9 years!

On 6/20 I will be 9 years out from RNY. I am happy to report I have maintained my weight loss and all my labs look great except for low vitamin D which is getting rechecked next week. I attribute my success to going into this surgery thinking is was my last resort (9 years ago there are not the options there are today), and that I HAD to make it work. I spent a lot of time and effort working on my personal issues as well as learning everything I could about nutrition and over the past few years growing my own organic food, buying local and making things from scratch instead of buying a things pre-boxed/bagged/pre-made etc. I do eat out and try to do so only once a week, I do allow myself treats and I do love my carbs. For me, it was all about balance.

Next month I am 1 year out from my BA/BL and arm lift... I did have to get scar revision some on the arm lift which I am 2 months out from now and healing up nicely. I am hoping to get a thigh lift next year and my journey will be "complete".

I don't feel or look anything like the person I was 9 years ago. I will never forget where I came from because I do not want to go back but do feel very disconnected from the person I was. I am so happy to have accomplished so much these past 9 years and look forward to what the future brings!

I am inspired....it is one thing to loose it....it is another to keep it off!

Congratulations!  I hope I can say the same about myself in another 8 years!

Joan

That is wonderful. I am 3 months out and have seen great results and really am looking forward to see where my journey takes me. I pray and hope it looks allot like yours 9 years out and maintaining nicely. Thank you for the inspiration. I love hearing these long term success storied.

Wow! Congrats! I am almost 2 years out and just now feeling the difficulty of maintenance. It's really not as easy as you would think. 

Can i ask you what a typical day menu looks like for you (food, calories, protein, carbs, exercise)? We have pretty much the same stats except that I'm have trouble maintaining at 145!

Again congrats! Quite an accomplishment :-)

I no longer keep track of calories/protein/carbs, I just pretty much "know" what I need to eat.

On a typical day I do breakfast, maybe a snack, lunch, snack, dinner. Breakfast lately has been a 100 calorie pack of nuts and a fiber bar... or a fiber bar (I eat NuGos Fiber d'LISH) and cottage cheese... basically fiber and protein. Snacks I try and stick to a protein and fruit... cottage cheese and some fruit, yogurt and some fruit (I eat Siggi's brand skyr, its low sugar), lunch is protein, carb and veggie... afternoon snack hummus and veggies, or maybe hummus and some baked pita chips or low carb tortilla... I aim to eat dinner before 7 and be done eating for the day.. I make it my lightest smallest meal focusing on protein/veggie and very light on the carbs. I like to taper my eating during the day, seems to work best... if I feel hungry Ill eat a little more, less hungry Ill eat less. For exercise I get in a minimum of 30 minutes.... typically a max of an hour... I walk, jog, go to the gym, yoga. Its all about keeping moving.

Great post!  Congrats on your long term success

Thank you for posting. I am three years out and need to hear from people who ave done so well. This will keep me working on not re-gaining.

Congrats to you Jennifer!  I'll celebrate 11 years out on 7/20, and I've maintained my WL as well.  Such an accomplished feeling, isn't it?  Hardest work I ever did, but worth every single second!

JA

Congratulations!  I love to hear from people who had their surgery years ago and are still maintaining their weight loss.  So many people like to scare you with tales of people who had the surgery and gained all their weight back, I assume our biggest fear! 

I wanted to ask about how pleased you were with the results of your brachioplasty.  I had mine done about 2-1/2 months ago, and although my arms look a lot better than they did, I still have crepey, loose skin.  My surgeon told me that if I wanted my arms tight enough that there was no loose skin left, he would have had to make the skin so tight I wouldn't have been able to lift my arms up all the way.  I'm hoping I'll be able to ba happy with my arms at some point, since I'm working out with weights now, but the surgery didn't make them look how I thought they would.  And since insurance doesn't cover it, I'm not sure yet if it was worth it.

What was your experience with this? 

I love my arms... I have no loose skin whatsoever... my only issue has been with the scar not healing nicely... I had the scar revision back in April, right arm looks great, left arm the scar is being a brat.. I had some steroid injections already in a few spots, going for scar massage therapy and the surgeon may inject the entire scar next visit in a month.... still looks better than last time and either way I am happy w/the arms. I didn't have a ton of excess on my arms, but what I had was getting worse.. stretch marks and hanging down more.