AggieMae’s Posts
Just yesterday the freezer drawer wouldn't close will report my reduction of frozen meat weekly... including the "back up" freezer in the garage.
You're not alone. We all have ups and downs. Are you seeing someone to help you with the emotional part of over eating? The surgery doesn't fix your brain.
I think it's unfortunate that people (myself included) consider good pre operative education a "hoop" they have to jump through...
Not everyone has the insight to realize they need therapy. I doubt I would have considered it if it were not required buy my surgeon.
In hindsight I understand that I my desire to have WLS surgery immediately was an example of the compulsive behavior and inability to delay gratification that got me to almost 300 pounds in the first place.
I now realize that tools and strategies I developed over those (well spent) 6 months are already helping me lose weight at least as much as the sleeve. But I have always been good a losing weight. Now, for the first time ever, I also have some tools to help me keep it off.
I'm sure your surgeon told you this before you had weight loss surgery. You can use marijuana as long as you don't smoke it.
Didn't your surgery team address this during pre op education?
I realize before surgery that I had tendency that would sabotage my post WLS so found a therapist and started seeing her before the surgery. With help I developed some useful short term strategies and then a longer term plan. I was very helpful.
I went once a week, then once a month now my next scheduled appointment isn't till June.
There is no "expected" or "typical" weight loss.
A person who weighs 400 pounds losses 40 lbs while a person who weighs 280 loses 28 lbs. Both lost exactly the same 10% of their starting weight. Stick to your plan and the weight comes off.
We all start off at different weights and often with different medical issues and different expectations. Comparison is is just about impossible.
You had your WLS on 2/3/17? I am curious what you are bingeing on because I could barely eat 2oz the first few months.
Good that you are getting treatment right away. My BF is a compulsive eater. She is normal weight but obsessed with food. Last weekend we went out to lunch she had a Caesar salad a coffee drink made with half and half and two deserts. When she got home another friend called her to go out for a late lunch. She went. She just can't say no to food. The amount of time and energy she puts into shame and self loathing breaks my heart.
I use sugar or honey as a sweetener. I use is sparingly, about 2-4 teaspoons a week. You would obviously need to avoid processes, pre made desert foods and things like "fruit" drinks, pudding and jello that are mostly sugar anyway.
Most anything you get in the hospital will be packaged so you can read the ingredients. Have ascertained listed as an allergy to be on the safe side.
I use Unjury unflavored protein powder because all the pre made drinks tasted sickly sweet to me. Though the meal trays had pre made shakes, this was the brand my hospital had available. I mixed it with 2% milk in a shaker I bought from home.
Sparklekitty pretty much covered it. I wanted to add one thing.
Remember that 70% is the "average" weight loss. In my case that's 80 pounds, technically still obese, so I decided NOT to be average.
Before I had my surgery I didn't understand why so many people don't lose their weight but now I can see how easy it could happen. Following my "plan" means eating three or four times a day. No snacks.
I get really full and satisfied on a meal of 3-4 oz of food between 800-1100 calories a day. But I could graze all day on high calorie, low protein foods (chips, cookies , ice cream etc) easily eating 3,000 calories and never feeling full.
The surgery isn't magic it's just a tool.
I was 64 when I had WLS. My health insurance has covered in for 17 years. I regret not doing it 10 years ago when I first considered it.
No one would ever tell a diabetic that taking insulin was the "easy way".
It's just a magic stomach that makes the weight fall off no matter what you put in it.
People are dumb.
My surgeon didn't offer the "magic stomach" option. She removed 80% of my stomach and gave me a diet and a 30 page lists of instructions to follow...maybe I will ask for a "magic stomach" revision at my next follow up appointment!
"Oh dear, you did it the 'hard way'? Was it the cancer or the chemo?"
Once, early on, I dreamed that I ate a whole box of cookies and went I work up it took me a few minutes to realize that I'd dreamed it.
I have a reoccurring dream that I go in for a weight check and weight the same as I did on my surgery day.
I want through the who 6 month pre op program 10 years ago and then backed out because I couldn't imagine my life without unlimited food. Biggest mistake I ever made.
PS: I am steadily losing weight, off all my medication, fit into a size 14, and STILL eat plenty of food.
I could eat 2 plan soft boiled eggs a week post op. I think they weighed a bit over 3 oz (without the shell). I could only eat one scrambled egg, but I added a bit of heavy cream and cheese.
Most successful. And omg is changer to "most" to "moist" AGAIN!
Any eating disorder other than anorexia, bulimia and binge eating is considered a EDNOS or NOS. Impulsive or compulsive eating when you are not biblically hungary. Often followed by shame and/or anger.
Multi discipline treatment is usually the moist successful in the long run.
Good luck.
I told two friends and my husband about my WLS before hand. One of my friends hasn't spoken to me since but, to her credit, didn't gossip about it either. It's not some big shameful secret. I am an administrator at the hospital where my bariatric surgeons, PCP and husbands offices are. So, of course, I know that people know.
I did end up telling my assistant because it was around Christmas and she kept bringing me homemade baked goods and Starbucks to wash them down with. Other than that I don't plan on telling anyone. Don't plan on discussing my future plastic surgery either. I
I respect that other people handle this differently but feel no need or obligation to help "save" other obese people.
Oil helps with hunger because it is high in calories and it's also important to have some oil (fat) in your diet to support healthy cells. But the type of oil, in rather xase, doesn't matter much. some oil, like fish oil, is probably more nutritious. Moisturizer helps the appearance of skin but can't shrink it.
"over eaters anomalous" is probably the best typo I have ever read.
I have a new pad. It has also changed "weight loss" into "Westinghouse" and "WLS" into "LED"...
Better go back to proof reading!
Unless they have a BMI over 50, most women's periods will return when they have lost 10- 15 % of their starting body weight.
Please keep in mind that you will ovulate before your period so take precautions.
I lost 80 pounds when I was 46... about 17 years ago... our youngest child will be 18 in July.
So you have lost a total of 90 pounds? That's amazing.
If you graze all day every day, technically, you are not a binge eater. You are a compulsive over water trying to continue to comfort yourself with food with a much small stomach capacity. WLS won't help you with head hunger. I am sure you already know that intellectually, you just Have to embrace it emotionally. It's the biggest challenge for many of us. It's the biggest reason we can still fail.
Have you ever gone to an over eaters anomalous meeting? I find it very helpful. Are you being treated of anxiety or depression? Either can be a significant underlying cause of emotional over eating.
The best thing I learned in my own treatment is that eating a cookie doesn't give me permission to keep eating crap all day. Now I start over with the very next thing I eat. So that means that I eat an extra 75 calories instead of 1,000. I took practice but now, most of the time, I can even skip that cookie.
So...please try not to eat all you can between now and your appointment on Thursday. From personal experience, I know that your appointment will go much better if you go to it feeling in control of your life.
https://helpguide.org/articles/diet-weight-loss/emotional-ea ting.htm
https://www.drugs.com/mcd/binge-eating-disorder
http://www.medicinenet.com/emotional_eating/article.htm
I am thinking you were having a low moment when you posted and hope you are feeling better by the time you read this.
I don't know who much you weighted to start or what you weigh not but my surgeon told me that the AVERAGE 6 month loss for someone my weight is 40 pounds so if you were 275-300 pounds to start you are doing BETTER than average.
Where did you have your surgery that your eating disorder was not addressed pre op?
The reality it that you did have this surgery and it can't be undone, so your options are to graze all day and gain back the 50 pounds you already lost or to get treatment for your eating issues and use the tool you already had major surgery to get.
I am 64 years old and have lost over 100 pounds 7 times. My only retreat it that I didn't deal with my food issues and have LED years ago.
In addition to the 6 months of pre op education, I spent almost 10 months in treatment for my long standing eating disorder before my surgery. Including a weekly class on exwrcise, nutrition, portion control. My insurance refunded the $600. cost to people who completed the class!
In the past five months I have lost weight. I eat about 800 calories as day, so yes, I wish I'd lost more. Who doesn't? But aside from moving better, looking better and feeling better, I am also off blood pressure meds, narcotic pain med and insulin for the first time in a decade.
I can't imagine regretting something that has probably added years to my life. I really hope you can get back on track.
