momof3_angels

I am 8 weeks out... so right now a LOT of walking and just restarted Pilates and go back to work next Wed. But I am planning to do my first thru-hike/pilgrimage I. Late May on the Camino de Santiago. Will gradually increase my training over the next 7 1/2 months. And hopefully this will also help me reach my goal weight.

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Haha.... just noticed this forum and the requirements to post here... I hit 18 months March 4th, I guess that makes me a vet lol!
Current stats: 5'4.5" and between 126-129 pounds depending on the day. Hit my goal at 7 months and was well under my goal by a year. Overall I have been maintaining for a year now.... did have some challenges recently and weight was beginning to creep up... but I managed to quickly ditch those few extra pounds and am back at my happy maintenance weight. I get thrilled every time my husband or daughter comment at how skinny I am. My daughter says she never realized I was really overweight or "fat" until I lost it all. Now when we look at photos from just 2 years ago it is obvious. Now I am a size 4 and i look healthy. I can't go any lower than 124 though... 124 seems to be right where I am on the verge of looking too skinny.
Health is great. sleep apnea is being treated. Heart condition resolved. High cholesterol and tachycardia resolved. The medical consensus is that severe undiagnosed sleep apnea is what triggered my sudden weight gain... and my heart health was what prevented me from losing weight. Now I feel better than ever and feel that as long as I continue to control diet and exercise regularly I will have no problem maintaining. Of course... controlling diet is key. I was never a big calorie consumer.... but I wasn't always eating good foods and then I did drink calories in the form of Pepsi. Most of the time I don't have an issue controlling diet... but when life is excessively stressful... that is when I can get into trouble. That is when I am most likely to not eat right and consuming the wrong foods. I have taken steps to increase access to healthy food at work, which is also important for me.
Exercise.... still trying to get back in a regular routine after a horrible few months at work. Doing much better... but still have a ways to go. So... 2020 I had planned to walk the Camino De Santiago (You walk all the way across northern Spain). It was going to be my reward for losing weight and a way to improve my physical fitness. Had to cancel. Then I had to cancel the trip I rescheduled for this summer. Boo! Instead... I am gearing up to do an 8 week hike on either the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail. I will probably do the Appalachian Trail this summer and wait for the PCT. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I really wanted to do the Camino first, because that is more of a spiritual/cultural walk and you don't have to carry your tent/food/extra Water. With either of these I will have to carry all of those items. I know I can do it... but it would have been so much better to do the other walk before either of these hikes. My challenge now? Trying to make sure I eat properly on the trail! Just bought a dehydrator and am assembling/dehydrating meals that I can eat so I don't have to rely on crap food available along the way. I need to be able to eat enough calories to sustain me, but not so many that I develop bad habits. Most people load up on carbs... I need to avoid that and only load up on healthy carbs.
Anyhow... that's me! New WLS "VET"

Haha.... just noticed this forum and the requirements to post here... I hit 18 months March 4th, I guess that makes me a vet lol!
Current stats: 5'4.5" and between 126-129 pounds depending on the day. Hit my goal at 7 months and was well under my goal by a year. Overall I have been maintaining for a year now.... did have some challenges recently and weight was beginning to creep up... but I managed to quickly ditch those few extra pounds and am back at my happy maintenance weight. I get thrilled every time my husband or daughter comment at how skinny I am. My daughter says she never realized I was really overweight or "fat" until I lost it all. Now when we look at photos from just 2 years ago it is obvious. Now I am a size 4 and i look healthy. I can't go any lower than 124 though... 124 seems to be right where I am on the verge of looking too skinny.
Health is great. sleep apnea is being treated. Heart condition resolved. High cholesterol and tachycardia resolved. The medical consensus is that severe undiagnosed sleep apnea is what triggered my sudden weight gain... and my heart health was what prevented me from losing weight. Now I feel better than ever and feel that as long as I continue to control diet and exercise regularly I will have no problem maintaining. Of course... controlling diet is key. I was never a big calorie consumer.... but I wasn't always eating good foods and then I did drink calories in the form of Pepsi. Most of the time I don't have an issue controlling diet... but when life is excessively stressful... that is when I can get into trouble. That is when I am most likely to not eat right and consuming the wrong foods. I have taken steps to increase access to healthy food at work, which is also important for me.
Exercise.... still trying to get back in a regular routine after a horrible few months at work. Doing much better... but still have a ways to go. So... 2020 I had planned to walk the Camino De Santiago (You walk all the way across northern Spain). It was going to be my reward for losing weight and a way to improve my physical fitness. Had to cancel. Then I had to cancel the trip I rescheduled for this summer. Boo! Instead... I am gearing up to do an 8 week hike on either the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail. I will probably do the Appalachian Trail this summer and wait for the PCT. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I really wanted to do the Camino first, because that is more of a spiritual/cultural walk and you don't have to carry your tent/food/extra Water. With either of these I will have to carry all of those items. I know I can do it... but it would have been so much better to do the other walk before either of these hikes. My challenge now? Trying to make sure I eat properly on the trail! Just bought a dehydrator and am assembling/dehydrating meals that I can eat so I don't have to rely on crap food available along the way. I need to be able to eat enough calories to sustain me, but not so many that I develop bad habits. Most people load up on carbs... I need to avoid that and only load up on healthy carbs.
Anyhow... that's me! New WLS "VET"

Haha.... just noticed this forum and the requirements to post here... I hit 18 months March 4th, I guess that makes me a vet lol!
Current stats: 5'4.5" and between 126-129 pounds depending on the day. Hit my goal at 7 months and was well under my goal by a year. Overall I have been maintaining for a year now.... did have some challenges recently and weight was beginning to creep up... but I managed to quickly ditch those few extra pounds and am back at my happy maintenance weight. I get thrilled every time my husband or daughter comment at how skinny I am. My daughter says she never realized I was really overweight or "fat" until I lost it all. Now when we look at photos from just 2 years ago it is obvious. Now I am a size 4 and i look healthy. I can't go any lower than 124 though... 124 seems to be right where I am on the verge of looking too skinny.
Health is great. sleep apnea is being treated. Heart condition resolved. High cholesterol and tachycardia resolved. The medical consensus is that severe undiagnosed sleep apnea is what triggered my sudden weight gain... and my heart health was what prevented me from losing weight. Now I feel better than ever and feel that as long as I continue to control diet and exercise regularly I will have no problem maintaining. Of course... controlling diet is key. I was never a big calorie consumer.... but I wasn't always eating good foods and then I did drink calories in the form of Pepsi. Most of the time I don't have an issue controlling diet... but when life is excessively stressful... that is when I can get into trouble. That is when I am most likely to not eat right and consuming the wrong foods. I have taken steps to increase access to healthy food at work, which is also important for me.
Exercise.... still trying to get back in a regular routine after a horrible few months at work. Doing much better... but still have a ways to go. So... 2020 I had planned to walk the Camino De Santiago (You walk all the way across northern Spain). It was going to be my reward for losing weight and a way to improve my physical fitness. Had to cancel. Then I had to cancel the trip I rescheduled for this summer. Boo! Instead... I am gearing up to do an 8 week hike on either the Pacific Crest Trail or the Appalachian Trail. I will probably do the Appalachian Trail this summer and wait for the PCT. I am excited and nervous at the same time. I really wanted to do the Camino first, because that is more of a spiritual/cultural walk and you don't have to carry your tent/food/extra Water. With either of these I will have to carry all of those items. I know I can do it... but it would have been so much better to do the other walk before either of these hikes. My challenge now? Trying to make sure I eat properly on the trail! Just bought a dehydrator and am assembling/dehydrating meals that I can eat so I don't have to rely on crap food available along the way. I need to be able to eat enough calories to sustain me, but not so many that I develop bad habits. Most people load up on carbs... I need to avoid that and only load up on healthy carbs.
Anyhow... that's me! New WLS "VET"

@Arabesque Yes, tracking is critical, especially during transitional points or at times when you are "losing your way". I wish I had been able to resume tracking a couple months ago, but I just had way too much on my plate. I did what I could with the resources and energy I had at the time and at the end of the day, I know I honestly couldn't do even one more thing... even so simple as logging food. And it truly took me a couple months to recoup and get the rest of my life back on track. And overall I really didn't do so bad... but I do know that if I stayed on that trajectory there may be no coming back. Anyhow... I am proud of how my pre-op and first year post-op went. There was a learning curve for sure, but I feel I did very well and stayed on track. And I am even proud of how I managed to get through a public health crisis that put me on the frontline of fighting COVID within my work population of nearly 1000 people at 10 locations (what a nightmare the fall was!)... and that while my diet plan did get derailed.... I didn't allow it to get derailed to the point of no return. So here I am... ready to get back on track and more than willing to put in the work. And yes... I will be tweaking my macros and my carbs until I find my new sweet spot. Once I find it, can't promise I will always track... but I am always willing to go back when I need to.

I would suggest scheduling an appointment with a bariatric nutritionist to create a plan for you based on your specific circumstances. You probably need to get back to the basics. Start measuring and recording your food again. See what you are doing well on, see what you are not doing so well on. Eat on a schedule. Get back to 6 small meals a day... 3 meals and 3 small Snacks. But MEASURE AND COUNT! For me, I went all the way back to the beginning and am currently retraining myself to eat the way my nutritionist taught me to eat. It I am on day 7 of getting back on track and doing well. I have almost all of my pre and post op notes available to me. Anyhow... YOU CAN DO IT! Just know, you aren't alone in the struggle... And so glad you got some good news!

In the beginning... I couldn't tell if I was hungry or full. All my signals were mixed up. I had to rely on measuring food and look for other signals. For example... if I was on the verge of getting full I would hiccup one to three times. If I ate too much I needed to burp. If you measure your food like you are supposed to, then watch for those signals and figure out what measurement of food you ate and try to eat a bite or two less next time. The restriction feeling didn't come for a couple months. It really feels like you can't stretch your stomach any bigger.

I’m so sorry that this is happening to you. Have you considered a bariatric therapist that is also marriage and family counselor for the both of you. I’m sure there is such a person with the statistics being what they are.

My husband is very active and fit. He does some sort of something every single day for HOURS throughout the day. Every day. Even more in the summer months. He's been this active for the entire time I've known him (25+ years...he's actually probably more active now than when I first met him). No one who knows him bats an eyelash.
Now, *I* started running 5 measly km over a year or so ago, and I got a good share of "concerned" comments.
Further to this, early into maintenance my eating habits were/are very similar to my always-been-thin-sister-in-law. If she turned down a peice of cake, it was all, whatever. If *I* turned down the same cake, there would be alot more insisting, and "are you sure?"'s.
I think people in general are not good with change. It takes time for people to get used to a new normal, or to understand/accept how someone can be doing something starkly different than themselves.
I'm 2.5+ years out now, and nobody asks me a second time if I want that cake, or display surprise/concern at my exercise habits. Here on BP though, I do sometimes feel/sense that there is that still that "concern"...but that's just the nature of internet forums.

after weighing close to 400 lbs, I would have been ecstatic to even make it to 200!

Welcome! Hope recovery is progressing smoothly!

I'm kinda late in replying to the subject at hand, but I wanted to add that in addition to all the comments about "best weight", etc, which I completely agree with, my dietitian has always let us know that BMI doesn't always "work" with WLS patients (as it often doesn't "work" for some other categories, like athletes, either). We often have more "infrastructure" than never-been-obese people - i.e, heavier bones and muscles that we needed to hold up all that weight. Of course, we lose some of that as we lose weight, too - but even after massive weight loss, they're still often heavier than they are for "normies".

My apologies I can't remember who posted this originally on these forums, but I do like the concept of 'best weight'.

My name is Evelyn. I had Gastric Sleeve on February 12, 2021. I am a Registered Nurse that works in the operating room. New to the group. I look forward to learning my new lifestyle

I got some mini quiche today after you mentioned it and I heated up 4 for dinner. It was perfect and so far I’m tolorating it just fine.

You know they have panara Soups at the grocery store now too. I love the broccoli cheese one. Had some today for lunch.

Oh my, you have hit a rough patch! Here's hoping that going forward you have nothing but good health news. It is so hard when things happen that our out of our control. Well.... we are happy to support you as you come out the other side! I suggest you get back to measuring and logging so you can evaluate where you are now and where you should be! Do you still have access to a nutritionist? That would be good too for extra guidance.

Well... can't help with being a January surgery buddy... but just know there are lots of us here who are willing to help with what we can! Hang in there! And if things don't improve, please consider perhaps talking with a bariatric mental health professional...

I'd rethink the lapband. Hardly any surgeons will place them anymore because so many people have had problems with them. Many have had them removed and had sleeve or bypass instead. I know some people still have theirs and love them, but they seem to be in the minority these days.

"NEVER trust a fart.....for a few weeks anyway 🙂" -Neensyb

Just read this on another thread seeking advice for someone about to have surgery....and had to repost it here to rave about it.
Made me laugh, and man, was it true! I'd forgotten the *ahem* sharts.
Thanks Neensyb, for nearly putting coffee out my nose this morning.
🤣

You look great! The last ones are sometimes the hardest to lose! Just keep doing what you are doing. Track your meals for a bit, if you haven't been doing it regularly. It is a good way to see if you are really still on track with your eating habits. Sometimes we think we are eating better than we really are - and if it turns out you are eating more than you should be you can adjust if needed. If you haven't already, upping your exercise routine might help too. Of course, it may be simply that you are doing everything right but your body isn't ready to drop that last bit of weight. And I wouldn't stress about the number so much... how do you FEEL? Do you feel good at this weight?

I feel a little sheepish about the response this has gotten. Didn't mean to be an attention wh*re, and I'm afraid that's how it reads. I just wanted to blow steam.
I think this board does a better job than most...of extending value and tolerance for each other's perspectives. One bad experience doesn't ruin the whole batch, and I'm sorry if I gave the impression that it's a big problem here.....it's not. You all are terrific. I think most of my post was based on history and a composite of experiences at many bariatric boards.....and one recent trigger here... that, in retrospect, I might have been smarter to let go than talk about....but it irked me and I started typing...and...now I feel sheepish.
I think we've all got great stuff to add. I think this is a great group.
The folks whose goal is just to achieve better health. The folks who just want to be under 200 pounds. The folks who just want to improve. The folks who are satisfied with an average weight (like me). And the folks who lose like crazy and get super fit and work hard for that low BMI.
Everyone has good stuff to offer and I sure didn't mean to imply there are any villians. All perspectives are valuable. One perspective that doesn't fit for one person...might be a perfect fit for another.
At the end of the day, we're all figuring this thing out. We're all working hard to understand how to beat an unhealthy relationship with food. Every one of us.
I sound fatalistic sometimes and I apologize.
You guys really are lovely. And the rare exception....I think i'd be ahead to just ignore.

Oh... and I was just reminded how much I love a good Quiche! Got two from costco yesterday.

Never thought of broccoli cheese Soup. I love that. I was technically on purée phase till my appt today but I guess he sorta switched me to soft food phase since he said I don’t have to purée the salads anymore.

During the beginning of my soft diet I did best with any soft foods that were in stew/soup format. I lived on Ricotta Bake and Chili for a week or two lol. Both were gentle on my stomach (that is.... if you tolerate spice... mine wasn't hot spicy). I also liked broccoli and cheese Soup and dishes with shredded chicken/ground beef.