Coping As a Newly Slim Person

My life as an obese child and teenager was truly miserable looking back on it 30 years later. I had no self esteem and no sense of self worth. I learned to live with this affliction, thinking there was no hope to my wieght issues. So I accepted it and in that action found the strength to carrie on with life and be happy . I accepted the fact that I most likely would never marry or have the chance to have children. And all was ok from there till 1989 when I had my GASTRIC BYPASS.

I was 300 lbs at that point. I lost 160 lbs in 8 months. I should have Taken more vitamins and minerals during the process, as my hair ,skin , and eyesight suffered in different degrees of severity, But over all I was very pleased with the outcome.

OK NOW THIS IS ALL VERY GOOD INFORMATION FROM MY EXPERENCE THAT SHOULD BE CONSIDERED.

They say in order for them to be able to do this operation, you have to be certain there is not any depression. WE All Know, if your obese you ARE depressed, And if there is a chance that the opportunity of having this operation was a possiablity.Any one of us would say anything to secure this. And no chance some form filling hospital DR. who spent less than 5 min. looking at your clip board would be able to prevent this from happening. You have to see someone and really spending serious time talking about what to expect when you have slimmed and the inpact of the life as you had come to accept is now turned into something completely unforin to you.

You will still have your issues with selfworth but you will learn to have your coping mechanisms, like bulimia,onerexia,drinking, gambling, whoring anything that will eleveate these feelings.

Just know what you are getting yourself into, so that you are prepared for when things are tough ( and they will. life still happens to all of us) you will be better able to cope and camileon into yet another new life.

Myself?

After I lost the wieght, All I wanted was the life I thought I would never have, Husband, home, children.Never thought there would come a day I would be the one to be able to pick and choose. And I did. The marriage fell apart as they so often do. But my old thinking kept me feeling that it was all me, it was all my fault. I did everything to keep my new found figure, including bulimia,onerexia, going to bars and dancing all night to help in staying thin. sleeping with anyone who thought I was worth being with. I lost all my friends( on purpose ) and developed social disorders. Now 20 years later I am alone no husband no children no real home. But a life I have. You find out that you never know what could be around the corner. You accept this new life as you have the others, knowing it can flip and will again.

I now have problems, derectly or inderectly caused by my bypass,but I have decent health and I try not to be soo hard on myself anymore.And accept what life throws at me ( good or bad ). Would I do it again ? OH YA!

So I was asked to do an update on my post, and I was thinking what in respect to this topic could I discuss that people might find useful in there journey of wieght loss. Well I decided to talk about WATER. I know it might seem to be the liest of your worries right now. But if you do not pay attention to your intake you WILL have life long issues after your surgery. People who have gastric bypass have an essential need for unlimited amounts of water. I had my surgery over 20 years ago and have just recently found out that alot of my problems that I have been coping with such as my skin my eyesight detereation are a direct result of not taking in enough water. I suffered from severe side and abdominal cramping when dieting and suffered nightly with charlie horses all this time. And I was clueless that I was dehydrated. I am sure most people who have this operation drink TONS. I never go without a drink at my side at all times, why would I even think that I was dehydrated? But I was. I was drinking tons of coffee and diet soda. But these beverages dehydrate you and do not give you the amounts of water your body truly needs after going through all your changes. After 25 years and a nosey but good intentioned co-worker who put me on the right track and gave me this tip. I now drink a bottle of water in the morning befor my coffee and try and get 2-4 more bottles in during the day. I am not a big water fan but The miraculous changes that it has done for me in the past 10 months is nothing short of amazing. No cramps, no charlie horses within 3 days of starting my water intake and zero since and this was something that I suffered with nightly for 20 years. Sometimes 3-4 times a night to the point that I limped all the next day. My wrinkles have puffed up and my skin looks better than it ever did. I always wondered why I still had pimples at 40. But they have been gone for the first time in my adult life. JUST AMAZING .

I do have to mention just in case all these great changes are not just due to the water increase. I also made one more change in my life at the same time and that was giving up aspartame. I know I need to credit this change for some of the benifits that I am experiencing now. But I can not truly say what contributes to what change so I will leave it to you to decide for youself. Aspartame is BAD BAD stuff and should never have even been allowed on the market. 70% of North Americas pop. is on it, 30% of that is children. ( parents saying no to a coke but yes to a diet drink thinking they are helping thier children). It turns to formaldihide in the body and stays there. It causes a whole list of issues, that I will leave for you to research and come up with your own views and oppinions on what it doe's to your mind and body and how and why it was brought into the market place. But I was doing over 20 a day just in my coffee. Not including all the other food that I was taking in thinking low cal. was better to purchase and injest.

But that doe's not take away from my main topic water. And this is a terrific sight to work and review in when considering and going through this operation so that you have the insight and information to make your own decisions and considerations. I do beleve I am one of the oldies who have gone through this and I would be happy to continue to let everyone stay updated on my travels. I remember my surgen saying to me that this operation would take 15 years off my life but without it, it would take 40. So that is my worrie now, I want thoughs 15 years back too now, as I am not even close to being done yet. (Oh by the way I am 48 now) Any new research or info on this topic would be of great interest to me if you could let me know.

Well it has been awhile since my last post and thought it was time to touch base and make note as to how my post op life is treating me.
I have not been under a doctors care for years, my depression makes it so motivation is not one of my stronger suits. I do huge amounts of net search and self diognosing, I find this site to be the most insightful when it comes to seeing what works for other people who have gone through what I have. When I am gone it will be my record as to how this operation has inpacted my life. Being honest in my reviews hopefully will help others in keeping up with what they can expect on thier journey and mabe avoid mistakes that myself and others have gone through.
I would like to talk about Pro-biotics as I have not read or heard anything on it in relation to gastric bypass. I have talked befor about my Constapation, which I have suffered with since the beginning. Over 20 years and this is the first year that I have been confortable and beleve it or not I am not dieting and the wieght is comming off. 12lbs in the past year. I do not worry about gaining as I have pretty much stayed the same since losing in1987. But I was worried about my cronic yeast infections and the strain on my bowels. In Europe pro-biotics are huge and when I saw there was a relation between gastric bypass participants and the deficientsy of the amount of good bacteria in the gut and intestinal track I decided to try multibionta a pro-biotic multi vitamine. If I did one good thing it was stumbling on to this tid bit. I feel healthy I guess thats the best way to put it. I met another woman who had a gastric bypass and 4 months after I started I let her know what I was up to and she started but she had the opposite problem with the bowels than I had and I talked to her yesterday and she is thrilled also at the results. I hope everyone is drinking lots of water and staying active.
Stay Healthy and happy life to all