2 years post-VSG

Aug 16, 2014

Yesterday was the 2nd anniversary of my sleeve surgery. I was so caught up in other stuff, I didn't even think about it until OH sent me a happy WLS anniversary e-mail.

I've now lost 117 lbs from my highest recorded weight. I'm almost half the size I was in the bad old days, and it's still hard to grasp that fact. My band surgery was almost 7 years ago, so I've been on this WLS journey for quite a while now and can tell you that Michelle/eggface is absolutely right when she says that the mental WLS journey takes longer than the physical one. When I shop for clothes, I try on a medium first, then a small...and finally I'm surprised to find that an extra small fits the best. When other people describe me as skinny or tiny, I want to look behind me and say, "Who are you talking to?"

So as my body has gotten smaller, I've been working on making my understanding of what's happened to me bigger. What's happened isn't 100% related to weight loss, and it's not all good news. Thanks to my sleeve, my body can no longer assimilate enough calcium, B12, iron, and zinc, so I take a lot of nutritional supplements. I still struggle with extreme insulin sensitivity, and dumping is still a threat if I eat too much or too fast. I haven't figured out all my new satiety signals, but I'm getting better at avoiding dumping. I'm somewhat resigned to feeling physical hunger during every waking hour.

Some consequences of weight loss are wonderful, though. One of the reasons I'm no longer active on OH is that my life is no longer focused on weight loss. I'm more outgoing, social, and active than ever before. I'm vice president of a local non-profit organization and spend a lot of time on projects related to that. I get more satisfaction from that than I ever did from overeating.

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