berryfam

Three month Surgiversary photos!
First photo is from late September when I was about my biggest. Around 138kgs (305 pounds)
Second photo is the morning of surgery - down 18kgs (40 pounds).
Third photo was last night - down 39kgs! (86 pounds!)

Whaaaaaaa?????
Amazing!

I have so many non-scale victories--which is fortunate since I only lost 3.5 pounds in the past month. I am, however, only 17 pounds from my goal weight (maybe I should just change my goal??). So, my non scale victories are as follows:
1. I went from wearing size 44 pants on December 1 to now wearing 32 pants!
2. One of the other kid's mom at my daughter's nursery that I used to talk to all the time saw me this past weekend and introduced herself as if she had never talked to me before. She didn't recognize me!!
4. I had to buy slim fit shirts and suits because standard fit is too loose around my waist.
5. My wife says I am not snoring anymore!!
6. I am no longer taking medication for T2DM, high blood pressure or high triglycerides,
7. My surgeon asked me if I would be willing to be in advertisement where I show my before and after and talk about how bariatric surgery changed my life (haven't decided if I want to do that though).
8. Most importantly, I feel great. I have loads of energy and I am not embarrassed of my appearance or being the fat guy in the room. I am actually looking forward to wearing a bathing suit this summer!! I feel like i didn't just lose weight, but like I turned the clock back 15 years.
Even if I don't lose another pound, I am thrilled with the results. My only regret is not having had the surgery sooner.

I get it. I completely do, but let me share a story.
So as a lot of heavy people do, I have lots of friends with not so healthy lifestyles and body sizes.
I have these 2 friends that are sisters. They are in their early and mid-40’s. They are somewhere in the high 300’s and they’ve both had health issues for awhile. I’ve not told either of them about what I’ve done because they are both very anti-diet, exercise, health,etc....
They lost both parents due to obesity-related issues within the last few years and if I ever talk about the latest diet or fitness kick I’m on, it is met with extreme negativity.
They live together and honestly we don’t hang out much, our friendship is more text, social media and special holiday type events. All of those activities of course are involved with food and drink.
We used to co-host monthly book clubs with tons of food and beverages, but we all got busy during the holidays and I haven’t seen them since maybe November.
Never said one single peep about what I was planning, because I wasn’t in the mood to be lectured on how society shouldn’t be able to dictate self-image to us and all that bull crap.

Anyway, I found out through another mutual friend that the older sister is in cardiac ICU because she had blot clots in her lungs, her blood pressure is uncontrollably high, and apparently now her kidneys are failing.
While honestly not surprising that she was going to have some major health issues down the line, this news still shocked me. It brought home exactly WHY I’m doing this.

This is the same girl that went with undiagnosed uterine cancer because she was afraid to go to the doctor and be weighed and “have everyone there judge and lecture” her.
She literally almost died from cancer because she didn’t want to get on a scale.

Honestly I don’t expect even this will change her mind about the consequences of extreme obesity, but I wanted to post about it to remind every single one of us that THIS IS WORTH IT!!!

Tonite I’m taking my mother out for her 75th bday dinner and I’m not going to be able to have a cocktail and an appetizer and then dinner, and yeah.... that totally blows. but I by-God am not  a cardiac ICU patient who might not live to see April either.

Okay so it’s time for my Monday progress report!

Week 5 going into week 6 and I’ve finally got a decent loss. Went from 220 down to 217.
First time I’ve lost more than a single pound in a week since week 2.
Let’s hope this is the start of a good losing trend. 

Total loss since surgery day on 2/6  is now 27 pounds. 

They say it’s like losing a good friend who is always there for you. Sounds very accurate to me. The way we tie in all our big social events with food doesn’t help either. Going out for dinner with friends just isn’t the same

well i decided i needed a new coat as they were having a 70% of sale so i went to the rack grabbed a 2x coat tryed it on (was in a 4x ) and i was swimming so i tryed an xl nope still to big i bought the large after i tryed on a medium which i thought was to tight so i went with the large first time i have bought a large anything (except food) since 6th grade been a few years for sure !!!!!!😎

Today is my 10-year wedding anniversary. Yesterday I went shopping for a cocktail dress for a special weekend we have planned.
When I was in high school, my friends and I would go to the mall and try on prom dresses in the department store junior section, just for fun. The largest size they ever had was a 14. I would ask my friends to try to zip the dress up, and it wouldn't zip, ever. I blamed my boobs or my large frame (shoulders/ribs too wide..) but the truth was, I was just too heavy. It still makes me feel shame, even 20 years later.
Well, yesterday, I found a beautiful cocktail dress in a size 12. I decided to try it on, despite having flashbacks to high school. It was tight and I couldn't reach to zip it myself, so I stepped out to ask an attendant to zip it for me. Y'all - it fit, with space to spare. I feel like Carrie Bradshaw in this damn dress, and I bought a pair of sky-high heels to match.
And the best part? This normally $298 dress was on clearance at Nordstrom Rack for $35!

I'm glad to hear you're doing better! I will be 3 weeks out tomorrow and I still have low energy. I ran around after my kids for less than an hour yesterday and I was totally wiped out. It gets better, but it is a slow process. Also, your throat might have something to do with the intubation? Good luck!

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I'm glad to hear you're doing better! I will be 3 weeks out tomorrow and I still have low energy. I ran around after my kids for less than an hour yesterday and I was totally wiped out. It gets better, but it is a slow process. Also, your throat might have something to do with the intubation? Good luck!

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Thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement. I'm trying to stay positive, but it's difficult after you've waited so long and worked so hard, only to have it go south.
They are taking about possibly doing second surgery this afternoon, which is good for me. I can't get out of this hospital fast enough.
I have only been allowed Clear Liquids in the hospital--and no Protein whatsoever. I'm sure I've lost weight, but not the right way.
I probably won't post again until I'm back home after the second surgery. In the meantime, congratulations to everyone on how much you have achieved already!

I'm one month post-op and I'm down 20 lbs, and 15 of those were lost the first 2 weeks post-op and 5 were the 2nd two weeks. I was definitely discouraged like you with the slow loss of the second half of the month until I went to my nutritionist yesterday for my evaluation, and he said it's completely normal to have a fast loss the first two weeks and struggle to lose the 2nd two weeks, because our bodies are adjusting to the sudden loss of both fat and Water, etc. He said the rate will pick up again (although not as fast as 15 lbs in 2 weeks!) so I felt somewhat comforted.
I hope we all have healthy, satisfactory and steady losses in March!

Hi All! It’s really nice to have found a place with encouragement and great information!
I was sleeved 2/19. So far I’m down 13 lbs. but it’s slowed somewhat ... it’ll stand still for a day or 2 then drop 1-2 lbs again. Is that normal?
Also.... does anyone have advice or recipes for week 3? Honestly if I never see Jell-O or pudding again it may be too soon.

I suck at keeping up with the forums, but I had to share...

I cried today. I made it into a size 20 pair of jeans!!!

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Hi, everyone. My surgery is scheduled for tomorrow (March 3) at 7:30. I've done well on liquids and have lost 17 pounds over the last two weeks, which astounds me. I can see a slight difference all ready. At this point I'm excited and ready to get on with it, with just a touch of nerves.
I'll be sure to let everyone know how things went, but I don't expect to be back online the day of surgery. Thanks to all of you for the information and support you have all given me!

Last night I had an egg and it was delicious. I paced my eating, paused between bites, made sure to chew thoroughly and stopped when I felt full. But when I went to clear my plate, I ate another bite. Big mistake. It felt like my food was stuck in my chest. The feeling didn't go away for hours. I did some research and found these chewable enzymes help you break down food. Worked wonders! Just wanted to let y'all know in case you're struggling. Obviously the best thing is to stop when full, but I really didn't want to throw up.

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About to finish my purée stage in a few days.
It’s been challenging because the first few days anything other than liquids really filled me up and it’s been difficult to get in Protein.
My advice is start slowly and try to limit your intake to Protein only.
The first couple days I tried to add in soft veggies because it seems like it makes more sense to try to get in a balanced diet, but then my protein intake took a nosedive and I had a stall.
It was weird at first, but I started eating meals like 1/4 cup tuna mashed with Greek yogurt or 1 scrambled egg, or ounce ground beef and 1/2 ounce goat cheese, etc....
I have to trust that my bariatric Vitamins will carry me through until I have room for other nutrients besides all protein.
Oh, and my “snack” is 8 ounces fairlife milk, between lunch and dinner. Usually with that I can now hit protein requirements (60gram according to my NUT) and not compromise Water intake (80 ounces or more daily). Just looked over my food logs and I’m actually consuming way less carbs daily than I was on the liquid phase.
Don’t get discouraged if it takes you a few days to a week to figure out what your body can deal with during this phase.

Okay so my weight loss fell off of a cliff immediately post-op.
Lost 23 pounds in 12 days.
Then I went 3 days in a row at the exact same weight.
So I avoided the scale until I could button and zip a pair of pants that I could barely pull up when the stall started and it took me 9 days. Got on the scale this morning and I had dropped 2 more pounds since the stall began.
I also measured my waist and had dropped 1.5 inches since the stall began.
Now its mathematically impossible to lose 1.5 inches off of your waist and only drop 2 pounds so that means my body is adjusting and during this adjustment period the scale isn’t moving a lot.
However I’m really pleased that clothes fit looser than they did last week.
Honestly I would get on the scale once a week AT THE MOST, and use other tools to monitor progress.
For example, can you now climb a flight of stairs with less effort?
All of these things are so much more important than that scale number and I know that as long as I follow program, those numbers will eventually start decreasing

I had mine the same day. I feel the same way, much more painful than I thought it would be. Dealing with lots of gas. Are you on the stage 1 diet?

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Just remember to take it slowly. You don't want to overdue your liquids and cause yourself more discomfort. Take small sips regularly and make sure you stay hydrated.

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10 pounds in 15 days is still great progress! Like others stated, please don't get hung up on the number! You're making progress! Your body is in transition and right now it is probably thinking it is starving. Keep up with your fluids and Protein, get moving and you will see the scale move again soon.

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Do what you can today to make your post-op life easier. The recovery is a little harder than I anticipated. Fill your pantry with Protein Shakes, sugar free Jello, popsicles, broth, and gas-x. I cleaned my whole house the night before and put away all dishes and laundry so I wouldn't have to think about it. Anticipate being off your feet, except for short walks to relieve gas, for the next 2-3 days. Keep your head up, it does get better.

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I was sleeved 2/22

I am on day 6. Yesterday was hard, but my husband made me get up and walk which helped a lot. My paperwork specifically said don't worry about Vitamins and Protein right now, do what you can without causing yourself discomfort. Make sure you are getting Water though. Or I would switch to a zero cal/zero sugar water with electrolytes to help catch up. chicken broth will probably help you restore your salt intake which made me feel much better. Make sure you walk though, small laps around the house will really make a lot of difference. Today is my first day no meds and, while still painful, it is much more manageable. Hang tough, it gets better!

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Yeah I'm sipping from a cup now. But I take a full breath and exhale before I drink so I don't get in as much air.

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