Gottajustdoit

WOW! You currently weigh 138 pounds or you lost 138? You look fabulous.

Amazing! Thanks for sharing your photos!

wow! What a transformation! You look great and I bet you feel great too. It's so much fun seeing these before photos and the NOW photos. BTW---we are the same height, had the same starting weight, and same goal weight!

Definitely sounds like jet lag symptoms to me. I get nauseated when I have a long flight/severe time changes. Sounds like a horrific flight experience too. Feel better soon!

Great topic! For those who I know, but don't know well, such as casual work colleagues, I tell them that I've made a change in lifestyle and I'm focusing on eating more protein and less carbs. I leave it at that. I did have a situation, though, in which a former colleague asked me how I did it. She is overweight and kept pressing. She knew I had been out of the office in February for surgery, but not what kind. I finally told her, but the first thing I said to her when she said she was considering WLS too is "Oh, you don't need the surgery. You look great!" I really don't think I handled it well, but I wanted to boost her self esteem. She definitely wants to lose weight and because she is so overweight, I should have given her a different answer. I used to have people say things like that to me--that I looked great and didn't need to lose weight--but I know they were being kind. I did go back and tell my colleague to feel free to ask me any questions, so I hope that I helped her out a little. On a side note, I find it so difficult seeing very overweight people now without thinking "Oh, you should consider WLS." I don't say it out loud, obviously, but when I see someone like that, I really feel for them and want to share with them what could be life changing and life saving!

Wonderful! I hope you bought a new suit jacket by now! 🙂

Awesome! I spent most of the day yesterday trying all my "winter" clothes and sorting through everything. I ended up with 5 13-gallon-sized bags of clothes that were too big. I'm donating it all to the Salvation Army. Some of the stuff had been in my closet for years as items I thought I would "someday" be able to fit into--and even they were too big. It was a great feeling to rid myself of this baggage (emotionally and physically!). I then took my daughter shopping with me and bought a few items. I can't believe I can shop at stores that I stopped going into years ago. It felt sooooooo good! Goodbye Lane Bryant!

You've lost 118 pounds! Amazing! I feel your pain, though. It can be very discouraging.

Emzbee--you're rocking it! Thanks for your photo update. Your hair also looks great--not thin at all. And the Timtams? They are soooooo good. We have them in the States now (I first tried them in Australia). Deadly.

That sounds like a tough four weeks of camp! I have never gotten into exercising and now that my weight is leveling off I'm very discouraged. I've tried gym memberships many times and have lost a lot of money. If I enjoyed it and maintained it, I doubt I would have gotten as heavy as I was. I still have no interest. I've gained two pounds from my lowest weight and feel as if the scale is set and I now I need to work really, really hard to maintain the weight I am at now (even though I was hoping to be a size 8, not 12). I have to be honest with myself: I'm not going to be able to keep it off with exercise. 😞 Maybe someday as you all inspire me. I'm sure Gladiator classes would kill me too. Good luck to you! Last night I had dinner with a friend who is about 8 years older than me and she is considering botox. I know I look older since the weight loss and have been wondering about going down that road. Has anyone done it? What do you think about it? I have so many other areas I also want to work on, like a breast reduction. I swear the girls are just flapping into each other now and it's ugly and uncomfortable. The extra tummy skin is yech, but tolerable with shapewear. Sorry for the complaining. I do feel blessed to have been able to lose 60 lbs since surgery, but am at a scary point. I have done too much googling about people who have gained some or all of their weight back since gastric bypass. To be honest, I didn't even think gaining all the weight back was doable! What about the lack of absorbing calories? Can I really stretch out that egg-shaped stomach so much? It's daunting. The surgery was tough, the mental prep was tough....where is the good news about people who have kept it all off? I need to start reading success stories!

Hmmm....my doctor prescribed the Ursodial specifically because he was leaving my gall bladder in. Since I had a healthy gall bladder, my surgeon left it in and said I had to take the Ursodial for the next 6 months because otherwise, I would have a high risk of developing gall stones. He told me to stop taking it my 6-month checkup last week. Yes, rapid weight loss can cause gall stones. I'm very surprised your surgeon left your gall bladder in and did not prescribe the preventative medicine. Perhaps you never would have developed the gall stones if he/she had done so. So sorry!

smjeie--sorry you had to undergo another surgery. I just finished a 6-month course of taking Ursodial (Actigal) after surgery to prevent gallstones from developing. Just curious--did your surgeon put you on Ursodial after the surgery? Hope you are recovering well!

Looking on the bright side, at least she chose a snack with a lot of protein! I once heard that peanut M&Ms were the best choice from a vending machine because of the protein--much better than pretzels. Having said this, my BFF is BONE THIN and adopted a girl with weight issues. She also hides food. She is 19 now and orders from Uber Eats when her mom isn't home. It is very hard on my friend to see her daughter struggle but I know the girl feels as if her mom doesn't know what she is going through because her mom has always been very thin. This is such a tough situation. I wish I had some advice but I don't....just a story that relates to your struggle. Sorry!

Agreed! My German Shepherd is blowing her coat. She doesn't mind at all of course, but in addition to picking up her fur, I'm picking hair out of my shower, sink, everywhere. I don't have any bald patches, but my hair is super dry and thinner by the day. I just ordered the Boldify shampoo, conditioner, and serum from Amazon. I hope it helps!

Here are some of my go-to snacks that I bring to work: string cheese rolled inside a slice of ham, avocado toast pack (from Target), cheese cubes and almonds, and pimento and cheese dip (not low fat, but has protein) with tortillas (need to find a lower carb option but I do like chips and cheese). I am finding, like some of you, that I am not losing weight anymore. I am eating more and I am afraid all of my desires for sweets and salty snacks are coming back full swing. I am wondering how common this is. This is truly the end of the honeymoon phase. Are any of you still losing at a fast rate (and by that I mean 3 to 5 pounds per week)?

If you are looking for a meat snack, you can get really good cheese sticks wrapped in proscuitto at various places. I buy them in a pack at Target in their cold section by the cheese. I also buy small packs of avocado toast packets there and bring them to work. I read the reviews on some of the protein snacks on Amazon....do you have a favorite flavor? A wonder if they have a blech aftertaste or taste like Styrofoam? I'm also looking for a low-carb cracker to each pimento cheese dip with. The tortillas (Tostido lime) are a terrible option as they are high in carbs.

Sheribear--it would be great to get a comparison! I was also told I could switch to any iron supplement and start taking capsule vitamins (versus the softchews) as long as the multivitamins are bariatric-specific vitamins. I don't mind the softchews, but they are expensive. Anyone have a good multivitamin capsule to recommend?

I had my 6-month followup with my nutritionist and surgeon yesterday and thought I'd pass along the results. I am down to a 25 BMI, which the surgeon said is better than average at this stage. Yay me! I told him about how dry my mouth is when I wake up using my CPAP machine and he wants me to get a new sleep study, saying that the pressure is probably too strong (I'm calibrated at 11). I really hope I can be off of that darn machine, but my brother (normal weight) also has sleep apnea so maybe it's partly heriditary. I confessed my ice cream cone cheats to the nutrionist and she said it's normal to incorporate "other" foods in at this stage, even ice cream if I want (of course, just a little!). She asked me if I'd be happy at my current weight (I'm 5"6" and weigh 165). I said I'd like to at least get to 150. Not sure what was behind that question, but she did say between the 6-month and the 9-month point the weight comes off very slowly, so she said maybe I'd lose more, maybe not. The surgeon, however, said I'd probably lose 10 or 15 more, so who knows. I hope he's right! My labs all came back good, but I forgot to ask him if I could stop taking Ursodial (Actigal) to prevent gallstones so I'm waiting to hear back from his office on that. I also asked the nutritionist about my hair loss and she said it could last up to 6 months (oh no!). All in all it was a great visit, but a little depressing to hear that things are going to slow waaaaay down when I'm also starting to eat more carbs. I'd love to hear about the rest of your 6-month follow ups!

Amazing transformation! Thanks to all who are sharing photos. It's so great to see such progress.

Way to go! You shouldn't be embarrassed to post...you're looking awesome! Thanks to the rest of you posting photos. I work in a large Federal agency so I run into certain people every few months or so. Today one of these people did not even recognize me. That was a little weird, but it goes to show how dramatic my weight change has been. I remember going to my first required support group after the surgery and how one guy said he was struggling with wanting to wear big clothes all the time. I thought that was odd, but I get it now. It feels so good to wear shorts that are actually loose and not digging into me. It feels wonderful.

FANTASTIC! And I see you are at the gym. If you are working out on your arms, do you see loose skin or are you building muscle there? I see no loose skin on you.

Wahoo!!!!

Great snack ideas! Congrats on getting so far toward your goal!

Ugh. My hair loss is terrifying. I have extremely thin hair and when I'm in the shower washing it, I can feel the strands coming out in my fingers. I am trying not to wash it as much, but I seriously cannot go more than two days without it getting nasty looking. I hate combing it out after washing too, as I see lots of strands in the comb. I comb very gently. I am also losing a few eyelashes (again, not good!). It is quite obvious I've lost a lot of hair, especially at the part line, but I'm really trying to stay positive as I know there are many folks miserable on chemo and going bald who have it way worse than me. I take Biotin with Keratin but have not noticed that it helps. I'm going to look into Nioxin shampoo....thanks for telling us about it

Thanks for the food recommendations! I have surely come across a big change in what I can eat and tolerate at the 6-month post-surgery point. I just got back from a wonderful vacation in the mountains of Wyoming and Montana and even though I was ECSTATIC that I had more energy to do things like hiking and whitewater rafting, I also seemed to have much more energy to eat! My biggest downfall was ice cream. I always enjoyed going out for ice cream during the summer and realized I can eat a baby cone with no issues. In fact, at this point I'm wondering if dumping syndrome is still possible. Have any of you suffered dumping syndrome after eating high-fat or sweet foods at this point in our journey? I have not had any problems I maintained my same weight while on vacation, so disappointed I did not lose anything despite the athletic nature of the trip, but not surprised given the four or five ice cream splurges. Also, I've had some apple pie! I never liked pie before but now if you put a piece near me I want it. I was hoping my sweet tooth would be gone (given my love for salty foods), but it is has returned. Thankfully, my portions are still small, but my cravings are not. Are any of you also experiencing this at the 6-month point? Am I just adjusting to eating less or do I need to need to buckle down and stop eating sweets every now and then? What are you all thinking/feeling about this?