VSGAnn2014

Fat acceptance movements don't cancel out some inconvenient truths: 1. Healthy, fat young people turn into fatter, unhealthy middle-aged people and morbidly obese, sick people who die decades before than their natural lifespan due to obesity comorbidities like diabetes, hypertension/strokes, cardiovascular disease, fatty liver disease and some forms of cancer. 2. As every single WLS patient who has reached maintenance knows, the quality of life for morbidly obese people is awful, compared to the quality of life for people who are of normal weight. Those facts don't justify insulting anyone -- fat people or others (like smokers) who actively contribute to their demise. They should be supported, not insulted. And venturing into controversial territory, when I was obese I found absolutely nothing acceptable about being overweight or obese. Therefore, I can't get excited about a movement that celebrates obesity. Thank God, I finally reached the point (hit bottom) where my own obesity became so disabling and appalling that I sought WLS. What a freakin' relief!

You're six months out. So go ahead ... experiment with veggies. You won't die.

Those lousy vegetables. I let those "screaming, dying plants" die in agony. I'll boil the "baby" carrots right in front of the full size carrots, slowly peel away the skin on onions and pluck the "eyes" out of the potatoes. And now I'm SCREAMING, too! But with laughter. You're a funny dude, @@4MRB4PHOTO ! @@JupiterinVirgo ... glad you hopped back on here. You started a good thread. What works for me is good food of all kinds. I'm an omnivore. Love my animal Protein, my plant protein, and all other veggies, fruits and grains. And wine. And chocolate. And slow cooking. I just eat a lot less of it all than I used to eat. Semi-seriously, what's currently supporting my new, slim waistline and my love of food is clean cooking and slow cooking and using the freshest, most in-season, highest quality ingredients I can find. Speaking of Mediterranean diets, tonight we're having whole wheat Pasta and spaghetti sauce made with Italian sweet basil sausage, with Romaine hearts and bleu cheese dressing, with garlic bread (for hubby), and red wine (for me). That's what maintenance at our house smells like, folks.

Great post ^^^ @@ausmith ! Organisation (with either an s or a z) is certainly my Best Friend.

My bra sizes are a joke: 34D and 34DD, which is just nuts to me. But anything smaller than D / DD just doesn't hold all the skin. Happily, when I'm wearing a bra I actually look stacked. (When not, not!) One thing I do have going for me is the world's biggest rib cage.

duplicate post ...

Hubby loves me at whatever weight / shape I am. He just loves me. And vice versa. (sniff)

Damn, @@jess9395 !

As people who've struggled with overweight and obesity most (or all) of our lives, we've had very little experience or success with maintenance. Losing, yes. Maintaining, no. Losing weight is simple -- do this, do that, bam! But maintenance requires so many judgments and decisions. It's no wonder maintenance is confusing and fear-inducing. For the last 10 months I've been working at it and learning what works and what doesn't. Still learning.

Stephanie, You're making ME cry! What a great story. You are a driven, dedicated person who can achieve anything you want. What a great life you're going to have.

I get the feeling you want to see how our changing (smaller) weight correlated to clothing sizes. Here's what my weight history / sizes look like (I'm a 5'5" woman with a regular / hourglass shape): 235 pounds - size 20-22 Woman 216 pounds - size 18 Woman 200 pounds - size 16 Woman / Size 18 Misses 180 pounds - size 16 Misses 170 pounds - size 14 Misses 160 pounds - size 12 Misses 150 pounds - size 10 Misses 140 pounds - size 8 Misses 135 pounds - sizes 4-6 Misses As you know, dress sizes vary dramatically from manufacturer to store to style. At 135 pounds (my current weight) I wear anything from a size 2 to a size 8. Actually, yesterday I found in my closet an old Pendleton size large cotton turtleneck sweater that sort of fit and wore it with jeans. I've found that, at the same size, clothes with these labels / sold at these stores (Talbots, Ann Taylor, Loft, Eileen Fisher) are larger than clothes with these labels / sold at these stores (Antonio Melani, Polo, St. John, Escada, Zara). Here's a great graph illustrating (in someone's experience) which brands run large and which run small: http://lifehacker.com/this-chart-shows-which-clothing-brands-run-too-big-or-s-1668791215

Steve Harvey? That Steve Harvey?!

Had sleeve surgery 18 months ago at age 68. I've lost 100 pounds and have been maintaining at or below goal for the last 9 months. I now weigh 135 pounds and eat 1800 calories a day. Feel better than I have in many decades.

My surgeon also prescribed liquid hydrocodone when I left the hospital. I took it only twice. It made me feel very weird, and I hated it. My stomach didn't really hurt -- my pain was from the gas they blow you up with. And I knew what would help that (walking) and what would not help (pain meds).

Your favorite brand of Thai peanut dipping sauce. Goes great in Soups and great on grilled chicken and in stir fries.

Cool!

Yup, you're normal.

Huh? Could you try that again? Stoma? 1 centimeter (which is less than half an inch)?

"I didn't get WLS and then expect to be on a diet for the rest of my life!" are words I've seen posted numerous times on WLS forums. The word "diet" doesn't freak me out like it does some folks. But I think what they are really saying is that they are hoping for a life where they can no longer overeat and will always be able to eat "regular foods" in moderation. In short, they want a surgical result that removes the risk of succumbing to old temptations. The trouble is that long-term that's not how WLS usually pans out. Everyone I've read who's 3-4-5 or more years post-op (with a sleeve) agrees that being aware, consistent, disciplined and mindful is very important to their long-term success. As @@Rogofulm said: For the last two years I've been in therapy, focusing in part on improving my abilities to care for my health consistently. What became apparent early on in therapy was that I have a tendency toward impulsiveness. As with all personal attributes, my impulsiveness isn't an all or nothing condition, but varies depending on the situation and environment. For instance, I seldom overeat when life hits me hard, but tend to eat more when I'm happy and celebrating and in the presence of others who are happy and celebrating. After recognizing this tendency in myself, I've focused a lot on consistency in food planning to ensure my food is nutritious. Most days I track my food and liquids on MFP. I weigh daily and record my daily weight. I suppose some would think I'm on a "lifetime diet," since I try daily to eat 80-100 grams of Protein, 5 low-starch veggies/fruits, whole grains, and healthy oils. But I also have wine, dark chocolate, bread, even occasionally pizza. However, I eat those foods in smaller portions than the healthier foods I choose. Thank goodness, I don't have to be perfect. But I can be successful long-term IF I remain disciplined and consistent in how I eat and exercise. And in the last 18 months I've finally learned what it takes for me to remain that disciplined and consistent.

P.P.S. One final comment ... here's a link to a Washington Post article citing research that shows how much weight Americans have gained over the years. For instance, today's average US woman now weighs (166 pounds) what the average US male weighed in the early 1960s. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/06/12/look-at-how-much-weight-weve-gained-since-the-1960s/

P.S. What is more common, however, is that people who've been overweight for decades or even most of their lives lose weight rapidly during WLS -- and then they and/or their families get a bit freaked out when they actually enter the "normal" (not overweight or underweight) BMI ranges. They look SO different than they have for years (or ever) that they are told by well-meaning friends / family members that they're now "too skinny." It's easy to see how that kind of feedback can really screw with your head when you're also trying to rationalize the image in the mirror with your long-time self-image. When you've been overweight for so long it's hard to accustom yourself to what "normal" really does look like. It doesn't make it any easier to transition to this new perspective when two-thirds of the American population is overweight or obese. Some doctors literally tell their patients, "Nobody remembers what 'normal' looks like anymore."

I WAS talking about people who are post-op. Some of them have families who are very worried about their underweight condition. Some of them are also worried about their underweight condition. Some of them have even been hospitalized in attempts to address their eating disorders.

How do you feel about chicken? cheese? Almond milk? Protein-fortified breads? Beans?

I just feel when I'm full / done. For me, it's not mysterious. Also, the slower I eat -- by which I mean the smaller bites I take, the longer I chew, and the longer I wait between bites -- the sooner I feel full / done and the easier it is to stop eating sooner.

As in ... not eating enough? Restricting food in ways that makes you lose too much? Anorexia? Even bulimia? Those aren't on my list of challenges. But yes, a few people who post here and on other message boards have some of those issues. Some have reported that they suffered from anorexia when they were younger, and then became overweight/obese. But I don't know whether all of them have that anorexic history. Post-op, these folks are usually in the very bottom of the normal BMI scale, but some have drifted into the underweight category. In the cases I'm thinking about, they report that they worry a lot about regaining their weight. Yes, that's a concern for most of us, but not to the extent that it seems these folks worry about it. Re bulimia, I don't know to what extent that happens. But some WLS patients do seem to throw up quite a bit post-op -- probably more than they ever have vomited before, so I can see it could be possible for a WLS patient to "harness" that new "ability" to purge after over-eating -- but I really don't know to what extent it happens in that manner.