njlimmer

I used to get Migraines a week before my period like clockwork - even with BC. Nothing worked over the counter or prescription. I went to a homeopathic guy, and he said that they were caused by a build-up of estrogen in the liver. He recommended B12 because it flushes the liver. I started taking it and the migraines stopped. I highly recommend it.

1. Went to a baseball game and easily fit into the stadium seat without bruising my hips. Never used to stand up and cheer because, by the end of the game, it hurt too much.
2. Now instead of wondering if something makes me look fat, I have to wonder if it will stay up or if it's time to go in the donate pile. Went through 3 pairs of jeans the other day...oh the struggle
3. Bought a large t-shirt as my gauge for my next size... you know thinking I'd be into maybe in a couple of months. It fit! Like I can go out in public in it FIT!
4. Having so much more energy!!

1. Went to a baseball game and easily fit into the stadium seat without bruising my hips. Never used to stand up and cheer because, by the end of the game, it hurt too much.
2. Now instead of wondering if something makes me look fat, I have to wonder if it will stay up or if it's time to go in the donate pile. Went through 3 pairs of jeans the other day...oh the struggle
3. Bought a large t-shirt as my gauge for my next size... you know thinking I'd be into maybe in a couple of months. It fit! Like I can go out in public in it FIT!
4. Having so much more energy!!

I used to get Migraines a week before my period like clockwork - even with BC. Nothing worked over the counter or prescription. I went to a homeopathic guy, and he said that they were caused by a build-up of estrogen in the liver. He recommended B12 because it flushes the liver. I started taking it and the migraines stopped. I highly recommend it.

Never ever compare yourself (or journey) to others
Don’t forget the people that value you at any weight
Being happy in other areas of your life is just as important as weight loss

Trust the process. It’s so easy for those of us who have done the yo yo diets to worry that this won’t work for us but if we follow the plan it will. And you will lose weight at your own pace. Try not to compare your weight loss (or recovery for that matter) to others as it is very individualized. You got this!!

I am 9 years post op and about a year ago I started vomiting after I ate a few times a week. About 4 months ago I started vomiting everything I ate. I've lost so much weight I look like death. I had an endoscopy done and they said my pouch was almost completely closed and they ballooned it to open it. It was better for 2 weeks and then I started vomiting again. In 4 months I have went from 175 to 120. I have had to leave work and can barely walk around I'm so weak. Has anyone else dealt with this? I finally found a bariatric specialist and will see her soon. But it's killing me that my kids are literally watching me die. I'm so malnourished its crazy

If you just need a bit of weight to get over the hump, rolls of quarters weigh a lot. Just saying...

If you just need a bit of weight to get over the hump, rolls of quarters weigh a lot. Just saying...

If you just need a bit of weight to get over the hump, rolls of quarters weigh a lot. Just saying...

I am almost 7 months post op, and thus far I’ve not really had any regrets. I also had concerns about all the food I was going to be giving up- truth of the matter is that I haven’t really given up anything outside of candy. Physically I’m sure I could eat it, but I made a personal choice that I have too many issues with it and I needed to leave that behind.

But this last weekend I had beer and wine (albeit much less than I would ever have had before), sushi with rice, and no stomach problems at all. I’m just very mindful of portion sizes and tracking what I eat since I’m still losing. Some people end up with certain foods they can’t eat, but I didn’t.

I tried to sit down pre op and think about certain foods and why I was so worried about “missing out” that I was willing to stay 340 lbs. I finally came to realize that you can’t have everything in life- of course I wanted to be a healthy weight and still be able to gorge on candy and chips and fast food without a care in the world. But that’s not how life works, and being a normal weight and able to enjoy all that life offers outside of food outweighed my desire to keep the eating habits I had.

So much this... never realized how much of our vacation time was spent thinking about WHERE we were going to eat, and now that I'm not checking out the food at parties, I can actually talk to people... although I'm an introvert so that might not be a good thing - LOLOLOL!!
I had a weird reaction to one of the shots they gave me in the hospital and ended up with another emergency surgery the day after my bypass. I regretted it for about a day, but since then I've had no problems. I even asked my surgical team if they pranked me and really hadn't done anything after all. I can't eat nearly as much and if I do I get a little nauseous, but other than that, I love it. My dietician said that 90% of folks never have any real issues so that's more the norm than it is the exception.
It is a bit of trial and error as everyone is different. I haven't found a food yet that I can't have - including red meat - but I also haven't tried any Desserts as I'm afraid to start up my old cravings. Sugar is an addiction after all and for me it is very real, but that is MY personal choice. Are there some things that will change in your life - absolutely. It's the nature of the beast. The only time food wise I've had an ounce of regret was I just wanted to gorge on Chinese food like I would have been able to in the past. It wasn't real hunger, it was just a mental thing that I worked through. I ate my little serving and moved on with my life perfectly satisfied.

I haven't had any issues either. I asked my nutritionist if I'd really had surgery or was it all a dream. She laughed and said 90% of people don't have any issues. I do feel the restriction more depending on the texture of the food. I can have a lot of Soup but not so much of chicken and steak. I was RNY on 3/3/21 and I've lost 45 since surgery. I think because I haven't had the negative consequences of throwing up or anything, it's really going to force to make better food choices. I'm hoping that if I can make that a habit now that it will serve me better when it comes to maintaining.

I used to get Migraines a week before my period like clockwork - even with BC. Nothing worked over the counter or prescription. I went to a homeopathic guy, and he said that they were caused by a build-up of estrogen in the liver. He recommended B12 because it flushes the liver. I started taking it and the migraines stopped. I highly recommend it.

Yes! The nurses were AMAZING! So glad I was there and not at home when it all started going crazy! Now trying to figure out if I'm allergic to Lovenox or if I have a problem with blood thinners in general. This might be info that saves my life in the future!

In my experience, you have to finish ALL of your pre-op stuff before they can submit it to insurance. It only took a week for mine to be approved after everything was completed.

Yes! The nurses were AMAZING! So glad I was there and not at home when it all started going crazy! Now trying to figure out if I'm allergic to Lovenox or if I have a problem with blood thinners in general. This might be info that saves my life in the future!

Yes! The nurses were AMAZING! So glad I was there and not at home when it all started going crazy! Now trying to figure out if I'm allergic to Lovenox or if I have a problem with blood thinners in general. This might be info that saves my life in the future!

I had a 4 night stay after my RNY on 3/3. I had a freak reaction to the Lovenox shot the day after surgery and started bleeding heavily. My BP went down to 70/34 and my hemoglobin dropped 5 points. I ended up with 5 units of blood and they took me back into surgery. My doc said in 11 yrs, he's never seen that reaction. So....yep... went in on a Wednesday and didn't come out till Sunday.

I had a 4 night stay after my RNY on 3/3. I had a freak reaction to the Lovenox shot the day after surgery and started bleeding heavily. My BP went down to 70/34 and my hemoglobin dropped 5 points. I ended up with 5 units of blood and they took me back into surgery. My doc said in 11 yrs, he's never seen that reaction. So....yep... went in on a Wednesday and didn't come out till Sunday.

WooHoo!!!

Wow... this hit me in the feels today. I've been overweight since I was 10 when my parents divorced, and we moved in my grandmother. The only thing that was ever said about food was about leaving any behind. I - like many on here - was a card-carrying member of the "Clean Plate Club." It is still hard for me. I have to consciously think about it to leave food behind. That being said, what struck me about this post deals with how I parent my own girls.
Parenting is hard, and kids should come with instruction manuals. I NEVER wanted to give my kids a food complex. I've never made them clean their plate. When they're done, they're done. Both of my girls are on ADHD meds, so they don't like to eat during the day, but they're hungry at night. Usually, they come back for a second dinner sometime before bed. Neither one had a weight concern until last year. My oldest became a cave dweller during the lockdown, and it wasn't until she went back to school in January that she walked further than from her bedroom to the kitchen. I tried to get her to go out for a walk -anything - but she's 14 going on 25 and knows everything. All that to say, she gained about 50lbs in less than a year. It's not healthy for her, and she's not happy with it. I can tell that she's now self-conscious about it. Like many of us, it snuck up on her. It's all good when you're wearing PJs every day, but when you try to wear real clothes and they don't fit, it's a shocker. She brought it to me first. I told her I was concerned because it wasn't healthy to gain that much, that fast. She said - you think I'm fat! (Remember she's a teenager.) I told her I absolutely didn't think she was fat, BUT it's not healthy and she's not happy. She's really lost her stamina and endurance. My husband, who is 6'7" so 300 lbs for him is way different than 300lbs for me, was an athlete and is of the mindset that we tell her she needs to lose weight - and no... I stopped that cold - but he has that athlete mentality that if a coach said he was bad at free-throws, he would have practiced them until he was better. <eyeroll> I told him that she's not an athlete and she's a girl so telling she's overweight is NOT the route we're going. If we tell her she's fat then this will be her mental talk - Well, I'm fat so I better just go along with what my friend wants because I'm fat and no one will like me. Well, I don't want to have sex, but I better because he's showing an interest, and I'm fat so this is my only chance for love. Well, he's abusive, but I'm fat so I don't have any other options. - He looked at me like I was nuts, but I told him this is how many girls think. I'm trying to talk to her about it without being a nag or a dictator. When she's asked for help, I've made some suggestions like slowing down when she eats, taking smaller bites, cutting back on some of the sweets. I told her that I would help with things that I'm learning through this process, but that she has to WANT the help. It's hard because I can see that right now she's going down the path to end up where I've spent the last 3 decades, but I'm also trying to not make her worth about her weight. I could become the crazy food police, but that's not how I want our relationship to become. Weight can be lost, but if I make her not even want to be around me or her family, then I've completely lost her in other ways.
I'm sorry your family made you feel like that, but I hope you don't "cut off your nose to spite your face" as my GiGi would have said. If you're to a point where you need it, this surgery is for YOU. In the end, if your health deteriorates or you don't get to enjoy things, you are going to pay that price. If they gloat or whatever, they'll gloat. I can't relate exactly because I didn't get that growing up so I don't mean to sound flippant and if you don't already have a therapist, I'd recommend you try one. My mom married someone just to get away from her mother and her nagging. I moved out at 15 and she spent 8 yrs in an abusive marriage because she didn't want to be "wrong" and have my grandmother "tell her so." Don't let them and their pettiness drive your decisions any longer. You do you.

Goaaaaaal!
I set out last July to lose 100 lbs. and I picked a random date at the end of May to get there. Today, May 25th, I'm down 100 lbs. and am lighter than I have been since college (30+ years ago).

My mother was always a Yo-Yo dieter and still is at 74. Sometimes it was 25-30 lbs. and others 80-100 lbs.
I was chubby as a kid and my mom was always trying to put me on a diet. I remember she made me make a chart in a notebook to track my calories when I was only 12 yrs. old. She would look it over every day to make sure I was doing it correctly. I was sneaking Snacks at school, and after school I would go to the convenience store which was the bus stop for snacks like chips, Cookies, and candy bars. Oh how I loved junk food.
She couldn't understand why I wasn't losing weight, instead gaining. I had to weigh in once a week and write it in the notebook. If I didn't lose that week, she would ground me. For punishment she would make me exercise. Then she would take away food from my meals, making me eat fewer calories.
My sister who was skinny would call me fatso, and other not so nice names, and my mom wouldn't do anything about it. My grandfather (mothers father) was relentless and always talked about my weight my entire life. He would always say that it "looked like I put on a few pounds". He did the same to my mom. He finally stopped doing it when I was in my 30's and confronted him about it. I told him that I didn't want to hear his comments about my weight and it was none of his business. He apologized and told me he didn't realize it bothered me so much and he was only joking. Yeah OK.
I was also made fun of in school and high school and was not one of the popular girls because of my weight issues. I struggled very hard with this. I didn't have a boyfriend like the other girls because I was too fat. The kids would put "kick me" signs on my back and as I walked down the hallway between classes I would get kicked and if I fell down they would all laugh at me as I tried to pick up my books. It was traumatizing. When I would go home crying to my mom, she would tell me that I have to lose weight if I wanted to "fit in".
I could go on and on about my not so nice childhood with weight issues. I will stop here because it is getting too emotional for me. I am 51 yrs. old and still have flashbacks of my younger days. It is very depressing.
All I can say is that it sucks to grow up thinking that I was never good enough. It has followed me into my adult life. I am working on it along with other stuff. Even though I have lost weight. I still can hear the rude comments in my head. I don't think it will ever go away.

My childhood experience was similar. My Dad despised fat people and was very vocal about it. He made a kind of "mental exception" for me because he loved me, but of course, I applied every disdainful thing he said about fat people to myself. My mom was thin and obsessed about staying that way. She was always suggesting diets or strategies for me to lose weight. It was very hard growing up in that household and retaining any kind of self-esteem or confidence. I think my shopping habit dates back to my upbringing - my parents loved to dress really nicely but because I was big, I was always kind of dumpy by comparison. My parents were not bad people, but they were flawed, broken human beings. In my Dad's case, his mother was physically abusive and she was heavy-set. I'm guessing his disdain of fat people started right then. My Mom's mother abandoned her and SHE was heavy-set. So as I got older and understood some of the roots of their attitudes, I forgave them and healed somewhat from all the childhood trauma. Ironically, they both passed away before my surgery, so they never saw me thin. They'd be ecstatic, LOL.