Bluesea71

Hi ladies! Quick check in. I have been so busy with work/life and haven't been on BP much. I participate in the BP challenges which I find really helpful to stay on track. Otherwise, I'm beginning to see why a lot of veterans don't stick around long on these boards. It's gets kind of boring fishing through the same posts about stalls, hair loss, best protein shakes, etc. It's the case of the "been-there-done-that." This process has been amazing. I have had ZERO complications and once I accepted that the weight would come off at its own slow rate, I was okay with the process. I am 169 today. Down 70 pounds since the beginning. I have 9 pounds until I reach my surgeon's goal of 160 and 19 pounds until I reach my goal of 150. Funny thing is the closer I get to goal, the FASTER I'm losing! I spent most of my life as an active, fit person. It was only the last 10 years I packed on 80 pounds when I let my work/life balance get out of whack. It's almost as if my body remembers where it's meant to be and wants me to be there! Don't hate me when I say this journey has been one of the easiest things I've ever done. I already ate a pretty clean diet. I don't really like junk food, so the restriction helps me with portion control. I don't consider myself an emotional eater, so I haven't had to struggle with a lot of the emotional issues that often come up post wls. I cut 6" off of my hair into a chic bob which helps disguise how much it has thinned. Although the hair loss seems to have slowed down a bit. I am really pleased how little saggy skin I have. I was really worried about this. My arms are really tiny! I have a small amount of saggy skin on my inner thighs and on my stomach in the area below my belly button. This area was stretched out from 2 pregnancies and only a tummy tuck would repair that. Otherwise everything else is snapping back into place. I'm not really doing anything special. It's likely genetics and very. Slow. Weight. Loss. How is everyone else doing? I saw mention of a check in but nobody followed up!

I'm in. I will report my start in weight on November 7th!

Wow Susan! How do you have time to do this is the middle of a move? Much gratitude and thanks from us all out in Bariatric land! Xoxo

Question - has there been mention of the next challenge yet? A Thanksgiving challenge would be really short, but maybe a New Years challenge?

I'm down another .08 pound and am 169.9 this morning! Hello 160's! Haven't seen you much since circa 1997!

Great list. I remember being obsessed with saggy skin and hair loss pre-surgery. Here's what I can tell you post surgery and my top 4 things of what i believe helps combat saggy skin: 1) GENETICS 2) how long you spent as an over weight person 3) how much weight you have to lose 4) how slow you lose weight. I am now 6 months post surgery and am down 70 pounds. I now have 10 pounds to go to get to my surgeon's goal of 160 and 20 pounds to get to my goal of 150. I'm 43 years old, 5'7" and started this journey at 236 pounds. I have very little saggy skin except for a small pouch below my belly button where my skin stretched from two pregnancies. I have not done any of the skin sagging prevention things on that list. I had every intention to, but didn't! I spent most of my life as an active, fit person. It was only the last 8-10 years that I packed on 80 pounds. My weight loss post wls has come off at a snail's pace and this seems to have given time for my skin to adjust. The plain hard fact though is skin will only retract so much. It's unrealistic to think it will be tight and firm as someone who has always been thin. I expect my skin may sag as I continue to lose more weight. Honestly, it's a small price to pay for the endless energy and confidence I have now. I wouldn't trade it for the world!!!!!

170.7 this morning. Down another 2.5 pounds and officially 2.3 pounds under my Halloween goal! Aiming for 169 or below now! It's so weird, my 6 month surgery date was yesterday and I'm less than 11 pounds from my surgeon's goal of 160 and 21 pounds of my goal of 150. I have been an extra sloooow loser throughout this whole experience. Losing 1.5 pounds, then stalling for 2-3 weeks. Repeat. Now that I'm getting closer to goal weight, I'm consistently losing weight. It's almost as if my body suddenly remembered that I wasn't always an overweight person and is trying to get me to reach homeostasis!

Happy 6 Month Anniversary, Girls! How time flies.......

173.2 this morning. I met my challenge goal 3 weeks early! I will keep plugging along and officially enter the 160's

Thanks for your responses, gals. I have looked on-line, but as I mentioned before, I either find pictures of fresh scars or they are covered up. I'm curious - how far out are you from your surgery? I have a very fine 6" scar from a previous surgery located where a c-section would be. It's over 23 years old at this point and you can't see it unless you really look for it. I wonder if TT scars always stay red looking or do they eventually fade?

It's also listed on page one of every challenge too

175.5 today! Down another 1.5 pounds!

Biotin will help with regrowth, but it won't stop the hair from falling out. I notice 1-2" regrowth hairs all over my scalp growing in. Hard to know if the biotin is helping or this would just naturally happen on its own. My nails have never been stronger! I am now 5 months post-surgery and the hair loss is slowing down. I started losing my hair fairly early (@ 6 weeks) compared to others on this board though. I started taking biotin before surgery. The Toppik has been a God-send. I went from not wanting to leave the house to feeling confident again. It covers where my scalp shows through and I also spray some under the layers to thicken it up. I also cut 5" off my hair to a little above my shoulders. This has helped make it look fuller. Just remember its a short-term problem. It WILL grow back!!!

Go on amazon and buy Toppik. Make sure to get the spray nozzle. It works great disguising my white scalp. I have the smallest .42ounce size and it will last several months. Great bargain at $28!

I'm 177.5 today. Technically I'm the same I was last week (177.8), but I had you round up to 178. This week let's round down to 177 keep me motivated. Ha ha.

Mysleeveid13 where you be? You are always active on this thread and you're MIA. Should we be worried?!??

Congratulations on your weight loss! I see you're coming up on your one year anniversary! You should be proud of what you have accomplished this past year! I think there are a lot of questions we have pre-surgery... specifically around saggy skin and hair loss! I know I wondered about both and appreciate your candid pictures. I thought I would post a pic on this thread too to show how much the skin sagginess can vary. I am just 5 months post surgery. I am also 5'6" and started out this journey at 236 pounds (241 at my highest.). We are both now around 180 pounds (I was 177 this morning.) I have lost 61 pounds and am 17 pounds from my first goal of 160 and 37 pounds from my stretch goal of 140. I have very little saggy skin. I credit that to my extra SLOW weight loss (as in it took me over two months to go from 189 to 180). I think the two factors that influence the most how much excess skin you will have is 1) how overweight you were and 2) how much time you spent as an overweight person. Your skin will retract some post weight loss, but not much. I do know the areas I had concern about are getting better. I initially had saggy skin on my inner thighs and arms, but it is almost gone. I have an area on my belly between my belly button and pubis that looks like a deflated balloon. This is a result of two pregnancies and is unlikely to ever go away. I'm okay with that though. I'm 43 years old. I will never have the tight youthful skin I had when I was younger. I look pretty damn sexy with my clothes on though! I wouldn't change the fact that I can now hike without dying and live a full, exciting life without the extra weight weighing me down!

I am 177.9 this morning! (Enter 178 on the chart.). That's 3 pounds lost last week and another two pounds this week. I am beyond thrilled after it taking TWO MONTHS for me to go from 189 to 180! Stalls are so frustrating and if anyone is experiencing one, hang in there and continue to follow the program. I am down 58 pounds since my surgery 5 months ago and 18 pounds away from hitting my first goal of 160! One perk of slow weight loss is I have very little saggy skin!

There is a link to the chart on the first page of this thread. That is where all of our data Is entered

Great work fellow sleevers! I love being able to connect a face to everyone's name and story! I will continue to keep you guessing as I'm a tad paranoid about posting my pics on the Internet... Especially since only my parents and sweetie know I had this surgery done! Can you believe yesterday was our 5 month anniversary? I am down to 178 this morning. That's 60 pounds down and 18 pounds until I make my first goal of 160. We went to Yosemite this past weekend and I hiked to the top of Vernal falls. I last did this hike a few weeks before surgery and it was brutal. I had to stop several times and I had a hard time breathing. This time I did the whole thing without stopping once. It was actually kind of easy! The awesome thing is I am making my own "biggest looser" type video. The first video I took of myself at the top of vernal falls at my beginning weight. I took a follow up video last weekend and wow- what a difference! Even my voice has changed! We will be going back in April 2015 to take the final video and I'm confident I will be at goal weight. I'm so happy I have video of me at my largest. It captures so much more than a photograph!

Question - I noticed on the chart that for some people you are recording ounces as well as pounds. In the past just pounds were noted. Should we include ounces or does that just make it more difficult for you to record?

I was worried about saggy skin too pre-surgery. I'm 5'7" and started out at 236 pounds. I'm now 5 months post surgery and weighed 179 this morning. I have been loosing at a snail's pace and as a result, the skin has been bouncing back quite nice. I do have an area on my belly below my belly button that looks like a popped balloon. This is from pregnancy and isn't likely to go away even though my stomach is starting to get flat. I have some sags in my inner thighs but it also seems to be improving. I don't have any saggy skin on my arms. I'm now 20-30 pounds from my goal, so we will see if it gets better or worse with time. I think genetics, how much you were over weight and how long impact how much saggy skin you are likely to have. I didn't really carry weight in my arms, so there wasn't much to loose there. I also spent the majority of my 43 years as an active, fit person. I only put on significant weight the last 6 years.

183 last week.... 180.0 this morning! Thats's a 3 pound loss and I'm even having a period from hell! I can count on one hand how many times I've lost 3 pounds in a week post surgery. Usually it's a pound every 2 weeks! Now historically, loosing anything sends my body into shock for a few weeks and I have a stall! Praying that isn't the case! Whoo Hoo! 170's are just around the corner!

I found an old pair of Old Navy size 12 jeans I used to wear back in 1997. At the time I weighed 155-160 and wore a size 12. Today I weigh around 181 and have been wearing an Old Navy size 12 since I weighed 188. This whole vanity sized clothing thing is so confusing! I hope I don't offend anyone by saying this, but there have been times I see pictures on BP of people saying they are excited to be wearing a size 4 or 6. I look at the pic and think, "no way, they are more like a 10 or 12." Today I got my proof on how much sizing has changed over the years. I'm not sure if I feel better or worse that my theory has been proven that clothes are bigger now! I sill feel proud of the weight I've lost, but realize I have awhile to go before I will be able to squeeze into my pre-baby jeans! The waist on my old size 12 jeans is a whopping NINE INCHES SMALLER than the ones I bought last week! Sigh.