desertmom

For the past 2 years I have been wearing a bodybugg high up on my left arm.Its the first thing I do in the morning,put the bugg on. The strap is about 2 inches wide and fastens with velcro.It fits tightly around my arm. Since being sleeved I have noticed hat my left arm has a lot less hanging skin,especially high up on my arm...where the bugg sits.My right arm is 2 inches wider and has a lot more lose skin. I thought I was nuts but it is becoming more noticable now that I am a lot lighter. My question is this.Could serious compression garments have helped the skin to not be as lose as it is now? I have decided to go and buy some 4 inch elastic band and sow velcro onto it.I will wear it every day from now on like I do the bugg. Does anyone know if someone has tried compression from the beginning? Can it be I've always had one much fatter arm than the other..lol?

No man,not to hide my arms,to shrink them...lol.I know the skin story and collagen ect ect. But my arms are telling a different story...lol I will try to post pictures of the arms tomorrow then you can judge for yourself.It is really quite noticable but then I have worn the bugg for two years now. And having the strap around your arm isnt uncomfortable at all.If I dont have my bugg on I feel somwthing is missing.

Ok,I'm going to say it! I think that people that dont take responsibility for everything they put in their mouths might fail.By this I mean the making of umpteen excuses as to why they eg. Cant eat solid Protein or why they cannot say no to carbs when pms'sing ect ect! This might sound very judgemental but I had to give myself a huge talking to when I stalled at 5 months.I felt like this was sooo unfair as I wasnt doing anything wrong.But my carbs were just too high.I resented the fact that I couldnt keep losing at 60 carbs a day,I was eating so little.Must be my messed up metabolism,I dont get that happy feeling if my carbs are lower...blablabla! Potentially,I could have failed if I didnt start taking responsibility for my eating.Lightbulb moment!I eat what I CHOOSE to eat!It is always a choice! We do not get hungry (or much reduced anyway) we have a teeny tiny stomach,what more do we need from "outside" to get thin?People that do not understand you have to want to be thin and work to stay thin,might fail. I am preaching to myself on a forum,I've finally gone nuts...lol

Say what?of course you will be able to absorb calories. Just go on the revision GB forum on OH to see that the malabsorption stops and the dumping also do for a lot. Every surgery,except maybe the DS,have to be "worked" for it to work meaning changing habits and what you eat. Money isnt a problem and I wouldnt ever do the GP.My best friend has now regained 25 pounds at 2 years out,doesnt dump anymore,still looks grey and is very,very tired all the time.She also eats carbs like there is no tomorrow and when I asked her in an email just yesterday how the Proteins are going,she replied that she now eats lots of nuts...not the way to go!She is in that bad place of denying that she is doing something that obviously is not working. Think again! Only skinny habits will keep us skinny!

Quianna,people are funny about surgeries or anything that makes us "better". I personally think it is becaue they are scared it will make them look "not better". Lets face it,when we see someone bigger than us,secretly it does make one feel better about yourself.I dont think people are really mean about it.They just dont want to face things like this.My sister,about 15 pounds lighter than me now and my very short plump mommy,have started a very intense diet...lol.I know they would feen bad about themselves when I rock up there,thinner than them.It not that they dont want me to be thin,they just want to be thinner,like always..hehehe. We all have situations in life that we avoid as we dont know how to deal with it or dont want to deal with it. Anyhow,as far as the social eating is concerned.I am as social as before,spend more time eating out now.Its good for my weight loss as I just cannot eat much at all in a restaurant.Wish I could do all my meals there.Maybe as expats we just cling together more and our socials are super important to us,just like our friendships.We might just need each other more,not having family around so we brunch and lunch and eat!and not very many of the expats here are overweight anyway,thats why I always use to stand out a lot.And skinny people dont eat a lot anyway!I feel I now fit right in.

Maybe to get back on track make a rule for yourself,if you have to eat its got to be protein.I think it will make you full and you will just not be able to eat too often.And to toughen things up for yourself do dense Protein like chicken breast,meat.If you dont feel like Proteins do chopped carrots,cucumber ect. Sometimes if we make our own rules we find it surprizingly easy to follow,unlike when someone else makes the rules. You can do this!

I love salmon.But I can eat way too much of it.I dont really fill up on it so now we make salmon patties with all kinds of green,red,yellow and orange peppers with onion in it and I can only eat 3 oz of it. Soft fish goes down like yogurt for me.But shrimp or prawns are solid and it really fills me up nicely and for long. Dont worry about it.Test yourself with chicken breast,that will show you quickly how little you can really eat.

I had the band in 2004 after I warned myself that if I couldnt lose the weight in one year,I was going to have an operation..lol.Big fear of mine!Well,after the failure I felt with the band I said I that I would die with that band inside me,no more surgeries for me. In December 2011 we went on a skiing holiday to Austria.I drank more punch and gluwein than even I could believe as I was sitting in the cold watching my family ski every day. Then I found a letter a friend wrote me years ago when I still weighed under 200 pounds where she said that with me everything has always been about my weight. I got so sick of being so obsessed and so self centered.It was always about my weight.I have been an onlooker to my own life for so long that I just got sick and tired of feeling sick and tired.My life was lived in fear of everything and in Turkey last year when I threw a whopper about something that scared me my little kid shouted at me:Mom,you always say that we have to be brave but you are such a coward! All this made me decide to stop being a coward and face life.That meant removing the band and getting the sleeve. Best decision ever!

It happens.Its called the human condition. You dont have to go out with them.There's a lot of real nice guys out there!

Hi,this is exactly the kind of non food treats that the shrink says we should reward ourselves with.She told me that these are the things skinny people like and do and they use it as treats,rewards and fun! Great victory for you!

Clothes can hide a multitude of .....skin,hehehe!But thanks for the compliments!

Ok I suppose I have always believed we set up our relationships the way we want them to be. I also havent had any friendships that wasnt intentional for many years. I just love each and every one of my friends that have always been patient and kind to me through this whole weight obsession that eventually became my life.They never lost hope that I would find me again.They never judged me or disregarded me as a person. Hehehe,maybe I have just surrounded myself with great people that I wouldnt let go for love or money.We are all like minded in that we serve the Lord and that will never change. I am not denying that this is difficult.As I have said some of my more overweight friends are really uncomfortable around me at the moment.We dont get together as often now but I miss them and having been confronted with this just this weekend (it worked out just fine,we watched funny videos from youtube on tv and laughed so much I had a headache) I need to find a way to let them know that I am still me,just lighter,in body and in spirit.That it is actually easier to eat with me now,it is cheaper and and there is always extra food to taste.Easier to be around me as I am not as intense as I always was.(yeah,you wouldnt say so mmmm)lol Good luck with all the new things in everyones lives!

However,we should never forget where we came from and that we use to be those people. I am having the same issues with some friends,especially the ones thats very overweight.But now I choose to still love them the way they have loved me and my fat behind for so long.My very close,very large friend even walked quite a distance with me recently,after she wanted to drive and then changed her mind without any encouragement at all.Victory! Thank goodness my family's very active and sporty and we run together,play squash together,have long walking holidays together and do the beach thing together all the time. I've seen how one of my very good friends have changed now that she hangs with the pretty people.The same ones that wouldnt have given her the time of day before.I suppose she must have been as superficial before,I just didnt notice. But then,I have always cared for people for who they are,not for what they can do for me. We need new friends as well,all the time anyway as life is dinamic,not static! I am not flaming what you say you need.We are all different.I am just different in this,I suppose I've been overweight for too long and have experienced feeling left behind or out because of that too often. Enjoy being skinny!

Hallo skattie,you are doing just great.Just get some of those elastic bands and stretch it a little,its better than doing nothing. As more weight comes off,you will start wanting to exercise again.And remember how tired I was all the time,well its a lot better now.Protein pancakes I tell you they are the bomb.Gives me the pick me up I need and it is a very filling meal. Keep doing what you are doing.You must look fab by now. xxo

Hi I followed your blog and loved it.Was a bit envious of your travels too as we love travelling just dont have enough time to get away to often. Also,I seem to lose most weight when eating out very often.For some reason I just cannot eat more than a bite or two in a restaurant so holidays are my favorite time now. Enjoy settling in! You look so great!

Great post.keep enjoying life!

It has been 7 months today since I had my sleeve.My goodness how different has this been from having the band. The good.I weighed 195.8 today.Hehehe,couldnt say 196 could I?That is down 101.2 pounds since surgery.I am not a compulsive eater anymore.Neither am I a couch potato anymore.I play squash twice a week and exercise at least 3 other times per week.I am shrinking by the day and I am beginning to feel really good about this.I cannot eat away my emotions so I am slightly more moody but more in touch with myself as well.I am somewhat more serious now,dont always have to laugh or joke away my pain about my weight.I have been at this weight quite a few times before in my life so I am now excited to get thin for the first time in 22 years. My bloodwork came back perfect.All my vitamin problems seems to have been solved with the shots I have received and my platelets are now normal. The bad.Somehow I got a hernia on the right side where the dr's used the same spot for all 3 keyhole surgeries.It is painful to move and you must see me tape my stomach to play squash.I am also allergic to plaster so it is a vicious cycle at the moment as I cannot find compression garment that would help,plasters got to do the job for now.No one will do surgery until I am at my goal weight as it will be part of the body lift to fix this. Since surgery I have had petechiae on my torso, upper legs and back 4 times (tiny little point bleeds all over the place) I am full of bruises and I thought it was because my B12 was quite low since surgery.Had a full house of bloods done this week and my dr phoned me this morning saying everything is perfect,even the D is 40 now and the B12 is almost too high,stop the pills and no injections anymore.When I asked him what ia causing the spots and bruises then he just said I dont know.This is a concern to me as where i pulled the little tape they puton after drawing the blood there is a bid red bleed under the skin now,not where the needle was in,but from the pressure of the tape.My theory about the spots is that every time I had a B12 injection I got the spots.And since I started taking the pills it came out again.Dr says not possilbe but there is a direct relationship between the 2.Anyhow,will keep an eye on it. The extra skin is a nightmare but as I am single and not planning on being anything different,it is ok until I can get to goal and start scraping together the courage to go for plastics.My little one says my body is like a jelly spilling out of a cup..lol. My body image is still seriously warped but I "feel" and "see" myself with the scale now and that helps a lot.i still wear a size 18,sometimes 16 clothes which seems very big still but I look much smaller than that as I am tall.Would really like to go to smaller sizes though. Friendships have changed.It is super difficult to be with some of my very overweight friends now.They seem to be so uncomfortable around me.I do see why.We use to be fat together.We always talked and complained about it.We couldnt walk,run or do anything else and now all of this have changed for me.I am excited about life and really try to never make them feel bad about themselves.I do worry about them though as at our age the health issues are so many if you've been fat for so long.I dont say anything and try to never say anything about my surgery or weight loss.We dont eat cake together anymore but hey,I still do lunch.My best friend however have lost 28 pounds since I have had my surgery.She is only 4'11 and is still about 8 pounds from her goal weight but she looks fantastic.She wasnt going to stay chubby while I was losing weight and it has been a delight and pain in the butt as she lives on carbs even now.She still eats about 1800 cals every day and sometimes I find that hard.Jealous of what she can eat...lol.Not really! The ugly.I am severly constipated since surgery.This is a big problem but I hope that once I get to goal and can increase my complex carbs I can add a lot of fibre to my diet.I also have hemoroids that I am never ever going to go to the dr for.This is the biggest and most terrible thing that could have happened to me..lol.No really.I hate this and dont know what to do about it.People say that the surgery for this is excruciating.Not happening! The good.Did I say the good?Since the sleeve I have had to deal with the fact that I have been fat and extremely unhappy and on diet all of my adult life.It was an obsession like no other.It ruled every waking moment of my life.Honestly,I could never stop talking aout my weight,my diet,my failure,my excuse to not so stuff.I had zero self confidence in so many aspects of my life.This I have had to come to terms with now.I kissed out on a lot of things because I was too ashamed to do anything.My world (and Im an expat living in a foreign country) was always quite small and my life lived in anticipation of the day I would be thin,that was when I was going to start living see. The sadness I experienced when different things started being possilbe was unbelievable.The regret of so much time waisted made me so depressed for a few months.But I have thought about all this a lot and I chose to move on now.Time is ticking by and regrets doesnt add to your life it just steals more time from it.I now choose to feel good about each day. My attitude about food has changed.Tonight,after our weekend,we sat in the lounge after dinner and this use to be a big eating night in my life.I felt like a snack,not chips or chocolates...edamame beans...lol.My friend still thinks Im nuts as I really couldnt think of anything nicer to snack on.I go to the beach every day and we use to always eat on the beach,now I dont even think about it. This whole process is sometimes difficult for me because I really wanted to be skinny yesterday..lol.My impatience drives me up the walls some days but this seems to be a great lesson to me too.I am a little less self centered,even though every sentence here started with I...lol and a bit more compassionate to others. Weight loss surgery doesnt fix everything in life and I will surely always be somewhat OCD and messed up but I at least now look normal..lol.I dont really have the desire to just blend in with the crowd anymore as I realized unless I cut something off i will always be taller than most people I know.Other people's opinion of me doesnt really matter that much anymore and this is a great freedom in my life.I was a real peoples pleaser all my life and we know that you cant please all of the people all of the time, which made me very unhappy before. My mother and sister is on a super strict diet as they are so scared I am going to be thinner than them when they see me in December and that can just be good for them. So life is good.And I might freak out soon again if I have another stall,but thats life!

hi,thanks for all the great comments.I posted pictures just now in a new post and now I feel totally paranoid,silly I know,but I am super uncomfortable about pictures...lol

Yes,nature versus nurture! I have two adopted kids and always thought I could nurture them so much that nature wouldnt make much of a difference..lol Now my teeny tiny little 20 year old is built like a little pear and my tall 11 year old is athletic and muscular.(11 year old is taller than the 20 year old) Biology plays a bigger role in us than I ever thought.(my mom,grand mother,cousins are all overweight) In fact,As I'm getting older it is my mothers face looking back at me in the mirror...scary sometimes..lol Good luck with your journey! O and remember,people who dont struggle with weight does not really understand it at all,they try but its like I dont know what its like to have an olive coloured skin and black hair..I'm blonde and fair with freckles.

Dont know the dr's reasons but for me I drink before but cannot take even a sip after food.The food comes right back up.

All the time! Congrats and keep going!You are doing fabulous!

I am going to search for fall fight now! What I would like to know is if the hair fallsmout again after plastics as people seem to lose hair after a lot of different major surgeries.

I looked at your topic and thought,me neither but I'm losing it anyway..hehehe.We all think we might be the one not to lose it.Right! Some dont but most do.Its not as bad as it seems.Most of us have more hair than we ever could have imagined.I have been lsoing loads for 3 months now and you cannot see my scalp or anything.It is a bit thinner but hey,I am a lot thinner...lol Dont worry about it,it will be ok.

You know,I've learnt to take responsibility for each thing I put into my mouth.As I got this surgery to get thin,it is my responsibility to make it happen.The sleeve really just limits how much you eat,you decide what you will eat. I never say never to myself about anything anymore.Just maybe for today I will not have that scoop of ice cream I so wanted earlier.Some time in the future I might.But because I want to see the scale move,today I didnt.I choose.And I know I can ever blame the sleeve when I make the bad choices (ok,I do but I know i shouldnt...lol) You'll be fine.Thats why the process of liquids,mushies,soft foods solids works so well.It gives us time to get use to the changes we have to go through. Good luck.

And I still talk too much,even on paper...lol