My Weight Loss Journey

For as long as I can remember I have struggled with my weight. I have PCOS and hypothyroidism so losing weight is harder for me than it is for most people but I still did it off and on over the past 10 years. I'd lose then gain lose then gain. At one point a few years ago I had lost 100 lbs with diet and exercise alone and I got back down to my high school weight. However, I lost a baby shortly after hitting that weight and I went through a huge stage of depression because of it. I completely stopped caring about myself and focused only on my children. I lost all of my self worth. I gained 120 plus lbs over the coarse of a year. I found myself so over weight that I didn't even know how I'd get it back under control. It was an extremely hard time for me. That's when I started to consider weight loss surgery. This was something that I NEVER considered before. I honestly thought it was the dumbest thing ever. I couldn't understand why people didn't just lose the weight on their own but now I obviously feel differently. I started to research it and watch YouTube videos of people who have had WLS. I added myself to WLS support groups on Facebook and I read story after story. I found myself bawling infront of the computer screen because all of these people felt exactly how I felt. After I had made my mind up to have the surgery I talked to my husband and parents about it. I wanted to be 110% sure when I brought them into it. Surgery is a huge deal. It's expensive and it's potentially dangerous. Brian was instantly all for it. He had watched my struggle up close and personal. He knew that I'd be successful because I'm stubborn and strong willed. He also knew that I was a completely different person when I was a healthy weight. Life all around is better when you're healthy because not only do you look/feel better about yourself but you also have more energy to do things. Anyways, once Brian was on board I talked to my parents. They weren't as happy with the idea as I was. Surgery scared them and my dad didn't understand why I didn't just lose the weight on my own like I had before. He's blunt like me so I expected nothing less from him ha. They know me though and when I make my mind up about something I'll do just about anything to get it. Knowing that I was committed to the surgery my parents agreed to help me. My mom went to the pre-op appointments with me. It was a lot of psych evaluations, nutritionist training, and physical testing. The trips to OKC (which is 6 hours total driving distance from us) got tiring. I'll never be able to express how much I appreciate my family's love and support through all of this. From driving me to all of the appointments to taking care of me after the surgery. They truly are amazing. 

I'll be totally honest with you guys when I made my mind up to do this I had planned on not telling anyone. As a person who once rolled my eyes at people who had WLS I didn't want to deal with the negative Nancy's. The people who credit all of your success to the surgery alone. The people who say that it's 'the easy way out'. But as time passed I realized that if it hadn't been for seeing people's personal stories about their journey, I wouldn't of ever done this myself. If I can help anyone who is going through what I went through whether it's just passing on all of my nutritional training/knowledge or helping them decide if surgery is an option for them personally, I want to do that. Even if I'm opening myself up to judgement. 

Here's the cold hard fact, if weight loss surgery was the easy way out everyone who has surgery would be successful with it! That's not the case though. Some people aren't successful because they don't change their lifestyle. You have to work at it just like anyone else who is losing weight. You can't eat half of what you used to or it can make you sick. You can't drink pop or caffeine. You have to be extremely picky about what you put into your body because the food volume that your stomach will hold is TINY so you have to make what you put into it count or you can suffer major health issues. You can lose your hair. You can become completely vitamin deficient. Not to mention that you go through a major surgery. There's nothing easy about that. I had the surgery not because I can't lose weight on my own, I've already done that before. I had it because I have never been able to maintain a healthy weight no matter how hard I tried. This surgery is a life long tool to help you achieve long term success and I'd do it again in a heart beat. I might only be 2 1/2 months post op but I can already tell that my life is changed forever. I know that this will continue to work for me and I know that I won't fail myself or my tool. 

As far as my new lifestyle goes here's a few details:

-I don't EVER eat pasta, bread, potatoes, corn, pastries, things high in sugar, things that are breaded or fried, and I avoid a lot of fruits

-I don't drink anything carbonated or with caffeine 

-I do T25 4 times a week and I jog 3 miles 2-3 times a week

-My portion size total during 1 meal is around 4 ozs

-I do a protein meal replacement for breakfast

-I snack on fresh veggies, low fat cheese, and nuts 

I am so ridiculously picky about what I eat that it's unreal. I've never been like that before. It's great. 

If anyone has any questions at all please feel free to message me. I'm happy to answer all that I can and I'll answer it with total transparency. 

*I had the Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy. It's where they remove up to 90% of your stomach. I picked the sleeve over the lap band or bypass because it had the lowest risk of complications long term, I didn't want anything foreign in my body, and I didn't want to bypass any of my organs. The sleeve is the only WLS that isn't reversible though so some people do not like that. 

This is me 2 1/2 months ago vs me now: