Hi all! Wow, can't believe it's been 15 months already. Holding steady at 143 lbs, down from 250.4 in May 2012 when I had surgery. I've learned a lot from the process so far (with much more to learn I'm sure!), and put together a bit of a Top 10 Things I've Learned list. I put the summary below, but you can watch the video for the details and commentary. Hope you're well! Gastricsleeve4me (aka "Jo")
- Bad habits won't change with surgery alone.
- You can regress at any time.
- A bad day won't hurt, but a bad week will!
- The honeymoon doesn't end when you reach your desired weight - and the period when you start to maintain is a critical one.
- Exercise matters. Maybe not for weight loss, but DEFINITELY for maintenance.
- You will lose weight. You will also lose your hair and have saggy skin. Sorry.
- Losing weight doesn't make you successful. Keeping weight off for 50 years does.
- If you're feeding your emotions, you'd better have a plan for dealing with it.
- Surgery and rapid dramatic weight loss is traumatic for your body.
- You need a team. Really.
Your posts and videos have been a huge help to me in getting ready for sleeve surgery (hopefully in Feb, 2014). You come from a place of intelligence and realistic dedication needed to go through the process of dropping weight and keeping it off. I hope you continue to update us because as you've mentioned, the first year is the Honeymoon period and the journey continues. Congratulations and well done!
ReplyDeleteI am 26 years old and have always struggled with my weight however for 16years I was a ballet dancer so with working out 3-4 hours a day and eating like a rabbit I stayed a size 4 which was still considered big for a dancer. However, when I was 16, they found a tumor on my thyroid. I had a thyroidectomy. Ten years later I weigh more than 100lbs than before my thyroidectomy. I had to stop dancing at 18 because of my weight gain and since then I just kind of gave up the constant workouts and resigned myself to the idea that I am just meant to be overweight. I started researching weight loss surgery about a year ago however my parents were extremely against the idea. I knew that I didn't want to go through surgery without a great support team and that included the support of my family because we are very close. I tell you all this history to tell you that I found your video on pinterest. I had watched countless videos and read numerous blogs. But your honesty and directness brought about a trust for the information and opinions you offered. After watching every one of your videos, I shared your blog with my mom. She felt the same about your posts as I do. Thus I finally have the support of my mom and it is because of your intelligent and honest assessment of your weight loss journey with the sleeve. I made appointments with different doctors to gather information. I finally chose one who aided in getting the rest of my support team on board with my decision to have the gastric sleeve. My surgery is this week and I cannot express to you how helpful your blog and videos have been for pre-op. I will never be able to find the right words to tell you how grateful I am that you are brave enough to catalog your sleeve experience so publicly. Without your voice I do not know if I would have ever been able to get the support from my family that I needed to be successful on my long journey ahead. THANK YOU!!!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing information. Wonderful blog & good post.Its really helpful for me, waiting for a more new post. Keep Blogging!
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