blackcatsandbaddecisions

I shop on thredUP! I love it. Their pictures are bad and the descriptions are worse but I’ve gotten some super deals. My advice 1. There’s a promo code going on all the time, so don’t buy without one. 2. There are great and terrible deals- ignore the retail prices listed. Set what you’re willing to pay per item. 3. Shop by brand. I buy a lot of Ann Taylor, loft, limited, ModCloth, stitchfix brands, etc there. I know how these brands fit me. 4. Overall it’s a lot of fun- not every item is a winner but enough are that I have made multiple hauls!

Great advice here- I had an easy time because I was already in ketosis before and I can’t recommend that enough. Start low carb a week or two before so you don’t have all the shocks at once. Also, distraction! I went shopping in the evenings, took my kids to the park, worked late, prepped for my surgery trip etc. You can’t cheat on a diet if you’re not around the food! Plan a full day of the food you can have. I was always “eating” something so I had less time to be distracted by what I wasn’t able to eat.

Me at 7 months

MONTH SEVEN! I’m excited today can you tell? 1. Finished my couch to 5k app. I can run for 30 minutes straight now! I am working on slowly increasing my speed now because I might be tall but I am slow. Working on it though! 2. I AM IN ONDERLAND!!!! 198.4 this morning. I haven’t been here in probably 12 years, and even that was for a short period of time. I am so excited. I’m overweight now, and getting closer to a normal weight. 10.8 lbs down this month which is great. I’m 140 lbs down total. 28.5 BMI. I went on a roadtrip with my husband and kids and it was so good. We went on so many hikes and I was able to do everything. We went out to a winery and a brewery and I had one glass at each place and felt perfectly satisfied. But I had great energy and had a wonderful time not feeling like I was holding everyone back, or making the trip all about where I could eat next. Food was an afterthought to us having a wonderful time as a family, like it should be. Goals for this month? Well I’m coming up on the one year anniversary of starting to diet in preparation for surgery. I’d love to hit 150 lbs lost- might be a bit too ambitious at this stage, but a girl can dream. 1. Increase my speed by .5 mph running. 2. Lose 10 lbs at best, 7 lbs at least. 3. Have fun on my camping trip, and over 4th of July weekend without it all being food related.

I’m sorry you had this experience. I’ve eaten at Red Robin a few times and I always get the chicken Ensenada (maybe spelled right?). It has sauces on it but you could just ask for all those on the side. That might be a simpler order then, it would just be a chicken breast. I get the sauces on it because I love spice, but it wouldn’t be a problem to leave them off I’m sure. I’m sorry your diet is so restrictive- I have no problem with salt or fat, etc, so I don’t worry about those additions. I always get water, and just ignore it. Easy breezy. Best advice is to not worry too much about what you get on your plate you won’t eat- just leave it behind. I’m trying to reform my clean plate ways!

I had a similar experience in that nothing really gave me trouble during the purée/soft food/regular food stages. I am able to eat salad, chicken breast, raw veggies, etc with no problems at all about 7 months out, and have been able to for months. One thing that I really have been focused on is that my program gave me a surgery and a plan, and I need to stick to it as much as possible. My one piece of advice about 6 or so months ahead is to stick to your plan and try to avoid “testing” your surgery as much as possible. It’s a slippery slope, especially in the early weight loss phase.

I didn’t do it gradually, but about 4 months preop I did a low carb/low calorie diet. It was born out of fear that I would have gained during a pre-op period that could have disqualified me from the program. It was intended to be short term but I stuck with it for 4 months and lost 57 lbs with it. I really feel like it helped some of the changes during surgery be less jarring. The liquid diet was no problem at all, because I was already eating small portions and low carb. I don’t deal well with huge changes and I think I could have had some real problems giving up sugar/carbs/huge portions at the same time as I was recovering from surgery. Also I have a huge amount of weight to lose (started at 339, goal of 165) so I was also trying to get a head start. So far so good, I’ve lost 137 of the total 174 lbs I need to lose at almost 7 months post op.

I was told not to use a straw and I didn’t for the first 6 months. But in the last month I’ve started using one in my iced lattes again and no problem here. I think some people chug through straws, but if you drink sips still and wait in between them you should be fine. I’m such a rebel. Straws, coffee, sometimes I drive 41 in a 40 mph zone, who knows what I might get up to next.

I discovered that I actually wasn’t happy sitting alone in my bedroom eating a family sized bag of candy and chips every Saturday night. Crazy. Seriously though, I am impressed at my own ability to follow through and persevere. The whole process isn’t easy, from insurance to surgery to recovery and then weight loss. But it’s nice to feel accomplished and have reached a goal that I set.

Don’t waste time post op trying to figure out how to start eating the foods that got you overweight in the first place again. There’s a big difference between what you “can” physically eat and what will get you to your goals. The surgery won’t make good choices for you, unfortunately. You’ll stall at or around 3 weeks. Almost everybody does. No, you don’t need to change anything up. It’s normal, it happens, and it’s temporary. Just get off the scale for a week or two and it will go away. Yes, take pre photos and measurements! I knew I needed to and guess what I didn’t do. Now I have like one pic of me at my heaviest and no idea of measurements. Would have been nice to have.

Ask your doctor, mine had no issues around caffeine and so I had plenty of coffee with unsweetened almond milk in it. But other doctors are more strict on caffeine. It’s really a matter of surgeon preference.

So I’ve lost a lot of hair but again, only noticeable to me. I knew this going in and I made my peace with hair loss pre op. Here’s my question to everyone though- my hair is very dry and frizzy, but I’m having problems finding nourishing/frizz fighting products that don’t weigh down my fine, long, thin hair. Any suggestions?

We go out to restaurants, I’ve never really had a problem. I often get soup, salad, or an appetizer. I don’t usually ask for modifications to the items outside of dressing on the side. I know I’ll never finish it, I usually get a question from the waiter but if you assure them it was great but you’re stuffed they generally don’t care. I would avoid kids menu. Fried, high fat, and bland. I hate feeding it to my picky kids and I’m not wasting calories on that. I’ll order my full size dinner or appetizer and eat what I want. You can also put your napkin on top of your plate when you’re done so it’s not obvious how much you didn’t eat.

I am almost 7 months post op, and thus far I’ve not really had any regrets. I also had concerns about all the food I was going to be giving up- truth of the matter is that I haven’t really given up anything outside of candy. Physically I’m sure I could eat it, but I made a personal choice that I have too many issues with it and I needed to leave that behind. But this last weekend I had beer and wine (albeit much less than I would ever have had before), sushi with rice, and no stomach problems at all. I’m just very mindful of portion sizes and tracking what I eat since I’m still losing. Some people end up with certain foods they can’t eat, but I didn’t. I tried to sit down pre op and think about certain foods and why I was so worried about “missing out” that I was willing to stay 340 lbs. I finally came to realize that you can’t have everything in life- of course I wanted to be a healthy weight and still be able to gorge on candy and chips and fast food without a care in the world. But that’s not how life works, and being a normal weight and able to enjoy all that life offers outside of food outweighed my desire to keep the eating habits I had.

Not enough fat...now that’s the dream. 😂. Seriously though, congrats!

Oof, I’m a bit over 6 months and I’ve also been stalled for about 1.5 weeks. Very annoying, since I’m getting plenty of exercise and 1000 calories per day. At my height that’s definitely a calorie deficit. I’ve just decided to step away from the scale for a few weeks and not worry about it. If I was snacking a ton or eating things that were off-plan that would be one thing but I just don’t think that’s the case. If I’m still this weight in in two weeks then I’ll be back here with a bit more panic and plans to shake things up. Otherwise, just the lovely scale driving us nuts as it loves to do.

Love the idea! My milestones were/are: 1. Being under 40 BMI -done 2. Losing 100 lbs- done 3. Being “overweight” (just reached this!) 4. Unsubscribing from Torrid and Lane Bryant emails- done 5. Fitting in my wedding rings- done 6. Finishing a couch to 5k app- just 1.5 weeks away! 7. Losing 150 lbs- I’m getting closer! 8. Hitting a normal weight - still a little way off from this but still working toward it I never planned for some milestones that were huge for me like fitting in the conference room chairs at work, being able to cross my legs, buckling my seatbelt without struggle, etc. Oh, but a huge milestone I forgot- onederland! And I’m 6.2 lbs from it, but who’s counting right?

Congratulations!!

I wouldn’t worry about the no restriction with liquids issue. It happened to me (and a lot of others) and I was just sure it meant my surgery didn’t work, but as promised, restriction showed up with solids. Congrats on being on the other side!

Surgery is a weight loss assist/boost, but it’s not going to do the work for you. I hate seeing posts of people who are back at fast food, candy, pastries, chips etc within a few months of surgery. Just because they “can” eat some of this stuff doesn’t mean they should be at this stage in the weight loss phase. Focus on your goal of weight loss, not testing your surgery limits. Your surgery might allow you to eat almost anything without trouble, but at the end of the day you’re still responsible for what you eat. Don’t live off a diet of protein shakes and water only, but also take this opportunity to reinvent your eating habits so you don’t end up back where you started in a few years. I was in my preop class with a guy I know who kept saying he was going to eat exactly how he did preop but just let the surgery limit his portion sizes. He stopped losing weight only a few months post surgery and never even got close to his goal.

I got vaccinated in January about 2 months post op. No problems, felt a bit run down after the second dose but it lasted less than a day then back to business.

A few years back my (then) 3 year old son would go crazy every time this ad for a local weight loss clinic came on TV and yell “mama, mama, mama!” When the before weight loss woman was shown. Sigh. He was honestly excited to see “mama” on TV.

It’s a totally normal concern! I know personally I feel like hunger ruled my life pre-op. Like my whole life was feeling hungry, thinking about food, wanting to eat, etc. I know I’m still in the honeymoon phase but dang is it nice to not feel ravenous all the time.

Myran I think you’re making the right choice. I know that even if my parents were able to understand things like this surgery at this point I’d never discuss it with them. Unfortunately people who were a negative influence on your weight and eating habits as a child would often be the same people who would be a negative influence on this weight loss journey as well. You’d think they’d be happy we were “fixing the problem” (tongue in cheek- us existing as overweight people shouldn’t be viewed as a problem in their lives but we all know that’s how some parents view it) but in reality the same negative behaviors and attitudes would just come out again.

I’m 6 months post op and I do feel hunger on occasion, but it’s far less “urgent” than it used to be, for lack of a better term. It’s there, but I could easily ignore it if I wanted to.