35 Year Old Single Mother of 1. - Atlanta, GA

Thank you and I hope your makeover goes perfectly!!! I lost the weight by changing my eating plan and cutting out my 2 liters of Diet Coke a Day habit. I drank Diet Coke like that for 15 years. Quit cold turkey and didn’t add any new sources of caffein. Thought I would die if I did that, but guess what, I survived! Now I drink 2-3L of pure water daily. I eat whole organic foods. Lots of kale strawberry protein smoothies in the mornings for breakfast with chia seeds, flax seeds, raw oats, and coconut water. Lean grilled chicken for lunch with raw veggies and lemon juice as dressing. Lemon juice on veggies & grilled chicken with tons of pepper is actually very yummy. And for dinner I pick from any healthy veggie and protein option to include a salad, or a light sodium vegetable soup with a lean protein, or a mozzarella tomato basil balsamic salad, or Greek yogurt w/ granola and cinnamon. I mix all those options around daily and some breakfasts I do the Greek yogurt granola cinnamon option. Some lunches I do spinach mushroom egg omelets with raw cucumber on the side or tomatoes. Tons of raw greens, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocados, broccoli, nuts, grilled chicken. No added salt to anything and no processed foods unless they are organic and have very few ingredients I can read (like the organic soups that are light in sodium). No sugar. No salt. No wheat. No salad dressings. Pure food only. My daily fats include (all are organic) olive oil, coconut oil, avocados, and sometimes a little butter. Also I eat very limited processed food. I add fresh ground pepper to everything except the sweeter options like smoothies or juices or Greek yogurt. Must drink tons of pure quality water. I have a Big Berkey so my water has no chlorine, chemicals, or fluoride and tastes amazing. Easy to drink. No caffeine or anything other than water. I make most of my food from scratch from raw organic whole foods. And the important part is to have 3 cheat meals a week to throw off your metabolism and boost the calorie intake. So I get a cheat breakfast, a cheat lunch, and a cheat dinner, but never in the same day. Spread those 3 cheat meals around during the week. I also take a lot of vitamins, supplements, and herbs. I take turmeric daily, boswellia, cayenne pepper, and algae super food supplements. It’s pure clean eating. I have an occasional margarita anywhere from zero to three times a week. But only with my cheat meals. And yeah, I’ve had some moments of Halloween candy and cupcakes, and temptations with Cheetos (my weakness), but I don’t beat myself up and have a great clean eating day the next day. And if I feel super hungry, I chug half a liter of water. Basically I drink water before and after every meal and a lot with each supplement. I don’t exercise, but I’m a floor nurse, so my job kinda has that built into it, and on my off days I am moving non stop with renovations, painting, plumbing, cleaning, filing, etc. Hope this helps! Oh and the first week of my eating lifestyle change I did a cleanse where for breakfast I made an organic green juice daily and ate a lot of avocado, chicken, cayenne pepper, turmeric, and cucumber meals for lunch, and light grilled chicken salads for dinner. I didn’t step on the scale for the first month and was happily shocked when I did! It kept me sane and kept me going. Scale watching can be very negative for your motivation as we naturally fluctuate in fluid volume, colon content, and extra cellular fluid retention each day. The point is to also eat and drink towards alkalizing your body. And as you get better with the plan and get used to the eating plan, as your taste preferences move towards liking simple flavors of nature’s delisious veggies and fruits without all those added chemical flavors, you start to eat smaller portions and fill up faster. Hope this helps! Good luck and keep at it!!!

Wow thanks. We sound pretty similar in a lot of ways. I need to move some more towards where you are.... thanks for all the great detail.

It has been a year and half since my surgery and it took a run in with a fitness expert on our last cruise to make this change. He ran a test on me, and devised a nutrition plan just for me. It’s basically a 6 month cleanse. But it’s so great I can’t imagine doing anything else now. I look forward to dropping another 20 lbs and maybe starting a fitness program. I wish you the best in your journey. It’s not one day to the next, but a step by step process that we all make in our own way and at our own pace.

Thank you so much!!! And props to you for taking the leap. You’ll love it and won’t even know why you didn’t do it sooner. I can’t imagine living in that post-baby body ever again. No regrets. Good luck and keep taking good care of yourself. Nutrition, lots of water, and rest do wonders. When you can, start walking. I was up and walking around the neighborhood a couple weeks post-op. BTW, I choose a cherry blossom tattoo after doing a lot of research on Timmy tuck tattoos because I wanted a classy sophisticated tattoo without too much highly saturated ink. It’s elegant and I love it.

Thank you very much! It’s a fluid process, comes with it’s good and bad days. But you have to keep the goal in mind and stay on track even when you stray. Good luck to you!!!

So I got it pierced after the second round of tattoo for my tummy tuck. She did the outline first and then I came back after it healed and she did the color. Once that finished it was a spur of the moment decision and I said what the hell, let’s peirce my belly button while I’m still recovering from the adrenaline rush from the tattoo pain. Well that was last spring at the tattoo parlor in our local mall. It looked great. Till it didn’t. Recently I noticed the piercing started to hang real loose and the skin between the piercing was getting purple and thinning out. Unbeknownst to me, your body can reject a belly button piercing, slowly pushing it to the surface as the skin below heals. It’s mostly in people with skin allergies to metals and sensitive skin. Even though it was surgical steel, that’s what happened to me. By the time I took it out, it was hanging by a piece of flesh, just barely in. So I’m waiting for it to heal up, the purple scar tissue to lose pigment and clear up. And if I ever get it pierced again, because I love how it looked, I will have to pay for titanium instead. Apparently after reasearching piercing rejections, they say titanium is the metal to go with for folks with these sensitivities. Sucks.

His name is listed at the top of my review. Dr. Mark Deutsch, MD, FACS in Atlanta. Over in the North Atlanta medical district.

Ha! Never mind! It's the same stuff you have posted :-)... So when did you start walking upright again?

Thanks! When did you have your surgery??? How are you feeling? Any regrets? I didn't discuss my nipple expectations with my surgeon prior to the surgery, so it was all just up to his discretion. I had so many other thoughts and concerns, that my nipple size didn't even come to mind. Haha! I'm getting used to them. Think one is smaller than the other, but let's see what happens as the scars heal.

Um, not even sure! Lol I want to say week two, but I still have moments when I sit for an extended period of time (like driving to ATL for my follow-up appts) and then feel a very tight sensation in my upper abdomen. It takes me a few minutes to relax the muscles and then I can stand up straight again. I still can't hyperextend as is required for tummy sleeping or a proper swim in the lap pool. ;) I will follow the signs my body gives me and allow my body the time it needs to heal. Now, tell me about your surgery lady!

Hey lady, I went in on the 9th. Feeling ok. Just wish I could walk up right. This is more so so that I don't have to explain why I'm hunched over when I go back to work. I guess I could always say i pulled something :-) Totally worth it!! I put some new pics of me in my review. Check me out. I noticed that as my breasts settle they are taking on a square shape. IDC... I'm just glad they are off my stomach. Lol

Thanks!

Thank you! I ended up choosing a little black swim skirt and string bikini top. Much more comfortable and movement friendly to allow me to keep up with my son in the water. We're going on a cruise in the fall so I might get a skimpier bikini for some breach lounging.

Lol you're cracking me up! I might keep it for our cruise in the fall. The bottom is super small and my son would kick it off of me with how crazy he is, so for regular pool time, I chose a little black swim skirt & string bikini top. The pink one I might keep for beach lounging on the cruise.

Sounds like a good idea! Is that a kate Hudson?

Thank you Hun!!! How are you???

Thank you! I am now more than 3 weeks post op and will be posting another update today.