Smanky

I'm not talking natural sugars that occur in fruit etc. I'm talking processed. Totally understand what you're saying about sugar's role in a balanced diet, but for me, with my ADHD and tendency to get fixated and addicted fast - avoiding processed sugar is my fix for my situation.
As always with all things, YMMV.

I went away for a long time, got diagnosed with ADHD (suddenly my life makes so much sense...), and over the last five months I began to lose my grip on my diet and regain. My lowest was 65kg, my "happy place" was 67kg, and I regained back into the 70s at 73kg. The culprit? I allowed sugar back into my life. Never let sugar back in! It has no manners, touches your stuff and doesn't want to leave. Problem is, thanks in great part to my ADHD, I get addicted easily and tend to eat the same thing every day. When that thing is chocolate, I have a problem. I also have impulse control problems and when the food noise is raging, that's bad news.
Solution: GLP1s or Contrave. I have a great GP who understands me and didn't reject my request for help to get back to my "happy place" 67kg. We decided against GLP1s and went with Contave instead, which works on countering addiction. The food noise that was driving me crazy has stopped, I quit sugar week 1 and am back in control. I'm nearing the end of month 2 (of 4) and am just over 1kg away from being back to where I need to be. I've stopped being hard on myself for needing help, because even if I could control my impulses there's nothing wrong with medication that's designed to help.
Oh and the other thing that's been a game-changer for me: my partner got me a Fitbit. I realise I'm so behind on this it's like screaming "cars have computers?!?!" at a dealership, but being able to track my calories and see the deficit has made a huge difference.
So if you're neurodivergent and regaining, hopefully my experience with Contrave can help a little.

I went away for a long time, got diagnosed with ADHD (suddenly my life makes so much sense...), and over the last five months I began to lose my grip on my diet and regain. My lowest was 65kg, my "happy place" was 67kg, and I regained back into the 70s at 73kg. The culprit? I allowed sugar back into my life. Never let sugar back in! It has no manners, touches your stuff and doesn't want to leave. Problem is, thanks in great part to my ADHD, I get addicted easily and tend to eat the same thing every day. When that thing is chocolate, I have a problem. I also have impulse control problems and when the food noise is raging, that's bad news.
Solution: GLP1s or Contrave. I have a great GP who understands me and didn't reject my request for help to get back to my "happy place" 67kg. We decided against GLP1s and went with Contave instead, which works on countering addiction. The food noise that was driving me crazy has stopped, I quit sugar week 1 and am back in control. I'm nearing the end of month 2 (of 4) and am just over 1kg away from being back to where I need to be. I've stopped being hard on myself for needing help, because even if I could control my impulses there's nothing wrong with medication that's designed to help.
Oh and the other thing that's been a game-changer for me: my partner got me a Fitbit. I realise I'm so behind on this it's like screaming "cars have computers?!?!" at a dealership, but being able to track my calories and see the deficit has made a huge difference.
So if you're neurodivergent and regaining, hopefully my experience with Contrave can help a little.

I went away for a long time, got diagnosed with ADHD (suddenly my life makes so much sense...), and over the last five months I began to lose my grip on my diet and regain. My lowest was 65kg, my "happy place" was 67kg, and I regained back into the 70s at 73kg. The culprit? I allowed sugar back into my life. Never let sugar back in! It has no manners, touches your stuff and doesn't want to leave. Problem is, thanks in great part to my ADHD, I get addicted easily and tend to eat the same thing every day. When that thing is chocolate, I have a problem. I also have impulse control problems and when the food noise is raging, that's bad news.
Solution: GLP1s or Contrave. I have a great GP who understands me and didn't reject my request for help to get back to my "happy place" 67kg. We decided against GLP1s and went with Contave instead, which works on countering addiction. The food noise that was driving me crazy has stopped, I quit sugar week 1 and am back in control. I'm nearing the end of month 2 (of 4) and am just over 1kg away from being back to where I need to be. I've stopped being hard on myself for needing help, because even if I could control my impulses there's nothing wrong with medication that's designed to help.
Oh and the other thing that's been a game-changer for me: my partner got me a Fitbit. I realise I'm so behind on this it's like screaming "cars have computers?!?!" at a dealership, but being able to track my calories and see the deficit has made a huge difference.
So if you're neurodivergent and regaining, hopefully my experience with Contrave can help a little.

I went away for a long time, got diagnosed with ADHD (suddenly my life makes so much sense...), and over the last five months I began to lose my grip on my diet and regain. My lowest was 65kg, my "happy place" was 67kg, and I regained back into the 70s at 73kg. The culprit? I allowed sugar back into my life. Never let sugar back in! It has no manners, touches your stuff and doesn't want to leave. Problem is, thanks in great part to my ADHD, I get addicted easily and tend to eat the same thing every day. When that thing is chocolate, I have a problem. I also have impulse control problems and when the food noise is raging, that's bad news.
Solution: GLP1s or Contrave. I have a great GP who understands me and didn't reject my request for help to get back to my "happy place" 67kg. We decided against GLP1s and went with Contave instead, which works on countering addiction. The food noise that was driving me crazy has stopped, I quit sugar week 1 and am back in control. I'm nearing the end of month 2 (of 4) and am just over 1kg away from being back to where I need to be. I've stopped being hard on myself for needing help, because even if I could control my impulses there's nothing wrong with medication that's designed to help.
Oh and the other thing that's been a game-changer for me: my partner got me a Fitbit. I realise I'm so behind on this it's like screaming "cars have computers?!?!" at a dealership, but being able to track my calories and see the deficit has made a huge difference.
So if you're neurodivergent and regaining, hopefully my experience with Contrave can help a little.

Bypassed at 51. Wish I'd done it a decade ago!

I know, it's a wild mystery, isn't it? And these are all excellent questions. Leave a bowl of milk outside your bedroom door each night as pixie payment. But beware if you forget! They'll prank you in the night by removing fat but stuffing it back into weird places so you wake up with super-fat ears you cannot hide under any hat. Noooooo! The naysayers were right, I should never have done thiiiiiiiis!

Re: losing teeth and TikTok. It's TikTok. Who's saying this? First hand post WLS patients with first-hand knowledge, or the Body Positivity/Fat Liberation/HAES crowd who have a vested interest in putting others off weightloss? I've never heard of the teeth thing. It sounds very much like scare-mongering BS to me, and that it's coming from TikTok raises one mighty red flag. You'll likely have some temporary Hair loss, but losing teeth? Never heard of such a thing in terms of a WLS side effect.
Re: the easy way out. People again often have an ulterior motive, or are projecting their own issues when they double down on the whole "easy way out" myth. I have never dieted harder and changed my lifestyle more diligently than I have after WLS. WE do the hard work counting calories and watching macros and exercising. The surgery simply makes it next to impossible to fall off the wagon. Do people who insist it's the easy way imagine it's ... what? Like the tooth fairy? Fat is taken away by the blessed pixies every night as we still eat whatever we like? It's ignorance, or in the case of people who want to argue and not accept the truth: willful stupidity. And they're not people worth having around.
Some people also just project their own insecurities and that will manifest as a nasty little emotion called envy. You'll find these people in both the above camps.

That lady is still in a process, and so long as her doctor and team are on-board and guiding her, good for her. Someone else's happiness is no-one else's business.
Consider how many people thought our obese bodies were disgusting and they'd "rather die" than look like us. Thinking the same of a skinny person is the exact same energy. Glad you're finding your happy place weight wise, but no need to be judging others on the way. We've all had our fill of that, surely?

Bypassed at 51. Wish I'd done it a decade ago!

While I wouldn't call it "weird", as this topic asks (and I can't find a regular-NSV thread):
My rosacea has gone! It literally vanished about six days out of hospital, and hasn't come back. My skin hasn't been this clear in a LONG time, and I can't recall the last time my face was the same colour as my neck.
Was not expecting this bonus, as I have reactive skin, but I am thrilled.

It was totally meant to be funny - I can't help myself, even when I'm attempting a serious point! Maybe "obesey" will catch on.
And I love "morbidly luscious". I think that needs to be adopted immediately.

^This. All this. Especially the bolded.
I get that confronting your own weight isn't nice, I get it. It's not nice to hear you're obese. But certain people on social media trying to insist it's a "slur" just makes me livid. I have NEVER had people yell "Eat a salad OBESEY!" or yell "OBESE!!!" at me from a passing car. It's a medical term. What hand-holding gently-gently kid gloves term is permissible now that everyone's offended by everything?
Had to rant. It really really gets on my wick.

100% the word "pouch". It's up there with "moist" for me.
I won't use it. "Smaller stomach" or just plain old "stomach" work fine for me, since I still actually have one despite it's reduced size.
Everything else I'm completely neutral on.

I have a philtrum piercing, and did have a labret, but when I took it out for a medical procedure, it closed over so quick I decided that after ten years I was ok not getting it re-pierced. Love my philtrum piercing, though.
Piercings are great, tattoos are great, I'm pro-body mods. Don't care what anyone else thinks, and don't care what someone else chooses to do so long as they're happy.
Nose piercings are a great choice - they're pretty low on the pain, look fantastic, and don't close over as fast as mouth piercings do if you need to take it out for any reason! My recommendation is go to a dedicated body piercing place, do not let anyone near you with a piercing gun, those things are horrible and don't pierce clean. Surgical steel is the standard, and your piercer will be able to recommend the right jewelry. Once it's healed, you can swap the jewelry out whenever you feel like a change.

I had raging GERD pre-surgery, and while the GERD has pretty much gone post-op, I'm so prone to developing ulcers that I'm still on 40mg of Pantoprazole almost two years out. The plan was for me to wean off Pantoprazole, but when I do, I get a fresh ulcer. I have a pooling of bile in the bottom of what's left of my stomach, which I suspect is at least contributing to it (and I still get "gallstone attacks" despite no longer having a gallbladder). Unfortunately, it's not a sure thing that a bypass will cure GERD, which sucks.
100% feel for you. It's just relentless complications. Hope your surgeon has some idea.

Neither of those drugs is going to "end obesity" when obesity can be a symptom of poor economic status and they cost almost $2000 a month in some cases. Maybe ending obesity for the wealthy but for the average person you see in Walmart? No.

Thank you kindly for all the information and your openness. I’ve re-read your posts several times over the past few weeks, as it’s such an important decision to make, and am scheduled for a MGB on February 24th. Ready for a new start!

I will never understand this bizarre notion people seem to have that an "easy way out" for weight loss is a bad thing even if it did exist. Like... why does it need to be a struggle to be ok? Do we need weight loss to be some epic f***ing crawl across a flaming desert of despair to be acceptable to people who aren't involved? Does my head in.
Makes me inclined to answer "my own hard work" when asked how I lost so much weight. It's not anyone's business anyway.
Also: you look AMAZING! Seriously. And that top you're wearing is gorgeous on you!

Genuine first weird NSV:
Walking outside and experiencing that magical sensation of my undies slowly falling down inside my jeans, which are also slowly falling down. Holding my jeans up by the pockets on my way home, with my undies trying their best to be budget thigh-garters.
Sexy!

I'm super fortunate that my partner has always been a gem. He never made me feel bad when I was morbidly obese - that was all me hating myself. He was initially against my WLS until I had a meltdown and told him the bald truth about how miserable I was. He didn't know because I don't like talking about my feelings and tend to hide it as best I can. His misgivings about the surgery were all safety related.
Post surgery, we've just gotten better, not because I'm small now (though he's enjoying the novelty of new little-me!), but because I'm HAPPY. I'm happy and I've got my mojo back, and I'm lot more fun to be around. We've been together since 1989, and my change in mental health has recharged us both.

I will never understand this bizarre notion people seem to have that an "easy way out" for weight loss is a bad thing even if it did exist. Like... why does it need to be a struggle to be ok? Do we need weight loss to be some epic f***ing crawl across a flaming desert of despair to be acceptable to people who aren't involved? Does my head in.
Makes me inclined to answer "my own hard work" when asked how I lost so much weight. It's not anyone's business anyway.
Also: you look AMAZING! Seriously. And that top you're wearing is gorgeous on you!

Genuine first weird NSV:
Walking outside and experiencing that magical sensation of my undies slowly falling down inside my jeans, which are also slowly falling down. Holding my jeans up by the pockets on my way home, with my undies trying their best to be budget thigh-garters.
Sexy!

Gold and silver are softer and therefore more porous on a microscopic level, and can "pit", meaning bacteria or other irritants can cling to them. They can also flake off into the open wound, and are more reactive with body fluids. They're generally fine for a healed piercing (which can take a few weeks to several months depending on what kind of piercing it is), but because they're not as hard and non-reactive as something like surgical steel or titanium.
I worked, unfortunately, at a Claire's in a mall for several years when I was in college, and I know that stores like that push gold as being "safer" when really it is "more profitable". I had nothing but problems with piercings done in gold with a piercing gun. I have since gotten SEVERAL more piercings done with a single-use hollow needle at a piercing parlor, and have had none of the same issues.
The right establishment should almost feel like a medical office.

I have a philtrum piercing, and did have a labret, but when I took it out for a medical procedure, it closed over so quick I decided that after ten years I was ok not getting it re-pierced. Love my philtrum piercing, though.
Piercings are great, tattoos are great, I'm pro-body mods. Don't care what anyone else thinks, and don't care what someone else chooses to do so long as they're happy.
Nose piercings are a great choice - they're pretty low on the pain, look fantastic, and don't close over as fast as mouth piercings do if you need to take it out for any reason! My recommendation is go to a dedicated body piercing place, do not let anyone near you with a piercing gun, those things are horrible and don't pierce clean. Surgical steel is the standard, and your piercer will be able to recommend the right jewelry. Once it's healed, you can swap the jewelry out whenever you feel like a change.