I always wanted to know : what 1 1/2 years post op feels and looks like
(deactivated member)
on 5/1/11 11:41 pm, edited 5/2/11 3:41 am
on 5/1/11 11:41 pm, edited 5/2/11 3:41 am
When I started this journey and in the middle stages ... I always wanted to know where I ( and my body ) could expect to be further along .
What made me confused too was that some people who maintained BEAUTIFULLY like the awesome Ms. Gina ... didn't have the same surgery as me nor did they eat like I do ( a lot more willy-nilly/undisciplined than most who post here)
So here's a report from the ( relatively ) undisciplined side of the tracks .... and U guys can use it to extrapolate Ur own experience ...
Here are the givens I started with - I was always an athlete .. a competitive one in my teenage years so I had / have a good muscular structure underneath it all ( NOT a couch potato ) . Even the year leading up to my surgery I tried to hike seven peaks in a single day n the Adirondacks , ran up mountains .with male Marines .. crazy stuff like that . Fat but fast ...
I'm 5'9 " and slenderly built naturally . I had an proximal RNY with a relatively large pouch ( because I like to eat salad and veggies ) at the end of September of 2009 .
Because of diabetes , asthma etc ..( and of course rampant food addiction) .. I started out at 238 - now I am somewhere in the 136 - 132 range . This is when I don' run or rollerblade regularly when I make daily exercise a priority I will be smaller.
There is still some excess skin around my middle and my underarm.bra overhang area but nothing that doesn't look OK in a bikini or a tank top . I have been religiously showering with salicylic acid bodyscrub every day since before my surgery though and regularly soak and scrub even more excess skin off increasing skin turnover. I also don't hesitate to exercise with all my " shakiest " body parts out ...and the sun and wind really exert a profound tightening action .
Here is a bikini pic of me actually a pretty old one but the skin is pretty much the same .
W 
hat really surprises me 18 months post is that I can maintain this bikini -ready body pretty much without exercise ... in other words that my body is not striving like in the pre-WLS surgery past to get fat again as quick as its able . When I TOOK these pictures ( about 6 months post ) my body could look like this but it kept trying to regain... I had to run every single day and eat with great discipline not to regain. Now - whether its because of OA and making peace with eating a ( LOT ) less ... or just settling into the new weight ... I don't seem to have fluctuations. I"M SO GLAD IT GOT BETTER!!!! ( now i do try to eat fat free and very high fiber and fresh ... and I STILL think it helps a lot )
It seems to be happy here at 132-136 ( size 2-4) and I am VERY happy with that . Its a Healthy , Normal , really PERFECT weight for me if I don't expect to work on camera for which I really do need to drop another 15-20 lbs. I like the fact that there is enough extra meat and fat on me that I am not frail ... that I can both be powerful in sports and strong in real life ( I have LOTS of 50 lb sacks of manua to haul lol for the garden... and concrete blocks etc... ) If I strip the fat off with exercise and low carbing it .. I expect to have a very ripped and gorgeous physique .. maybe even a six pack !
Most importantly I think I will be healthy not frail in the coming years as I age .. which was a BIG concern for me ... I want to live a LONG time !!
In less than a month I'm due for a mini- TT with liposuction which should remove a tiny band of excess skin and really tighten up the tummy area . If insurance wasn't paying for it I wouldn't make it a priority right now ... but it would be nice to finally have a firm core front , side and back ... not one I have to mask. As an apple shape the core and upper torso is where most of my my excess skin and empty fat cells lie . In clothes though it looks FINE even in a bikini as U can see .. but sitting down compared with a perfect weight 19 year olds ' tummy .... well mine isn't nearly as hard or smooth . There is still definitely an excess skin /empty fat cell issue there , around the love handles and even in the back around the " armholes " .
I hope when some of the excess empty fat cells are sucked out my body will be able to metabolize more of the others ... if not I expect to have another PS one day in LA where they do such things and body perfection is strived for and achieved regularly . Perhaps a spiral armlift ...which will allow a repositioning of my underarm/ back fat into my ( non silicone but perhaps slightly lifted ) boobies . Also possibly a brazilian bootylift which would do the same with my flank fat and slightly saggy buttock skin ... just reposition it ON TOP of my azz basically giving me a slightly better line ....
I have to add that perfectly normal non WLS recipient chix have these surgeries all the time to ENHANCE what they have ... and my body really already looks super - good ( I would say better than 99% of the comparable age female population ) As YOURS will
.
Now .. concerns . My posture is still not 100 % where I would have it . WhenI was fat and asthmatic my spine twisted into some kind of S shape with my shoulders very much forward and even my head carried forward . ( just look at Star Jones if U need an illustration of " WLS posture " . I can pretty much pick out whose had WLS in an OA meeting by looking for those tell tale hunched overshoulders and scrawny turtle -like neck .
Certain things have REALLY helped me - osteoporosis drugs and calcium citrate /magnesium/ vitamin D pills to be exact !! Even though I take a TON ( it seems ) I still get charley horses at night which tell me I need MORE calcium . If I forget the deep down bone pain in my legs is sure to remind me !
I'm quite sure that the inactivity of being overweight and sick leached lots of the natural calcium from my bones ... and its so important to replace it however I can. Same thing with circulation in my legs - whenever I feel the slight pinching of incipient varicose veins ( because the valves of my lymphatic system are blocked ) I take horse chestnut extract and it really helps . So far I don't have many of these issues visible on my legs thank God .
My posture is dramatically better than it was a year ago ! THAT to me is as much of a miracle almost as WLS .. because a doctor told me it would NEVER improve . It did take a lot of painful stretching ( backbends , backward wall pushups , lateral crossovers and lat pulldowns on Nautilus and weight machines when i get a chance to use them ) and deep down very painful sports muscle massage and stretching of the tendons ... but it WORKS Boy am I GLAD !!! Certain supplements that promote stretching also seem useful here .... when I remember to take them .
I'd also like to take a little time and talk about OA . I made OA meetings long before I got my surgery and was very frustrated because I could not get abstinent no matter how I tried . I especially could not put down the binging ( and purging ) for any length of time .
Post op I was TOO SCARED of undoing my surgery to really binge ( though I ate at a LOT of buffets ... so what was THAT ?! ) I would call it a BAD HABIT and being food- obsessed .
Now that I look back on it I definitely had a giant congenital hiatal hernia pre WLS that irritated my esophagus and probably translated as " hunger " or " feed me constantly " at least to this excess food addict .
It doesn't really matter which came first .. the addiction to binging on excess food and getting a serotonin release mental " high " or the hiatal hernia... in any case it was a BIG problem for me and I'm just so grateful that once the hiatal hernia was solved along with my WLS ..that OA works for me now .
I still have to make daily OA meetings ( online usually ) and write my steps with a sponsor . In a way I feel like I'm doing OA for the first REAL time now . Being abstinent for me means putting down the grazing and also the food obsession - and I have made significant strides there .
My life has changed so much for the better because of OA .. totally enhancing all the positive changes brought about by my WLS . I have been able to work through family issues ( resentments ) past and present ... and irrational fears that were holding me back from trying in my career .
( I could have worked as a plus size model and actor all these years but I chose not to and blamed it on my weight ..)
I realized comfortability with bad old patterns that made me make bad choices in the past doesn't mean I have to ruin my TODAY and my FUTURE with them now unless I choose to stick my head in the sand . I can actually TALK about these things with like-minded people in OA .learn from them and move on to a better , happier , more productive level of living and working .
I still think WLS was absolutely the BEST thing that has ever happened to me and I just hope I continue down this wonderful positive path as 100% healthy as I have been these last 18 month and remain now .
What made me confused too was that some people who maintained BEAUTIFULLY like the awesome Ms. Gina ... didn't have the same surgery as me nor did they eat like I do ( a lot more willy-nilly/undisciplined than most who post here)
So here's a report from the ( relatively ) undisciplined side of the tracks .... and U guys can use it to extrapolate Ur own experience ...
Here are the givens I started with - I was always an athlete .. a competitive one in my teenage years so I had / have a good muscular structure underneath it all ( NOT a couch potato ) . Even the year leading up to my surgery I tried to hike seven peaks in a single day n the Adirondacks , ran up mountains .with male Marines .. crazy stuff like that . Fat but fast ...
I'm 5'9 " and slenderly built naturally . I had an proximal RNY with a relatively large pouch ( because I like to eat salad and veggies ) at the end of September of 2009 .
Because of diabetes , asthma etc ..( and of course rampant food addiction) .. I started out at 238 - now I am somewhere in the 136 - 132 range . This is when I don' run or rollerblade regularly when I make daily exercise a priority I will be smaller.
There is still some excess skin around my middle and my underarm.bra overhang area but nothing that doesn't look OK in a bikini or a tank top . I have been religiously showering with salicylic acid bodyscrub every day since before my surgery though and regularly soak and scrub even more excess skin off increasing skin turnover. I also don't hesitate to exercise with all my " shakiest " body parts out ...and the sun and wind really exert a profound tightening action .
Here is a bikini pic of me actually a pretty old one but the skin is pretty much the same .
W hat really surprises me 18 months post is that I can maintain this bikini -ready body pretty much without exercise ... in other words that my body is not striving like in the pre-WLS surgery past to get fat again as quick as its able . When I TOOK these pictures ( about 6 months post ) my body could look like this but it kept trying to regain... I had to run every single day and eat with great discipline not to regain. Now - whether its because of OA and making peace with eating a ( LOT ) less ... or just settling into the new weight ... I don't seem to have fluctuations. I"M SO GLAD IT GOT BETTER!!!! ( now i do try to eat fat free and very high fiber and fresh ... and I STILL think it helps a lot ) It seems to be happy here at 132-136 ( size 2-4) and I am VERY happy with that . Its a Healthy , Normal , really PERFECT weight for me if I don't expect to work on camera for which I really do need to drop another 15-20 lbs. I like the fact that there is enough extra meat and fat on me that I am not frail ... that I can both be powerful in sports and strong in real life ( I have LOTS of 50 lb sacks of manua to haul lol for the garden... and concrete blocks etc... ) If I strip the fat off with exercise and low carbing it .. I expect to have a very ripped and gorgeous physique .. maybe even a six pack !
Most importantly I think I will be healthy not frail in the coming years as I age .. which was a BIG concern for me ... I want to live a LONG time !!
In less than a month I'm due for a mini- TT with liposuction which should remove a tiny band of excess skin and really tighten up the tummy area . If insurance wasn't paying for it I wouldn't make it a priority right now ... but it would be nice to finally have a firm core front , side and back ... not one I have to mask. As an apple shape the core and upper torso is where most of my my excess skin and empty fat cells lie . In clothes though it looks FINE even in a bikini as U can see .. but sitting down compared with a perfect weight 19 year olds ' tummy .... well mine isn't nearly as hard or smooth . There is still definitely an excess skin /empty fat cell issue there , around the love handles and even in the back around the " armholes " .
I hope when some of the excess empty fat cells are sucked out my body will be able to metabolize more of the others ... if not I expect to have another PS one day in LA where they do such things and body perfection is strived for and achieved regularly . Perhaps a spiral armlift ...which will allow a repositioning of my underarm/ back fat into my ( non silicone but perhaps slightly lifted ) boobies . Also possibly a brazilian bootylift which would do the same with my flank fat and slightly saggy buttock skin ... just reposition it ON TOP of my azz basically giving me a slightly better line ....
I have to add that perfectly normal non WLS recipient chix have these surgeries all the time to ENHANCE what they have ... and my body really already looks super - good ( I would say better than 99% of the comparable age female population ) As YOURS will
. Now .. concerns . My posture is still not 100 % where I would have it . WhenI was fat and asthmatic my spine twisted into some kind of S shape with my shoulders very much forward and even my head carried forward . ( just look at Star Jones if U need an illustration of " WLS posture " . I can pretty much pick out whose had WLS in an OA meeting by looking for those tell tale hunched overshoulders and scrawny turtle -like neck .
Certain things have REALLY helped me - osteoporosis drugs and calcium citrate /magnesium/ vitamin D pills to be exact !! Even though I take a TON ( it seems ) I still get charley horses at night which tell me I need MORE calcium . If I forget the deep down bone pain in my legs is sure to remind me !
I'm quite sure that the inactivity of being overweight and sick leached lots of the natural calcium from my bones ... and its so important to replace it however I can. Same thing with circulation in my legs - whenever I feel the slight pinching of incipient varicose veins ( because the valves of my lymphatic system are blocked ) I take horse chestnut extract and it really helps . So far I don't have many of these issues visible on my legs thank God .
My posture is dramatically better than it was a year ago ! THAT to me is as much of a miracle almost as WLS .. because a doctor told me it would NEVER improve . It did take a lot of painful stretching ( backbends , backward wall pushups , lateral crossovers and lat pulldowns on Nautilus and weight machines when i get a chance to use them ) and deep down very painful sports muscle massage and stretching of the tendons ... but it WORKS
Boy am I GLAD !!! Certain supplements that promote stretching also seem useful here .... when I remember to take them . I'd also like to take a little time and talk about OA . I made OA meetings long before I got my surgery and was very frustrated because I could not get abstinent no matter how I tried . I especially could not put down the binging ( and purging ) for any length of time .
Post op I was TOO SCARED of undoing my surgery to really binge ( though I ate at a LOT of buffets ... so what was THAT ?! ) I would call it a BAD HABIT and being food- obsessed .
Now that I look back on it I definitely had a giant congenital hiatal hernia pre WLS that irritated my esophagus and probably translated as " hunger " or " feed me constantly " at least to this excess food addict .
It doesn't really matter which came first .. the addiction to binging on excess food and getting a serotonin release mental " high " or the hiatal hernia... in any case it was a BIG problem for me and I'm just so grateful that once the hiatal hernia was solved along with my WLS ..that OA works for me now .
I still have to make daily OA meetings ( online usually ) and write my steps with a sponsor . In a way I feel like I'm doing OA for the first REAL time now . Being abstinent for me means putting down the grazing and also the food obsession - and I have made significant strides there .
My life has changed so much for the better because of OA .. totally enhancing all the positive changes brought about by my WLS . I have been able to work through family issues ( resentments ) past and present ... and irrational fears that were holding me back from trying in my career .
( I could have worked as a plus size model and actor all these years but I chose not to and blamed it on my weight ..)
I realized comfortability with bad old patterns that made me make bad choices in the past doesn't mean I have to ruin my TODAY and my FUTURE with them now unless I choose to stick my head in the sand . I can actually TALK about these things with like-minded people in OA .learn from them and move on to a better , happier , more productive level of living and working .
I still think WLS was absolutely the BEST thing that has ever happened to me and I just hope I continue down this wonderful positive path as 100% healthy as I have been these last 18 month and remain now .
Ava - you look great! And what a great write-up.
It really is all about what our ultimate goals are. When I went into WLS I never thought about the excess skin - of course in the past I didn't have it when I lost/gained... but this time I got even lower than before and had held onto it for 15 years (since the last loss/gain), and of course being older the skin just isn't as resilient as it used to be.
I never thought I'd opt for PS. I'm not looking to be a model. I just wanted to feel good about myself in summer clothes.
Now as far as maintaining goes - I'm one that is struggling with it because of my habits. I eat ok, but do like my adult beverages. I do know that if I cut them out, the weight will fall back off. Its really something I NEED to do.. and my alt/ast are high - which getting them into normal range should be a high priority.
It really is all about what our ultimate goals are. When I went into WLS I never thought about the excess skin - of course in the past I didn't have it when I lost/gained... but this time I got even lower than before and had held onto it for 15 years (since the last loss/gain), and of course being older the skin just isn't as resilient as it used to be.
I never thought I'd opt for PS. I'm not looking to be a model. I just wanted to feel good about myself in summer clothes.
Now as far as maintaining goes - I'm one that is struggling with it because of my habits. I eat ok, but do like my adult beverages. I do know that if I cut them out, the weight will fall back off. Its really something I NEED to do.. and my alt/ast are high - which getting them into normal range should be a high priority.
HW-218/SW-208/CW-126/ Lowest Weight-121/Goal-125 - hit 8/23/09/Height-5'3"
Regain 30 lbs from 2012 to 2016 - got back on track and lost it. Took 8 months.
90+/- pounds lost BMI - 24 or so
Starting BMI between 35 and 40ish?
Join us on the Lightweights Board!
as soon as bikini season hits I'll take some new ones .. and ya'll will see the difference in the posture . Makes me feel a lot less old to be standing tall and straight ! 
Ava, you really do look amazing and gorgeous! I have not dared to even try on a bathing suit yet, I am sure I will before the summer is over but as of right now, nope. As far as posture goes, I have always held my head and shoulders straight (years of acrobats as a child) but I did notice as I got bigger that I was hunched also, its amazing what thie weight will do to anyone....Anyway you look amazing and thank you for the great post! P.S. Why are we not friends on FB? Do you have a page?
HW-220 SW 205 4'11"
(deactivated member)
on 5/2/11 12:55 am, edited 5/2/11 12:58 am
on 5/2/11 12:55 am, edited 5/2/11 12:58 am
I do but my FB page is as an actor and model . I am very afraid of ( even accidentally ) being outed as a WLS recipient .. I don't think the world is ready for a real discussion of WLS yet ... and I definitely don't want to be seen as an example of " cheating " when I really DO work very hard for my body and have all my life .
Please trust me on this .. I am not by any means the only actor who has sought and benefited from surgical help quietly ...
Please trust me on this .. I am not by any means the only actor who has sought and benefited from surgical help quietly ...
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