Sheribear68

Heading out to see my niece in her high school play

Don’t get discouraged by setbacks. Setbacks will happen. Stalls will happen. Not making goals will happen. Keep plugging away and never give up

Okay so I’m going to start posting like crazy in the maintenance thread bc many of these issues are now very suddenly relevant to me as well. Today I FINALLY hit goal guys. 8 months, 5 days post-op. I still haven’t “found” my appetite. Still struggle if I try to get in over 800 calorie. Maybe that means my body wants to lose more weight. Who knows, this is all new to me, lol! Hell I set this goal weight without truly believing it was actually possible. I seriously mean that bc there’s no way I thought I’d lose >90% of my excess weight with the sleeve. Maybe my body “knows” there is more to go and it’s just doing its thing. Yours might be doing that as well. At 5’7” and 155, I could still lose 10-15 more and not be overly concerned ( I was 130 most of college) , but I love how I look now and wouldn’t mind if I “only” lost another 5 and stopped cold and stayed right at 150-ish pounds for the rest of my life. I don’t have a great answer, but when I read about forcing some extra calories and carbs, it gives me an unsettled feeling. Mostly bc my whole life has been spent trying to reduce, that trying to force seems so unnatural. Not saying it’s wrong, just saying the whole concept freaks me out.

So I was in the 240’s for the reduction, which was approximately what I was when got sleeved, so a BMI of around 40%. Of course 9 years ago I had zero idea that I’d have WLS. We are almost the same height. I call myself 5’7”, but in actuality I’m 5’6 and 3/4. 7/8 on a good day, lol. Here would be my advice: do it if you’re within 20-30 pounds of GW, but if you have >30 pounds, hold off The reason is that once you pull the trigger on this, you want to avoid sag as much as possible. My favorite thing about my reduction was that I didn’t have any sag or droop. Everything was “High and tight” and now they’re sagging slightly bc of some (but not much) loose skin. It’s nothing that the right bra can’t fix, but why not try for the best results possible, ya know? I’ll be just fine as long as I don’t lose too much more volume (honestly there isn’t much more to lose anymore, but I’m happy with that) if I lose much more volume the loose skin (rather than the loss of boobs) will bother me slightly. IMO, having “normal” or “1 size under normal” size boobs makes a woman look much slimmer than any other single thing. Just my opinion

GOAL! I got my current scale about 5 weeks post op, so it shows me “only”losing 60-odd pounds, but this morning I hit GW. WOW. Just......l wow. HW: 272 SW: 246 GW: 155 CW: 155. Damn I’m crying

Okay so everyone has different pain thresholds. I will say that I’ve had multiple surgeries in my life and this was very painful. But....... it was totally and completely a million times worth it. Opioids (just a few days) will be your friend and so will ace bandages. I can remember my mother (didn’t know my husband then and I was single) helping me wrap up daily and that helped a lot. So if you have a helper it’s totally doable. Also I had/have a job where it is almost impossible to take enough time off to recover. I was back at work 7 days after my reduction, which is ridiculous, IMO. If I recall correctly, I was on opiates for 2-3 days around the clock, then backed off and took them as needed for the next couple of days. Would take 1 at bedtime after working bc I was sore from having to use my arms. I’m a pharmacist and the pain of having to screw on and off childproof lids on bottles almost killed me, but you just cannot do my job without being able to use your arms like that

Okay so here are 3 photos of me. First was a couple months pre-op Second is 4 weeks post op Last one is from last week I don’t think my boobs look wildly disproportionate to the rest of me. Yeah, they’re on the small side and I like that. I’ve always wanted one of those more slim, athletic bodies than the extremely voluptuous one I was born with

Okay so don’t let your surgeon sway you Mine tried his best to explain that I would be shocked and disappointed if I went down as low as I did. He was WRONG I fought to stand my ground and go with the smaller boobs. Yeah, it was probably slightly disproportionate,but I felt better and at the end of the day me being more comfy and feeling good about it was the most important thing. I can remember the first time I went running after healing from the reduction. I had on a NORMAL workout bra (used to I would have to wear two very high-impact ones at a time) and I ran for about a half mile before it hit me that I was RUNNING COMFORTABLY. I literally stopped dead in the street, hugged my arms around myself (because I actually could) and started crying. Then I bent over to touch my toes and didn’t have boobs all in my face. The wonder of it is still with me and now I get to experience that with other parts of my body post-WLS.

Okay so I’m so psyched bc I’ve ordered an awesome fabletics outfit for myself for my bday next week. Yeah, I spent my bday clothes budget on workout clothes. Can’t wait to post my OOTD when those come in

Okay so I had breast cancer 10 years ago and after all of my treatments (chemo and radiation for 11 months) I was approved for reduction surgery. In one day I went from a G cup down to a skinny C cup and that was when I was still in the 240’s. I think they removed over 7 pounds of boobs. It was ridiculous. Waking up from that surgery was NO JOKE. Even though it was seriously the single most pain I’ve ever been in, it was totally worth it. One reason why bariatric surgery didn’t concern me too much was that I’d survived one of the more painful surgeries you can have. For the last 9 years I’ve really enjoyed my much smaller girls,but now that I’ve lost over 100 pounds, they’re all but disappearing. Maybe I’m slightly worried that eventually I’ll have zero boobs, but I love it. I buy padded bras if an outfit needs it and that’s that.

Happy Wednesday. Nother work day.

Okay so I’m thankful for many things. 1. My new lifestyle. It’s tough at times, but completely worth it. 2. My amazing husband 3. My kids— especially now that they’re all out of the house, yet they each live within 10 minutes. 4. My health and brain 5. Having a roof over my head and a steady (no matter how crazy it can get sometimes) job

Any kind of leafy greens. I’m a salad freak and adore making entire salad-meals. My typical salads have 2-3 kinds of cheese, several different types of veggies, protein, and some kind of nuts for topping. Don’t even get in my way if avocados are in season. 🤣🤣🤣

Okay so this was my work outfit for today. Just now posting due to phone app still not working. Loving the cooler weather so I can wear some heavier clothes

Lol, well the “how” is my sleeve. The first 10 pounds actually came off in the 10 day pre-surgery liquid diet, the other 90 since surgery.

My goodness Angiebear, you’re shrinking more and more each day. Looking great

Just found this thread. I was 50 when I had my sleeve on 2-6-19. I’ll be 51 in 10 days and I’m one pound away from goal weight. It’s so exciting to know that this will be the first birthday since I turned 28 that I’ll have a normal BMI

Congrats on your recent surgery! Honestly I don’t think I did much of anything during the first 2 weeks except try to get my water in— and maybe a single serving of protein. I’ll freely admit that I skipped more vitamins than I took in the first few weeks and I think it took me til almost week 4 before I hit my protein goal. And even then I’d miss more than hit. You’ll get in a rhythm and eventually learn what your new digestive system will and will not allow. Great attitude for less than 1 week PO

Wowowowowowow Lol, I can’t even imagine somewhere I’d be invited to go where I could wear such a spectacular dress, but I cannot wait to see you in it

Thanks for the encouragement! I know GW will happen now and TBH, I had my doubts on this day 8 months ago. By the end of the month I’m going to start adding in a serving of complex carbs daily and bumping average daily calorie intake by 200 until I can consistently get to 1200 healthy calories daily. It will take a couple of months I’m sure, but I’m kind of counting on that to take this long so I can also lose another 5-10 pounds in that time as I work on transitioning. Long as I can maintain within a 5-10 pound window of goal (with my GW of 155 being the UPPER limit) then I’ll be completely satisfied I’m truly not looking to go under 145, but I understand it could temporarily happen as this process isn’t like a faucet you can turn on and off at will. These next 3-6 months are going to be interesting and will be full of trial and error.

Okay so today is my 8 month surgiversary. Lol, I had really hoped I’d hit GW by this day, but true to me, I fell ONE MEASLEY pound short! Ah well, gonna double down this week so I can by sure to be at GW by my bday in 10 days. Never give up!

Okay so backtracking momentarily on what potentially counts as “cheats” I’ve had a few pre-planned events PO (anniversary, vacation, holiday, wedding, family bday, family lake house weekend, big football games) On almost each of these occasions, I’ve indulged. What (to me anyway) is critically important is that it was PREPLANNED indulging. It wasn’t “accidental” it wasn’t “spur of the moment”. I knew ahead of time I was going to go off plan for a specified period of time and I enjoyed it and then immediately got back on plan because well.... I PLANNED it. To me, that’s the difference between whether we will run the program or the program will run us. As long as I’m going in the direction I need to go, I’m fine with it. This is the rest of my life and it will include feast/fast periods. I’m not ashamed to admit that I LOVE cocktails, beer, and wine and well over 3/4 of my indulgences have been alcohol-related. The last 3 weeks I’ve been completely on-point. I’ve been

Okay guys so today is my 8 month surgiversary. My GW is 155, and true to form (me being more of the tortoise than the hare) I’ve fallen 1 pound SHORT of goal for this date. Am I gonna let it stop me or discourage me? Nope! In fact I’m doubling down this week bc my bday is in 10 days and maybe I can at least hit my goal by my secondary GW date. Never give up!

That’s some amazing changes! You’ve done amazing

Tastes will change. At first I couldn’t stomach any protein shakes bc they were so over-the-top sweet. So I drank nothing but fairlife milk bc it has so much protein in it. I also use a lot of savory products. Love the bariatric cream of chicken and tomato. Lots of times I’ll add a scoop of beef bone broth powder to miso soup. It’s pretty decent. I’ve also done the bariatric hot chocolate and the oatmeal. Lately though, I tried the premier protein again and I get the caramel and bananas and cream and add to iced coffee over a lot of crushed ice (1:1 ratio) and it’s pretty delicious. In fact, I just ordered their pumpkin spice and I can’t wait to try it out. Don’t be afraid to try new things and even periodically go back to previously tried things. Your tastes will change over time