Pics from before & 2 1/2 years post-VSG..
Just wanted to say a huge thanks to everyone that posted the kudos and stuff.. I still weirdly do not feel like I am as small as I am ( and I'm not all that small, I just know how to angle things to hide da little belly-pooch I have.. thanks extra skin!)
I suffer from fat-head, and likely always will. Even if I get plastics, there will always be something else I want to tweak.. but regardless of my weird insecurities, and vague discomfort with pictures and compliments still... it's been an amazing journey. I did something similar in my 20's, going from 300+ to 155 on my own... but this time feels much more do-able to make it last. I'm also a lot more mature, being 20 years older now! THAT is the big benefit in my mind of any WLS, the chance to make it a bit more sustainable over the long-term.. the restriction helps, if I eat the right foods (real food.)
Can I gain 5-10lbs fast- you betcha! Don't EVER get complacent and think that just because you have a small stomach you can't fill it with the wrong foods for you (and those foods tend to NOT fill it, and beg for more btw) and have a new roll of flub appear within short order.. it happens. The big take away is the vast majority of the time you need to eat healthy (which we all should do regardless of being surgically altered or not) and pay attention to how things effect you and make changes early when things don't go the direction you like. I don't know about most of you, but I know eating a certain way makes me feel good- energetic, not uncomfortable, happy mouth/happy body/happy psyche.. and eating other ways (though sometimes I may still go there)- makes me feel like a uncontrollable bloated slug, with a distended belly to match (hello pizza & beer, bad combo if you don't want to look preggers.)
We all need to find the lifestyle of food choices/activity we like, that we can do and ENJOY doing on a fairly regular basis.. anything else will be a short-term situation which tends to get chucked to the side during the first big life stressor.
