As of today I weigh 299.2. I have been joking with my husband that when I did hit the 200s, I’d probably be holding on by a thread. And being 0.8 lbs. away from being in the 300s again isn’t too far from the truth!
My apologies for not updating much. It has been a whirlwind of a summer. I’m still plodding along. Blood work appointment had to be rescheduled once again, but so long as everything stays on track, I will have my surgery in October.
How is everyone out there doing?
A day or two after I posted my last blog entry, I came down with a stomach virus. Dizziness, chills, nausea, diarrhea, vomiting, the works. Ugh. That and the idea of reworking my digestive system has steered me back into the direction of the lap band. It’s less invasive, and I can have more control over how quickly I lose weight and how much I lose weight. Plus, it’s reversible. That’s a big thing right there.
Thank you all for your input and sharing of experiences. It’s nice to get some input from both types of weight loss surgery patients, and to see where people have come from and where they are now.
My apologies for not updating my blog sooner. Some family situations came up and as a result I have not spent much time online in the past two weeks. But I am back now, still relatively on track in terms of weight (308.8 as of this morning), and still chugging along!
All along I have been very gung-ho for the lap band. Now I’m starting to have a few doubts, and wondering if I should choose the standard gastric bypass instead. Surgery-wise, both procedures would be done laparoscopically. If I were to have the lap band, I would leave the hospital the day of the procedure or the day after. With the gastric bypass, I would stay in the hospital for 1-3 days.
Why am I thinking about gastric bypass? Well, with the lap band, there is the option to “cheat”. I may not be able to eat a large quantity of food, but I could certainly eat small, easy-to-pass and digest items that would still be high in fat. I might not be able to wolf down a double bacon cheeseburger, but I wouldn’t have any issues with a small milkshake, or a Cadbury creme egg (those bad boys are just OOZING fat).
But with the gastric bypass, there would be no option to cheat, unless I was willing to deal with the dumping syndrome.
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Pros of having gastric bypass
- No risk of “cheating”, because the consequences (aka dumping syndome) wouldn’t be worth it!
- More effective weight loss in the long-term, since I would never be able to cheat or go back to my old habits
- The center I am going to be having my weight loss surgery at told me that their long-term data shows that gastric bypass patients lose 80+ lbs. in the first year, and reach their goal weight within two years
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Cons of having gastric bypass
- Dumping syndrome (the chance of a screw-up, even an accidental one, is always possible!)
- Losing weight too quickly; having to deal with sagging skin and possible plastic surgery
- Having my insides re-worked (this really icks me out)
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Pros of having lap band
- Less invasive
- Quicker recovery
- No horrible physical side effects if I eat something “bad”
- Slower, more steady weight loss; sagging skin would not be as likely
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Cons of having lap band
- Being able to cheat
- Band slippage
- Fills being painful/problematic
- The center I am going to be having my weight loss surgery at told me that their long-term data shows that lap band patients lose less than 50 lbs. in the first year, and then may struggle for a few years in order to reach their goal weight
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For anyone reading this that has had weight loss surgery, please share your experiences with me!
Gastric bypass patients: how quickly are you losing the weight? Are you having skin issues? Do you have problems with dumping?
Lap band patients: how quickly are you losing weight? Do you feel the urge to cheat?
Obviously, losing weight is not easy. If it were, Weight Watchers wouldn’t be such a profitable company, the lap band and gastric bypass procedures wouldn’t be quite so mainstream, and this domain would most likely not be in existence. So, we can definitely establish that losing weight is hard. It can be hard to change years or even an entire lifetime of eating habits, and incorporating physical activity and dedicated exercise regimes is not always easy. There are many factors that make eating healthy and being physically active not the easy solutions one might think they would be, including money, time and health issues.
Another factor that will really influence the ultimate success a person has with losing weight is a support system. I am fortunate that my family is rallying around me and showing me their 110% support and enthusiasm for my weight loss and how I am going about doing it. But unfortunately, there are many people who can’t find that support at home or even within their communities. for these individuals, a weight loss consultant or even an online weight loss support group or system would definitely be a valuable and crucial tool for their success. When it come to weight loss support, not having that support can mean the difference between success and failure.
Susan Brodnax runs journeydownthescale.info, and she knows all too well how important having a support system is. She herself was overweight and unhappy with herself, and with motivation and support was able to lose 80 lbs. in under a year’s time and has been able to keep it off successfully. Susan offers weight loss support on her blog. Her weight loss consultation service includes online weight loss support, and tips and tricks for eating healthier and getting more physically active. She can work with you and your personal needs, and will develop a customized plan and back it up with the support and encouragement you need in order to watch those numbers on the scale decrease.
For more information, check out journeydownthescale.info. By the way, if you do decide to purchase a plan from Susan Brodnax at journeydownthescale.info, be sure to use coupon code tfcblog during the checkout process, and save $10.00 instantly!
The other evening I was watching a TLC documentary — actually, a trio of them. Half Ton Teen, Half Ton Mom, and Half Ton Dad. And while I was sitting there watching these shows, I suddenly realized just how good I have it… compared to people who are 500 lbs., 600 lbs., 800 lbs. and so on and so forth. I bet those people would kill to weigh what I do, even though I myself am still classified as morbidly obese. They probably also want to roll their eyes and scoff at people like me for being so upset about weighing what we do.
…Just as I would kill to weigh what a 200 lb. person weighs, and just as I roll my eyes and scoff at the people who weigh 150 lbs. and even 200 lbs. who want to lose 20-50 lbs. If only I had that “little” to lose!
So, I’m going to try my best to not discount the feelings and weight loss issues of those thinner than me… however, exceptions will be made for the 125 lb. woman who is moaning over those last five pounds. Because, c’mon… really? Five pounds?!
I really don’t want to give up pancakes. But the homemade recipe I use requires whole milk and regular sour cream. And I really don’t want to have to make the all or nothing choice. I want my pancakes dammit! The good news is that with 2% milk and low fat sour cream, I can still have yummy pancakes without all of the calories and fat grams. Whoo!
Besides drooling over pancakes and getting creative with ingredients, I’m just gearing up for this week’s appointment. I’m currently at 315.4, which brings my weight loss total since April 11th, 2009 to 15.6 lbs.
I need to lose 5% of my body weight as part of the weight loss surgery requirements. At my first individual session, I weighed 330 lbs, which means that I need to get at 315 lbs. As of this morning I was 316.8. For the past week now I’ve been bouncing around between 315 and 316. I want to get down to 310, so that I have a five pound cushion to compensate for water weight, differently calibrated scales, etc.
So, five pounds to go, and they will come off, come hell or high water! I’m going to try to get to the gym on my own either tomorrow evening, Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon, but if not I’ll definitely be there on Tuesday night or Wednesday night!
I’m also going to start using my-calorie-counter.com to log what I eat every day. So far I’ve been adding up in my head the calories and fat grams, and I think actually SEEING it, just as I’m seeing my weight in graph form, will help.
