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No before pictures



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Against the prevailing advice of everyone out there, I decided not to take before pictures this time. Being overweight has brought me nothing but physical and emotional pain and misery. I want nothing further to remind me of where I was. The past two times when I lost a lot of weight, I took before photos and failed. I am just not doing it this time. Where I was no longer matters at all; it's where I am headed that matters. I am also losing weight for completely different reasons this time. I don't have some delusions of grandeur or doing anything big. This is simply a Quest for better health. The last time I lost a lot of weight, I could ride a bicycle 100 miles and I rode about that every week for almost 6 months until I got hit by a car and it all unraveled. It's a simple quest to get down to a healthy weight, nothing more nothing less.

My rearview mirror is clear and my head is somewhat screwed on straight. Here is to the coming weeks. I am secretly really excited about my brother's wedding. I can't wait to rock that tuxedo. It's only been 3 weeks and I am down a shirt size, from a 4XL to a 3XL. I always hated wearing suits because they looked ridiculous on me. They were baggy in rear and just generally ill-fitting. I can see a difference in my face - my double chin is disappearing.

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I’m with you Matt! I’d much prefer to look forward.... but it’s nice to see the differences!

Congrats to you- keep it uo


HW 242, SW 236- (Bypass 12/20/17)
GW#1- 199 [emoji736] (2/11/18)
GW#2- 180 [emoji736] (4/2/18)
GW#3- 160
CW 180
5’6”

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You go Matt!! I bet your brother’s wedding will be a blast!

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I didn’t deliberately take a before picture, but there are plenty of “before” pictures of me. I ran across this one on FB from 2011 and that **** is just depressing. Maybe ol’ Judah will pose with me for an “after” picture.

13010782-829D-4901-AA5F-2B66F828083C.jpeg

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15 minutes ago, abefroman329 said:

I didn’t deliberately take a before picture, but there are plenty of “before” pictures of me. I ran across this one on FB from 2011 and that **** is just depressing. Maybe ol’ Judah will pose with me for an “after” picture.

13010782-829D-4901-AA5F-2B66F828083C.jpeg

I am already depression prone. The last thing I need is to look at my former self. I hear you!

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WTG Matt! Congrats on getting to the 3Xs!!! That's awesome!!!!

I've never taken pics of my journeys before this. And my oh my have there been journeys and success - followed by the agony of defeat.

I figure this time (haven't we all said this one) it will be different. I intend to extinguish this weight (not just lose it) so it can't find me again. LOL. And I want to track the journey--not just in my food journal, but in piccys. The scale is very slow, only about 16lbs since surgery. But I put on leggings this weekend and my sis kept telling me how much I've lost and how I look 50lbs lighter from it. So maybe I'm gaining muscle too? Dunno...but something non-scale related is happening that may be worth documenting in pics! :)

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I'm thinking you're really shrinking! Couldn't happen to a nicer guy, you look similar to my metal image of you, but I'm excited to see as your shell cracks more the true and improved Mattymatt inside, the cute will shine forth increasingly each and every day. I'm anxious to have mine so people will see the beautiful butterfly me inside. This morning I feel positive it can be done, it is happening for you and I believe it will for me also. Thank you for your good example and friendship[emoji13]

Sent from my VS880PP using BariatricPal mobile app

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      On day 4 of the 2 week liquid pre-op diet. Surgery scheduled for June 11th.
      Soooo I am coming to a realization
      of something and I'm not sure what to do about it. For years the only thing I've enjoyed is eating. We rarely do anything or go anywhere and if we do it always includes food. Family comes over? Big family dinner! Go camping? Food! Take a short ride or trip? Food! Holiday? Food! Go out of town for a Dr appointment? Food! When we go to a new town we don't look for any attractions, we look for restaurants we haven't been to. Heck, I look forward to getting off work because that means it's almost supper time. Now that I'm drinking these pre-op shakes for breakfast, lunch, and supper I have nothing to look forward to.  And once I have surgery on June 11th it'll be more of the same shakes. Even after pureed stage, soft food stage, and finally regular food stage, it's going to be a drastic change for the rest of my life. I'm giving up the one thing that really brings me joy. Eating. How do you cope with that? What do you do to fill that void? Wow. Now I'm sad.
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      1. summerseeker

        Life as a big person had limited my life to what I knew I could manage to do each day. That was eat. I hadn't anything else to look forward to. So my eating choices were the best I could dream up. I planned the cooking in managable lots in my head and filled my day with and around it.

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        BTW, the liquid diet sucks, one more day and you are over the worst. You can do it.

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