PollyEster

Pre-surgery, I never dared to imagine that I'd eventually weigh less after surgery than I did in high school, but at almost 11 months post-op, I'm tiny and do see myself as thin now.

I also am finding that I deeply appreciate my loose skin (which is not too bad at all considering the amount of weight I've lost), perceiving it as a battle wound, perhaps even something to feel proud of in the way some women who've had a mastectomy are proud of their scars.

I can honestly say I love the way I look. But more than this, I love the way I feel: strong, fit, healthy, and physically able to do anything I set my mind to. I ♥ VSG.

salad made with kale from the garden, smoky maple BBQ tempeh, homemade vegan parmesan. Ate it all! 😋

7 hours ago, MarvelGirl25 said:

AMAZING! 😩😩😩

Thank you so much, MarvelGirl! Not to worry though, there's a lot that you don't see: for every dozen or so photos or dishes, there's at least one epic fail that looked like this ("before") in my mind, but ended up like this ("after") in real life! 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

© Elías García Martínez/Cecilia Giménez

5 hours ago, ms.sss said:

Second pic, are what I am now going to refer to as DEATH TARTS (Portugese custard tarts w/ scoop of vanilla gelato). I ate one tart and all the gelato: 329 calories.

Eating the tart is the likely culprit to my evening of nausea, cold sweats, & lethargy. I spent pretty much the remainder of the day on the couch oscillating between feeling death-y and sleeping. Lesson learned? Probably not. 🙄

Death tarts! 😂😂😂😂 Seriously though, sorry about the dumping 😥. I've dumped too, after eating a bar with too much coconut oil in it. So unpleasant, and for such a long time afterwards. Hopefully we will both learn from these mistakes! 😇

A day at the lake sounds like heaven....

On 7/6/2020 at 6:05 PM, ms.sss said:

I ate all my salad (mine was smaller than these) and 1/2 a skewer (plus 1 tbsp of tzatziki): 223 calories

Mmmmmmm!! 😍😍😍😍 your salad presentation, ms.sss!

4 hours ago, MarvelGirl25 said:

Avocado toast topped with a running egg, everything bagel seasoning, chia seeds, hemp seeds, and red pepper chili flakes. Obsessed. I was only able to eat one.

I have nothing but love for avo toast, especially when it includes everything bagel seasoning. This is soooooooo beautiful and nummy-looking!

2 hours ago, GreenTealael said:

Your 13yr old daughter made these?

She’s been making these since about age 6 or 7. Simple no-bake recipes like these are perfect for younger kids; they can easily manage them on their own (with an adult nearby when using the mixer), especially if just rolling into balls or bars. I had a food blog for many years, and both my kids were helping out (and I use that term veeeeery loosely 😂 because basically it meant everything took 20 times longer and was 50 times messier) by the time they were 3 with little things like mashing foods, stirring batter, shaking liquids, kneading dough, rinsing fruit and veg, helping with grocery shopping, etc. Both had their first nylon knife and peeler sets by age 5, could read recipes (kids cookbooks) and make them without any help by age 6, and my daughter cooked and served an entire plant-based holiday meal for us by herself last year.

She’s been obsessed with watching Kids Baking Championship and Chopped Jr. for years now. Since kids summer cooking camp was cancelled this year, we got her a monthly subscription service for a kit that includes ingredients, recipes, a video cooking lesson, a new kitchen tool, and fun dinner conversation starters – takes some pressure off of me, plus I don’t have to cook as often, win-win!

food memories are powerful. There are so many beloved childhood foods I will never eat again: mashed potatoes with heavy cream and butter, buttermilk biscuits, scones with clotted cream and homemade preserves, beef bourguignon and beef stroganoff, roast beef with Yorkshire pudding and gravy, stuffing, quiche with ham and cheese, freshly made pies with butter pastry or pate sucree crusts, cinnamon Buns and hot cross buns drizzled with icing, fudge, lemon curd, all sorts of Cookies and cakes... especially pound cake and jam roly-poly. Rice and bread puddings, too.

Within the first year after going plant-based, I occasionally tried an old favourite, but they just didn't do it for me anymore. As happens for many post-ops, everything was just too sweet or too heavy or too chemically or too uncomfortable sitting in my stomach. My palate changed completely. My food memories were better than the actual foods themselves.

Occasionally, during moments of nostalgia or longing tied to fond memories of people and places, I still miss the memory or anticipation of eating certain foods, even though I love not eating them anymore and instead truly enjoy eating more nutritious, tastier, and health sustaining foods.

2 hours ago, PollyEster said:

Thank you for that, and am attaching another of his cartoons in kind...

Oops, obviously this is a Barbara Smaller cartoon. But BEK has done a many humorous interior design-related cartoons for the New Yorker as well. You might even have collected the whole set!

This was our lockdown project; repurposing an old storage shed on our property into a summer cottage-slash-studio, instead of tearing it down. It was a quick-ish job because we just wanted to be able to enjoy it this summer, but we're using it so often that we've decided we'd like to have it year-round, so are planning on insulation and drywall, new wiring, etc. as next steps. There's always tea or Soup on at the cottage!

6 hours ago, Sophie7713 said:

I just ordered Nutrition Stripped: 100 whole food recipes. I will enjoy exploring both sites including One Green Planet. Not to mention, these little perfect bite sized superfood treats to die for. Did you make and photograph these, too? They are textured and sculpted beautifully... Look so forward to discovering more scrumptious delectables + recipes. Fun! Quality carbs so important for fueling body and brain. I become quite foggy and fussy without them.

Appreciate that you're curious about - and open to - exploring plant-based foods! That's a pretty good cookbook, too, one of a handful that we use regularly.

My kind, thoughtful daughter makes various energy bars for the family almost every week. She's only 13, but has already developed a great deal of capability in the kitchen (and elsewhere!). Years of massive kitchen waste and mess led to this point 😂, but it was all worth it because she'll carry these skills and this confidence in herself for the rest of her life. We just use a food-safe silicone mold to shape them: I've found that something like this is roughly the perfect size for virtually every kind of post-op treat.

Love the New Yorker and Bruce Kaplan. Thank you for that, and am attaching another of his cartoons in kind:

Just now, catwoman7 said:

in the end, it was worth the pain. I'm thrilled with my "new" body - I actually look like a normal person rather than a sharpei puppy! But yes - plastic surgery is definitely no joke!

What procedures did you have, and when? Maybe I should mosey on over to your profile and have a look around for photographic evidence... I completely hear you on the unfortunate melted candle situation 😂😭, yet I'm also conflicted about plastics for various reasons. Luckily there's no deadline for making decisions in this regard, but it's definitely on my mind more and more these days.

2 hours ago, rjan said:

Definitely curious to hear from people who got plastics, since these come with big incisions too. How was your pain and recovery time compared to your WLS?

6 minutes ago, catwoman7 said:

My lower body lift, especially, was very painful. Getting in and out of bed those first few days was excruciating, and I had to use a walker to get around. I couldn't stand up straight.

Glad you asked this, rjan. I'm also curious about pain and recovery time after plastics. Being flayed, essentially, looks painful, and - no surprise - yes, it is! I'm not sure that I'll opt for plastics, but huge props 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️ to everyone who's gone through it.

14 hours ago, alegzis said:

I had gastric bypass in 2014. Has anyone experienced or know someone who has experienced a condition called "Iron deficiency WITHOUT anemia"? It is also sometimes called HWA (Hypoferritinemia without anemia). This is a condition where ferritin is low but hemoglobin, RBC and other related blood markers are normal . I am experiencing chronic worsening symptoms that are identical to Iron deficiency anemia (weakness, fatigue, light-headedness, brain fog) but my Hematologist doesn't seem to believe this is a real condition. In other words, since my red blood cell count and hemoglobin are fine, he believes these symptoms are not due to low ferritin. Can anyone recommend a hematologist that has experience with bariatric patients in Maryland?

Is there a specific reason why you suspect HWA? For example, have you recently had lab tests that indicate low ferritin levels? Iron deficiency, including HWA, is common after bariatric surgery. Any doctor or surgeon can order lab tests for you: a standard bariatric post-op iron panel would typically include serum ferritin levels, serum iron, transferrin saturation, total iron binding capacity, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, and hemoglobin level. There is also a specific test for HWA that you can request called HFE (hyperferritinemia panel). Since you’re possibly symptomatic, perhaps some of these tests would be covered by your health insurance, if you have it? It's best to have blood work done prior to starting any new oral iron supplementation, in order to get an accurate base reading.

The symptoms you've described aren't limited to iron deficiency anemia, and there can be many other causes of these symptoms (as well as a number of other conditions aside from bariatric surgery that can cause HWA), so please insist on having this investigated. Would it be possible to discuss your symptoms and be tested by your regular physician, your old WLS clinic, or a local bariatric clinic in your area? I hope you're able to get this resolved quickly, and that you feel much better soon.

1 hour ago, Arabesque said:

It’s all Rundholz. I love their designs. It used to make up a large part of my wardrobe but unfortunately their XS is too big on me now. Sigh! I grabbed this jumper & skirt for winter & two loose dresses which are more summery. From the last drop. My favourite boutique calls me when it comes in so I can preview buy before they promote it. There are only a few stockists in Australia.

🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌🙌

Ahhhhhhhhhh ha ha!! I knew it! 😂😂😂😂 I've been wearing Rundholz since the first collection back in 1993, and have worn it (plus one other brand of footwear) exclusively for the past 12 years. I'm currently having as much of my existing wardrobe as possible tailored to fit. I'm absolutely unwilling to move away from the brand, so intend to buy the XS, one size pieces, and S in the S-M-L pieces and have them tailored as required. Trousers are easy to have taken in at the waist, and as long as the shoulders of the structured jackets and coats fit, everything else is possible!

Have you previewed the AW 20-21 collection? DIP is particularly fun this winter (I have pre-ordered loads of it), as is Black Label, though I find the latter collection is oftentimes a bit too youth-oriented for my tastes. I lived in Melbourne for several years, and know all too well the difficulties you're presented with in trying to obtain the pieces you want. It's even more challenging to find Rundholz in Canada, but luckily there are many online shops selling the brand now. I also lived in Germany for many years, so was fortunately spoiled for choice in this regard.

On 6/28/2020 at 6:53 PM, BigSue said:

I really like Dr. Matthew Weiner's videos. Most of them are several years old...

He's posted some new content on there over the past year or so, but I think the bariatric basics were mostly covered in his initial set of videos. Wish he'd do more updates, though his books seem to have taken up where the Youtube videos left off.

When I was looking for a nutritionist who specialised in plant-based nutrition for bariathletes, his clinic was extremely helpful and didn't even charge me. You can also attend their WLS support group without charge even if you had surgery somewhere else (in-person support group on hold right now because of covid-19).

If you do a bit of research on the internet, you'll find that he's not practicing and hasn't been for quite a few years. Maybe running MLM weight loss schemes because it's not possible to find employment in the medical field after losing various ethical and legal lawsuits (including a class-action lawsuit) and having your medical license revoked...

On 6/27/2020 at 7:20 PM, Arabesque said:

Starting to get pretty chilly for Queensland. Got out my raccoon & wool asymmetrical jumper, wool tube skirt & boots on Saturday to go to Toowoomba on the Great Dividing Range. All toasty warm. It’s my nod to the 80s.

Totally ❤❤❤❤ this look! Is that a Rundholz jumper?

You look fantastic, and I hope you feel as good as you look! Congratulations!

Required fuel (yes, I'm referring to the bariatric "c" word: carbs! 😂) for distance cycling and running: raw vegan superfood squares, loosely inspired by these two recipes.

6 hours ago, Sophie7713 said:

Thanks! I've definitely been channeling my inner 1950's domestic diva these days... I mean like, oh goody, my big highlight of the week out of this humble household is grocery shopping tomorrow! Yay. And, vacuuming and cleaning the potty in a dress is even more fulfilling. dinner tonight? Grilled BBQ prime rib steak and roasted green Beans with strawberries at hubby's request. Live dangerously, I say! Join us for dinner Silly Kitty here on the exciting southeast coast where we are literally going VIRAL. LOL.

Gorgeous! In terms of presentation and plating, I think food shares many parallels with interior design and fashion: colour, arrangement, balance, texture, attention to detail, etc.

On 7/4/2020 at 8:18 AM, Sophie7713 said:

Definitely continue to share! We do appreciate and value your craft + art immensely. Your food content and styling is exquisite, PE. Continuing to style + photographing is a worthy and great goal in this pandemic. As is your commitment to eat clean, healthy and lean. I'm a creative professional, too. An interior designer trying to remain relevant, positive and creative by doing the same around the house + garden. Illustrating, baking/cooking (hubbies strawberry rhubarb 4th of July pie a few years back - we don't eat this way now...) and staging simple vignettes. I get it! LOL. All the personal and career cancellations and postponements are daunting and a lot to process. Just on a perpetual "ON HOLD" button. LOL. No longer able to plan ahead with confidence. Along with striving to maintain and commit to our new WLS lifestyles. And, many of us were so excited to come out of the closet with fun, new, down sized fabulous fashions after recently arriving at our goals. PollyEster, your posts are timely and inspiring! I feel honored. Thank you.

Kindness and warm-hearted encouragement toward strangers is a rare and special gift. Thank you for your thoughtful words, and for sharing these beautiful images with me, Sophie; the honour is truly mine. It's always a joy to see a new post from you, and I very much appreciate the support and generosity you extend toward everyone here 😊

I also hear you on the ways covid-19 is truly wreaking havoc in society and in our lives, and on the difficulties it presents in terms of quality, structure, and function. There's only more uncertainty on the horizon, and in some ways, the longer it goes on, the more it feels like a pandemic of widespread social pain and discomfort...

The current news out of Florida is extremely alarming, and I hope you and your family are staying safe in lockdown at home. From all of the activities you're planning and engaging in, you clearly have the adaptability and flexibility to remain creative and vibrant in every situation! I, too, have been using this time to develop new skills and build on existing ones, and am grateful for the opportunity to spend more time with my kids, exercise more, read and write more, paint more... and become more comfortable with being uncomfortable 😉 Please take great care. x

This excellent annual conference is available for free online for everyone this year because of the pandemic. Great opportunity to learn from experts in obesity and bariatric surgery, thanks to the Obesity Action Coalition. Online registration details are here.

Event Details

The Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) is excited to announce that our 2020 Your Weight Matters Convention & EXPO has been transformed to YWM2020 – VIRTUAL! Once again, YWM will be bringing together the most sought-after health and weight industry experts to present science-based information in an easy-to-understand format, designed to help attendees navigate the complex topic of weight management…. all easily at your fingertips in a VIRTUAL PLATFORM!

YWM2020 – VIRTUAL is offered as a FREE virtual event series that is crafted with a one-of-a-kind program designed to help individuals seeking answers about their weight and health. This year’s virtual program will allow you to dive into the science behind weight, while learning key strategies and gaining access to valuable tools. If you’ve simply wanted the answers as to why weight can be such a struggle, then YWM2020 – VIRTUAL is an event you won’t want to miss!

Events Program Agenda and Schedule

Click here to view the full schedule.

Event Dates

Event 1: Saturday, July 11

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST/10:00 am – 12:00 pm PST

Event 2: Saturday, July 18

1:00 pm – 3:00 pm EST/10:00 am – 12:00 pm PST

Event 3: Saturday, July 25 and Sunday, July 26

1:00 pm – 4:00 pm EST/10:00 am – 1:00 pm PST

8 hours ago, 2Bsmaller18 said:

I no longer view myself as fat however... I am probably one of the thinnest in a room at any time... who wears a size 2 past the age of 11? Umm, I do now.... I still see the stretch marks, the big calves, etc.... But isn't that what typical, normal BMI sized women say too?

All of this ☝☝☝☝. It is SO helpful to hear about all of the experiences shared here, and be able to nod my head at every one of them. Thank you.

I went to a bricks and mortar clothing shop this past weekend and discovered that size 4 pants are too big for me in the waist and hips (yet tight in the thighs). I'm finally clueing in that I'm actually going to end up in a size 2 or 0, which blows my mind on every level and is clearly going to take a loooooong time to sink in.

Before I got fat (went from average weight to MO during a 2 year period), I wore a size 6 and thought I was practically obese 😂😂😭😭 Thinking back on that time, I remember seeing a photo of myself and asking, in all sincerity, "Who's that?" because I didn't perceive myself that way. It the same again now, but in reverse: I do not recognize my body as my own.

9 hours ago, summerset said:

If there are many, there isn't obviously a best one... Guidelines differ... What's a clinician supposed to do with that? ... What I said. Etc..

I appreciate and understand your concerns and frustration; thanks for sharing them.

Across every area of medicine, there are many expert organizations and associations that develop clinical practice guidelines at the local, provincial, national and international level, and make them available to health care providers. Their primary purpose is to improve quality of care, increase quality of life, address clinical care gaps that exist (i.e. discrepancies between evidence-based knowledge and day-to-day clinical practice), reduce inappropriate variation in practice, promote efficient use of healthcare resources, identify gaps in knowledge, prioritize research activities, inform public policy, and support quality control activities including practice audits. They represent a summary of material and don't provide in-depth background clinical knowledge, which is covered comprehensively in medical textbooks and review articles.

Guidelines are updated regularly and are not meant to provide a "single best" or "recipe driven" approach to patient care, where the clinician has no discretion. Every clinician understands this. Guidelines are meant to aid in decision making by providing recommendations that are informed by the best available evidence, but therapeutic decisions are made at the level of the relationship between the health care provider and the patient. That relationship, along with the importance of clinical judgement, can never be replaced by guideline recommendations.

Evidence-based guidelines attempt to weigh the benefit and harm of various treatments, but patient preferences are not always included in clinical research and as a result, patient values and preferences must be incorporated into clinical decision making. For some clinical decisions, strong evidence is available to inform these decisions, and these are reflected in the recommendations within these guidelines. However, there are many clinical situations where strong evidence is not currently available, or may never become available due to feasibility issues. In those situations, the consensus of expert opinions, informed by whatever evidence is available, is provided to help guide clinical decisions that need to be made at the level of the individual.

Final thoughts: I offer my sincere apologies to you, JRT Mom, for inadvertently hijacking this important topic. Self-perception and body image after WLS is such a critical area to explore and discuss. I wish I could move this to a separate thread. Again, I am sorry.