Friday Motivation! - Others judging you

I told anyone who would listen in the first few years and have never tried to conceal that i had WLS.. As time has gone on and everyone just thinks of me as I am now, it's not something anyone comments on anymore.

I have lost 54lbs of regain this year to my lowest weight in 10 years and literally NOONE has commented on it, just as they didn't as the lbs crept on over the years. I'm 3 or 4 sizes down, so I think I look awesone but clearly nobody else really cares lol.

Congratulations on your regain loss Kim

I didn't originally hide that I had WLS. After I developed complications (long story) I found that people felt like I brought the complications on myself by having WLS. So I don't discuss it anymore.

People can be so clueless

I'm just starting my WLS journey, but I already lost 62 lbs which is about 1/2 of the weight I need to lose to reach my goal weight. The initial weight loss I had during 8 months of my pre-op program remained at my typical low weight loss of about 17 lbs, but I was able to maintain that loss up until I started my pre-op liquid diet. Just prior to surgery, I ended up losing a total of 27 lbs. But, because of my high initial weight, that weight loss was not really visible to anyone, even me.

I left work for a 4-week leave on the Friday before my RNY surgery, which was scheduled on a Monday. Within about a week of returning to work, I had lost about 60 lbs. In the meantime, I dropped 2 pants and tops sizes, and even the smaller sizes were a little loose on me. So, there was no way I could return to work without anyone noticing a change in my weight. When I left on leave, all my co-workers knew was that I would be off for 4 weeks for some type of surgery. By the way, I work with mostly women in the healthcare field and I have always been the heaviest person in my small group of about 20 co-workers.

Except for 1 very nosy co-worker, who loudly announced, "look, who lost weight!" as I walked in the door when I first returned to work, no one mentioned anything but maybe, "you're looking good."

However, during this past week, which is the 3rd week I have been back to work, there has been a slow parade of co-workers marching through my office telling me that I lost a lot of weight (like I didn't know that?) and that I look really good now. (I guess I looked really horrible before!)

As I continue to lose weight, I can see some of them putting together the fact that I was off for surgery and since then I have been losing weight. Since I am in the healthcare field, I believe they think I'm either very sick or I had weight loss surgery.

The closest someone has come to asking me has been, of course, the bold co-worker who announced I lost weight when I first returned to work. She showed me a picture of her son having a basal metabolism test and asked me what test he was having. She then went on in great detail about how he started at this bariatric weight loss center, which happens to be the same hospital-based bariatric surgery center that I go to. (That's not too unusual because we all work for that hospital.) But, the coincidence of her asking me questions about bariatric surgery was just a little too close to comfort for me.

So, I think the time is coming soon where someone is going to directly broach with me the issue of how I'm losing so much weight so quickly. I am, by nature, very private about my personal life. Because I have already suffered from significant and very unfair consequences from the stigma of having disclosed among other healthcare workers in the past that I have severe depression and I see a Psychiatrist regularly, there is no way my method of weight loss is going to become fodder for the work place gossip mill!

I just have not determined the strategy I am most comfortable with to deflect prying co-workers.

Congratulations on your surgery and thank you for sharing. Take your time, it's your journey. You will know when the time is right to share if ever Keep us posted on how you are doing.