CBT

My endocrinologist, who is part of the bariatrics practice, has me taking relatively high doses of L-Carnatine to protect lean muscle and mobilize fat because of all the workouts. I also eat high protein within 20minutes post every workout. I eat oatmeal/soy milk/ applesauce pre workout so my body will burn that instead of eating my muscle because I'm stubborn and train/dance moderate to high intensity and that IS NOT good for fat loss. Lower intensity does a better job mobilizing fat. How you eat really helps your body produce/use it's own amino acids correctly. Yea you! I love being strong!! Woohoo

PUMPKINHEAD321. Add me!!!

Grrrrr. Today, "you're so skinny! I bet you feel great!!! But don't lose any more weight. We don't want you to disappear (patronizing tone)." She was trying to shame me in a group of people. Me: so I feel confused. Are you giving me a compliment? Then my friend jumped in and rescued the woman I was about to skewer.

How did the healing compare?

All I have is muscle. Lol. Seriously just skin. Pretty sad shape. She doesn't have much to work with.

It breaks down like this: Circumferential abdominosplasty: 9700. Breast aug: 3390. Mastopexy: 4500. She's also lifting the pubic area. So 18500. surgeon fees. The rest are 1500 for silicone, facility fees and anesthesia fees. She is competitive for this area and her expertise with massive weight loss. That's really what I run into. Expertise/experience with circumferential after massive weight loss. It's a huge investment. I like what Butter said about the inside matching the outside. Not to mention the ways this flap gets in my way when I'm training or slaps around when I'm dancing.

In a way, I think what's really helped me is sharing clothes with my girl friends. I know how I see them. So when they give me clothes that fit I have to adjust my self view. I also had a plastics consult today and the surgeon said she thinks it is very difficult for WLS patients to see their change if they haven't had hanging skin removed. Somehow we still see ourselves as fat because were there were rolls there's folds, flaps, hanging skin. How's it going now? It's been a couple months. I do agree that the mind needs time to catch up with the body changes. There's quite a bit of research to support this.

I've been on a hiatus from this board. I'm glad to be back. The board seems to be a healthier vibe.

I think I understand what you're talking about. The change is a lifetime change. We all heard that but couldn't really know what that meant. The first year is exhilarating and fascinating and scary kinda like a roller coaster: up, down and fast and slow. The second year, yup. I'm right there. Time to stop losing. How will I work that? I think what you're defining is effort. Everyday on this joinery there's a choice about how much effort and where to put it. I'm kinda over the body as a project. I want to maintain my effort. My lifestyle but I'm ready to be on the other side of plastics and at goal. Recovered and maintaining. That kind of relaxation.

Why change how you eat? Are your goals impacted somehow? Interesting. My hunger and eating really fluctuate.

Well here's an update! I had a plastic surgery consult today. The surgeon (who works very closely with my bariatric surgeon) told me not to lose any more weight. I kinda thought that's what was happening. She said a lot of very helpful things. Showed me how my body will change. Some science and some clinical experience and some anecdotal. I like her. So she wants me to up my calories again. Over 1800. A lot has to do with how active I am and that my metabolic rate will triple to heal from the plastic surgery. She said I will lose a minimum of five pounds from the surgery. So now I will put effort into maintaining. Thank you for the feedback.

I think some discomfort is healthy. Surgery is scary; still, you're making an informed decision with professionals. You're (we) making a huge life change with an outcome that isn't known because it's a deey personal journey. That free fall can cause a lot of anxiety or simply uncomfortable feelings. That has a lot to so with having solid information and how you're thinking. It's also totally normal part if making change. Sometimes it's so hard to put your self and your needs first so we invalidate ourselves with stinkin thinkin. You cannot fail if you let your self be successful. Make it mental. You may feel disappointed at times but you will also feel amazing, shock, proud, confused, happy....good luck. Good health. You got this!

Ha! We have similar rest days. I used to be Sunday-Thursday but there's a new power vinyasa class at my club on Sunday with a highly talented teacher so....the sacred and highly protected training days are M, W, SA. Lol. The other days flex with my work-life schedule. Generally I rest Tue/Thu but, like you mentioned, if I feel good and well rested, I go six days. I have access to group classes (power yoga, Pilates, barre tone, strength conditioning) from about 5:30am-7pm. No excuses. I protect one rest day a week. No matter what I work out 5 days of the last 7, 60-90 minutes. Because I had my rotator repaired in summer, I'm diligent about 24 hour recovery from resistance training but never go more than 48 hours in any muscle group. When I'm sick but no fever, I train lighter, more healing arts but I don't stop moving. I feel better. Moving Qi. I'm pretty well in tune with my body symptoms of overtraining. I do get pretty regular massage and acupuncture. So the shorter answer is I train with structure that has a lot of flexibility. Lol.

Have my first PS consult at 10am tomorrow. I'm feeling underprepared. What were your consult questions? What questions postop did you wish you'd asked preop? Everything goes. Really. Please.

Plastic surgery.

You can have a chill cocktail

Once your insurance approves you, generally that approval is good for two years. If they require a center if excellence that's what you have to pay attention to when selecting a new surgeon. That and that s/he is in network.

My husband and my doctors and you guys and another sleeve group I belong to.

Welcome baaaaack! I'm so glad you're here! Congratulations on yer date. You can just tell them and they'll make you loopy, wait til you're loopy, or under general. You totally got this. Woohoo!!! Get yer life! Yay!!!!

And yes, I often feel sad and frustrated for people who do not have aftercare with their surgical practice. I have follow up for five years with my surgeon. I still work with the endocrinologist, in her practice, every 4 months. He is helping me maximize my fat loss while minimizing my lean muscle loss. She also has a sports physician and a nutritionist. This practice is one more tool that keeps me on track and helps me self-correct if I need to.

I am sleeved. Of all the things I really like about living with my sleeve, I feel super empowered around choosing my food. I really, truly know what it is to be disinterested in eating CAKE! lol. Seriously, sometimes I'm curious about why I really don't want to have some ice cream my kids are eating, so I kinda reality test it and take a bite and sure enough, nope. It so freeing to eat by choice. I don't feel hijacked by the carb monster. No sabotage. There is candy and chocolate and kids carbs in my kitchen. Untouched stocking stuffers. If I want a chocolate kiss, I have one or four and then I'm done. Done. It's amazing. Normal. Healthy. Wellness. Yup. I love my sleeve. I did quite a few eating and body image measures as part of my psych eval. The psychologist thought that I'd have to remind myself to eat more than most because of how I scored. I really didn't understand hunger. How it felt. She was right. I had to learn to eat by the clock. I do get hungry now. Still it's easy for me to not eat all day and the sleeve restriction would not allow me to make that up at night. I don't want this because I am an athlete and I train hard and I want to eat. I want to protect my heart and vital organs (lean muscle mass). I choose the sleeve because it's kinda the middle of the road. I talked with my surgeon about all options. She agreed the sleeve is middle of the road. Meaning if I didn't end up where I wanted to be or with the results she set for me, I could get banded or have RNY. I don't for see that now, but felt relieved, in all that failure thinking and anxiety I had back then, that I would still have options.

This is such a recurring lesson for all of us who live in western culture. We are individuals. The foundation for health is similar and still my way won't be your way. When the board gets all bonkers and preachy and catastrophic about how people are going to die because they don't so it the right way, that's when I take a break for a couple months. I really appreciate that we each have a path and that we learn from each other's experiences. Take what we can use and leave the rest. Thanks for the comment

You know, the other wild card is that I had two surgeries after VSG. Both were six months apart and reconstructive and required a lot of healing time. I doubled my protein both times for healing and I never went back to the carb monster. So I wonder if that kept me in line, behaviorally because I was already not exercising for4- 6 weeks each time I will attest to the power of protein, though! My last surgeon was absolutely shocked at my recovery. He brought in a surgical resident to review my case. Kinda interesting cause you learn a lot when a doc is teaching another doc in front if you. Anyway, there are three phases of PT and I only had to do phase one because I was in the 99th percentile for healing. I put that down to protein and following his orders. VSG is hands down the best decision I have made for my life. I am really happy

That looking like death thing, that's exactly what I don't want. Lol. The endo put me on supplements because my body just revved up. I am not willing, at this point, to stop dancing and only weight train. That would be the next fix because I burn a lot of muscle at rest, because I have a lot of muscle, so then when I dance for an hour, it puts me in overdrive. I eat up to 1700 calories a day. The endo told me if I eat over 1800 every day (gah!) I will start to gain. That's based on my BMR and other stats. He's followed me from 1/2012 to now and he's been dead-on with all his number craziness. Lol.

I love it!