TT After 80lb Weight Loss, 30 Yrs Old- Bloomington, IL

Here are some pics from over the last few weeks...

Helloooooo friends! Tomorrow I’ll be 16 weeks out from surgery. Four months, what?!?! Yeesh- it’s been quite a while since I’ve given you all an update! Apologies all around ;) Honestly, the reason for my hiatus is really just that my life has just gotten back to nearly complete normalcy, which is something I was doubting would ever happen when I was just a few short days/weeks post op. Most of the time I don’t even think about my surgery or incision/scar line at all, which is amazing! I’m actually getting to the point where I can almost forget what I felt/looked like before the surgery, which is so crazy! But I do have a few observations/thoughts to share:

-Swelling: This is pretty much gone now, though I am still always a little flatter in the mornings when I first wake up, but I rarely notice any significant swelling anymore during the day (unless I’ve been working out really hard). However, when I’m on my period-yikes! I never really experienced feeling bloated because of my cycle before, but now I ALWAYS do. Also, it’s not really swelling, but as I’ve mentioned before, if I indulge too much and overeat during a meal my upper belly get so poochy and uncomfortable- it’s like the food has nowhere else to go but ‘up’ now. It’s a good reminder to stop eating like that! ;)

-Exercise: I’m back to full, normal workouts at the gym. I jog on a regular basis, anywhere from 1-5 miles at this point and I can do all the machines and weights without much trouble. I also attend step aerobics, kickboxing, and boot camp classes. Every once in a while I’ll get a weird pulling feeling in the muscles near my scar line or a sharp, quick pain (especially when I do exercises that stretch me out, like yoga) but I always just try to listen to my body and slow down/back off when I need to and then I don’t have any lingering problems.

-Scar: My scar is getting to that purple stage in the healing process. I’m looking forward to the day it starts to fade out to a pink or white color, but overall, it doesn’t really bother me. I knew there would be a significant scar left behind from this surgery and I am SO much happier with having that than the hanging skin I HATED before. Most of the scar is smooth and flat, but I do have a few spots that are a little raised up and bumpy. Nothing that I’m super worried about though and my surgeon said at the one year post op mark we can revisit how it’s looking and decide if I need any revision then, so I’m not really too concerned with it for the time being. Occasionally I’ll feel a little pain if I’m pressing on the scar, like in a weird way in my clothing or sometimes when I put the Bio Oil on it. But it’s not enough that I think it’s a problem, otherwise, I’d call my surgeon and see what she thinks.

-Clothing: I am SOOOO much happier with the way I look in my clothes now! I was always a bit of a clothes hoarder, or as I prefer to think of myself “just very into fashion” ;) And now I actually feel like I can wear anything in my closet without worrying about how short a shirt is or how to cover my pooch. That’s not to say I don’t still find things to not like about my body. It seems like a lot of people think that after you have a surgery like this you will have a flawless midsection and should never complain again. I’m here to tell you, after this surgery you will more than likely still have some rolls when you sit or hunch over, especially in tight pants. I think this is especially true if you’ve had a major weight loss before your surgery. Because I didn’t have an ‘around the world’ tuck to include my hips and back, I still have some excess skin in those areas that probably won’t be going away, which causes there to still be a pudge in those spots in some clothes. So, just be prepared to see those kinds of things if you were in the same boat as me before surgery. BUT, I do TRY to keep my complaints to a very bare minimum because as a general rule I LOVE my new stomach and that has truly changed my ability to finally be pretty comfortable in my own skin! And I’m finally going to be able to wear a bikini without being totally mortified! ;)

I hope everyone is doing well in their recovery or prep for surgery! This ability to share my story and reading those of others has really helped with this whole process. I’ll try to be more faithful in checking in my with progress and keeping up with everyone else’s as well.

(Oh! And I’ll have some progress pics to share soon too!)

2 weeks before surgery compared to 9 weeks after- now I promise I'm done with pics for awhile, lol! I promise I'm really not this full of myself ;) I still have work to do but it's shoes the progress...