Arabesque

I loved vegetables before my surgery but after it took ages for my tastebuds to tolerate them. They tasted just awful. Had no issue with eating them though. Started trying them at about 6 weeks, Found broccolini (baby broccoli) better than broccoli - not as strong a flavour. Cauliflower & shredded cabbage were the best for me. All fresh, microwaved with a little Water & butter, salt & pepper. Mind you a small floret and a couple of strands of cabbage with my Protein & I was full.
Only salad vegetable I could do was cucumber. Spread a bit of cream cheese on some smoked salmon & wrapped it around a wedge of cucumber.

Holy hell @ms.sss. That swelling is mind boggling. I would have been freaking out. So happy they’re deflating. Is your swelling like this too @rs?

While I’m enjoying poop watch 2019, I know it’s hellish for you. Fingers crossed for some movement soon. I love how supportive your husband is. Volunteering to insert your suppository is way big love.
PS - Happy to share the ‘windy’ quote. 😜🤣

Stalls will happen intermittently throughout your weight loss journey. My longest stall was when I sat at the same weight for three weeks (just short of my goal) & then dropped 1/2kg overnight & almost the same the next day. Weight loss will slow the more weight you lose & the closer you get to your goal. Don’t give up. Keep up the work & the weight will keep coming off. It will happen.

How old are your shoes? I had issues (shin splints & sore knees) & bought new running shoes & haven’t had pain since. General wear & tear & the age of the shoe will result in the inner support breaking down.

Glad to see the Aussies posting more. 🇦🇺

@ms.sss & @DaisyChainOz I lived in New Farm for about 14 yrs then bought a few hundred metres down the road in Teneriffe 5 yrs ago. Brisbane is such a fantastic city to live. Still small enough that people know each other & doesn’t take hours to get from one side of the city to the other but it’s big enough to have great dining, theatre, shopping, sports, ...

Blair Bowden at the Wesley did my surgery @DaisyChainOz He did my friend’s surgery & she recommended him. My GP said she’d heard nothing but good things about him. He was great. After the surgery he gave me a picture of my stomach all marked up before it was removed as a souvenir 🤣. It may be easier for all the post surgery visits to use a Bris Dr.

@Sophie7713 you look so bright & cheery in your Christmas party dress and look how great you are looking.

Thanks @DaisyChainOz. I’m in Brisvegas too. Whoo hoo!

I like your animal print skirt too @AngieBear. See how it looks with your fitted top untucked & then pop on a narrow belt to show off your shrinking waist.

Excited to follow this thread & see your progress.

I agree, your arms look great already @ms.sss. Wish mine looked this good.

I’ve been anti surgery for me because I scar badly (keloid) and felt the loose skin was better than any hideous scars I might end up with. So I’m interested to read about your experiences.

Love you have a Dr who gets excited about removing loose skin @rs.

Good luck with your surgery & recovery.

Fabulous effort. Gotta hate those stalls that suck the life out of you. But gotta love how reaching each milestone keeps us motivated to reach the next.

I might need to put a lock on my wardrobe with your covetous gaze about@GreenTealael. Lucky we’re in different countries. 😜
I love how this thread gives you ideas of what might suit you when you see how good someone else with a similar build & height to you looks.

Thanks @AngieBear, @Deedee12& @ms.sss.
Nothing like narrow vertical stripes to make you look taller & thinner 😜. The dress is a little big on me now but it is too nice (& new) to put it away.

Can’t claim much credit for my en-suite @ms.sss. The previous owners did the renovations. They did a great job of incorporating contemporary design with the original 100yr+ features like the original French doors. They’re warped & don’t close properly but I love them.

I’ve enjoyed this thread so much & decided to be brave and upload some images from the last month. Summer here hence the strappy dresses. Oh yeah, I’m a bit partial to black. Ha!
The day I reached my goal weight about five weeks ago. Off to the theatre to see my niece who dances with a contemporary dance company.

Two weeks ago. Ignore the unmade bed. At my mother’s before going to my two 6yr old nieces’ first ballet concert - lots of skipping around in circles.

Just around the house today. Super casual. Still have thighs 😜. Four kg below my goal weight. So much for maintaining.

Agree with looking gaunt and ‘too thin’ when first hitting your healthy BMI range and then you do settle into your new body weight. I look soooo much better now then I did a couple of months ago.

Agree with not knowing what we really look like at a healthy weight. The whole body dysmorphia is a head trip. It takes time to really see who we are & how we look now.

BMI is calculated on your height & weight & there is a range of 18.5 - 25 to allow for your frame. If you have a large frame you would be very thin if you had a BMI of 18.5. Treat it as a guide. These are my thoughts though.

I’ve a medium frame and am now in the middle of the BMI range for my height. Believe me I still have thighs & boobies. I have a butt though it is part way down my thighs - ha. I’m not bony or skeletal and still have a decent pinch worthy layer of flesh/fat over my body.

In saying all that, find the weight at which you are healthy & happy. Find the weight that does not compromise the life you want to live.

A friend went back after a week without issues but I went back after 3 weeks & I struggled at a desk job. My blood pressure was ridiculously low & besides all the dizziness I was exhausted.
I agree with reducing your hours &/or the number of days to start & see how you go.
If you have the leave available to you make use of it especially if you’re on your feet all day. Remember everyone heals differently.
All the best for your surgery.

It’s seeing my small portion on a large (normal sized) dinner plate that gets to me. When at my home I eat from side plates & tapas dishes but when I visit friends or family my small serve looks ridiculous on a dinner plate. It’s like a plate at the end of a meal not the start.

The reverse happens too. Last night I ordered a small piece of fish & a half serve of vegetables at a local pub. OMG the size of the meal was horrifying. The food was almost falling off the plate. I felt sick just looking at it. Could have easily shared it with 10 WLS buddies & we all would have been full.

So sad I can’t gulp anymore. It’s why I have trouble getting my fluids in. I was always a gulper & a glogger, downing big glasses of Water in one go. Now If I take a single mouthful or anymore than two sips at once I feel the tightness. Waaah

I was surprised originally by the oatmeal when it was on my Dr’s post surgical meal plan but it said to make it on milk (if tolerated) which adds extra Protein. I guess because you can only eat a couple of teaspoonfuls at a time and the fibre helps with the bms it was allowed on my plan. It still takes me four days to eat a a bowl using a sachet lol.

Stay away from the Pasta, bread, rice & other carbohydrate heavy foods. They fill up your tiny tummy, often swell more and you won’t get in any of your necessary nutrient rich food. It’s possibly why you’re vomiting.

The number one rule is get your Protein in first.

Six months out and at goal, I struggle to eat half to 3/4 cup of food at a time on a good day and that’s my required protein & a small amount of vegetables.

Developing a lactose intolerance is common for many post surgery. I’ve been the reverse & my insensitivity has reduced.

Think of it as what soft foods you’d feed a baby. Mince, eggs, oatmeal, mushed tinned fish, stewed meats. Thin out with small amounts of salt reduced stocks, watered down gravies, ...

Take it easy. What works for some may not work for you. You’ll be on solid foods before you know it.

I bought one ($10 from Kmart) which is rope like with handles and a door attachment thingy. (I like it better than the flat strip ones you wrap around your hands which I used to use at Yoga.)

I don’t like the whole gym thing so I thought I’d try the bands instead. They’re great for toning but i think if you want to build muscle weights are the way to go. I’ve noticed some toning in my biceps after a couple of weeks which is what I wanted. I just put together my own routine after watching a few you tube videos.
Good luck.

I’ve always related my blocked ears to when my blood pressure would drop. I’ve had instances over years before my surgery but since my surgery in May my BP is low all the time & I have had blocked ears many, many times. I can’t pop them (yawning, drinking, chewing,...don't work). I just have to wait for it to pass. Interested to hear how common this is.
My GP got me to have a brain scan to make sure there was nothing sinister this week but all good. Thank gracious.

Hair loss is very common. Mine’s been falling out for 4 months now & I’ve lost almost 50%. Very sad. There are lots of posts about this with suggestions on how to lessen the impact but nothing’s slowed mine yet. My surgeon warned me it would happen. In his words: ‘You’re body has better things to do with the reduced nutrients you take in on your new diet than grow hair.’ He wasn’t wrong.

My surgeon & dietician told me I’d have to take Multi Vitamins for the rest of my life. I have blood tests every 3 months for my Bariatric team & my GP has had me get one in between. They’re tracking & monitoring even slight changes. I’m sorry your GP is not being supportive of your journey. They are your primary care giver & someone who you should be able to trust & depend upon for your health & well being.

Even during transition, get a supportive, well fitting bra. Sports bras will work but get fitted. You don’t want to add to the saggy baggy boobs by wearing loose bras too. Only buy a couple (one you’re wearing & one in the wash) and look out for sales & special deals. After suffering back pain from my too large & non supportive bras, I splurged on some new (though pricey) much prettier underwear. Made me feel & look better & no more back pain. Just had to buy another lot of new underwear in a smaller size. I’ve gone from 18F to 14F to 10 FF/G. Hopefully that should be it now. Donated my too big bras to St Vinnies.

So glad I’m not the only one hearing these types of comments. Today she told me I walk differently. What the ... I’ve always walked with purpose - I’ve never been a stroller. But then soles of my feet don’t ache as much either when I wear heels now.
I’m just about passed the haggard face look. Six weeks ago my chicky babe girlfriends asked if I was really ok & if I was getting in all my nutrients because I looked so drawn but they think I’m looking much better now. Plus I think all the collagen, silica & RF treatments are starting to show results. Whoo hoo.

I too was always told I look years younger than my 54 yrs & while I think I look more my age I still look like the youngest in my family & not the eldest. Recently a 20yr old asked how was I going through menopause. I said well because I’m in my fifties. She gasped & said she thought I was in my early 40s. Yay! Still winning!

Yeah saggy, deflated boobies are not attractive but good supportive underwear get them back up to where theY should be.

Mother: You’re too thin.

Me: I’ve been this weight before & it wasn’t an issue then.

Mother: You need to stop losing weight.

Me: I weigh more than you did when you were in your 20s & I’m 3inches shorter. And I’m in maintenance.

Mother: You don’t look like you any more.

Me: I look like me just not as fat.

Mother: I don’t know what to cook for you when you visit anymore.

Me: Cook the same meals you always did. I just don’t eat as much.

Mother: I don’t know who you look like anymore.

Me: I still look like me just not as fat.

And so it goes on.

My mother has been supportive through out the process but this last month these conversations have been on a loop. Am I being overly sensitive that they are bothering me so much or am I justified to be fed up.
Anyone else facing these sorts of comments from their loved ones?

Light headedness, vision going black, blocked ears (like going up a mountain range), dull headedness... all day every day. Always had a tendency towards low blood pressure & even at my highest weight my blood pressure never went above 120 over 80. Now it’s never above 85 over 65. GP put me on a low pressure medication which seemed to take the edge of the events but after a couple of weeks it was as bad as ever. So off the meds, more blood tests & head scan. All good thank goodness but still no answers. GP & bari Dr want me to have abdomen scan now. Low BP is just as dangerous as high - strokes, organ damage - so keep following up with your Drs. I just want an answer & a solution but am very glad I’m not the only one suffering from this.

Don’t worry the salad was just for show. I already had them remove the chips and fish would have looked ridiculous on their huge plates. 😜 Plus I was with people who don’t know I had the surgery & I didn’t want to deal with the strange looks. I’m at 6.5mths & the only salad I have is the odd slice of cucumber.