Celia K.

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I did fairly well for ten years after my sleeve surgury but then the weight came racing back. Up 50 lbs or more. At 65, I don't have the energy to fight the diet wars again and wondered if anyone knows about the feasibility of betting a second sleeve procedure. 

january 2019 was my eleven year surgical anniversary. Original low point was 163 and have gotten very lazy so I now have roped out at 211.8lbs. As of yesterday, I am back to 199.6 but still need to lose a bunch of extra weight. My goal is 178 now. Haven’t gotten older and seen many friends look really old when they are too thin so have agreed to keep an extra 15 pounds. Wish me luck on the 22 still to lose!!!

Okay, I actually ended up settling around 165 and then have gained back and lost again and gained back again the same 12 pounds!  At least I am dealing with 12 pounds instead of 112 pounds! 

In summary -- best thing I ever did for myself and I tell everyone I know, get this done -- it will change your life for the better!!

The difference between ages 35 and 53 is that at 53 I am not sweating the small stuff such as I seem to have settled at 163 instead of the 157 I wanted.  I look and feel better than ever so I am not going to worry about five pounds.  I have recently had a strange experience. My mom died in early April and both my sister and I were amazed at how much of her wonderful clothing we could fit into. I promise you that makes Mother really happy as she was quite the clotheshorse.  So now I have an extra incentive -- I can't gain the weight back because then I wouldn't fit into her clothes and she would be so angry and disappointed in me.  So there! 

Hit 159.5 today!!!!!!  Actually starting to worry about what will stop the weight loss as I seem to still be losing 4 pounds a month.  This has got to stop somewhere but for now -- I'm happy!

It has been one year and I now weigh 163.  The night before my 7 a.m. surgery, I weighed 270 and four months earlier, I weighed 287, my all-time high point.  I started out at a size 3X skirt and 3X shirt and a size 26W in pants.  Today to celebrate I hit the local Ross store and selcted one pair of size 12 jeans from a large selection of pairs that fit.  I also tried on size 12 dress slacks and found several that fit.  I even bought a size 14 bathing suit!

The body shape issues I suffered from most of my life are back -- I am much smaller up top than below.  I carry my wieght in my lower hips and upper thighs.  In south Texas, they refer to my oversized upper thighs as "pones".  Not sure where that comes from!  But I have them back again just at a much smaller scale than before.  Otherwise I look great for a 52 year old woman. I have loose skin on my waist and thighs but nothing very bad so I may not ever need any work done on them. On the other hand, if surgery would finally get rid of these damn "pones", I just may go for it!

I have 6 more pounds to go before I reach my goal but am worried that I already look too thin since I am so small and boney through the chest.  I am now losing about 4 pounds a month for the past two months and I expect to have that rate slow down furhter so I anticpate it may take until March to reach my goal of 157. 

In terms of food, I have learned to be comfortable ordering food at a restaurant that I can never finish.  I usually get two meals of any one order.  I don't eat out as often, though. But I have gotten rather good at doing so by ordering exactly what I want and nothing more.  I often tell the wiater to just leave the rice or potatoes and veggies behind and bring me the meat/fish! 

I have never liked to cook and one of the great joys of my new life was getting rid of my cooking weapons (as a dear friend calls them!) and simply accepting that I will never have to or want to be a great cook.  I eat lots of protein so my cooking tends to be things like chili, a pork loin roast, grilling some fish or shellfish, etc.  If I am hungry but don't feel like cooking, I just eat turkey jerky, nuts, or a protein bar.  I never liked chocolate that much so I am really happy to have found non-chocolate protein bars.  I love sugar free popsicles and eat alot of them both as fun and a fluid source.  I eat when I am hungry and only get hungry three times a day.  I no longer sit around thinking about food all the time or about how fat I am. 
 
My new big challenge will be learning not to eat in bed -- it's a comfort food thign for me. I love to get into bed at night with a good book and some snacks.  Even good snacks such as almonds have to stop though because of all my food behaviors, eating in bed at night is the most dangerous to my long term success, I think.

I have never joined a gym or started a formal excercise program and but I will this month.  I have taken up bike riding, hiking long distances and up hills, and even dug out my old roller skates!  All of these activites are amazing to me -- I never thought I would ever do them again.

The last time I was this thin was in my mid-30's and I struggled with handling the attention I got from men and from my friends who seemed to treat me differently.  This time around it is so much easier.  At 52, I never lose sight of the fact that I may look great but I am 52 years old, for goodness sake!  I also am more self-balanced and expect less of the people around me. Or maybe it is that I read less into thier behaviors and worry less about what others think. With time, life tends to teach you that folks will go their own way and may disappoint you or impress you.  The reactions this time around have been more fun to enjoy and less anger-provoking or scary.

Having VSG surgery was a great decision.  One of the best in my life.  It is an awesome tool that gives me the confidence to believe I can conquer my weight problems for good.  That if I blow it and overeat, I am not back in a trap without hope of escape.  Instead, with just a bit of discipline the next day, I am back on track easily and not hungry to boot! Eating less is so much easier than suffering through the weight -related problems. 

I weigh daily so that extra pounds don't sneek up on me. As I tell folks all the time, losing one pound is easy -- it can be done in one day with good eating habits that day.  Losing five pounds, however, is a project and projects take time.  O I pay attention to every pound. 

I also take my measurements every month to track the losses.  When I was stuck at one weight, it really helped to see the inches coming off anyway.  I have lost 124 pounds and 107 inches total. 

My goal for this next year si weigh no more than what I weighed on New Years DAy and hopefully less.  The great things about he VSG is that I know I can meet thie goal and that confidence is certianly nothign I have ever felt before.  

I was digging around through my under-bed storage boxes yesterday and came across the proverbial pair of "fat jeans".  I recall clearly that at one point, lasting several months, I could  not even fit into them.  When I was once again able to get into them, I felt that my thighs were like sausages in their casings as I was crammed so tightly into these size 24 Liz Claiborne jeans. 

Since I last wore them, I have lost 120 pounds and still have ten pounds to go.  I know that I have lost weight but still struggle to realize how much.  Sometimes I still feel that I look "fat" particularly in casual pants.  What I couldn't believe was how big these pants were when I first held them up!  I ultimately put them on in the famous "two legs into one leg of hte jeans" fashion.  Even then, I still didn't fully fill them out though since my thighs have always been the place I held weight the longest. I filled out hte thich section of hte jeans but even wth my entire hips in the seat section of the jeans, I still had free space  available to me.  Just unbelieveable!

I am getting very close to goal now.  I weighed 175 on October 5th and today wiegh 167.  So the weight loss rate is very slow now but it is still coming along.  I am trying to up my protein amounts as I understand from others that it can be a real help to getting out of a stall or slump.  I can eat carbs now and do so more than I should but still much less that I ever did before.  Since I have never liked veggies or salads, I simply don't eat them at all.  It's all about protein for me!

Only ten pounds to go - what an amazing thought!
  

I have been waiting for htis day for a long time -- I now weigh 175 which means I have lost 112 pounds which is Echo's entire weight!! YEA!!!!!!  Only 18 more pounds to go. 

I didn't make it to 179 before Alaska but as of today, two days after our return, I'm there!  Alaska was great.  Discovered I can drink draft beer after all which is fun though I remain a cheap date -- have yet to finish a pint on my own!  As alwasy, harder to eat right when traveling since the routine is broken and I want t "reward" my self with food.  But I still made it to my goal and that's what mattered!

It seems to have taken forever to lose these last few pounds but since they were tied to reaching a milestone goal, I guess I should have expected it to take longer.  I also had the airline trip from hell a couple of weeks ago and came home having gained six pounds in only three days!!  So I lost eight days just getting back to the 189 mark!  and today I am at 186!!!!!

As I get closer to goal, I find that my commitment is higher than it's been since the beginning but thigs are taking longer (of course!).  My big area of loss-to-come is in my thighs and butt --and my thighs are starting to be really "jiggly".  When I lie down and pull my legs up so that my knees are in the air, the fat on my thighs jsut slides down and settles around the tops of my thighs.  Then when I stand up, it slides back down and settles all around my thighs and above my knees.  It seems like there is a 1-inch drop n the size of the area just above my knees when I lie down as described.  It's very weird but if my thighs ultimately look like they do when I am lying down as described - hallelujah!

I've started bike riding for hte first time since my childhood and love it though I find it really hard.  I had no idea how little strength I had in my upper thighs! 

A friend loaned me some buisness clothes to help get me through this new stage as I have pretty much run out of saved clothes from a smaller size (at least when it comes to business clothes!). 

I am working hard to get another 7 pounds off by the mornign of August 23 so that I weigh t most 179 when I take off for Alaska.  Just bought a primaloft jacket for the upcoming winter season in a size medium -- how very weird!