CowgirlJane

This stresses me more then anything - like, I want to look GOOD but I don't want to have my boobs become the thing everybody notices about me first. I want to have a nice overall figure, not like someone who had implants. Only reason i am getting implants is because with the weight loss, I am pretty much left with skin. The lift will remove some excess skin and then I will be like an A cup...lol anyway, I intend to tell the good doctor Sauceda that I want full Cs/small Ds, but my fear is that I wind up with something I am not comfortable with. It is not an exact science since even bras are all sized differently....

I wear a 36C bra but some of them are too big so I am a B/C. I intend to shoot for C/D range. I did try on the sizers and still felt "unsure " but I wound up picking about 300cc at my local surgeon consult

I think a little fear is healthy. this is a HUGE change and anybody who goes into it all "la dee da" is going to have a very rude awakening. It has been an amazingly positive thing for me, but i had a defective stomach and that damn thing needed to be reduced...LOL! When people name their sleeves and stuff like that, i don't relate to it. I still have a stomach, it is just better suited to my actual eating needs now. It used to be the stomach that 6'6" football player should have!

This happened to me - 1st surgeon i went to told me that since i failed at the band i would fail at the sleeve. I went down the path of the bypass, researched, started the preop process and just decided it isn't what I wanted. I went to a surgeon who believed in the sleeve, even for "failures like me". I have had what i think is remarkable success for a revisionista, but i know that not everyone has this happen.

And some people's drains are in for much longer. I asked Dr S about staying an extra week till the drains are gone and he said there is no guarantee they will all be gone even at 2.5-3 weeks... so GO HOME WOMAN...haha!

I have had plastic surgery consults and that is the only way to really get this answered. I am told to expect to lose about 4-5 pounds of skin etc only. Some people get plastics part way through the journey because the extra belly skin interferes with exercise etc, but then they need to have it done AGAIN when they get to goal. For people with lots and lots to lose, that might be a good strategy, but the idea that you can lose 30-40# with plastics does not sound realistic to me. There is a friend on facebook who has experience - she has lot hundreds of pounds and phased her surgeries - again not to lose weight but to keep downsizing her skin as she downsizes.

Phoenix (aka Mrs Fiddleman!) - I would love it i we could get together and I really appreciate you offering to host. If you could try again say early October I suspect alot more people could make it. I don't know if people are interested.... but my plastics are scheduled for Oct 14. As a pre-plastics patient I would be very willing to talk to people about that.

So, I too have experienced this feeling, I guess we all have. Heck, sometimes I come on this forum and I see other vets women who are so much thinner than I am and think "why aren't I thinner?" I had a photo taken of me lately that really showed off my melting snowman look. Most of the time I hide it well in clothes, but it is a slap in the face when it shows up in public....lol I have alot I can say about this and why the body image is getting stronger and stronger. Lately I have been wearing ... gasp... sleeveless outfits. Being a single woman these days I get the ultimate meter - I get hit on a fair amount, even in my sleeveless summery dresses. I even get second date requests when i show of those "lovely arms" on a first date, by guys that are quite acceptable" - my point being that I MUST not be as hideous as my upper arms would leave me to believe. Those arms need to stop being so critical of me! My face - OMG, I went through the "I am soooo old looking now" phase. Then I had the experience of several people telling me I look 15 years younger and jokingly saying they didn't know I had a teenage daughter when I posted my photo to facebook. Apparently, I was the only one who thought my face looked younger when fatter.... Bottom line, NOBODY and I mean NOBODY sees our imperfections the way we do. I am getting plastics that is true but to be honest my main motivation is to get rid of that hanging tummy skin since that really does interere with clothing fit. I highly recommend that if you are at goal, and still think you are fat (fiddleman!) - get consults with a plastic surgeon even if you don't want to do plastics. They will tell you how much more you can really lose versus how much is just that extra skin and loose fat cells. It truly changed my mindset. My BMI remains just a smidge over 25, but since I am "hot" already (hahaha) and my body really doesn't want to lose more - I am maintaining in this general ballpark. so be it.

Laua-ven, you have got it exactly! "Never obese" people aren't perfect either and i know for a fact I look better/fitter/more attractive than many of them! More importantly, this life is the only one I get (as far as I know). I wasted alot of it being morbidly obese; therefore limited in what I could do. I am NOT gonna waste the rest of it worrying about what might of been or how imperfect I am.

Its just a number.

Fiddleman, I feel like old behaviors pop up all the time. Speaking for myself, this is a LIFETIME issue with roots in my childhood. difference is that I am in a mentally strong place and when those urges start to overtake me, I have an antidote. I never let it go too far. BTW, I really believe getting "over hungry" is a key trigger and after doing a rigorous hike or something i am suseceptible too.

I did this climb after work on Tuesday. It is not considered a difficult hike, gaining 2200 elevation over about 2.5 miles (so around 5 miles round trip), but it was a pretty steady grind up. We had a picnic dinner at the top with it's 360 views, watched the sunset from those big boulders as it turned orange and red over over puget sound, enjoyed the fullmoon in a sky reflecting crazy colors from the sunset and then hiked back down in the dark (headlamps). Turns out, there is this whole amazing world out there for people who are fit enough to find it! My friend hasn't shared photos yet, so this is a stock photo of the lookout we climbed to. Only the last part was the boulder scramble most of it was a true hike. For you locals - this is Mt Pilchuck and the peak is at about 5300 feet.

I was told to wait 6-8 weeks post plastics before horseback riding. I am thinking skiing is similar.

So Michelle I am going for the BL/BA, LBL, Arm lit... and on the fence about thighs. My thighs really need it, but thinking about a separate surgery - see what is left to deal with after the LBL. Dr S thinks I only need a small lift, if he agrees with that when we meet in person, I might consider it! Anyway, I am afraid, BUT my sense of excitement and anticipation is now overcoming my fear. I love my new thinner self and plastics is to help complete that transformation!

So, what leads a person to think of all things that a twisted intestine is the problem? I don't know about this in humans, but in animals it is nothing to fool with as it can caused damage/death of the tissue and require surgery etc.

You do look great - many would kill to look so good! I eat pretty healthy all the time. It is a self fullfilling thing - i can't handle junky food anymore as it tends to make me feel horrid. It's like you need to be "in training" to eat fried or overly sweet or excessively rich dairy (ice cream) or else indulging makes you feel icky. Anyway, I am happy with my weight - was 155# this morning and i am still doing the 5:2 but i don't track food and so am not sure that I hit the ideal targets. At this point, I am more about maintaining then even caring about those 5-10# pounds that would put me in my dream weight range of the 140s.

This article - based on rats not people - really makes me question the 5:2 plan... http://www.drsharma.ca/metabolic-effects-of-alternate-day-fasting-in-rats.html

Yesterday at my counseling session we practiced a form of meditation. It came out of that experience that I was hungry and tired. I went home and ate and then slept like 12 hours - like i hardly had any decision to make - I needed food and sleep. This was half way through my second fast day of the week - not a fast day anymore. Anyway, it was interesting to me that i didn't think i was hungry because i was using coffee and other techniques to mask it but reality of it was that i was really feeling it and it was causing me some distress. Also, how do you FIND this forum? I keep having to go back to my messages where my membership was approved and click on the link to this forum - is there a more direct route?

While I totally relate to your goals - I would like to gently suggest that you give yourself a HUGE pat on the back for the tremendous success you have had. I reckon you are fitter and hotter looking than the vast majority of women in your age range. Bask in your glory, be grateful and enjoy life. I am not trying to tell you to give up, I am trying to tell you to be a gentle friend to yourself. I too started in the 300# range - isn't it a wonder, an amazing thing to just be in the general ballpark of normal???

I lost about 150# over 14 months. Been maintaining since Feb 2013. I failed miserably with the band, so can relate to your fears!!!

Yeah, and I will be honest, I look better in dresses then I do in pants. This picture sort of illustrates that you can see the loose skin in the tummy and thighs. I don't wear shapewear. These jeans are size 10, but i correct my previous statement, most of my pants are size 8. It is really tricky to get a nice flattering fit without creating muffin top / skin spillage. I usually wear them with boots - cowboy boots when I am doing horse stuff, more fashionable boots when going out and about. In the summer though, boots aren't really hip so i wear them with cute little flats or even a wedge heel. For me the most flattering are ones that roll up and give a 1950s vibe... but i don't have a photo of that pair. They fit well willout giving me skin spillage.

ok... i looked it up.... 150 pounds equals the complete Oxford English Dictionary plus a few pounds of butter...LOL

Ha- I don't need to look it up - I have lost an entire "medium sized" woman!

Scars take a year or more to fade - I think yours look amazing after just a month.

It wasn't easy, but i didn't have all those things either I gues "is it worth it?" depends on your alternatives. For me, at 300+ pounds I was becoming disabled, looked and felt like crap. Now I feel great, and active and am told i am attractive. My health markers (blood pressure, blood suguar, labs etc) aren't just good - they are amazingly great. I am fit. Was it worth it? yeah, it really was.