Had a great (but brief) chat today with an ex-girlfriend of mine (from nearly 30 years ago) – lets call her Nelly.
Nelly has had a pretty much life long battle with weight (including a 20Kg weight gain within 12 months following the death of her mum), but finally (after a great deal of umming and ahhing) decided to go ahead with Gastric Sleeve Surgery in September last year (2017). She was VERY nervous in the lead up to the operation and very nearly cancelled it… But she has never looked back and wishes she had done it sooner.
Nelly apparently had lots of friends who had had various Bariatric Procedures over the years, but was still very nervous that her operation would be “the one” where everything went wrong…She need not have worried because now, coming up to 12 months after her op. she has lost 55Kg.
Nelly had 3 weeks of meal replacement prior to surgery, but found this pretty easy to manage, because she was focused on the operation and understood the reasons (and benefits) of the pre-surgery diet. Following surgery, she was on liquid diet for about 3 weeks and then mush for another few weeks… It was 3-4 months before she was able to start eating “real food”, and even then it was in very small portions and there was a long learning curve on what and how much she could eat without feeling uncomfortable.
Nelly was never particularly exercise focused or sporty, but now finds she wants to get out with her kids and and exercise more often…It is amazing how much extra energy you seem to have when you lose that much weight in a short period…. The body is used to dragging around a lot more extra weight.
Now she is starting to think about loose skin… Her arms and even wrists (and other bits I presume) now have saggy skin which are likely to improve somewhat over time, but could also be treated surgically for a faster more effective confidence boost.
Looking forward to a much longer chat to learn more about her experience 🙂