VSG Update: Five-Month Follow-Up

It's been a pretty great five-month surgiversary (and following few days). I was sick on the surgiversary day itself, and it took me a few days to get back to normal, but sick aside, here are my stats!

On November 9th (surgiversary day): 222 pounds. That puts me down exactly 70 pounds since surgery on June 9th, 92 pounds since the pre-op liquid diet started just after Memorial Day, and 98 pounds overall. Woo!

Three days later, I weighed in at 220. 100 pounds overall down!!

Three days after that, I weighed in at 217.8 pounds. Not only did this put me past the 100 mark, it put me just a touch lower than I weighed on my wedding day in 2003. Which means I FINALLY put that part of my life behind me in pretty much every way (weigh?) possible. I still have the best thing in the world to come out of that marriage (my son), but all the stress and boredom weight I put on during those years is finally gone. YAY!

Next up on my goal radar is 216.9. This is the weight I need to be to go from Obese Class 2 (I started at 3) to Obese Class 1. Now, I don't give BMI a ton of thought - it can be very misleading since it's just based on weight - but it's still nice to see that I'm heading in the right direction on all the charts!

After that, I'm shooting for 212 (the weight I was at when discharged from the Navy).

I'm hoping to hit those two goals by the six-month surgiversary. We'll see!!

As for other updates for this fifth month after surgery:

• I'm down eight pant sizes (24 to 16).
• I'm down a bunch of shirt sizes (4x to L).
• I fit in normal-width boots!!!!!!
• I wore a skirt two days in a row.
• I'm finally starting to feel attractive again.
• I'm considering dating again. It's not happened yet, and I'm not actively pursuing it (as in, I've not asked anyone out), but there may or may not be a person I may or may not have my eye on, who I may or may not say 'yes' to if he asked me out. If he doesn't, I'm good. I like my independence an awful lot. The point is, though, that I feel like I'm in a good place in my life (with my son and my job and my weight) to feel I finally have time and energy for a relationship if the opportunity were to present itself. That is a pretty big NSV, right there.

On a little bit of an unrelated note, I see a lot of people on social media who have had the surgery I have who say things like "I'm going to be honest about the journey," or "let's be real," or "the honest side of VSG." For the record, everything I post is honest. I don't sugar-coat things. I don't hide the negatives. I've just had a really great experience with VSG.

Like the following:

• Post-surgery hair loss is real, and it's a LOT. But if you have thick hair like me, you may not even notice (except for the puppy-sized clump in the shower every morning). I still have a ton of hair, and it looks and feel great.
• I had big bazongas ever since I was a teen. I have big bazongas now. Surgery has not made them shrink into non-existence (as much as I wish they would). I was a DD before surgery, I'm a DD now.
• Same with my butt. It's smaller, but still lots of junk in the trunk, and I doubt that will change. So whatever your body type was at your lowest is what it will be after you lose. You won't magically become a swimsuit model.
• I have loose skin, but not too bad. In fact, I think most of it might tighten up pretty nicely. Not tight... I'm in my 40s... I'll never be tight. But I don't think I'm going to have any severe loose skin issues.
• I don't deal with any severe mental issues. I went into surgery knowing it wouldn't fix everything. I went into surgery knowing that I had to find other ways to deal with stress or boredom eating. So I considered other options. You can't go into surgery expecting to be fixed. It's a tool, not a be-all, end-all solution.
• I don't get frustrated at what I can or can't have anymore. If you want to be healthy, you'll make the changes. If you think surgery will do it all for you, you're not ready for surgery. Yeah, I miss bread, oh well. I bet recovering alcoholics miss alcohol, too. You gotta do what you gotta do to succeed. 
• I have the things I want that aren't on the no-go list (my no-go list is carbs... carbonation and carbohydrates. Specifically, no soda, sparkling water, loaf bread, rolls, and breadsticks). So I have ice cream. I have candy. I just don't have it more than a couple of times a MONTH. There's no reason to put crap into your body more often than that.
• I follow the two MAJOR rules of weight loss surgery: (1) I wait 30 minutes after eating to drink, and (2) I get my protein in first. No exceptions. Everything else? They're more guidelines than rules and change with every surgeon.

I've had literally zero downsides directly because of my surgery, but everyone's journey is different, and your mileage may vary.

And that's my five-month update!