietician said I shouldn't be vomiting this far out, and I still have periods of being fairly restricted.
I guess because of my mental health problems I get a bit sensitive about the suggestion of things being 'all in my head'. I'm usually one to stick things out until they're unbearable, so even being in hospital for a little thing like vomiting all the food I've tried to eat for days feels like I'm making a deal out of nothing... bleh.
Guess there's no solution for this but to hurry up and wait...

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In a stunning turn of events, I've been admitted to hospital after my surgeon appointment earlier today.
Almost blacked out when they took blood and put my IV in. Looks like fluids, a Vitamin top up and a stricture test for me. [emoji53]

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You're doing fabulously, Recidivist! And like you say, men do tend to lose weight a lot quicker than us ladies do... (all you have to do is look at The Biggest Loser to see that!) And to be honest, I think you 'earned' your quick loss with the complications you suffered early on! You had a real rough run of it for a while there, so it's so nice to hear you're doing so fabulously now! ❤️

My dietitian doesn't like the idea of Keto. *sigh* I'm not sure what to do about it. Since cutting out carbs I've dropped quite quickly -- about 5 kilos in the past two weeks -- and I just feel more satiated going for higher-fat options (and a lot less hungry now I've cut out carbs almost entirely).

We're quite spoiled here in NZ with our meat choices. The last two Sundays I've roasted a full leg of lamb, spiked with rosemary and garlic. I eat hardly any of it, but my husband and I munch on it throughout the week. It's delicious! Especially cutting off and eating the salty, fatty bits straight from the oven... nom! Hehe.

All of our meat here is also grass fed, which is a big bonus. It still boggles me that you'd feed a cow anything other than grass... you don't even have to leave our biggest city, Auckland, to see moomoos snacking on grass! Yesterday hubster and I grabbed a couple of coffees and watched the planes come in to Auckland airport next to a small herd.