10 years post surgery: brief advice to newbies

Hi Friends - This week marks 10 years since my VSG. Started at 247, got down to 130, today 160 (having recently lost 10lbs.)

Some thoughts:

• Continue to follow the good habits you developed at the start of this journey. It's too easy to "relapse" and violate your sleeve. Protein, produce and portions, people. Live it!
• Try not to get distracted. It's too easy to let other life developments sway you from your health goals. I've faced many personal losses in a decade. It's the stuff of life: family deaths, mental illness physical breakdowns, and a concussion whose effects I still feel today. I've not been sufficiently resilient: it's a daily challenge.
• Be your own best supporter. I returned to being everyone else's supportive friend while ignoring my own needs - a huge energy-sucking endeavor and very unhealthy on so many levels.
• Negative thoughts can lead to "stinking thinking" and weight regain. Stay positive and learn to love your new self.

It's been rather devastating personally to have re-gained. I don't think I ever accepted my New Self and have regained enough to feel as though I've regained it all. This has likely been the key issue from which all other consequences have cascaded. I'm older but not always wiser.

For those waiting for this procedure, do it without hesitation, assuming all other factors make sense for you. I wish you the best of luck in this undertaking even though it's hard work - not luck - that will yield lifelong success.

Before

After

You look great. But what on earth is your dog doing in that second picture?

Why... checking out my fresh gonads, I suppose! Those shorts only came out of the closet for progress photos so they likely had moth repellent scent or similar.

Looks like hes just standing behind her its the angle of the pix

Robin, thank you so much for sharing. I realize bearing your soul is not easy but us newbies need to hear about real life long term with the sleeve. God bless you as you work toward better health!

Thanks, Susan!

Robin, I echo Grammy in thanking you for sharing this.

It's been so easy for me to say "I'll never regain. I know how to do this." But then, how many times have I said that to myself over the decades. Dozens of times, I'm sure. All the way up to 303 lbs.

Your story helps serve as a cautionary tale to me to never let my guard down and never take advantage of my sleeve. It's just another tool in my tool chest...and using it correctly is 100% up to me.

Again, thank you for sharing, and for helping us newbies to remember that it's never going to be effortless. I hope anyone who is considering surgery because they think it will make it easy to lose the weight and keep it off will take this to heart.

Hello! What brings you back to OH after three years?

I definitely agree that we all need to be our own best supporters/advocates - no one else will do it for us!