Ten months out, I'm down from BMI 36 to BMI 22.7 and I can safely say the surgery has been a complete success. Sure, it was difficult in the beginning, but once I learned how to eat (at the moment, I can eat anything, as long as I chew well and eat slowly) I can honestly say that in the past 3-4 months I haven't felt sick because of what/how I ate even once. You do learn, and it feels great!

The thing I've noticed recently as I'm working on stopping losing weight and maintaining is that nowadays, food bores me a little. What a change from the former me, whose life largely revolved around food! Now I feel like I have a completely healthy and normal relationship with food: I still like the taste of it, even though I very rarely get hungry at all, and I enjoy everything much more now I can only eat a little of it. But most of all, I absolutely LOVE the fact that now, when I look at the time and know I should eat something, I sometimes feel bored by the thought of food. It's a complete joy to feel this way instead...

Now I'm just having to retrain me when food shopping: instead of buying ALL low calorie food I have to start getting the normal ones so I'll be able to get enough calories to maintain. So now I've stocked up on normal fat and sugar fruit yoghurt (instead of zero fat and artificial sweetener one), lots of dried fruits, nuts (love cashews and pistachios and they really help me get the calories I need), even bought mayonnaise (light version, okay, but still!) and toast (bread I tend to avoid but one slice of toast is fine if I take about fifteen minutes to get it down and hey, you have to have somewhere to put the mayo, Swiss cheese and cold smoked reindeer...)

This sounds like such an ego maniac's post but I just thought I'd share the good news with you as you understand what it's like! And to those who are just out and still struggling with head hunger and learning to eat slow and small: It really gets easier as you form new habits. It really is possible to lose all that weight. And if you're still considering whether to have surgery, I'd say go for it. It's the best thing I've done in my life! :thumbup1:

That's wonderful news...how many calories are you having to eat now to maintain?

Congratulations on your fabulous success! I am still learning how to eat slowly enough, so I'm glad to hear that it does get easier.

This type of post gives me hope and happiness... im glad to hear of your success and the way you feel towards food now is a dream for me now.. but a reality after Oct 1!!!!

I hope I feel like you do in at 10 months. Right now I feel like I should have never had this surgery and I'm full of regret and have been for the past 2-3 days.

That's wonderful news...how many calories are you having to eat now to maintain?

I have to admit I've stopped counting calories: this is a new thing, just into it about 2 weeks or so. I just eat a bit more and weigh myself every 2-3 days or so to see that I'm neither losing nor gaining. So far I've lost a couple of pounds still because I've been moving a lot, so I'm still fine tuning this.

I'm still about 4 pounds from my goal weight (though I am perfectly happy as I am now!) and thought I'd try to see how maintaining succeeds: it's really not that easy to always get about 1600-1800 calories in, which I guess would be about what I need to maintain. I'm actually more concerned about continuing to lose weight than to start to gain weight, which feels completely funny to me! But that's why I started to stop losing a bit earlier than my goal weight, just in case it turns out more difficult than I thought to stabilise.

And Carrie: less than a week out of surgery I had some regrets, too: I've never been so weak in my life! But it did get better very fast. Hope everything goes well for you, too.

Edited September 1, 201015 yr by Jolanda

Congratulations, what freedom to be free from hunger! I am 4 days post op on the gastric sleeve. I'm so hungry right now, the only thing I want to know is "what happens when you over eat?"

pam

Edited September 4, 201015 yr by redheadedpamela
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What a success story!! You have truly inspired me!! I'm going to have WLS, just trying to decide between GSV and GSP?? Not sure just yet?? Also, I've not made a final decision with which Dr. Thanks for posting and sharing your progress!! Please keep posting:) I am open to advise;)

Pamela: when you overeat with the sleeve - or when I do, which has been very rarely, but sometimes in the beginning it happened - you feel totally sick. In the beginning, you may also get what people here call "sliming" - basically the food comes up again, it's not like vomiting, but pretty disgusting nonetheless. I only had that very occasionally when I was 2-3 months out. It's preventable if you eat little enough at a time, I think.

Iguidry, I think it would depend on the weight you need to lose. I had lost about half of my excess weight by myself in the years previous to my surgery, so the surgeon immediately suggested the sleeve, although he also does GBP. Now I'm more than happy with his decision: I love the fact that I can eat anything, a little of it, and don't get sick as the GBP patients seem to get from greasy food. Also I like the fact that my intestines are intact, except for the stomach itself: I think the risks are slightly lower with the sleeve. But if you are very obese, the GBP may be more efficcient.

That said, recuperating from a surgery as big as this and getting by on 6-800 calories a day for months on end is no walk in the park. You need to be prepared for that. But if I look at myself and my quality of life a year ago and now, it's so different I can't even begin to describe it. I feel much happier. Moving around is a joy, not a chore. I'm more outgoing and I think better company all in all.

Edited September 5, 201015 yr by Jolanda

This was a delight to read. It's easy to tell from all you said that you are very happy. Thank you so much.

food not only bores me, sometimes I have to force myself to eat. There are so many times, I just forget to eat dinner.

I eat Breakfast because I go to the gym, and I know I need to eat before working out. Going to the gym was a habit I started years before surgery.

When I get back from the gym, I eat because I know you're supposed to eat after working out.

The next thing I know, it's 8:30 pm and I think "oh no, I forgot to eat dinner again" It's weird. I really don't have an appetite a lot of the time. I live alone, so it's not like I fix dinner for a family.

I have bought so much food that ended up in the garbage that I have finally learned not to buy a lot of food.

Yes, I'm still working on the "don't buy a lot of food, it'll spoil" thing. Just looked in my fridge, and it's completely full! I throw away probably over half the food I buy - I either have to become unsingle or start having more people over...

Jolanda - thanks for your great post - its so weird to think I'll not have to buy the diet version of stuff...... I also get bored by food and find this a total reverse of where I was 6 mths ago.... my new life is totally different in a way but so much better.

Good luck

I am bookmarking this post because I think rereading it will help inspire me on those days where I think there is no end in sight, or that I will not learn the things I need to, or that I think I will never make it.

Thanks for posting, what you said was inspiring.

Thank you all soooo much! I really needed to read this today!!!! I am 6 days post op and feel sooo blah. I want to feel good again!!!! Thanks for all the inspiring words!