February 2014 post op losers

[JanetteH 80]

Hi Delillieflower - I empathize - I stalled for 4 weeks once so I know how discouraging it is. Don't worry, this will come to an end and you'll start losing again (as long as you stay motivated and don't start eating all the wrong things). If you're being really strict about what you eat, try adding a little good fats for 2 days - olive oil or avocado - that's what my nut. told me to do. If you're NOT being very strict, try tracking what you eat (I like MyFitnessPal because it already has the nutrition for thousands of foods) and increasing your physical activity. Change of some sort or another seems to help snap our bodies out of "starvation mode".

On the other hand, you've lost 94 lbs in 6months (I've only lost 76 lbs) so you're doing great! Don't get discouraged - you'll be losing again soon. Don't set your heights/expectations too high - we all lose at different speeds. I had hoped to be down to 200 by now and it hasn't happened - that's OK, the scale is still moving in the right direction, SLOWLY Stay positive!

[JanetteH 80]

Finally made it to onederland today. I'm almost 6 months out - I can't believe how time has flown. I still struggle everyday with my food choices. Somedays I make better choices than others, but it's great to have this community to turn to for inspiration.

Hi Sarah - I've been struggling a bit with making choices when I'm eating out or at someone else's house but I'm doing fine at home. What situations are you struggling with? Wanting to eat all the old fried foods etc? I went to a reception last Friday for international students and had a few things I should not have (a fried spring rolls; 2 fried samosas; a fried shrimp purse). I felt ill about 30 minutes later, threw up and had to come home. The next morning was spent in the bathroom! These negative repercussions are great reminders but we don't always get them - especially if we sneak just a little of the fried foods/sugar into our diet every day - not enough to actually make us sick. My first thought is - just don't keep any bad/tempting foods in the house Is that possible or do you have a partner/children who want those things around?

My local face-to-face support group has started reading "Women, Food and God" by Geneen Roth. Discussing that together is going to help me I think (and despite the title, it's not a "religious" book - more Buddhist philosophy - living in the moment etc.). I also did some work with a psychologist before my WLS surgery which was very valuable. If we don't also work on the reasons we ate too much before, we may not be as successful after surgery. We need to change our way of thinking about food; our relationship with food. The surgery is a tool to help us control the quantity of food we eat, but it's not a magic bullet - we are responsible for the quality of the food we put in our mouths. For example, my relationship with my mother was an influence on my eating and I had to change my thinking and accept responsibility for my own actions. OK, sermon over!

Tell us more about your struggles and maybe someone will have a suggestion that helps. Good luck - stay positive. You're still losing despite your struggles. I'm jealous that you're in ONEderland - that's absolutely fantastic. Congratulations!

[hopetochangemylife 14]

Finally made it to onederland today. I'm almost 6 months out - I can't believe how time has flown. I still struggle everyday with my food choices. Somedays I make better choices than others, but it's great to have this community to turn to for inspiration.

Hi Sarah - I've been struggling a bit with making choices when I'm eating out or at someone else's house but I'm doing fine at home. What situations are you struggling with? Wanting to eat all the old fried foods etc? I went to a reception last Friday for international students and had a few things I should not have (a fried spring rolls; 2 fried samosas; a fried shrimp purse). I felt ill about 30 minutes later, threw up and had to come home. The next morning was spent in the bathroom! These negative repercussions are great reminders but we don't always get them - especially if we sneak just a little of the fried foods/sugar into our diet every day - not enough to actually make us sick. My first thought is - just don't keep any bad/tempting foods in the house Is that possible or do you have a partner/children who want those things around?

My local face-to-face support group has started reading "Women, Food and God" by Geneen Roth. Discussing that together is going to help me I think (and despite the title, it's not a "religious" book - more Buddhist philosophy - living in the moment etc.). I also did some work with a psychologist before my WLS surgery which was very valuable. If we don't also work on the reasons we ate too much before, we may not be as successful after surgery. We need to change our way of thinking about food; our relationship with food. The surgery is a tool to help us control the quantity of food we eat, but it's not a magic bullet - we are responsible for the quality of the food we put in our mouths. For example, my relationship with my mother was an influence on my eating and I had to change my thinking and accept responsibility for my own actions. OK, sermon over!

Tell us more about your struggles and maybe someone will have a suggestion that helps. Good luck - stay positive. You're still losing despite your struggles. I'm jealous that you're in ONEderland - that's absolutely fantastic. Congratulations!

I have no clue how to post on here, so hopefully this gets through. I just want to say that although I don't know any of you, I wish you lived down the street from me! I am waiting for surgery and happened to find this app/site looking for more information about RNY. I just wanted to hear from real people about the trials and tribulations of WLS. I am still learning the lingo but love these posts from all of you! Now...I winder if this will post AND if I will ever navigate myself back to this page!

[clairec 44]

Hi to you all,

Delilieflower I started off at the weight you did, and which is higher than the average bear! You are doing really well. There will be times when your weight does not seem to go down, and times when it suddenly does for no reason. Who knows why but it is just one of those things. I had only lost 83 pounds since the surgery 6 months ago when I came away on holiday, so you are doing better than me. I had lost weight in the 3 years before then so my weight is lower than yours overall if your ticker is correct, but your speed of weight loss is quite a bit more. So Celebrate, and it will carry on soon I am sure. While we celebrate the fact that quite a lot of our group are in ONEderland, we can also celebrate when we get into the 200 range, I just have and you will soon. Everyone will then also celebrate with us, that is what this group is for.. celebrating, supporting and advising and sometimes giving a kick up the butt.

Janette thanks so much for your excellent posts, really interesting. Sarahgirrl, you sound as if you are doing really well, it is not easy being perfect all the time, and none of us are, cut yourself a little bit of slack if you can.

Hopetochangeyour life, you made it on here and welcome. We are all 6 months down the line as you can tell. This is a great group and we are so lucky to have found each other. We are happy to answer any questions you have.

We are in the Smokie mountains at the moment which is just beautiful. Just had to say I went up a mountain chair lift, they were great about the disability side of things and sent up a wheelchair ahead of me to sit on, and back again. They were really great. I asked Alan to ask them about the weight limit before we bought the tickets under my old mantra about the times it is not safe to be "creative" about how much you weigh. With an anaesthetist before an operation, bungee jumping, hot air ballooning and in our case a chair lift going high up a mountain....! He said that they have people much bigger than your wife going up, which was wonderful to hear. I guess i always think that I am the biggest person on the planet, but not any more maybe! My mother took a picture of us coming down and even I had to say I didn't look THAT big. So a real result. Only problem is that I forgot that I was wearing flipflops and there was no foot rest so I had to clench my toes and keep my feet straight all the way to stop my shoes going into the abyss. Far from easy!

Hope you are all having a good Summer. xx

[JanetteH 80]

Congratulations, Claire - what an accomplishment (and I don't mean keeping your flip-flops on!) Have fun in the Smokie Mountains - aren't they beautiful?

I just booked my flight to go home to Scotland and upgraded myself to "Economy plus" for extra legroom. I was assigned an Exit row and confidently said OK because I won't need an extension for the first time in years - YEAH! (They don't allow extensions in Emergency Exit rows in case it trips people as they get out of the plane - I got moved last time)

[tkauhi 90]

Janette, I need to fly somewhere so I can say I don't need the seatbelt Extention. :-)

[clairec 44]

Hi Janette,

How wonderful, an exit row! No seat belt extension, what an achievement! I am still using one but there is definitely more space. I was in Premium Economy coming over here without an exit row and miracle of miracles the person in front did not put his seat back, but I sat with my legs crossed some of the time... just because i could!!! yay!

Take care and have a good trip

Claire

[JanetteH 80]

All those little things that thin people take for granted - fitting in seats, using seat belts, crossing your legs etc

I discovered a new part of my body - apparently I have this thing called a "lap" that I haven't seen in years! Little children can sit on my knee now

[clairec 44]

All those little things that thin people take for granted - fitting in seats, using seat belts, crossing your legs etc

I discovered a new part of my body - apparently I have this thing called a "lap" that I haven't seen in years! Little children can sit on my knee now

Soo great isn't it! These things are more important than what the scales say, so we mustn't get too obsessed about those readings. Says me, and you will need to talk me down from the brink if I actually put on weight on this trip! Actually having seen photos of me, which are much better than before, and think of all those little but important advantages, I think I could cope if I stabilise with not a huge amount more weight lost. Hopefully I will lose another 20 pounds or so,and more if I am lucky, but I am telling you all now that I would not be devastated if that was all. Now you can see if I mean it if it does stop that early! Again you might need to talk me down from the edge at that point. The point for me is to be stable and not regain... ever, whenever I do stop losing. I am aware that usually there is a lowest point which can be 7-15 pounds lower than your final weight though. It is what I end up at that is the important thing for me.

So I have put line in the sand now in terms of not panicking if my weight is not brilliant when I get home and also if my weight loss stops sooner than I would like. Let's see how I feel at both those times, I might need all your support if either of those things happen though!

Greetings from lovely Mississippi.

Take care all of you.

Claire

[JanetteH 80]

You've heard the saying "I'm not overweight, I'm under-tall"? Have you also noticed that there's a banner advertising limb-lengthening surgery at the top of this site

Just did my weekly weigh-in and I lost 4 lbs this week!! I guess we expect fluctuations - I've only been losing 1lb a week for several weeks so this was a big surprise. I'm so encouraged that I will get to ONEderland soon. Didn't tell my mother or brother in Scotland about WLS (my brother is also obese, has diabetes etc) - wonder what she'll say when their not so obese daughter steps off the plane.

[DELILLIEFLOWER 13]

Thanks everyone for the encouragement. I finally broke this stall I weighed in yesterday (on home scale) and I am 331.2lbs...yaay. My next doctor's appt is on August 27th so I will find out for sure what my exact weight is, so hopefully I can lose at least 1.2lbs by then...lol

[millergirl314 168]

Just looking for a little encouragement from my fellow "losers" lol. I had my gall bladder removed a few hours ago but I have a bunch of stones stuck inside my biliary duct, I believe that's what they said. They're going to do some other endoscopic surgery later on to get the rest of the stones. Just feeling a little down as of late.

[JanetteH 80]

Delilieflower - congratulations - that's great. Stalls are so discouraging. Do you have a special reason for wanting to be down to 330 before your appointment?

Millergirl - so sorry you're going through this. I just had my 6 month checkup today and was told I could stop taking the gallbladder medication they put me on. Apparently the fast weight loss in the first 6 months often causes gallstones. Take care of yourself and feel better soon.

[millergirl314 168]

Thank you Jeanette I get to leave in a few hours so things are looking up. Just a bump in the road.

[JanetteH 80]

Just got this article from a friend in the medical field. Apparently we won't just be thinner, we'll also be smarter Does that count as an NSV for all of us?

Brain Benefits From Weight Loss Following Bariatric Surgery

Wed, 08/27/2014 - 10:31am; JCEM

Weight loss surgery can curb alterations in brain activity associated with obesity and improve cognitive function involved in planning, strategizing and organizing, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

Obesity can tax the brain as well as other organs. Obese individuals face a 35 percent higher risk of developing Alzheimer's disease compared to normal weight people.

Bariatric surgery is used to help people who are dangerously obese lose weight. Bariatric surgery procedures are designed to restrict the amount of food you can eat before you feel full by reducing the stomach's size or limit the absorption of nutrients by removing part of the small intestine from the path food takes through the digestive tract. Some procedures, such as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYBG) surgery, use a combination of these methods. This study was the first to assess brain activity in women before and after bariatric surgery.

"When we studied obese women prior to bariatric surgery, we found some areas of their brains metabolized sugars at a higher rate than normal weight women," said one of the study's authors, Cintia Cercato, MD, PhD, of the University of São Paolo in São Paolo, Brazil. "In particular, obesity led to altered activity in a part of the brain linked to the development of Alzheimer's disease – the posterior cingulate gyrus. Since bariatric surgery reversed this activity, we suspect the procedure may contribute to a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia."

The longitudinal study examined the effect of RYBG surgery on the brain function of 17 obese women. Researchers used positron emission tomography (PET) scans and neuropsychological tests to assess brain function and activity in the participants prior to surgery and six months after the procedure. The same tests also were run once on a control group of 16 lean women.

Before they underwent surgery, the obese women had higher rates of metabolism in certain areas of the brain, including the posterior cingulate gyrus. Following surgery, there was no evidence of this exacerbated brain activity. Their brain metabolism rates were comparable to the activity seen in normal weight women.

After surgery, the obese women also performed better on a test measuring executive function – the brain's ability to connect past experience and present action – than they did before the procedures. Executive function is used in planning, organizing and strategizing. Five other neuropsychological tests measuring various aspects of memory and cognitive function showed no change following the surgery.

"Our findings suggest the brain is another organ that benefits from weight loss induced by surgery," Cercato said. "The increased brain activity the obese women exhibited before undergoing surgery did not result in improved cognitive performance, which suggests obesity may force the brain to work harder to achieve the same level of cognition."

Edited August 27, 2014 by JanetteH