BlackBerryJuice

You are in your 40s????!!!! Dayum! I always thought you were in your late 20s, MAYBE like 30-31 at the most. Anyway, I still have cellulite even though I work out hard and am at a healthy weight. I'm sure if my bodyfat was like 10%, it'd go away, but when I look at every single woman in my family and see thighs that look like an old mattress, I admit defeat against genetics.

I was about the same weight and close to your BMI when I had my VSG. I didn't see the point in waiting until I got fatter - it'd just put me at risk of developing health complications and would result in more loose skin after VSG. I knew I was only going to get bigger, not smaller, if left to my own devices, so I figured, I was by no means "too small" for WLS. I have a small amount of loose skin, but it's pretty inconsequential. You have to make peace with the idea that you will NOT look like an 18-year-old cross-country athlete who's never had an ounce of fat on her body, but you will look a zillion times better than you do now. The only area where my loose skin is in any way noticeable is on my inner thighs - where I carried most of my weight. If I run, you can see the "waves" of skin going up and down my thighs, but otherwise, it's not very obvious. I just avoid running in very short shorts, haha.

1.5 years out, have been around the same weight for a year now. Like LilMissDiva mentioned above, you'll have your "bad" days occasionally, and the possibility of regaining 2-3 lbs is always there, but it's easy to stop. I can't vouch for what things will be like 3.5 years down the road, but just taking things a year at a time, I don't see myself gaining any significant weight a year from now. To gain weight with the sleeve, you really have to eat a LOT of junk food - you won't be able to consume large enough amounts of normal foods to cause weight gain. I've had a few periods of 2-3 days of non-stop chocolate consumption, but I don't find it too hard to get back on the wagon. I always make sure I hit the gym hard at least twice a week no matter how busy I am, even during weeks when I work 80 hours. Most weeks I work out 3-4 times/week. If I notice I've put on a pound or two, I just rein myself in a bit - I go back to drinking water with my meals instead of alcohol when I go out, get a medium latte instead of a large in the morning, etc. All those "sensible choices" that women's magazines always harp on about are an awful lot easier to make once you've had the sleeve.

I used to give blood pre-surgery, but haven't since, even though my weight's been stable for a year and I feel healthy. I can't load up on red meat like I could in the past, so while my blood counts are fine, I just don't really want to risk having them drop post-donation and then having difficulty bringing them back up.

Anyone been on Wellbutrin before? My doc suggested it as a potential treatment for my non-existent sex drive, and some superficial internet research resulted in lots of positive opinions on this drug - including for weightloss - so I'm thinking of trying it. Does anyone have any personal experiences? Curious as to the effects it had on your sex drive, sleeping, appetite, and general well-being. Just wondering what to expect - the only "brain drug" I've been on to date was Prozac. Well, the only legal brain drug....

That's cuz they are hungry and we are (generally) not!

I first started seriously considering it in May 2010. By mid-June, I had booked my surgery for an August date.

I still have the same basic body shape after losing all the weight. I've always had heavy thighs and needed to take in pants in the waist, and it's remained the same.

People totally treat you differently when you are not obese! I honestly can't recall the last time someone was rude or mean to me since I've lost weight. When I was obese, it happened more often than I care to remember.

No one's ever said anything like that to me, thankfully. Actually, I think there's a proper term for that - "concern trolling." People who are really bitter and jealous and try to express that in passive-aggressive ways. The funniest thing I've heard lately about my weight was when I mentioned having eaten a whole bunch of Cookies at work....one of the older nurses said, "But you are such a skinny little thing, that sure doesn't show!" If only she knew!

Wow, awesome! I've already tossed all of my really big clothes, I don't think there's a single clothing item bigger than a size 8 left in my closet. Otherwise I would've loved to try this!

So true. I could've gotten this surgery here in town for appx. 2.5x the price, but the Dr. would've only done about 2 dozen VSGs. And then I'd probably end up having a resident do the actual operation, anyway, with the surgeon just standing by. And don't forget that part of the reason that Dr. Aceves (and other Drs in Mexico) are cheaper is because their overhead is way lower - they pay less in malpractice insurance, rent, OR fees, and staff salaries, so part of the savings are passed on to you, the patient.

I'm 14 months out and maintaining my weight. Today, I had: 1 thick slice of banana chocolate chip bread 1 grande Starbucks coffee with half-and-half and splenda 1 Protein shake Cappuccino and 2 cornmeal pancakes with shredded pork (about 3 inches in diameter each) about 3/4 cup mac'n'cheese half an order of banana cream pie (about 3/4 cup) 1 bottle beer coconut rice (~1/2 cup) and mixed vegetable/mushroom stir-fry in oyster 'shroom sauce (~3/4 cup) 1 glass of mixed veggie/fruit juice I don't know if I'm gonna eat anything else today as it's getting late, but if I do, I'll have an apple

Haha, priceless!

I remember that after 5 months or so my weightloss slowed down so much that I honestly thought it was done - I was about 155 lbs, so all in all it wouldn't be too disappointing if that was it, but I still wanted to lose a few lbs. But I realized that if I stayed away from the scale for a while, I'd actually notice the pounds lost. I continued to lose slowly, about 3-5 lbs a month for a few months after, even though at the time I felt like I was done losing. Even in the last few months, I've lost no weight, but my clothes fit looser - must be my skin tightening up. Also, I think this would be a good time to amp up your workouts. Pilates is alright, but it's hardly the best for weightloss/firming up. You are not getting much more than you would out of a half-hour stroll. I'd take up weightlifting, running, or bootcamp-style workouts if you want to see quick results.

I've been going to CrossFit 1-3x/week for about 2 months now - usually twice a week. I got passes for 20 classes to 2 different studios through Groupon, I'm nearing the end of my classes with the first studio. I like it a lot, I enjoy intense workouts that are more about short bursts of energy rather than endurance (e.g. running). I think I'll keep it up after my Groupon discount passes are over. It's pretty brutal though, I always go to the Saturday morning class and then I'm basically a vegetable for the rest of the day. Today my boyfriend commented that my arms hang half-bent in front of my body - took me a second to realize I have to forcibly straighten my arms thanks to the 200 ring rows I did earlier this morning.

Same here.

LOL, that's gotta be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. How about, "Just pretend you had a quadruple bypass and you'll snap right out of that heart failure"?

So I didn't go to my ballet class for about a month because I was sick and then super-busy with school. I walk in today wearing a leotard and leggings - probably my most form-fitting outfit for class to date. There's like 20 other people there and my teacher is like "BBJ! We haven't seen you here in a while!" I'm like, "Yeah, sorry, I was sick and then busy with stuff." She's like, "SO WHAT DID YOU DO TO LOSE ALL THIS WEIGHT!?" And then EVERYONE stared at me, waiting for my answer. It made me feel so uncomfortable! My teacher is very nice and she totally meant it well, she wasn't calling me out, but it was such an awkward situation for me! I almost blurted out that I had WLS, then I thought better of it (I have to conceal it from people at school for various reasons), so I just said I'm eating less. *everyone still staring* Which is true, I suppose! But then she started asking me if my portions are smaller or if I'm eating less junk, or if I'm also exercising more... *everyone still staring* Then she's like, "I just can't believe how much you've changed! When I think back to how you looked in September compared to now, I'm just blown away!" *EVERYONE STILL STARING* *worst 5 minutes of the entire week*

OK, so I've heard a few times that health professionals should use discretion when bringing up their own health issues with patients, because you don't want to overstep professional boundaries by oversharing personal details or making it look as if you think you understand your patients better than you really do.....but today I just couldn't help but share my VSG experience with a patient I saw for some other issues. I left it up to her to bring up her weight, so when she did, I took advantage of the opportunity and discussed her weightloss efforts in more detail. There was a long history of failure and frustration in that regard. After talking about non-surgical interventions, I asked her for her opinion on WLS and she said she's researched it and felt hesitant about it for a number of reasons, but it was obvious that she was quite open-minded and would probably benefit from seeing others who've had WLS and have been successful. I was a bit iffy about it, but as she was young, and yet severely obese and really overwhelmed and frustrated with her many health problems, I opened up to her about my VSG experience and told her that this is something she may want to consider in the future. Thankfully, she seemed to take kindly to my sharing my WLS story and I really hope that maybe in a year or two I'll run into her again and she will have taken advantage of VSG and improved her health. My supervisor came in to see her after and she brought it up with my supervisor, as well; luckily, my supervisor said she's in support of WLS for patients like her and it seemed to alleviate some of her concerns now that she had another person tell her something positive about WLS. Hesitant as I was to share it, I felt very emotional telling her about it and, embarrassingly enough, even cried a bit because I felt so empathetic towards her struggles, but it felt quite cathartic to use my experience to potentially improve someone's health and quality of life. But then I wonder if I should keep it a one-time event. How do you think you'd have felt a year or two ago if your doctor or some other healthcare provider shared this with you?

Wow!!!!! If you have yet to be sleeved and are reading this.....take as many pix at your before weight as possible, trust me, it feels awesome to compare your end results to where you were before the surgery!

I'm glad to hear that most people feel they'd be encouraged by that information, as long as it was presented in a non-pushy manner. I did get a PM from a person who felt that it was not the best idea, but I expected that there'd be some difference of opinion on this matter, and to be honest, I actually expected more negative opinions. I definitely made a point of reiterating several times that while I made the choice to go to Mexico, she should really pursue an organized program with lots of evaluations and support before she'd move on to any sort of WLS (which she's joining soon). I mostly felt compelled to share because she said her main reason for being iffy about WLS was that when she did some research online, she saw the long list of "forbidden foods" and the liquid post-op diet and thought she'd be deprived and starving for the rest of her life. I told her that she'd likely have less hunger and she'd be able to reintroduce small amounts of her favorite foods later on without causing herself much grief, and that seemed to help assuage some of these fears.

Awesome! I have a similar situation with my hospital ID - my "before" from 2 years ago looks about 20 years older and nothing like my current pic.