How did your weight loss affect your career?

Ladybugsy
on 1/15/15 6:10 am

Good Afternoon Everyone!

I'm pre-op and excited for the changes coming my way.  I'm reading all I can but what I'm not seeing much discussion on is how your weight loss has affected your career?  I'm looking for more confidence in my field and for people to take me more seriously.  Do you find that your career is moving in a more positive direction?

HW 350.  SW 338.  CW 320. 

Month 1, including pre-op: -27 pounds

    

poet_kelly
on 1/15/15 11:54 am - OH

It didn't affect mine.  Well, I guess better health benefits one's career.  But I work as a freelance writer and that's what I did before surgery, too, and it's pretty  much the same at whatever weight.

View more of my photos at ObesityHelp.com          Kelly

Please note: I AM NOT A DOCTOR.  If you want medical advice, talk to your doctor.  Whatever I post, there is probably some surgeon or other health care provider somewhere that disagrees with me.  If you want to know what your surgeon thinks, then ask him or her.    Check out my blog.

 

Julia HasHerLifeNow
on 1/15/15 2:11 pm
VSG on 10/09/12

Hi there. It didn't affect mine either. I was pretty much at the top of my particular ladder when I had surgery. A sex change operation might have affected it more than weight loss. Now I just get the odd inappropriate look or comment now and then. But no weight loss did not affect anything substantial in my career given where I was at already.

View more of my photos at ObesityHelp.com 5ft0; highest weight 222; surgery weight 208; current weight 120

     

    

Brad Special
Snowflake

on 1/16/15 12:24 am
VSG on 12/06/12

The sex change comment was pretty funny. Just had to tell you that.

Julia HasHerLifeNow
on 1/16/15 1:40 am
VSG on 10/09/12

 Me and funny dont often meet up so when it happens I am happy!

View more of my photos at ObesityHelp.com 5ft0; highest weight 222; surgery weight 208; current weight 120

     

    

Brad Special
Snowflake

on 1/16/15 3:42 am
VSG on 12/06/12

Well it could just be I have an odd sense of humor but it struck me as funny.

Tracy D.
on 1/15/15 11:44 pm - Papillion, NE
VSG on 05/24/13

Yes!  I felt much more confident and that pushed me to apply for a different position.  And I was MUCH more confident in the interview process because I knew I looked good and healthy.  Sort of important when you're working in the healthcare industry.  

 Tracy  5'3"     HW: 235  SW: 218  CW: 132    M1: -22  M2: -13  M3: -12  M4: -9  M5: -8   M6: -10   M7: -4

 Goal reached in 7 months and 1 week

 Lower Body Lift w/Dr. Barnthouse 7-8-15

   

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

    

SATXVSG
on 1/16/15 12:38 am - Selma(San Antonio), TX
VSG on 04/22/14

It has not affected my career one way or the other.   But it is too early in the process to say.

Now, I do feel that if I was to change jobs, I think weighing less would make me more confident in interviews. I always wondered if I did not get some jobs because I was so obese.

It has affected my sleep patterns.  I was a night person before.  Now, I am in bed before 10 and get up at 5:45 to be at work at 7.  Before surgery, I was working about 8-6, now it is 7-5.  As an accounting manager, I have to put in longer hours.  With year end and audit, I am working more like 7-6.

 

Surgery Date 04-22-14 HW 2011 388(lost 60lbs on WW, regained 40) Surgery Consult Weight 1/10/14 - 367 SW 357 - CW 9/15 210.

Stalls are your body's way of telling you not to get too cocky.

5K - 1st 59:00(9/14) PR 33:45(9/15)

10K - 1:14(10/15) 1/2 - 1st 3/20/16

Dodgergirl27
on 1/16/15 1:43 am
RNY on 01/22/14

haha...I love the sex change comment, you nailed it.  Outside of that though, yes I do feel like it's helped my career.  Now whether that's because people are treating me differently/reacting to me differently or because I have way more confidence now and am therefore more assertive, I can't be sure.  But either way, yes, I feel like I've been more successful and had more opportunities post op than I did pre-op.

      

    
KathyA999
on 1/16/15 7:21 am

Not sure about "career" - by age 60 I had pretty much gone as far as I was going to.  But my surgery allowed me to continue working. 

One of the reasons I had the surgery was the financial meltdown, which destroyed most of my assets.  More than half my retirement plan was gone overnight, and all my stock options, since I worked at the time for one of the mortgage companies considered responsible for the meltdown.  So that meant I was going to have to continue working a lot longer than I had planned.  And I didn't see that happening in the condition I was in then - barely able to function from joint pain, unable to walk without becoming out of breath and without severe knee and hip pain, etc.

So here it is 4.5 years later.  I'm still working, feeling great, traveling when I can, and, thanks to a bit of economic recovery, planning to retire in a year (age 66) and do even more traveling.  I still have *some* knee and hip pain, but certainly manageable, and until I retire, I'm certainly able to contribute with the best of em.

I am SO grateful for my WLS.

Height 5' 7"   High Wt 268 / Consult Wt 246 / Surgery Wt 241 / Goal Wt 150 / Happy place 135-137 / Current Wt 143
Tracker starts at consult weight       
                               
In maintenance since December 2011.
 

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