One Year, 92 pounds
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I can't image you look at bad as you say you look underneath your clothes. Your arms look fabulous, your face looks full and healthy, and thighs and stomach look great. I think we are our own worst cr
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I meant to post this on the 15th but I had trouble logging into the site that day (and several days after that) and I didn't think about it again until today. I blame my Kyrgyz dial up internet! In any case, I was one year on 15 July.
In that year I've lost 92 pounds. I've gone from a very snug 18 or 20 pant into a very comfortable size 8 or M. Women's sizing is insane, so sometimes I'm a 6 and sometimes I'm a 10, but regardless of the number on my pants I'm very happy with the way I look in my clothes now, and I have a large wardrobe of things I love to wear. Almost as exciting as losing the pounds is losing the diabetes. I had only been diagnosed 2 years before my surgery (I started as gestational diabetes) so I went into this fully expecting my blood sugars to be normal afterward and I wasn't disappointed. I'm still high-normal on my A1C, but that was six months ago...I haven't been tested since then. I hope to have a full lab panel done once we're settled here in our new home. I haven't taken a pill since the day before surgery (though I did require insulin several times 48 hours post op) and I've gotten so used to being normal that I don't even test my sugars any more.
I'm no role model, so newbies looking for advice should look to some of the more active posters here that stick to a program and actually exercise. I lived out suitcases in my in-law's house for the last nine months due to a PCS from hell, so my eating and exercise habits have been erratic. I've pretty much been living as if I'm in maintenance for the last six months. Don't get me wrong - I don't live on a junk food, carb crazy diet. But I eat more like a "normal" person. I'll have several days where I stick to Protein first and drink lots of Water, but then I'll also have days where I eat pretty much whatever I want (but in small portions). I have maintained a slow but steady loss the entire time I've been sleeved and I weigh every day. I'm always watching for my weight to bounce up, but it never does more than that one or two pounds of fluctuation I see daily. I'm between 149-151 and I expect to stay there for several weeks. My pattern has always been a sudden drop (lately around three to five pounds) followed by three weeks or so at the same weight. I can't tie my losses to my diet - and I don't consider myself "done" yet. I'm sure that over the next six months or so I'll continue to see a slow but steady loss.
Plastic surgery is in my future. I probably have more loose skin than most people that have lost less than 100 pounds since surgery. I had twins in 2007 and weighed 280ish after they were born. My skin has pretty much melted and I look a mess underneath my clothes. Thank heavens for the various brands of shapewear I've purchased. I wear them under everything. I plan to have plastics when we're back in the states in 2013, so my hope is that I'll get some exercise into my routine and see a little bounce back from my skin. I don't expect much, though. It's really bad.
Underneath all that excess skin (with the occasional stubborn fat deposit) is a genuinely thin woman. I'll be honest - I think my goal weight might be a little low. I went based on the BMI chart and chose the most I could weigh at my height and be "normal" on the chart. But underneath all this skin I am bones and I don't really know where the additional 15 pounds will come from - unless it's my upper arms and thighs. They don't seem to be as small as the rest of me yet! I'm worried that if I lose 15 more pounds and then have plastics, I'll look like a bony scarecrow.
My husband is happier that I'm happier but he's not so happy with my thinner body. He likes heavier women and was far happier with my body about 20 pounds ago. I'm sure he'll adjust in time, but it is a real obstacle for some couples. His opinion is that I should scrap the goal weight and focus on getting in shape for plastics and take whatever number I wind up with after plastics as my final weight. However, this is the man that thought I was sexy and attractive 37 weeks pregnant with twins, so I understand that he's trying to make sure I don't wind up with a figure he finds totally unattractive. I'm glad we had a solid marriage before surgery, or this might have caused some real issues for us.
My only "I wish I'd known that" issue with surgery is the lactose intolerance. I had no idea I would be so crippled by this - and now that I'm overseas I don't exactly have a local store with almond, coconut and soy milk around the corner. I can eat small portions of hard cheese but yogurt, cottage cheese, milk, ice cream, sour cream, cream cheese, most protein powders, etc. are all completely out for me. It's very limiting but I'm surviving. Luckily I'm living in the land of grilled meat, grilled vegetables and flatbread so it's less of an issue here.
And as a note for those military spouses - consider that your VSG might make you EFMP for an overseas tour. I did not disclose mine to the doctor that cleared us to live overseas, and due to the typical shoddy Tricare record-keeping nobody realized I'd had it done. But I was specifically asked if I had a band or bypass, and I was able to honestly answer no to that. Tricare finds the oddest reasons to consider families EFMP - speech therapy, diabetes, allergies, etc., so I'd be sure to ask the necessary questions about this if it could affect you. My husband's job has kept us overseas 5 years out of the last 7, so for us it could turn out to be a real issue, especially with the remote assignments we take. I'm just putting that out there, though it's not likely to affect but a small percentage of the military posters here.
Best of luck to everyone. I don't post much anymore because like so many I'm just out here living my life now. But I wanted to give an update because I loved reading the one year stories when I was researching. They gave me something to hope for and I feel that if I can lose more than 90 pounds in a year of not really taking this sleeve as seriously as I should have, than barring medical complications, you should be able to meet or exceed that goal with no problem.
Pictures attached. The first two are from one month prior to surgery and the last one is from a week ago. Please excuse my messy hair and worn out expression - I'm jet lagged and our transformer blew so I'm without the luxury of a blow dryer or straightening iron!
~Cheri