41 Yr Old 3 Kids, Tired of Belly That Won't Go Away - Columbus, OH

Just got off the scale (which I rarely weigh myself. I prefer to go by how clothes fit than by a number). I was just curious. 15 pounds ladies and gentlemen! I have lost 15 pounds in the last 9 weeks.

Now, they took 4 pounds of skin off and about 3 pounds of fat. Still, that's 8 pounds in 9 weeks of laying around and just eating healthy and small portions. Because here I am at 9 weeks and because of of all the issues I had with the fluid and swelling my ps STILL hasn't allowed me to do any excercise yet. That's right, I'm not at the gym, I'm not lifting weights, I'm not running, nothing. And STILL I'm down 15 pounds from where I was at the day before surgery.

Excited, and proof that people who say they can't loose weight because they don't have time to excercise are just making excuses. 80% of weight loss is what and how you eat. Can't wait to combine this WITH my weight lifting and see what this body of mine can really look like.

Not sure if anybody is reading this, but just want to throw this news out into the universes because I was so happy and I'm home by myself right now. ;)

Carry on.

Eight weeks ago when I was getting ready to do this thing I scoured this site to get a sense for what I was getting myself into. Day by day I would look at those who were ahead of me in their recovery so I knew what was to come. It was so helpful to me, especially on those days when I was really questioning why I did this. So, I came back on today to show you where I'm at 8 weeks PO. Maybe this will help someone like it did me.

I ended up going in three different times to get fluid drained. At my 6week appointment I was told there was no fluid to drain but BOY was I swollen. Apparently this is typical once the fluid subsides. I've had to keep Spanx or my compression wrap on most of the time to keep swelling down, but it is soooo much better than it was two weeks ago.

I have had this never ending cough for about three weeks now. I'm sure that's not helping the swelling, either. You can see in the pictures that it's still pretty swollen around my tummy. My thighs are so much better, though! Sorry. I didn't have my pretty underwear on today. :)

Scars haven't faded as much as I'd like yet, but definitely not as gruesome. I have hard lumps under my scars and still have some numbness, but that, too is going away.

I was wearing between a size 12/14 before surgery and I am wearing 8/10 now. Pretty confident I'll be a solid 8 once all the swelling is down.

The doctor told me that since we had such a hard time with the fluid and swelling I still am not cleared for exercise despite my pleading. Walking only. So I'm thinking I may even achieve a size 6 once I can start getting myself back into a gym. That would be amazing! But honestly that would be bonus. I'm actually pretty happy with where I'm at now. It's good to know that I can eat healthy and do life looking good without the stress I had about my body eight weeks ago.

As an aside, does anyone else now look at other people trying to guess if they've had a tt, too? No? Oh. Me neither.

OK. Here are some pics I took yesterday at exactly 4 weeks. Still swollen, especially my butt lol but I'm getting flatter. Especially after getting all that fluid drained.

Also, today I fit into an older pair of jeans from about a year ago, and put on a favorite t-shirt that I haven't been wearing because it was so tight that I would show of all my bulge. No more. Check me out! :)