‘I Lost 150 Pounds And Had Nearly 7 Pounds Of Skin Removed’
Growing up, I was always the overweight girl, the "sweet bigger friend," the last one to finish the mile in gym class.
I hit my heaviest weight after college: I moved home after graduating and struggled with depression and anxiety-food became my coping mechanism. I ended up gaining 50 pounds. At my annual physical that year, I learned I weighed 340 pounds
It wasn't just my weight that forced me to make a change-my doctor also told me some painful news.
He told me three things: that if I continued to live this way, I'd be diabetic within a few months; that my body couldn't currently handle a pregnancy; and that if I stayed on the same course, I wouldn't live to see my late sixties.
I'd never been so upset in my entire life. I went home, cried it out, and decided it was time to do something-but I had already been on every diet under the sun: Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, liquid diets, low-carb diets. Nothing had ever worked for me before. So, I decided it was time to take a drastic step and call a bariatric surgeon.
When I went in for my surgical consultation, I had no idea what to expect. The surgeon, who agreed with everything my doctor had already told me, gave me three options for surgery.
I could opt for a LapBand (a laparoscopic surgery where a band is placed on the upper part of the stomach to restrict food intake), a gastric bypass (a surgery that reroutes the small intestine from the stomach, leading to large amounts of weight loss), or a vertical sleeve gastrectomy (a surgery that cuts down the stomach to a third of its original size, again, to restrict food intake).
I went with the vertical sleeve gastrectomy and set my surgery date for three months later.
I had a lot to learn in those three months. With a little help from tags on Instagram, I found an entire online community of people who'd had the same surgery and were offering tips and tricks to success, like eating enough protein, drinking as much water as possible, and making sure to take vitamins. I honestly wouldn't have made it through the pre-op process without them.
I was also put on a two-week liquid diet before the surgery in order to shrink my liver (it was enlarged because of my poor diet filled with fatty foods). The liquid diet was also meant to get my stomach ready for the procedure.
My surgery went off without a hitch on November 28, 2016.
After surgery, I healed quickly and went back to my everyday life, with a few major adjustments. I changed my diet from French fries and cheeseburgers to lean chicken, veggies, and healthier (and smaller) versions of foods I used to love. Here's what a typical day of eating looked like for me:
Breakfast: a low-cal version of Starbucks' gruyere and bacon egg bites I found online
Lunch: a chicken sandwich on low-calorie bread
Snack #1: Greek yogurt or a protein bar
Dinner: protein and a vegetable, like steak and asparagus
Snack #2: Halo Top ice cream
The weight started to fly off, and I began to gain confidence, along with a list of things I could never do before (like walking my dog for more than 10 minutes without getting winded and fitting comfortably in an airplane seat).
In six months, I lost 116 lbs and went from a size 24 to a size 14. I was thrilled with my progress, but eventually my weight loss slowed. The surgery had helped, but the rest of the work needed to come from me.
I joined a gym and would do some form of cardio-walking on the treadmill, or using the elliptical or Stairmaster-for 30 minutes. I also hired a personal trainer who I met with twice a week to improve my balance and strength through weight training-I grew to love the gym, much to my surprise.
A year and a half after my surgery, I'd lost 150 pounds-but I had a lot of loose skin.
I was absolutely covered in it. I had arms that were heavy and hard to hold up, a belly that I was stuffing into my leggings to head to the gym, and pieces of my back that made clothing impossible to buy. I worked so incredibly hard for my weight loss and my new muscles, but none of it could be seen under the skin I was living in.
So I worked up the courage to go see another surgeon and we talked about my options. We decided on a brachioplasty (an arm lift), an abdominoplasty (a tummy tuck), breast augmentation, and an upper back lift.
My second surgery took place on November 27, 2018, and I had less than seven pounds of skin removed. The surgery took nearly seven hours and left me covered in scars, but my excess skin is gone.
I'm still healing from that surgery-since I opted for such an extensive procedure (four surgeries at once), my recovery was a little more intense. My body was pretty much useless for a few days; I even had to ask my boyfriend to scratch my nose at one point.
My recovery isn't quite yet over-in January, I have to go back to the doctor to have an extensive scar treatment using lasers to help minimize their appearance. But I've already got a list of things I'm excited to do once I'm fully healed.
Running is a big one-I always felt too overweight to run, and even after my initial weight loss, my excess skin got in the way of running comfortably. I can't wait to get on a treadmill. I also can’t wait to be able to see the results of my hard work in the gym. Before, my muscles were hidden under the skin.
Overall, the decision to lose weight (and to have both of my surgeries) was the best decision I've ever made for myself. It hasn't been easy, but it's definitely been worth it.
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