Patrece S.

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It took me a long time to knock off those last 3 lbs, but I did it and am now down by 100 lbs. I have another 20 lbs to go to be at the 150 lb goal I have set for myself. I lose in funny little spurts. I will go 3 weeks and not lose a thing, then in a week I will drop 2 or 3 lbs, then it goes the same for another round. I am going to try shaking things up a bit in my acitivity and see if that helps at all. At 3 lbs a month, it would take me nearly 6 months to get to my goal...wow how the loss slows down after a while! But I am going to do this, even if it takes that 6 months. I am pleased to be down by 100 lbs. I feel better, my Blood pressure is better than I ever remember it being, the swelling in my legs is resolved and I look so much better too.

When i go through my stall outs, I remind myself...this isn't a race. Its a whole new lifestyle, and for a lifetime. As long as things continue to go in the right direction, and I am doing things right, then I am succeeding and have nothing to feel bad about. We all lose at our own pace and thats okay!

I am continuing on my journey, with my head held high! I hope you are too!

Many of us experience some changes in our emotions after weight loss surgery. There are a few things that contribute to this occurance, But, here's one reason you may not have even been aware of.

First, we all have "fat cells" in our bodies. Even thin people. When you are not overweight, these cells are flat, meaning not filled out. As you gain weight these fat cells become more filled out and larger. Your body actually does not create new fat cells. The ones you do have are just no longer flat and basically empty.

So, whats very interesting here is that when you are obese, and begin to lose weight, you are not actually losing fat cells, rather you are losing the "stuff inside" of those fat cells. What I find extremely interesting though, is what exactly some of that "stuff" in our fat cells actually consist of, other than just fat.

When you first began to pack on the pounds, many of your hormones were actually stored in your fat cells. The longer you have been obese, the more hormones are stored in these fat cells. As you begin to lose weight and your fat cells begin to shrink, they excrete hormones that have been stored in these cells for as long as you have been over weight, thus releasing these hormones back into your blood stream.

Once they are back into your blood stream, you begin to feel the effects of these newly released hormones, and it can really get you in a state of upheaval. Did you begin to gain weight during the time of puberty? Remember how hard that time in our lives were? You were going through many hormonal changes then. Now, as your fat cells release these hormones, you begin to feel the effects of them, but more subtly than during puberty.

So it is believed that this is one of the big reasons many wls patients go through mood changes, and emotional changes especially during the rapid loss phase. The good news is, this does not last forever. And as the weight loss slows, so does this release of hormones that have been stored up over the years in the fat cells, as these stored hormones get flushed from our systems.

It can be helpful to enlist the assistance of an antidepressant during you loss time, to help stabilize the emotional effects of this process. If you are currently on antidepressants, you may need the level temporarily increased during this time.

Which, leads me to another point. After wls, you are in a state of malabsorbtion, unless you had the lapband procedure. This being said, any current medications you are taking at the time of your wls procedure, may need to be adjusted by your physician post-operatively. This applies to not only anti-depressants, but all medications. This is something that will be important to discuss with your surgeon, and (s)he may refer you to your pcp after surgery to manage your medication levels.

It has been almost 3 months since my last blog entry. It doesn't seem that long. I am now down by 97 lbs. Only 3 more to go to get to 100 lbs down. 23 to go to get to my goal. My loss has been very slow the past 4 months or so, but it is still going in the right direction, and thats the most important thing.

At the end of July, when I saw my surgeon, he told me he wouldn't be the least disappointed if I stayed right where I am weight wise. My reply to that was "Boy...I would!" LOL. ( I was 3 lbs heavier at that appt.). His goal for me is 170 lbs. But being 173 now, I know I want to continue to lose beyond that.

Yesterday was an exciting day for me. I went to buy a new pair of jeans, and I had been wearing 16's, that were pretty loose on me. So I just knew I'd be going to a 14. Well, I was wrong! I skipped right over the 14 and went into a size 12! I was like "NO WAY!" I looked at the tag again, and just couldn't believe it. So I tried on a couple of other size 12's to prove to myself that the pair I chose weren't mislabeled...lol. They weren't!

What a wonderful feeling this was!

I recently wrote an article on associated content that gives weight loss tips for a lasting effect. You can read the article here: www.associatedcontent.com/article/1926990/weight_loss_tips_that_have_a_lasting.html. I hope you will find some useful information in this article. The ideas presented in this article will work well for any type of weight loss plan. Enjoy!

As of today, I am 10 months out from my gastric bypass Roux-En-Y procedure. I am down by 91 lbs! Only 9 more pounds to go, and I will be down by 100 lbs! Its funny, earlier today I was thinking I was 9 months out from surgery, but it is actually 10 months...wow! In some ways it seems like much less time than that. In some it seems longer. But one thing is for sure...having this surgery is one of the absolute best decisions I have ever made!  And now I am lving my life in a healthy, active way. It feels so great! Now... to work on the next 9 lbs and become an official member of the century club!

Stay tuned!

Being compliant with all of the requirements and lifestyle changes that our wls requires of us isn't always an easy thing to accomplish. But we all know it is imperative to our long term success with our weight loss surgery. When life seems to spiral out of control, or things get difficult in life, it can be very hard to focus on tending to our needs. My signature (Just do the next right thing) serves as a personal reminder to me, that when I am feeling overwhelmed, all I have to do is take a step back and just focus on the next action I am taking. Rather than allowing the whole picture to remain a stressful and overwhelming situation or challenge, just take it a step at a time when you need to. Just do the next RIGHT thing. This practice helps me avoid "chasing my tail" or just doing "whatever" seems easier at the time. It allows me to focus on doing things the right way, but doing so bit by bit rather than becoming overwhelmed with the "whole picture".