blackcatsandbaddecisions

I could have loved and accepted my body all I wanted at almost 50 bmi and the health problems coming my way would have still been a reality. I’m watching my mother die a long drawn out miserable death from kidney failure brought on by type two diabetes. There are real heath impacts to being drastically overweight, and what’s not a problem in your 20s or even 40s can lead to issues later.

Gerd is a definite concern. I’ll say from my perspective at almost a year and a half out that my heartburn is better post op than it was pre op. I exercise every day and I am living a life I could only have dreamed of prior to my surgery. This surgery isn’t without risks, but living life as an obese person isn’t without risks either.

I went from a bmi of 48.6 to 23.7. I lost over 175 lbs and I’m in my 40s. I have less loose skin than I pictured. It’s easily covered up by clothes, and even in a bathing suit it’s nothing too bad. With that being said I am looking into surgery, to see if it would be in budget to remove.

Yeah, I hit Protein and Fluid and still lost a lot of hair. It really is just luck of the draw. Only me and my hairdresser really noticed. I cut my hair above shoulder length to help it not look stringy. Plus is that I couldn’t really pull off short hair when I was heavy- but now that I’m a normal weight i don’t need long hair to hide behind.

My favorite frozen vegetables are petite peas or peas and carrots…what can I say, I have a love of green peas.

Hey I know you posted this a bit ago but I’m having two consults at the end of this month in Portland for this. I’ll let you know how that goes with prices. Looking at an arm lift and Tummy Tuck hopefully. Did you end up going forward with anybody or are you still looking?

Hey we had surgery about the same time and I was thinking the same thing. I hit my goal weight and stalled…I’d still like to drop a bit more, but it hasn’t really happened. I want to take the month of March to really make sure that this is my “final weight”, and it’s not just where I landed because I loosened up my food plan. I want to start tracking this month, really cut down on snacking and get my evening time eating back to where I want it. So for me my resolutions are:
I will track my food, even if it’s a guess on some items like dinners out. I get stuck on “well I don’t know how much this is so I won’t bother”, and I know that’s a cop out.
I will make sure that snack food doesn’t get into the house- no nuts, Greek yogurt bars, chips, etc.
I’ll keep up my current exercise routine

Let’s have an awesome March!

Hey, fellow Oregonian, nice to see you here! I think one amazing part of losing weight is being able to be more active with my family- I’m in my 40s and before surgery I felt like I had the mobility of a 60 year old. Now we can do things like go on hikes, trips, etc and I don’t feel exhausted and worn out from trying to keep up with them. It’s a tough road but it’s worth it in the end.

My surgeon didn’t care much one way or the other about coffee. I had a tall nonfat latte on Friday after a Tuesday surgery. It took me hours to finish but it was literally the first thing I was able to drink without struggle after surgery.

I drink multiple cups of coffee every day, and I’ve been maintaining at 175+ lbs lost/at goal weight for a while now. If you add sweetener or tons of full fat cream to coffee I can picture it being a problem, but outside of that I’ve never seen any compelling science behind the rule.

If the bariatric police want to come find me then please note the fact that I added back in the occasional glass of wine or beer before I hit my goal weight. I’m a wild and crazy rebel over here.

I have a consult with Dr. Rachel Streu at Waldorf Center at end of March…I’ll update this thread with what I hear on costs, recommendations, etc. Here’s hoping it goes well! I was reading reviews online (of course) and one person was angry that she wouldn’t do surgery because of their BMI being too high and I immediately was concerned. I had to take a step back like wait, I’m not overweight, I have a BMI of 23. My knee jerk reaction to hearing anything like that is “oh no, that means me!” Old habits die hard.

Yeah, honestly many people are less observant than we give them credit for 😂. I told a few very select people after surgery, a few months out. Every one of them was shocked, and believed I’d just been losing weight because they saw me exercising a lot and being mindful of what I ate. Like…yeah, that’s me doing my part to make the surgery successful.

At this point I’m at a stable goal weight and lost a bit more than 175 lbs over the past few years. I’m still glad I limited who I told.

I told nobody but my husband preop. I also didn’t tell anyone I was going to be in the hospital, getting a procedure, etc. I don’t owe anybody a minute by minute accounting of what I’m doing with my life. Work knew I was taking off two weeks, my family knew that I was out of town and out of contact for two weeks. When I was back to my normal life after two weeks nobody really cared. Not like anyone was staring at my bare stomach.

I feel like with social media and everything people have an over inflated sense of “deserving” to know every personal detail of everybody’s life. Not true- if you pay your own bills and take care of yourself, you don’t owe people an explanation of everything you do.

I’m about a year and 3 months post op. I threw up once in the hospital right after surgery trying to drink my liquid pain meds laying down. In retrospect that was dumb but I was still groggy so yeah. Haven’t thrown up once since.

Yeah, I can see the social and tracking parts being better with the full link up and branded equipment. I’m not as concerned about those parts so I’m happy with this setup.

Going from running and feeling pretty confident in my skills to biking was pretty humbling I have to say- the muscles are very different and I need to build up different ones now. I like having greater variety in exercise, though, because just running is obviously missing some key muscle groups.

Honestly I can’t think of anything I wish I had known that was vital…in part because I read these forums so much preop. There are so many great threads that will give you so many perspectives and information. I read through a few surgery month buddy threads that were helpful seeing all these people talk about preop, op, post op experiences. A lot of great people have shared a ton of info, and some 18 month+ veterans have hung around and are super helpful with their advice as well.

Good luck!

I’m pretty sure all of us past a certain age ate huge portions of “healthy” granola back in the day.

It is so totally normal to mourn your favorite foods. Mine was tuna noodle casserole- childhood comfort food. Also potatoes, I love them in every format. I eat both foods now in maintenance, I went a time without them but they’re back, in moderation now.

Don’t beat yourself up- food is important to everybody, but I think a lot of us who have been very heavy relied on it more than most. It’s been a comfort, memories, celebrations, so much more than just food. Don’t worry too much either though- most likely it will still be there for you after you’ve recovered.

Normally I’d say don’t lie to a medical professional but she’s really doing stuff outside her scope of practice sooooo I’d tell her that her advice has worked like a charm and you aren’t snacking at all. And follow your nutritionist and md advice.

I’d be on the phone with them…my office emailed me within a few hours of the insurance approval. You’re not being the squeaky wheel, they should be calling you before this!

When I had my initial consult the PA held up a picture of a cartoon stomach being separated from a body and said something like “in this surgery we cut most of your stomach out, we remove it from your body and throw it away. It’s permanent, and there’s no going back. Do you understand that?” At the time I felt like it was kind of aggressive but after being on the forums a few years I think that surgeons should maybe spend more time in initial consults doing that sort of discussion. This is a one way trip and people should really be getting that information a long time before preop, not wondering it a few weeks after surgery. That’s a failing on the bariatric office and surgeon.

Hey felt like checking in because I am now 1 year 3 months past surgery, and I weighed exactly 165 this morning, still at my goal weight. Maintenance has been going really well, still considering another 15 lbs but I’m also happy at this weight.

Still loving life as a “normal weight” person.

Oh and if you do want to use your own equipment I found that following a class on my “fake Peleton” worked great. No, I wouldn’t show up on leaderboards but I wasn’t going to anyway…haha. I did a prerecorded class and I could follow along well with my bike, and I’m pretty sure I got the exact same workout that the people with the 2500 dollar bike did. Also the app is only 14 a month if you don’t have their official bike, versus 40 if you do. Why it’s cheaper without their bike is beyond me but I’m not complaining!

So I have been exercising for some time now on a treadmill and rowing machine in my basement. I finally decided that I wanted to try cycling as well. I bought a $499 Eschelon bike from Walmart and downloaded the Peleton app to my tablet. I was surprised by how many non biking classes they have. I followed one today on my treadmill and it was a great workout.

They also have a lot of classes for body weight and exercising without equipment. Just my two cents that it’s worth checking out even if you aren’t going to drop thousands on a special bike.

Starting weight: 339
Current weight: 165
Surgery date: 11/10/20

I’m a 5’10 female, age 40. Yeah, I was told I’d end up still in the 200s. Forget that noise, if you use the surgery as a tool and do your own work you can end up at your goal weight.

As others have said, no, you can’t reverse this. What’s done is done, and you’ll have to start looking forward to the future, not what you liked in the past. If you’re in the first few months post op, this is not the rest of your life. In the future you’re most likely going to be able to eat a lot of the foods you loved, go out to eat, have an active social life, etc.

I’m almost 1.5 years out and maintaining a 175 lb loss while enjoying a lot of my favorite foods, going out to eat, and yes, having the occasional drink. I balance it all out with small portion sizes, elimination of some trigger foods, and exercise.

Look toward a brighter future. You’ll be able to eat the foods you love, without the fear of binging. Having a family is an amazing experience, and I would give up every favorite meal and “normal” eating experience for what I’ve gained with having my kids. You’ve got a lot to look forward to, keep your focus on the future!

Oh man, those initial stalls are no joke. I think so many years (decades) of having a stall mean that our weight loss efforts were failing yet again has made us all super paranoid about them. The good news is that especially this early in the game, a stall is temporary and doesn’t really mean much. Just focus on the day-to-day and you’ll get there! Post op is just a short period of time in your journey, you’ll be in onederland before you know it!

Oh man, now that I am hearing others combined the surgeries that might be a deal breaker for me. I want to just take care of it all at once if I can, because getting time away from work/taking care of my parents will be hard enough for one surgery much less multiple. As it is I feel like getting time off for my bariatric surgery took about my entire 6 month waiting period to coordinate.

It’s funny because in terms of where the loose skin is, my stomach is obviously objectively worse, but my arms are what bother me the most. I dream of wearing a sleeveless top someday, or waving at someone and having my arm not make a “thwack, thwack” noise.