Queen ApisM

I'm Greek. Everything is about food. All. The. Time. Honestly, it hasn't been a big deal. The holidays were about 4 months after surgery and it was fine. Those holidays were with my immediately family, who all knew, so that made it easier. I ate what I could eat (did a lot of tasting, which was more satisfying than I ever would have imagined). I didn't restrict myself - I tried what I wanted to try - and found that if something wasn't amazing I didn't bother with it and didn't feel like I was missing out at all. Still lost a ton of weight over the holidays without being anal retentive. In April, we had a big Easter celebration (8 months out from surgery) and I was very nervous because the extended family was there and I thought they would notice. Nope. They were all too busy stuffing their faces to notice what I was doing. Again, I ate what I wanted but listened to my body and stopped when I needed to stop. Whatever extra I couldn't eat on my plate, I tossed (something that I think you need to be ok with sometimes, post surgery, when taking food home isn't an option). Again, no one noticed or said anything, which is surprising because these people have no freaking filters or regard for feelings. None of them commented on my weight loss, either, other than to say I looked good. I don't live near them so I am sure they didn't have a good frame of reference for my starting size. This Thanksgiving should be interesting because at this point, I'm the smallest I have been in 16 years so I may get more scrutiny and attention as to what I am eating, but if they do... oh well. At this point I'm confident in what I eat in front of people and don't care.

You are doing amazing!

I also felt like this. My hunger is back now, but it is also very different than it was. I can ignore it in a way I simply could not ignore it before, and I find it is more easily satisfied than it used to be. Not just the quantify, but also mentally, if that makes sense.

I was not given a carb limit, and in fact, when I asked about it, they were estimating between 125-150 g of carbs. But, my program doesn't do the whole low carb thing. They are very much into balanced diets once you start eating real food post surgery. Guidance and approaches to this are all over the map.

I was once on nifedipine which is in the same family/class of drugs and my feet were horribly swollen. It was terrible. I complained about them but in typical fashion, my dr's PA said "put your feet up." Yes, because that works when you have stressful day job working 12+ hours a day on the regular (at a desk). When I started to have serious heart issues, the swelling from the nifedipine masked the issue a bit, because they thought the swelling was from that, and not my heart issue. Thank goodness I advocated for myself or I would be dead. Anyway, the moral of my story isn't to scare you, but to say that if the almodipine is causing swelling, I would recommend you push back and ask for other alternatives. There are many blood pressure medications out there and they can try different combinations to control the pressure and that also minimize the side effects for you.

This is why I have not started back on coffee. It's crazy sounding, but it is better for me to plan on special coffee treats from Starbucks (lower calorie options) 1-2x a week than to let myself fall down the coffee rabbit hole. I hate skim milk in drip coffee, which means I want to use other items that are very calorie dense. At least if I plan the coffees, I can track them and program them into my week. The Protein shake option is my back up, for when I decide I want a drip coffee with the husband.

I take eplerenone, which is a diuretic. I continued to take it after surgery. I also have lasix as needed and they purposely gave to me in the hospital (even though I typically don't take it) and I am glad they did... got rid of post-surgery fluids. It wasn't a problem after surgery. Sure constipation was an issue, but that's an issue for lots of us regardless of diuretics. I just made sure to get my minimum fluids as soon as I could post surgery. Also, if taking for high blood pressure, it's a good idea to monitor your pressures after surgery. As you lose weight, you may not need it (or as much of it) as you did before. I halved two of my BP meds pretty quickly after surgery.

Bone broth. It has more protein than regular broth and is lovely to sip on warm. It was a life saver for me in the early stages - counts as fluid and protein!

I would not be discouraged. I learned a lot in my required nutrition program - and that wasn't because of insurance since I was self pay. It was part of my program regardless of whether you were self pay or not, and I thought it really helped prepare me for surgery incredibly well. In fact, I also gained some weight (instead of losing) and they had me do some extra nutrition visits and I am so glad they did.

I lost from my upper body first: chest, upper back, arms, neck, face. I also lost elsewhere, but it was very noticeable quickly up top. I'm pear shaped to begin with, so it just reinforced that being the fact. I had to replace my bras pretty quickly because I was swimming in them. Now, if I look at my measurements I've lost probably the same amount (10 inches or so) from my chest and my hips, but since I'm pear shaped and always carried more in my bottom half, I'm still larger down there.

what’s been your biggest change? The level of energy I have. It's nuts. I am so motivated to do things now, and that's with me still being 120 lbs heavier than a normal BMI. It's been great, and it has led to other changes like exercising so much more, accomplishing more house goals, and just generally being happier and more stable emotionally (even with all the weight loss-induced hormonal situations). what was the biggest surprise? I thought I would mourn not being able to eat a lot, and I really don't. Sure, sometimes I wish I could just scarf down a big plate of whatever, but then I start eating and I have the amount I can have, and I am ok with it. I thought I would feel deprived and sad but I really do not. biggest challenge? Not comparing myself to others. I'm a year out, and while I am happy with what I have lost, I can't help but compare myself to others who started out with similar stats but have dropped a whole lot more weight. Or even more, people who started out even smaller but lost more weight! It's tough not to compare but I'm constantly working on it... biggest personal victory? This one is tough. I'd say the fact that I now workout 5x a week for 45 minutes and enjoy it? I don't have to talk myself into it as much as I used to, and I feel compelled to do it.

I highly recommend getting a couple of sessions with a trainer if you can afford it (I know it isn't cheap). But, they can help ensure that you are doing a good mix of exercises that balance across muscle groups and can help ensure you learn proper form, both are important to prevent injury. I like a mix of bodyweight exercises and dumbells, and a trainer can help with those. Don't forget flexibility and balance - those are also very important for overall body health and a good trainer should include those in their sessions. I've been working with a trainer for years and highly recommend it, even if only for a couple of sessions. Even at my heaviest, I found the trainers quite lovely and willing to work with any limitations I had... and if you get a crappy one, you can move on to a new one.

So, I have a random weird itchy spot near my back, has been there for years now. Same spot, doesn't always itch but it flares up periodically. The dermatologist said it is something that happens, more commonly in women. It is harmless, and I wish I could remember what she called it. Googling isn't a big help, but I think it might be this one: notalgia paresthetica. You might want to ask a dermatologist at some point, but again she wasn't concerned.

Her issue isn't with the pre-op diet. It's with the post-op program.

Ride it out. Keep hitting calorie and protein goals and just be patient. I had really long hair. I cut it shorter at about 6 months out, and even by then, I was getting regrowth at the roots. The shorter cut (and not pixie short, just to roughly my shoulders) made it much less noticeable. To me, at least. I'm not sure anyone other than me, my husband and my hair stylist even noticed.

It may be ketosis. I had the worst breath - and it didn't matter how much I brushed - for the first few months when it was all protein, all the time. If you are eating no or very few carbs, that could be the culprit. My program isn't carb restrictive, so once I could start integrating them back into my diet, it resolved itself.

This struggle is real, it is even worse when I go to buy new things. I automatically gravitate to the largest sizes still, when in reality I'm somewhere around a 16/18 top and 20/22 bottom, depending on fit. Nope, my brain goes straight to the 28s. In terms of purging old clothes, I have done it slowly. I'll do a try on and easily depart with some of the oversized things, but then I still keep others. Then 2 months later I do another try on and manage to get rid of a few more oversized things while still keeping others. I keep worrying I will "need" them, which is nuts because I don't even want to wear those things anymore! Still, it's ok - tackle that at your own pace. It's a process and you do what's best for you.

Agree with others. Everyone is different and your body does not work linearly. I mean, I'm no where near goal and I have slowed to a crawl the past two to three months, without changing my eating (might be all the exercise, but hard to know, I'm just keeping on keeping on). Other people with my same stats could be dropping 2 or 3 times the weight I am - until their bodies decide not to and stop. It's not predictable and I find comparing myself to others does nothing helpful or useful.

My wait to surgery was almost 2 years. I was originally talking and planning about in late 2019. I was always going to be self pay b/s it is excluded from my health insurance policy, so I looked at practices and settled on one. Then, coronavirus hit. I also at that point realized the practice I was going to use was not the right one for me, and investigated a new one, doing a new consult virtually during coronavirus (Aug 20). This new practice had a lot more requirements even for self pay and while I was frustrated, in the end it was the best thing that happened. Now, what wasn't good in that time is I gained more weight (I blame it on the weight a lot of us gained during COVID but I just was in a weird place and under a lot of stress at work - quit that job!) but what was good is the program I went with was very intentional about preparing everyone - regardless of whether it was insurance covered or self pay - for what to expect after surgery. Did it suck waiting? Yes. Do I regret it? Just a little - but mostly because I wish I had found this practice back in Fall 2019! I don't think I would have been as prepared and ready for surgery if I had rushed and gone with the practice I originally was looking at (they are well-known and have a strong reputation where I live, it just wasn't the right vibe). Part of why I feel like the past year has gone so smoothly for me (my surgery was Aug 16, 2021) is the level of mental preparation I had. I also used that time to unpack lots of other issues in therapy, which was helpful. So all of this is to say... what do you think will give you the most success? Personally, I would try to do it through insurance if I had the chance. It's not just the surgery itself - but what if there are complications? It's rare, but possible, and I had so much stress and worry about how I could bankrupt us if something went wrong. I'd also use the time to try and build some good habits, which is something my program stressed during the education phase: drinking water, exercising, sleeping well, etc. If you think you have any emotional hang ups about food, it'd also be a great time to work on that, ahead of surgery.

I can't recall if I had to do it for 14 or 28 days post opp and I hated it. It's not the worst, but it does sting and I did not enjoy doing it 2x a day. But it is very important for preventing clots and depending on how heavy you are to start it can be a serious risk, so I did it faithfully and celebrated when my last shot was done.

Possom gave some great ideas. I ate a lot of beans - vegetarian refried beans with some cheese melted on top were a go to food. I hated pureed meat so I stuck to dairy-based and bean-based proteins. Yogurt and cottage cheese were big staples. In the beginning I really hated anything with sugar or chocolate (which I normally loved) and honestly, all food was kind of meh and uninteresting. Bone broth is a great option for salty - regular broth is good too, but bone broth has more protein. I used to have at least a cup a day when eating was still taxing. She really needs to eat... or at least be getting her protein in some way, either via food, protein shakes, etc. It's really important at this point. Also, I found in this stage that I had to make myself eat, even if I didn't want it. As long as it didn't make me sick, I ate it. I didn't need to love it, as long as my stomach agreed and it didn't totally turn my taste buds off.

Your loss is really impressive and you should be incredibly proud of yourself. I started at 385, though my highest weight ever was at least 400 lbs (my scale didn't go higher) and am now at the same weight as you (not losing nearly as fast as you have - and really slowly now). On the one hand, I feel so amazing. Physically, I feel so much lighter than 271. I feel spry. Things are so much easier and I don't automatically feel limited. I am enjoying physical activity and exercise. I have SO MUCH ENERGY and have been so productive in my personal life. Medically lots of things are better. But, even with that, I know I am still fat and that's how everyone around me sees me - as the fat lady. It's tough because on the one hand, I am so proud of what I have done and how hard I am working, but on the other, I still have SO MUCH FURTHER to go and I know society as a whole still sees me the same way as it did before. It's like being in mile 13 of a marathon... so proud of managing 13 miles but dreading and a bit depressed about having 13 more to go (and worried I won't make it). I'm not sure that I feel significantly differently in public situations, since I am still obese. But, I feel more "normally obese" if that makes sense. I don't always feel like I am automatically the biggest person in the room. I am not paranoid about sitting on chairs (will they hold me? can I get on the stool?) like I used to be. I'm less worried about what my butt is running into (I have a booty, it is/was a real concern). But, I am still obese and I know judgement abounds. Not sure I am helping in any way, but it is a weird place to be in.

Agree with others - unless you have complications or get an open surgery (rare, nowadays) I think you will be fine. I took 2 weeks off, and then went back half days in week 3, mostly because I really needed naps every afternoon for the first month or so. I was just tired all the time. Now, I work from home so that was perfect. If I had been commuting, it would have been a different discussion. I'm not sure I could have handled a daily commute just because I was so freaking tired. Also, those first few months are very focused on routine (at least for me, almost constantly thinking about drinking or food) so being at home made that easier. In terms of house tasks, most of them were easy enough to do without help. The big one is not picking up heavy items, so dragging bags of dog food around would have been a problem. So, if there are things like that you need done, I would plan for them ahead of the surgery so you don't need to worry about it. I will admit: had I been at my old job and eligible for FMLA, I may have taken the 4-6 weeks just because I could. I had a lot of leave saved and it would have been paid. But I switched jobs right before surgery so I did something that worked with my new job.

Pre-diabetic (on massive amounts of metformin), high blood pressure, and a heart issue pre surgery. Now, hope is the heart issue will improve but not be fully rectified. I haven't taken metformin since surgery (11 months now) and my A1C is great. Fasting sugars are great. Vitamin D which is usually extremely low is normal again. My blood pressure is way down - meds have been cut but I will probably never go off them because they are for BP as well as my heart issue. in fact, I probably should drop the meds again but we are trying to keep me at the highest levels I can tolerate without completely tanking my BP since I need it for the other issue. At my latest heart echo, there was slight improvement in my heart - the cardiologist is excited to see the next echo in a year, since I would have sustained 100+ lb loss by that point.

My marriage hasn't changed. My husband has been very supportive and a big cheerleader before and after surgery. I am lucky and cannot complain about anything. So far, I think our connection is stronger especially physically. My sex drive is through the roof now. 😲 I am curious, though, what could happen if I get closer to goal. I'm 12 lbs from the lowest weight I have ever been while he has known me. I hope this won't happen, but part of me wonders if he will feel insecure as I continue to lose. I don't think so, but I'm enough of a realist to recognize it is a possibility. Edited to clarify that I'm 12 lbs from the lowest weight the hubby has ever seen me at since it wasn't clear.