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Hey guys, I’ve been searching for a community that I can express my concerns & overall thoughts to about my journey. I’m 29 years old and decided for my overall wellbeing & happiness to get the gastric sleeve. The process was pretty smooth. I inquired in November & got my date in May & now as of today I am 5 days post op with my first post op appointment tomorrow. I started out 217 but as you know the liquid diet sheds off alot. On the day of surgery I was 199. Today I’m 195. I’m hoping that with this forum i’m able to navigate this new season. I refused to eat or consume anything at first because I loathe throwing up (let alone what it would feel like to throw up with 20% of your stomach🥴😂). But today I finally had creamy ginnoch soup after slowly just sipping protein smoothies. i felt like… a uncomfortable pressure after maybe 10 sips. (It taste so good). So I immediately stopped and it has now subsided. that’s all for now! If you got this far, thanks for reading😊

Hi 👋 I’m just starting my journey too! My appointments are over the next couple of months but no indication of when I could expect surgery. It could be up to a year apparently but I’m hoping that everything is straightforward with the appointments and tests so there’s no delays (and therefore my surgery is sooner 🤞) Where are you based? I’m UK 😊 I’ve been reading everything I can, downloading bariatric recipe books, ordered a couple of bariatric plates (advised by dietitian for portion control) plus measuring cups and spoons to make weighing a bit simpler. I’ve started to eat a more protein-based diet and I’m learning to slow down my eating (20 mins) so I’m not overwhelmed when I have to start the liver control diet and then surgery! Good luck with your journey, hope everything goes smoothly for you.

No I don't take measurements. I really wished I had started this at the beginning of my journey. I just love that I have an excuse to buy new clothes again. It has taken me a while to like clothes shopping because I was not used to having too much choice. Now I am hooked

Welcome @Dchonlee ! It's going to be an amazing journey I'm sure. Keep us posted on how things go.

I am definitely not an expert when it comes to bruises but I know they do change colors. I Just don’t remember if they get darker or larger or what. I can definitely see a difference though. I would personally call my Dr and ask if you can just email them the pictures explaining how it feels as well. I am in the save myself the mental anguish camp. You are paying them after all.

Thank you so much! I'm a little better today. I'm thinking it's muscular. 💕

The glycemic index of bread actually lowers both when you freeze it and when you toast it so I find getting a good seeded/sprouted bread like Ezekiel, freezing then toasting to be the way to go

It’s all about finding what works for you. For years I didn’t have breakfast & used to also say that eating breakfast made me hungry for the rest of the day & I would feel sort of blah after. Then I started having breakfast because I thought I should have something. Would deliberately work through that blah feeling & fight any urges to eat until dinner. Now I happily eat breakfast. I discovered that if I eat it after 8:30/9am I feel okay, not ready to eat again until about 1pm. However, if I eat at say 7:30am, I’m hungry much earlier, feel blah as before. Think that was always my problem because I used to eat breakfast at 5/5:30am. It was simply too early for me. My window between eating gets shorter after the intital 4hr to 1pm lunch (3pm, 4:30ish, 6pm (dinner), 7pm) & is when I add my snacks. It may be when you eat, what you eat, how regularly you eat, whether you eat several small meals or three main meals, etc.

Hey, Thank you all so much for the Kind Words and Motivation. Of course i will Continue my Journey since i am not Finished. And the First year isn't even over for me. I will just Fight and Push like i always did, and Start to tackle the social Anxiety, i Guess you are Right, if i want a Chance at Love. I should try.

**Trigger warning: domestic abuse** My name is Georgia, I am 27, and I have been 'bigger' for my entire adult life, and a lot of my childhood too. I have PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) insulin resistant type, and an Underactive Thyroid, both of which cause me to put on weight quickly, retain weight, and makes losing weight extremely difficult. I can't even remember the countless amounts of fad diets I have been on, or the amount of times I have tried to lose weight, but failed again and again. When I was 18 I was going to the gym 5-6 times a week for over an hour, I was doing HIIT training and Tai Chi, and I was jogging, eating well etc, but I still only managed to lose 2 stone in a year - make it make sense! I didn't know back then that I had underlying conditions that made it hard for me to lose weight, so I internalised a lot of the guilt in not being able to get healthy, and it resulted in me putting on around 6 stone from then until now. I was also a victim of domestic abuse/violence, and a lot of the verbal abuse that I suffered was centred around my weight - constantly being told by my ex-partner that I was fat, he would pinch my thighs, tummy, arms etc, telling me he was seeing how many inches I could lose. It completely broke me, and I started binge eating in secret. He ended up leaving me, telling me that he could no longer be with me due to my weight and how it made me sexually unattractive. I think I am probably just over 20 stone now. My back hurts when I walk, I cannot look in any mirrors without feeling low, I don't feel comfortable going out in public, and I am exhausted all the time. Every time I went to my GP about something, I was always told I needed to lose weight, as if it were a miracle cure and so simple to do just by trying hard enough. It was always blamed on me not putting in enough effort - and those in the UK will know that the NHS isn't a simple thing to navigate and the waiting lists for obesity support are long and often disheartening. Around 2 years ago I was put on a waiting list for weight loss management with the NHS. I was finally accepted in September of 2023. This is a year long commitment to the weight loss management pathway (Tier 3), in which you have to lose 5% of your weight in order to then be put on to another waiting list for a referral for the actual WLS (Tier 4). I have been told that this can take a further 4-6 years. I had a harrowing thought that by the time my WLS actually came around, I'd be well into my 30s, still desperately unhappy with myself, and I would have put on even more weight and probably be immobile. I can no longer do this to myself. I deserve better. I made the decision to look into private weight loss surgery, and I had a free consultation with a recommended surgeon just before Christmas 2023. This was genuinely the first time that a medical professional sat me down and talked to me with some humanity about my weight. He told me that with my conditions (particularly the insulin resistance, and hormonal imbalance), that my metabolic rate needed an entire reset, and this was not possible to do without surgical intervention. He explained that the difficulties I have had in trying to lose weight and being unable to, are not my fault (though of course I accept responsibility that getting here in the first place is my fault), and that surgery is recommended as perhaps the only thing that will enable me to lose the weight. I have never felt so seen, and so heard. I booked in my surgery for May 2024 there and then. So, now I start my journey, and I was looking for support, and here I am. I look forward to posting on here and using this thread to update everyone once I have had my surgery! I am quite an open and honest person, so if anyone wants to reach out to talk, my inbox is open