summerseeker

I am sure the good people on here will help you out with finding a group. Lots of us have used this forum to chat and find advice. Its a wonderful group, we have all be through it and between us have had every problem going related to the surgery and recovery.

You sound as if you have a great deal going on in your life. You need to take a moment out of your busy life to just breathe. Three months is still a long time to decide which way you want to go, either with surgery or not. You can cancel right up to the minute you walk into the hospital. A few have. This may not be your time. So lets take the things that you are most worried about, Your hair. You will not go bald. You probably will loose some of your thickness. You are young, you have masses of hair. When you are as old as I am you would have already have lost lots of hair due to menopause, so I started off with a deficit. It did get a little scary and I needed to get my hair cut really short but I do love the freedom that it gives me. I felt it was worth it. This surgery was my last chance at a normal life. You will not loose too much weight, you will stop a right place for you. You need to up your calories until you get to a balance. I am ok on 1500 calories a day. I have a slow life, I dont work anymore. I go out with friends, I eat and drink as before. The only thing I do not do is overeat. I don't miss doing that, my friends might do. Especially if they liked to overeat with me. How do you see yourself ? Not how others see you. They may want a fat friend to bolster their own negative ego's. Do you put weight on every year and keep it on ? We all did. We did diets after diets and put it all back on again with added weight. Lots of us ended up with weight related illnesses like diabetes and blood pressure. If you think you can loose weight yourself and keep it off then you need to try. Give yourself 6 to 12 months to do it. Bariatric surgery is not an easy option but if you stick with it, it is a solution. If you do not follow the guide lines then like a diet, it will fail. You should go back and chat with your surgeon. You need to be totally happy with your decision. Give yourself the time you need.

I eat all kinds of cheese at least once a day. A ounce piece of blue cheese and a chopped apple or grapes are my very fav right now for my last snack/ small meal of the day. I only eat full fat foods with the exception of full skimmed milk. I have used the skimmed milk so long I find full fat milk too rich.

Congratulations, Your time will fly by now

I had my first weight increase since surgery, 2 years ago. Just 1 pound but I jumped straight on it and its gone. The weather has be atrocious here, very wet and windy and it curtailed my walking. I just sat around watching tv all the Christmas/ New year period, its so bad for me.

Yes I am on the same page as you. In summer I want the arm skin gone but come winter, I look good, so why would I ? My surgeon and his team has said how tough a surgery it is and doesn't recommend it for me. Then if I had the arms done would all the rest off me look worse ? I imagine so. I have not the money to do any more surgery in the UK and am frightened to go abroad for the cheaper options.

I am outwardly fierce and confident. No one but my doctor, since high school has ever dared to mention my weight. I would deck them. Now they just say wow you look good, your new hair style suits you or think my husband has a mistress. There is loads of Exorcist head turning going on when we go out together. What they are saying behind my back has not as yet been heard by me. I am a big believer in Karma. What goes around always comes around with a heavy hammer.

My newest NSV. Life is so tough now. I have just caught myself complaining that there is too much choice in the clothing sites online. I used to rage when I could not find clothes in my pre op size.

No you don't sound mad just ready for the change. Its so different being thin in a world made for thin people. Your team will tell you what you can eat and drink and you can be assured that nobody else in the world will be on the same diet. Be it pre op or post op. In the UK and Europe, the surgeons do seem more tolerant of some things like Coffee, fizzy drinks, straws, alcohol and salt. There was no limits on my drinks, hot cold, fizzy or frozen. My surgeon said that protein shakes were the devils food and he had me drink full skim milk. Which was right up my street tbh. Cheap and easy to put a flavour too, like coffee or blitzed with strawberry, banana or peanut butter. New year, new you. Enjoy

I agree with everything the others have said. You have had so much to deal with. Book a holiday, it works wonders.

Hello and welcome. The time will fly by, I promise you, Don't over prepare. Do not buy in loads of foods and drinks. After this surgery your tastes could change, mine did. Don't go and read scare stories of others having this surgery. Even on this site most people come and ask questions when they are having problems. They rarely come back when they are doing better. Its scary when its just so one sided. Expect a 3 week stall and many more of them as you go along. The first one is scary as you always imagine you are doing something wrong or messing up. Be careful who you tell about this surgery. Lots of people do not take the news as you would imagine. I, like others on here only told my husband and son. Clean your home. Just in case you are sore on your return from hospital

My husband swears by a banana, lots of fluids and a glass of Tonic water every day. It works for him. BTW the tonic water needs to have quinine in it

If you eat and drink at the same time then you are washing the food out of your new stomach. You need it to get processed. Try and stick with the drinking rules, its tough when you have always had a drink with food but its so necessary. That grossed out feeling ! yuck ! I had this for the longest time. I think its because our hormones are released in a rush because they are in our fat cells. It felt to me just like being pregnant again. The thought of eating certain foods still gross me out. For some reason these were my fav foods pre surgery too. Your new stomach has a huge scar on it. If you could see it, you would be more careful. You do not want food that it can not process just sitting, stuck in there. Try to do what your team say, they are the experts. Soon enough you will be able to eat these foods. You should never get judgy remarks on here. Just help, we have all been there, done that.

Hi Miaaaagirl, As @Arabesque said. Your tiny stomach is full and the remainder sits painfully in your gullet. It still happens to me when I forget and eat too much or too quick. I love, love, love my restriction. Occasionally I will struggle with it for hours and be unable to drink while it passes. TMI. Then I have two choices, suffer it or make myself vomit. If I vomit the only thing that comes up is foamy watery liquid, we call this the foamies. I get immediate relief then. I have never had the old belly busting full to the brim feeling of old. Just the middle of the chest, damn I did it again feeling.

I dont know what weight you are so its really guess work. I did a 3 week pre op diet and with 2 months post surgery weight loss, I dropped 40 pounds. If you do the same and bought your outfit, maybe your clothes would not fit. I really had a struggle with food after surgery. At 2 months I was just about getting the hang of it. I would not have eaten regular food. Soup, milk, yogurts and cheese were my staples at that time. If I had to go to a function I would pack myself a emergency pack, just in case. I had massive drops in energy and needed lots of little meals to pick me up. I still carry protein bars and a drink.

Hello and welcome in the forum. I started at a similar weight to you. I was told I could loose 65% of my excess weight through this surgery if I stuck at it. I did that and a few more percent. At my 2 year check in with my team, they were overjoyed with my progress. In private moments, I look in the mirror and say ' wow, you did this' The surgery has done everything I ever wished for and some other things that I never imagined. Enjoy the ride

Hello and welcome in here. Congratulations on your surgery

Nope you didn't ruin anything. Your journey will be all ups and downs and it is really best to get used to it. Throw in lots of stalls and you will be worrying like crazy if you don't believe your teams advice. You should be in a calorie deficit. Once you are on real whole foods as against puree your restriction will kick in big time. Then you will be on reduced calories again because you just can not eat much. You could have gained three pounds because of a few reasons. Have you been eating salty foods, Having a really stressful time, Have a full bowel or is it just the time of the month.

In my first 3 weeks I lost 16lbs too. My BMI was way more than yours and I could eat next to nothing as I had severe swelling on my internal scar. Hang in there, do the plan. This is not a race. Give yourself at least a year to loose the weight. This surgery is more about keeping your restriction going and eating less in the future so you never get obese again. Thats my goal. Log your calories and protein. Stick with what ever your team have said. They know what they are doing.

How many calories are you getting in a day. Once I got to around 800 a day and got my protein and liquids in, then I began to really pick up

Me. This. I was so disabled that I could just about hoover a room and then rest for the day. I would gasp just standing to iron a shirt. Cooking I did sat down as much as I could. I was supposed to be my husbands carer but more and more he was having to help me. It took me some time to get the right amounts of protein in so that I didn't feel tired but I slowly got there. Then it was like having a new battery pack in me. Super charged. What ever I want to do is so easy now. No wheezing, no hammering heart or palpitations It feels as if I have been given a huge gift. I walk everywhere I can because its such a pleasure. Occasionally I overdo it and the day after I know about it. I think this has a lot to do with having Fibromyalgia not the lack of calories.

The water amount was just a recommendation from my team. They seemed to have a more relaxed attitude towards my goals. I drank what I could. I was only thirsty the first few difficult weeks. Now I just drink what I want, when I want. Before surgery, I detested eggs and just looking at them would make me heave. Now my body craves them. Isn't that strange. We cook all our meals from scratch and I decide on the weeks menu so I adapt them too suit my diabetic husband and my low carb life. If I fancy Thai food, I have it but with a Tom Yum soup vibe with a few fork full of noodles. It does satisfy my craving. If I want lasagne, I eat around the pasta as I can not tolerate it. I eat all the crispy burnt edges though I log everything that I eat and drink so if I want a biscuit and I have already got my protein in, Then I have a biscuit Food should not be boring. I just do not live to eat it anymore.

I like the thought of eating porridge better than actually eating it. I am always disappointed when I retry it. It just sits like a heavy alien in my stomach all day. I think this would be very useful if I need to loose some weight again. Two small bowls of it and I would be ok all day. I have never been a potato person. I much preferred rice, noodles or pasta. To me potatoes need lots of butter to make them edible, luckily that would make me get the foamies.

Me, I am up north though. This is a great forum and anyone will answer your questions. You are welcome to message me on here if its personal. Congratulations on your surgery.

Easy answer, tell no one. I only discussed it with my husband and son. Even now I limit my answers to how I did it. I do tell obese people the truth though if they ask. When you are the biggest person in a group, your 'friends' will always feel thinner by standing with you. Its human nature. Jealousy is an issue too. Trust yourself. You will come to the right decision for you.