Nymea

You look fantastic - glowing with health. I think that we all focus so much on numbers pre surgery and in the early months post that it is hard to let go and start just living and enjoying good health. Great job on over coming your own personal demons and find the balance in your life.

It is just 2 years since I first saw the surgeon to ask about weight loss surgery. He recommended RNY because of my severe GORD. I ended up having the RNY surgery pm July 2016. My main reasons for having the surgery were 1) I was in heart failure and struggling to walk as far as my letter box each day. I had already given up work because of it. 2) I had high blood pressure despite taking 7 different meds a day for it. 3) I am diabetic and had been taking insulin for 30 years and 4) I needed knee replacement surgery and the surgeon recommended I reduce my BMI from 41 to less than 30. Since the RNY surgery I have had many ups and downs but the weight came off quite quickly and remained off for more than a year. The ups and downs are more emotional, adjusting to the new forever way of eating and accepting that I can't have a few more bites because it tastes nice, I can't eat anything with fat in it no matter how much I want to and sugar is something to be savoured in tiny amounts on rare occasions like birthdays. The unpredictability of dumping syndrome makes my work day scary so I literally stick with a plain salad (vegetables only and no dressing) to try to avoid being sick at work. The upside is that I have lost weight to a BMI of 24 and maintained it. I have stopped taking insulin and only take a small dose of Metformin twice a day. I have stopped all my blood pressure meds and my heart failure has "cured itself." I started back at work in July 2017 and manage so much better aside from the occasional dumping syndrome episode. Best of all I had my kneed replacements done 3 weeks ago (yep both sides at once) and the recovery has been amazing. I am sure it was much easier now I am not carrying the extra weight. Oh and the GORD went away with the surgery and hasn't returned yet - Yay. One down side to the surgery is that when I get sick I lose 2 - 3 kg very fast and it takes me weeks to put it back on. Of course I can afford to leave it off since my BMI is still 24 but my cardiologist doesn't want me to get below a BMI of 22 so now I am mindful of how much I lose and what I put back on if anything. It is a problem I never thought I would face in my lifetime. So would I recommend the surgery to others? I would say make sure you choose the right surgery for you and are prepared for the life changes it will bring. RNY can't be undone once it is done so you are stuck with it even if you don't like the dumping syndrome and eating restrictions. But if you have health problems that will be cured or improved by having the surgery, then seriously consider it. I am glad I did even on those days when I feel I am missing out or experiencing dumping because I pushed things.

My current diet tends towards low carb simply because I am gluten and lactose intolerant since my bypass. Gluten free products are not worth the effort to eat. I do occasionally eat some lactose free cheese when I crave it, but the fat in it still upsets my stomach, so the craving has to be pretty serious. My carbs mainly come from fruit and once a day I might have a bit of steamed potato or sweet potato but not if I am eating salad. I do believe in balance/moderation so I never feel like I miss out too much. I do miss pizza on the rare occasions that the family orders one and I sometimes miss being able to eat a fresh soft white bread roll. But missing those things is worth it for the health benefits of losing weight. For birthdays I have one or two bites of birthday cake (and suffer the consequences) just so I don't feel I am missing out completely. I have to say though, the dumping after makes me wonder if it was worth it. So I am about 10 pounds away from goal and starting to think about maintenance. My loss has slowed to only a pound a week, sometimes less. I am hoping that things will naturally get into balance somewhere between a BMI of 24 and 18 otherwise I might have to do something more drastic. That is the plan anyway.

Good luck to all of you having surgery in December and early January.

I tell anyone who asks and tell them that I chose that option for the health benefits - which by now are obvious to everyone. Most people have been very supportive although I did lose one friend over it. But I recognise that the issue was hers, not mine. My losing weight and getting more healthy made her more conscious of her own problems. But I also recognise this was the path I chose and she has to choose her own path. My advice to you is own your choice and allow others to own theirs even if it means you lose a friend or two. There is a place for being confident at whatever size you are, but when it affects health then it needs to change. Good luck with your journey and look forward to the positive health changes you are going to experience because of the choice you are making

Wow what an amazing story. Your life sounds exhausting and impossibly full. Thank you for sharing it. You know what stood out to me the most in the whole thing? Not that you went to the store and bought things you will regret sooner or later but that you WALKED there. I don't know your situation or whether you walked to the store when you were at your heaviest but for me the idea of walking anywhere was not on my radar for a good few years. Now I am loving walking again. I don't suppose walking to the gas station burned enough calories to cover the ice cream sandwich ... but I don't think one slip is going to make a difference in the long run. Others have provided some great advice which I can't really add to so I will just say I hope things turn out right for you and thank you for sharing Please let us know what your other grades are when they are posted. I for one would really love to know. I am rooting for you to survive this and be able to continue on with your scholarship

I have been constantly cold since my surgery in July. We are in summer here in Australia and I am still cold. When the others are sitting in front of a fan to cool off I am still wrapped in pullovers to keep warm. The only time I seem to be warm is after I eat a hot meal or in the shower/bath. I read somewhere that brown fat is responsible for helping us feel warm and that people with a lot of white fat ( normal overweight type fat) have less brown fat than normal. It seems that white fat suppresses brown fat. It takes time to regrow brown fat and the best stimulus aside from getting rid of the white fat that is suppressing it is to be cold. Not something I enjoy but I am tolerating it as much as I can in the hopes it will work.

My cardiologist told me back in October that I probably wouldn't get below about 76 kg (167 pounds) because I have a big frame. It surprised me that a doctor would even suggest that some people actually have big frames. Anyway ... I sailed past her prediction and am now 72.6 kg (160 pounds) and still going strong. I can't wait for my next appointment to show her. Having said all that the body frame calculator does say I have a large frame so I should be between 131 and 147 pounds which is where my goal currently is.

I first asked about a band but because of GERD my surgeon recommended RNY which I had in July this year. Since the surgery I have had no GERD at all and am delighted. I am also diabetic and now off all insulin and only on metformin. My blood pressure meds have halved and my inflammatory arthritis which I would take several different meds for is pretty much gone. I am just on one medication for the arthritis .. one that works on the immune system to suppress it attacking my joints. One thing that persuaded mme to the RNY was the knowledge that with a sleeve they take out the part of the stomach that is excised but in RNY they leave it all in there. For me that was important because I have a very close friend who had oesophagus cancer and they used her stomach to form a new oesophagus for her. I figured that if I still had the remainder of my stomach inside me it could be used if I ever needed it for anything.

I don't generally use any sweeteners since the sweet taste triggers me to go looking for sugary products again, whereas whole fresh fruit doesn't seem to do that to me so much. Having said that I tried a new sweetener a couple of weeks ago because I was cooking rhubarb and it was just too tart without something. The sweetener is erythritol which is a sugar alcohol like xylitol but with less of the GI upset. It is less sweet than sugar (only about 70% of the sweetness) and comes in granulated form which to me is indistinguishable from sugar. Erythritol is also supposed to be safe for diabetics because it is supposed to not affect blood sugars - I didn't notice a big spike in my sugars when I had the rhubarb - but that was only one small bowl so I can't say if it holds true all the time. I also put some in my mum's coffee instead of sugar and she didn't even notice - normally she doesn't like the bitter after taste of sweeteners - again I only did it for a week while she was staying with me ... so it isn't a very scientific study lol. In Australia we can buy erythritol in Coles but it comes in little individual serve packs which is annoying if you want to cook with it. To get it in a large pack like sugar we have to order it from the internet. I am not sure about other countries.

With me it depends. There have been times when I didn't weight myself for a couple of weeks because I was in a stubborn stall and it made me feel frustrated to not see any movement. For the first three months I tried to stick to weekly although sometimes my curiosity got the better of me .. usually to my detriment. At the moment I am going through a big weight loss period so I am weighing myself daily but I know that once I get into my next period of no change I will go back to weekly .. or even wait for 2 weeks before weighing myself. Since I am firmly post-menopausal I don't have to worry about monthly weight/fluid fluctuations so it is easier for me to do it daily if I want to. But since I now know the way my body acts - 2 - 4 weeks of no change then a week or so of rapid loss then back to no change, I fit my weighing schedule to that - weigh daily when it is coming off rapidly then back to weekly or even longer when it stops for a rest. I also know that when my body takes a rest from scale loss I will start to lose inches ... and when I am losing weight rapidly there is no inch change ... so in the weight loss mini holidays I swap my scales for a tape measure. I guess ultimately it all depends on whether you are going to start stressing every time the scales don't move or not. I know I did for the first couple of months until I started to understand my own cycles. There is no one perfect method other than the one that suits you best and doesn't drive you crazy.

count me in

I remember feeling that early on too (unless I was vomiting which I did quite a lot of). I was worried that the surgery hadn't worked as it should. I don't know the answer to why it happened but I can tall you that once I got on to solid food and began to eat more normally (or as normally as I think I am ever going to eat) that went away and I found I was full sooner than expected and or longer between meals. My advice is to give it time and push your fluids between meals because dehydration can make you either nauseated or hungry. Congratulations on the 18 pounds That is about 1 pound a day! That is an awesome start. I think the early losses are important because they encourage you when things are tough. Keep hanging in there and wait for your body to settle down. Soon you will look back and smile to see how far you have come.

I only know this stuff because I am a nurse and do a lot of reading about new research so don't feel too bad.

Try not to do things that remind you of food (watching tv particularly cooking shows etc). You might find it easier if you drink your liquids away from the place you normally eat and keep away from others who are eating. If you are able perhaps take a walk .. or do something that keeps your mind and hands busy. I played a lot of computer games during my pre op liquid diet which was 4 weeks long. Basically the more you can do that is not part of your normal routine the easier it will be since for most over weight people food is intensely involved with normal routine. Good luck with the surgery and focus on the new life you are about to begin, rather than what you are leaving behind.