I've seen quite a few people around these parts talking about people they know who have lost weight "on their own" while they personally had WLS and I must say, this mindset makes me a bit pissy.

Before having VSG, I tried every freaking diet out there. I exercised like a maniac. I tried drugs I knew were potentially harmful to my long term health. I resigned myself to being fat every single time I failed before slapping myself around and trying something new or trying something old again and again. I saw nutritionists, I saw gastro specialists. I considered a hypnotist, but I waved that off as hogwash. (No offense to anyone who tried it, just not my cup of tea.) I lost weight, I gained weight, I lost weight, I gained weight, I lost, I gained, I yo-yo'd myself right into a flucked up metabolism and mass frustration for myself and my family.

I finally decided that I had no other options and settled on the Vertical Sleeve after researching my WLS options for almost a year. I went through 4 months with one surgeon before realizing there was no way in H E double hockey sticks could I let him cut me open before starting the process over with another surgeon that I felt comfortable with.

I did all the pre-op work with a nutritionist (whack job!!) figuring that if I could concentrate on losing for those 6 months, maybe I wouldn't need surgery after all.

I saw the counselor (WHACK JOB!!!) and never got to the root of my troubles other than the fact that I am a greedy piglet. (She swears I am repressing sexual abuse in a past life -- no REALLY, a PAST life, not just in my past. Uhmmm...)

I did my pre-op diet for a month instead of the required two weeks because I wanted to.

I exercised my fanny off (literally) over the last 7 months.

I weigh, measure and log my food.

I read labels.

I make good choices putting my Protein needs first.

I make sure to get in my 10k steps every single day even if that means running in place for an hour at 10pm when I know I have to be up, bright eyed and bushy tailed in 7 hours.

I look for recipes that are healthier for my family that I can eat as well but I often cook two meals so they can eat what they like and I can eat what I need to eat.

I put the fork down before I want to so that I don't spend the next 30 minutes bent over the toilet even when it took me an hour to prepare a meal and I've only had two or three bites because ,my tiny tummy isn't tolerating more than an ounce instead of it's usual 3 or 4.

I read menus days in advance if I know I am going out so that I can order seamlessly with everyone else.

I attend parties and conferences and work functions and eat mindfully so I can enjoy the event without calling attention to myself.

I suffer through stalls in my head so that my family doesn't have to hear my incessant whining because I know they've suffered enough of my nonsense over the years.

I appreciate everything my changing body has allowed me to do over the years despite the abuse I put it through and I appreciate how much it's thanking me as I am relieving it of all the excess weight.

I went to kickboxing even when I don't feel like it and now I teach it so I don't have a choice but to go.

I joined a high dollar gym and hired a high dollar trainer, not because I am a high dollar girl but because I am now forced to go.

I look at my saggy skin and my floppy boobs and my melty thighs and my squishy bum and my hangy arms and while I regret that I didn't do this 5, 10, 15 years ago, I smile that I did do it seven months ago.

I am losing this weight ON MY OWN. If you honestly think I'm not, please tell me who is doing it for me. They owe me a whole bunch of money, time and heartache for all the things I've put myself through over the last year+ and I owe them a HUGE amount of thanks for getting me where I am today.

Edited December 22, 201312 yr by LipstickLady

I can't speak for those who have stopped losing after 20-30 pounds or for those who eat around their sleeve. That isn't the road I've gone down and hopefully won't be sent down in the future. I just know that I feel like I have a great advantage over your average dieter/person trying to lose weight. Same goes for maintenance. I feel like I have a good bit of an advantage over others who also just lost nearly 100 pounds (by whatever means they chose) who are trying to maintain their weight.

Oooops! Posted too soon!

How do you explain those who lose 20-30 pounds and stop? They, too, have built in portion control and never get to goal or even halfway to goal. There are those who eat around their sleeve/band/pouch and there are those who drink their calories and barely lose at all.

The sleeve is a fantastic TOOL but it is not the magic solution. **I** am my own magic solution and I have a great resource to help me maximize my efforts. I am still doing this *on my own* because I can certainly fail and if I did, that would be 100% on ME.

Well said!

I am losing this weight ON MY OWN.

Edited December 24, 201312 yr by DonRodolfo

I LOL'd at that...

I just flipped through a people's magazine from 8/13 and it was about some people who lost 100+ pounds and in the title is said no surgery and no gimmicks. I didn't know surgery was considered a gimmick or joke in their eyes. I've been through surgery for lap band and will now be getting the sleeve. I'm scared sh*tless to say the least but I know that this will be the best for me. I know that this will be the last holiday that I will feel miserable because I'm so big and look horrible in everything I wear. This will be the last year that I don't go out and play with my kids in the snow. This will be the last year that my body hurts from the weight I am. Good post and I was just thinking about making one of these posts myself.

Lipstick.....if I wasn't already spoken for.....

Yes, we sleevers have a bit of an advantage with our sleeve - but only if we choose to exercise that advantage. Which is where LL's "doing it on our own" comes in.

Being sleeved doesn't automatically guarantee weight loss - it is not the magic bullet to resolve weight issues because like every weight loss option, we can wreck it. If our heads aren't with the programme, we can eat round our sleeves with ease irrespective of restriction.

For me, my sleeve has worked because I made it so. It could have been otherwise but I have worked hard to be successful. For that, I am taking the credit ????

I have a sleeve. I eat. I drink a lot of English tea. I drink a fair amount of Guinness, too (which is full of Iron - my excuse and I'm sticking to it). I am merry.

I eat Protein, I eat veg. I eat the occasional slice of bread. I eat the very occasional cookie or piece of chocolate. I eat mixed salads and roasted meats and roasted potatoes and edamame nuts - but also salted cashews, too.

I walked 10 miles yesterday.

Sometimes I hit my goals. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I feel like I've done this myself. Sometimes I think I could never have done it without the surgery.

I chose not to tell anyone what I've done. That gives me the luxury to 'zone out' commentary on this issue, because the subject is never up for debate. If anyone is going to go there, I am prepared and I will say 'oh, they amended my thyroid med prescription and its decimated my appetite'...

Am I sensitive to the adverts which say 'don't go under the knife, do it our way!'? Not really. Because I know, deep down in my heart, I had no metabolism left. To get me to lose this amount of weight, would have been like trying to resuscitate the cooked fillet steak on my plate. I was a physically dysfunctional blob on a downward medical spiral.

Do I care whether in the wider world I might be considered a 'dieting failure'? That I took the 'easy way out'?

Hell. To. The. F**k. No.

Why?

Because this sleeved life is hard sometimes. I have to psychologically 'work' at it. And I really don't understand why in some way are efforts (whether in our own heads or others') are presumed 'nullified' by the fact we chose to 'go under the knife'.

As 'shallow' as it may seem and since surgery; I can leap out of bed without having to swallow a ton of naproxin, codeine and metformin (et al).

On Christmas day I will be wearing thigh high black suede high heeled boots and a very fetching 'Damsel in a Dress', dress. (Google 'em, they're nice)

Those two things alone are all the affirmation and debate on this issue I will ever need.

Now, it's nearly Christmas. Time for a drink, isn't it? x

Butterthebean said:

This surgery is no more the easy way out than chemotherapy for cancer patients.

As a 2 time cancer surviver (double mastectomy and aggresive chemo) and a 50+ year fighter of the food wars I would like to say that, for me, although the cancer was scarier, the battle with food has been harder and more demoralizing. It' hard to keep fighting the battle when you "know" in the deep recesses of your mind that you don't have a snowball's chance of winning.

That's why I am having this surgery at 71 years old. I'm scheduled for Feb. 3 and for the first time I really think I can win this battle.

I've been reading here for two months and the excitement of the newbies is catching. But the inspiration comes from the people who are further out and winning the war.

Thank you all for being here

How inspiring for you, at 71, to have this surgery!

Best of luck to you!

I'm 5 weeks out and still waiting for the "easy" part! Thanks for posting!

Ummmm...when you find that "easy" part, could you share with the rest of us ;-P!?

LL, you are right! We are doing it on our own!! Yes, it's hard work, definitely not "easy," but oh so worth it:)

Chris1142, good on you, life is for living and at 71 you still have lots left to do!

I can only speak for me but I have no regrets. Easy option? No. Effective? Yes. Life-changing - oh yes! Like you, I have fought my weight for most of my life - so I keep taking sneaky looks at myself as I can't believe it's me. My health has improved beyond all recognition from April this year. And I am so happy at the way life is going and the feeling that this is it, I have found the way to keep me fit and healthy for the rest of my life. No one else is doing it for me, I am doing it for myself.

All good wishes for Feb, keep posting so we know how you do! x

Butterthebean said:

This surgery is no more the easy way out than chemotherapy for cancer patients.

As a 2 time cancer surviver (double mastectomy and aggresive chemo) and a 50+ year fighter of the food wars I would like to say that, for me, although the cancer was scarier, the battle with food has been harder and more demoralizing. It' hard to keep fighting the battle when you "know" in the deep recesses of your mind that you don't have a snowball's chance of winning.

That's why I am having this surgery at 71 years old. I'm scheduled for Feb. 3 and for the first time I really think I can win this battle.

I've been reading here for two months and the excitement of the newbies is catching. But the inspiration comes from the people who are further out and winning the war.

Thank you all for being here

Best of luck with your surgery. You beat cancer....you can beat this. With the sleeve in your arsenal, and your inner strength and courage....you'll succeed.