Tules
Member
Dear All.
It is almost three years since my gastric sleeve surgery and I wanted to share my experience. Reading the posts here helped me during my journey so you will find this helpful too.
My operation went well with no complications, I was lucky and got my wound healed quickly (they are like little dots on my belly now) and the weight loss has been amazing. After the operation, with the hunger hormone ghrelin reduced, I was finally free of food and food no longer ruled me. I did not wake up hating myself for over-eating every morning and finally I can order the food I wanted at restaurants,rather than the bulkiest one. You know what I mean? For the first time, I felt the "full" sensation after eating and realised why some people could leave food on their plates.
The weight just came off and I felt fantastic. Still do and still thank my lucky stars for doing this - I got it done privately but worth every penny, gained my life back. Oh the joy of throwing away the huge jeans and finally shopping for Medium size!!
Wish you all a good success with this operation but wanted to share some tips:
My surgeon emphasised that this was just a tool to loose weight - not a solution. Do listen to this advise. After a while the ghrelin gets replaced and the hunger comes back. I got spoilt with the weight loss, started to eat what I liked and sometimes pushed myself to eat more after getting the stomach full signals. The stomach does get stretched. The high protein diet is amazing, my stomach and belly shrunk and I really think it was due to not eating too much carb.
I started to eat normal and started to go back to my old days with night snacking. The sleeve still works perfectly when I am having a proper meal and have to stop after a short while. However snacking (on nuts etc)... no impact on the sleeve at all. I gained 9 kilos.
I have recently started hypnotherapy to stop the night snacking, I believe my main problems is that. The therapist is helping me to get my act together and stop snacking. It is working but, as he said, "the want" will always be there and I have to get strong to avoid it. I feel it is like alcohol addiction, you know they say "recovering addict" that you are never "recovered" because the lure and resistance is always there. With snacking, i feel the same applies to me and I decided to go cold turkey. After dinner I just stop eating - breaking the life long habit. It is working and I am going to make it work.
So my advise is this: form a routine with your diet early on, restrict treats and carbs, structure your meals and meal times and just say no to any "addiction" you may have had - forever. Don't assume the weight will keep coming off and that the sleeve will do it for you. The operation is the tool to get that amazing feeling of weight loss and new look/ feel - keep that in mind and just say no.
All the best to you all,
Tulay
It is almost three years since my gastric sleeve surgery and I wanted to share my experience. Reading the posts here helped me during my journey so you will find this helpful too.
My operation went well with no complications, I was lucky and got my wound healed quickly (they are like little dots on my belly now) and the weight loss has been amazing. After the operation, with the hunger hormone ghrelin reduced, I was finally free of food and food no longer ruled me. I did not wake up hating myself for over-eating every morning and finally I can order the food I wanted at restaurants,rather than the bulkiest one. You know what I mean? For the first time, I felt the "full" sensation after eating and realised why some people could leave food on their plates.
The weight just came off and I felt fantastic. Still do and still thank my lucky stars for doing this - I got it done privately but worth every penny, gained my life back. Oh the joy of throwing away the huge jeans and finally shopping for Medium size!!
Wish you all a good success with this operation but wanted to share some tips:
My surgeon emphasised that this was just a tool to loose weight - not a solution. Do listen to this advise. After a while the ghrelin gets replaced and the hunger comes back. I got spoilt with the weight loss, started to eat what I liked and sometimes pushed myself to eat more after getting the stomach full signals. The stomach does get stretched. The high protein diet is amazing, my stomach and belly shrunk and I really think it was due to not eating too much carb.
I started to eat normal and started to go back to my old days with night snacking. The sleeve still works perfectly when I am having a proper meal and have to stop after a short while. However snacking (on nuts etc)... no impact on the sleeve at all. I gained 9 kilos.
I have recently started hypnotherapy to stop the night snacking, I believe my main problems is that. The therapist is helping me to get my act together and stop snacking. It is working but, as he said, "the want" will always be there and I have to get strong to avoid it. I feel it is like alcohol addiction, you know they say "recovering addict" that you are never "recovered" because the lure and resistance is always there. With snacking, i feel the same applies to me and I decided to go cold turkey. After dinner I just stop eating - breaking the life long habit. It is working and I am going to make it work.
So my advise is this: form a routine with your diet early on, restrict treats and carbs, structure your meals and meal times and just say no to any "addiction" you may have had - forever. Don't assume the weight will keep coming off and that the sleeve will do it for you. The operation is the tool to get that amazing feeling of weight loss and new look/ feel - keep that in mind and just say no.
All the best to you all,
Tulay
