7 Year Itch!!
7 years ago today I was lying naked on the OR table at Methodist ready to start my new life. 7 years later and yes my life is definitely different!
April 15, 2003 – I had just turned 40, weighed 304 lbs, was busting out of size 28’s, was on insulin and a CPAP machine. Today? I just turned 47, I weigh (still) 160, wear an 8-10 and size smalls, (although I bought a pair of Target jeans last night…size 6!) and no more insulin or CPAP machine. Regrets? None. None other than not having WLS sooner. I still feel I wasted my 20’s and 30’s being morbidly obese, but that’s water under the bridge now. For those of you newbies who think they’ll never be normal again, never fear. You will be. It will just be a new form of “normal". I can eat everything, but in small quantities. I eat out as much as I did pre-op, but I just do it a bit differently. For example, yesterday I went to Pei Wei for lunch and had shrimp lo mein. I also took half of it home. I went to Punch Pizza for supper. I took half of it home. I went to the Lonespur Grill for lunch today and had taco salad with brisket. I ate half and let the rest go. I eat Jimmy Johns with half the bread, Smash Burger without the bun (but have a few fries). I love Whopper Jr’s with cheese. AND….I also take my vitamins faithfully and focus on protein first. I have my yearly checkups and labs done. I drink Miralax every day. I eat too much candy sometimes and dump like a sonofa***** I drink too much diet coke and so I’m addicted to caffeine. I don’t exercise enough. So I’m far from perfect, but I didn’t have WLS to become perfect. I don’t count carbs or fat grams or calories. I focus on food QUALITY not quantity. I’m making it work for me. I’m healthy and my weight is stable. That’s what’s important to me. So…this is my new normal life. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Good luck to all finding your new “normal". Never fear…you will. It will come sooner than you expect…
Here I am the morning of surgery - and then after my plastics about 1 1/2 years later. I wear the same size now as in that after photo.
April 15, 2003 – I had just turned 40, weighed 304 lbs, was busting out of size 28’s, was on insulin and a CPAP machine. Today? I just turned 47, I weigh (still) 160, wear an 8-10 and size smalls, (although I bought a pair of Target jeans last night…size 6!) and no more insulin or CPAP machine. Regrets? None. None other than not having WLS sooner. I still feel I wasted my 20’s and 30’s being morbidly obese, but that’s water under the bridge now. For those of you newbies who think they’ll never be normal again, never fear. You will be. It will just be a new form of “normal". I can eat everything, but in small quantities. I eat out as much as I did pre-op, but I just do it a bit differently. For example, yesterday I went to Pei Wei for lunch and had shrimp lo mein. I also took half of it home. I went to Punch Pizza for supper. I took half of it home. I went to the Lonespur Grill for lunch today and had taco salad with brisket. I ate half and let the rest go. I eat Jimmy Johns with half the bread, Smash Burger without the bun (but have a few fries). I love Whopper Jr’s with cheese. AND….I also take my vitamins faithfully and focus on protein first. I have my yearly checkups and labs done. I drink Miralax every day. I eat too much candy sometimes and dump like a sonofa***** I drink too much diet coke and so I’m addicted to caffeine. I don’t exercise enough. So I’m far from perfect, but I didn’t have WLS to become perfect. I don’t count carbs or fat grams or calories. I focus on food QUALITY not quantity. I’m making it work for me. I’m healthy and my weight is stable. That’s what’s important to me. So…this is my new normal life. I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Good luck to all finding your new “normal". Never fear…you will. It will come sooner than you expect…
Here I am the morning of surgery - and then after my plastics about 1 1/2 years later. I wear the same size now as in that after photo.
Lori J.
It's better to be imperfectly happy than perfectly unhappy. 
Wow! That is an incredible story - - and one I want to tell someday. You have made the tool work for you and your are a testimony to health and what WLS can do. Thanks so much for sharing this. I'm at the beginning of the journey, and these stories can give me hope.
Mary
"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you CAN do." John Wooden
I'm down 120 pounds - thanks to RNY! Working on the next 25. Then I'll tackle more...
"Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you CAN do." John Wooden
I'm down 120 pounds - thanks to RNY! Working on the next 25. Then I'll tackle more...
Always really glad to hear GOOD news from the vets. Good job and keep it up. I plan on telling my story yearly to help the newbies on this board. Just to be able to have newbies hear from old timers the good instead of the bad!!!!
this is the kind of post I love to see. I have been a slow loser compared to others, but that is partly because I am eating like everyone else but in smaller quantities. I refuse to eat only lean protein and a piece of fruit - I like pizza, dammit!
Congrats on your successes - I hope to be saying the same things as you are 7 years out!
Amelia
Lori, I love that you shared all this - I totally admire your philosophy! Not the 'I have to be perfect every day" mentality that some have (although if it works for them, GREAT!). If I was capable of being perfect, I'd have never gotten so obese to begin with.
Congrats on your lasting success, and THANK YOU for your participation here on the boards! Although some think of ME as being an "old timer", I look at you and feel like I'm still a WLS toddler
Congrats on your lasting success, and THANK YOU for your participation here on the boards! Although some think of ME as being an "old timer", I look at you and feel like I'm still a WLS toddler
Imperfect does not = unsuccessful
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