bostonmama

I drank more than I should have starting around one year post op, and ended up with transfer addiction to alcohol. (I very rarely drank pre op). Tried to quit drinking, and could see the addiction reverting back to food, I regained 15 lb from my lowest weight in a couple of months. I tried counseling, was put on a lot of medications that made me feel like a actual crazy person, so ended up quitting them all, now I am trying to cut back on drinking with a goal of quitting on my own. My experience with alcohol now is much like my old experience with food before surgery. I sometimes wish I had never gotten WLS in the first place, but if I am able to quit drinking it will hopefully be a small bump in the road to an overall healthier life post wls.

I'm sure there are many different reasons, but maybe common ones as well? Please share your insight & experiences! I, unfortunately, retained some bad habits (carb heavy diet, drinking calories) from before surgery, and my weight loss has been stalled for several months now. Perhaps I was never really on the wagon as much as I should have been. I know I need to make some changes in order to start losing again.

Before wls I had an addiction to fast food, I thought about it constantly on my 1.5 hour commute each way and though I promised myself I wouldn't stop, I often did.. Since surgery that behavior has stopped. I work and have two small children with after school activities and because of this we still take advantage of some convenience food, but usually if I'm going to McDonald's I'll get nothing and just feed the kids, occasionally I'll get a grilled chicken salad. If we get pizza I eat one slice. Imo occasionally eating these foods is a normal part of life and don't need to be forbidden in to be successful. We do this 1-3 times per month.

I love being able to buy clothes and feel good about how I look in them. Instead of always being disappointed!

you look so great!

You look wonderful! you lost so much so quickly, do you eat any carbs? how is your skin doing? We have similar body type/shapes, but its taken me a lot longer to lose and I was basically stalled from 7-12 months.

I don't look forward to eating or get excited about food like I used to, but I still enjoy making food for my family. I'm part of a food photo sharing group and have found that I enjoy photographing my food more than I enjoy eating it. I'd like to try more wls friendly recipes, but I am pretty lazy and busy and have a toddler who hangs on my legs and cries while I cook.

you look amazing! Is your BMI really 39.6 in that photo?

I recently had my surgiversary and according to my surgeon, the surgery has done its work and I shouldn't expect to lose any more weight at this point. Was that your experience? If you did continue to lose after 1 year post op, did it require additional changes to diet/exercise at the one year mark or did you stick the original plan and keep losing?

I'm guessing you can do a lot of squats to build a little muscle but your body shape is what it is! I'd focus on being the best version of the shape you have.

Addiction transfer to alcohol is scary stuff. I rarely drank pre op (maybe once every few months). When I started drinking post op everything was fine for months, until I noticed that I was drinking a lot more often, then I started having trouble stopping once I start. Then I noticed I was looking forward to drinking the same way I used to look forward to food. Now I promise myself I won't drink, but can't resist the urge and have the old pattern of guilt and regret I used to have with fast food. This all happened pretty quickly. Now I'm going to counseling and considering AA, even though I'm not a "real" alcoholic yet. I was of course warned about this pre op, but didn't think it would happen to me since I've never had a problem with alcohol or drugs, and I guess I didn't consider myself a good addict either, but I can see now that I was. Alcohol is much much worse of an addiction, I certainly wish I hadn't started drinking post op.

At Savers in Framingham! Thrifting is always hit or miss, but I usually have good luck with their jean selection. Global Thrift and Platos Closet in Waltham are good too. Platos Closet seems to take a lot of donations from young people and only has up to size 14 or so, but I found my favorite sweater of all time there.

I don't think it's possible. My pants literally fell down at the gym when I was a few months post op. It is possible to not buy any new clothes though and save a lot of money. Thrifting is great! I bought all of this today for $40. The jeans are great brands - joes, Paige, Hudson, greywire(anthropologie), and jcrew. I buy new underwear and occasionally shoes but everything else is thrifted.

I think it is because they know the average amount of weight people lose after WLS, its something like 60-65% of excess weight for sleeve and 65-75% for RNY. It's not normal to lose 100% of excess weight after wls, even if some do it, most people do not. I think they want you to have realistic expectations, and realize that if you want to get to a "normal" weight, surgery alone will not get you there.

Food was a coping mechanism for many of us pre op, and without it our emotions can be overwhelming. Even if you don't have that issue, being on a liquid diet for 4 weeks will make most people hangry. The good news is that you will be able to eat again and be satisfied from very little food..not to mention you will feel incredible as you lose weight and become more healthy. Many recommend counseling to get those emotions/head hunger under control, not only for your own peace of mind but also to prevent regain from emotional eating later on.

No, but I was worried that would happen so I talked to my surgeon about it. They said they submit the weight at your first appointment, so it wouldn't be an issue. I still worried anyway though so I really didn't try to lose anything preop. My insurance did not require a supervised diet or anything like that.

My surgeon office only expects wls patients to lose 60-75% of their excess weight. I guess those are the typical results and they don't think getting back to high school weight is a realistic goal, even if some people do get there. When I asked they said 175 seemed like a good number for me. I would still have an overweight BMI at that number. I haven't reached goal yet but when I do I plan to celebrate and set the second goal of a healthy BMI - 160.

I know this doesn't really answer your question (I forgot to ask how long to wait when I was at that stage) but I want to mention that my surgeon warns to wait at least 1 year after surgery before getting pregnant, and prefers people wait 18+ months. Losing weight = increased fertility. If you do get pregnant your body will fight to gain weight, and you'll never get the full benefits of the surgery if you stop losing and start gaining before 1 year post op.

Does your surgeon offer support groups? I just went to mine tonight and there is a Q&A period, and also an opportunity to ask anonymous questions, if you don't feel comfortable talking about it with your doctor. The act of smoking was brought up as an issue in my meeting tonight, They said it is especially dangerous if you have had gastric bypass. My surgeon will recommend the sleeve over bypass for anyone who thinks there is a chance they might smoke again.. I'm not sure if there is any harm if you aren't smoking it.. maybe addiction transfer?

I think the private journal sounds like a great idea, but part of me would like to just forget about how I let myself get so overweight. In any case, I'm almost 11 months post op now.. so I've missed the chance to document most of my transformation. I have been wanting to start a wls food blog, if only to help keep myself on track.

I'm sorry I don't know the answer to your question. Have you tried to request your medical record from the hospital that did your surgery? Do you take vitamins now? I had gastric bypass which does involve moving the intestines, and I have to take a double dose of vitamins, plus extra calcium and vitamin D everyday,

I do think dumping is rare. My surgeon does a month info session/support group, and no one who shares their experiences there seems to have experienced real dumping. They are getting that stuck feeling or vomiting after eating too much too fast etc, some have diarrhea after eating, and call it dumping, but dumping is very very different. It's an extreme feeling of being unwell/dizzy/lightheaded/racing heart/sweating that happens 20-30 minutes after eating something high sugar/fat. For me, I get it from cereal, even from what I thought would be a healthy cereal - grapenuts, and once when I shared some ice cream with my toddler. I think it is a blessing if you have it since you will avoid foods that cause it. I will not touch those foods now, it's just not worth feeling that way. My surgeon was happy to hear that I have it.

I had the same struggles pre op, and I'm still working on it 10 months post op. I've lost a lot of weight and feel amazing, but my results would be better if I rarely ate rice/bread/pasta. I don't have these things every day, but several times a week. Occasionally I eat still eat complete junk, but at least it is a very small amount now compared to before surgery. Someone posted on here recently that you need to figure why you are eating something. It is because you are hungry? or some other reason? You need to figure out those other reasons. I definitely use to eat because I was tired, or anxious, and if food is your coping mechanism you will have a very very hard time during the liquid diets right before and after surgery. I felt like I was going through a breakup from my food boyfriend, it was very rough. Its up to you to figure out if you are ready for the surgery or not. Ideally, you do all the work of breaking a food addiction before, but I think it can be done after too if you are committed and aware. If you aren't able to break bad food habits the surgery will fail.

5'8" 189 size 12/14 or L