:thumbup1: Hiya,

Well, 6 months after my surgery, I am 111 lbs down from pre-op. My labs are good. Cholesterol is at 157 which I think is good and maybe someone could tell me if it is a decent number.

I have struggled a lot with head hunger and the need to comfort eat. Luckily, I found a great therapist and am attending OA as well.

I would do the surgery again in a heartbeat but I really must stress the need to be psychologically prepared for the major, huge changes to your way of eating. Lord knows I am over the moon about my weight loss and how great I feel physically but I have also cried many times because I can no longer comfort eat and binge.

My surgeon has given me a goal of 60 more lbs over the next 6 months. Wish me luck.

Thanks all for your support.

Pen

157 for total cholesterol is great...do you know your other numbers? HDL (good cholesterol)? and your LDL (bad cholesterol)?

111 lbs is awesome....congratulations!

and you're absolutely correct about being psychologically prepared...it's truly the most important part.

It's better to cry when you're upset than to self-destruct with enormous amounts of food! At least with crying, you are not going to have a heart attack, diabetes, bad knees, and a shorter life expectancy!

Hopefully your therapist can help you come up with other ways to deal with your feelings. I'm on day 11 and haven't missed food or had the urge to binge so far - I've only experienced serious hunger once, and I believe it was primarily physical hunger, as I didn't feel upset and there was no bad news or conflict preceding my feelings of hunger. My therapist suggested I read "Overcoming Binge Eating" by Christopher Fairburn - I guess it's the gold standard for self-help books for binge eaters AND basic information for therapists. Am reading it now - so far I'm still in the "what is binge eating" and "who binge eats and why" phases, but I'm looking forward to the next part, which suggests techniques to address binge eating.

OA didn't help me much - I've considered them before and as an atheist, felt that a program that required me to acknowledge some sort of higher being was not the right choice for me. Moreover, I disagree with their approach of NEVER eating the trigger foods again. I want to be able to have 2 pieces of chocolate and STOP, like a normal person, which is one of the reasons I got the sleeve.

Hi Pen this all sounds awsome. I have booken a NHS blood test for a weeks time and as I have spent the last year eating 2 eggs a day it will be interesteing to see my cholesterol scores.

Maybe we should run a sweep?

Dunno when I will get the results but will update as and when.

Jane x

Hi Blackberryjuice, you are right. After this surgery I reaslied how physical the thing is. It's not just in our heads.

Jane x

You are doing so well! I agree, there is a lot that needs to be addressed mentally. I feel really fortunate that I was working with a therapist on my emotional eating issues for a good 6 months before I had surgery. It really helped me get through a lot of the hard stuff before making this big change... so in a way it helped me not to feel like I had to change EVERYTHING all at once! I still find myself "wanting" to eat when I am bored, but I usually don't because I realize I'm really not hungry. That in itself is a huge accomplishment that surgery has really helped me with! Love the sleeve!

Congrats on your success so far! 111 is amazing!

The mental has definitely been the hardest. I knew that I liked food but didn't realize (or more likely admit) how addicted I was to food.

Day to day now is fine - I mainly do Protein shakes (costco Premier chocolate, 160 calories, 30 protein) and one meal a day. Hmmmm - does 2-3 ounces of protein really count as a meal??? lol

We are saving lots of money by not eating out. Its just not worth it to me unless it is more of a group event and talking is more of a focus than eating : )

Good luck with your next 60 pounds! You are doing great!

Congrats on the loss and thank you for sharing.

Are there any specific things that you could share with us about your journey and how you think u lost so much so quickly.

Any specific routines? Tricks you have used?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :-)

Keep up the good work!!

Congratulations! You are doing great!!! Thanks for sharing your story.

Yayy for you! Keep up the good work! You will be at your goal in no time :-)

Pennie...I'm so happy for you. I know from your past posts that you have had some ups and downs. Don't we all ?? !! lol

But you met your 6 month goal!!! YOU ARE ON YOUR WAY GIRL !!!

By next February, you will look at your old pictures and wonder who the heck is that in that picture. BTW, have you checked out your picture on Dr. C's medical records yet? I just had my labs and asked him for a copy, I didn't recognize the picture in the upper right hand corner. It was ME 4 months ago. lol Bet your picture needs some updating too...

Hi All,

Thanks y'all for all your great responses! I think getting your protein, water and exercise in is the key to good weight loss. Of course, starting off as a heavyweight meant I lost faster.

The emotional part has been so difficult. I mean I didn't get to 350 pounds without major food issues. It's all about getting to the other side where losing weight, feeling fitter and eating sanely is the norm and the way you want it.

Thanks all!!

Pen:thumbup:

I am so happy for you. I am wondering if the sleeve is more successful long term b/c it won't allow us to overeat and thus we must address these emotional obstacles. I heard a talk show this morning downing the gastric bypass b/c they were saying most people gain back a significant portion of their weight and/or develop other health problems and addictions. They had some long term data, and I was wondering what the long term data will be on us. I think since we can't physically overeat if we'll be so much better....I sure hope so!! I wanted to call in, but I could tell it was a rebroadcast....I was hoping someone would mention the sleeve, but they did not.

You are doing great.

Pumpkin, I wish the media would mention the Sleeve more often too. It is still not in the cultural lexicon the way the gastric bypass is. I think that time will fix that as more people get it done. Certainly, by then we will have more info on the long term.

BTW, another cool NSV: I just looked down and noticed that my legs were crossed naturally by themselves. Way cool!

Pen