 Hi there YouTube family welcome back to today's video, which is going to be a life update on My weight loss so far. So if you're new to my channel I will link a few videos below Where you will see my weight loss journey and the decisions that I've made and obviously from this title You know that I have had weight loss surgery and I had it July 1st So I am about four months plus a few days into my journey And I just wanted to talk to you about a few of the things that I felt were really important That I really didn't think about until after the surgery was over There are things that you read like I read a ton of stuff I talked to people to doctors and I knew what I was getting into but there are things that until you experience them You really can't understand what they mean or how that's going to affect you So I wanted to tell you 11 things that have really surprised me not necessarily surprised me But we're a little bit more involved to deal with than I thought they would be so I'm gonna get into those right now Please give the video a thumbs up if at any time during the video you enjoy the content Or if you want to stop and give thumbs up right now, I would really appreciate that too Okay, so we're gonna start with number 10 I'm gonna kind of work backwards in succession of how these things have come about okay And so number 11 is when you wake up from the actual surgery You are going to have pain and you might feel like you can't breathe I knew the pain part because I had had a general anesthetic with a cesarean that I had and I knew that I was gonna wake up with pain but I didn't realize how much more extensive the pain would be and also The feeling like I couldn't breathe like something was wrong like maybe my heart wasn't beating or something like that Part of that is the gas that they fill up in your abdomen in order to create a cavity To be able to look around and do their surgery in there I knew the logistics of the surgery and what they did during the surgery But I really didn't realize that right after you would have that feeling of breathlessness of extreme pain and all that stuff So in saying that I'm really not trying to scare anybody or anything It's actually more me wanting you to be prepared if you are gonna go through that number 10 is The recommendation that they tell you after surgery to walk walk walk walk your butt off Make sure that you're walking and you'll heal faster You'll work any residual gas in your abdomen out got right up and I did exactly what they said to do I was walking within an hour of being back and Didn't realize that for me with fibromyalgia So if you have any autoimmune disease or any diseases that actually already cause you pain I didn't realize that because of my sedentary lifestyle and How I wasn't used to walking like that how much pain that would cause me in a couple of days It's just like a sore muscle that you work out But for me my fibromyalgia pain has always been all the way down my back and into my hips and my legs and By day two the following day when those muscles were you know at their Fatigue point because I had walked all night long and most of the next day because I wanted to be able to get that all out Of my abdomen I hurt I hurt so bad and it wasn't like the pain from the actual surgery Although that was there, but my fibromyalgia was just like completely out of control So I want to make sure that you know that you need to pace yourself That's really important even though they want you to walk you still need to remember that you are in a Condition where you might not be as physically fit to be able to walk that much Oh, yes, make sure you walk But also make sure you get your rest and most places are really good about giving you pain medicine as you needed And that's really how I got through that number nine on my list is prepare yourself For the negative talk that or negative feedback that you're gonna be getting from people all around you You can you know, I put myself out here on social media So I recognize that there was gonna be some negative feedback, but in all actuality I didn't realize that even my friends even my best friends would be very negative about this and Even the people that weren't outwardly negative about it I can tell I can tell those people aren't supportive And so you need to really mentally emotionally prepare yourself for some distance from the people that are closest to you Because they will pull away from you if they feel very strongly about it being not the right thing or about that You're taking the easy way out as people say So what I wanted to say is that even though you may be so excited and you know, this is the right thing for you I did I knew this is exactly what I needed. I knew that I wasn't able to do this on my own I knew that I needed this tool to help me get to where I needed to go Not everybody was as excited as I was and then there were people that were very very negative And when I got that negative feedback from the people that were closest to me it was really hard to deal with And so you kind of have to just kind of put up a little wall there and Brace yourself for that more than anything is what I would say. They will come around I think eventually when they see your progress and they see how healthy you are But in the beginning brace yourself for a lot of negativity about having the surgery because there is a stigma Even though it's being done by the thousands every day all over the world number eight is one That you would think that would be higher up on my my list But it's not because this is something that happens often and that is the possibility of a complication Seven days post-op I developed a bowel obstruction and it was so painful But one of the things that I learned going through that and every nurse every cna every doctor every anesthesiologist that I saw Said to me. This is a very common complication after any kind of abdominal surgery It is not just bariatric surgery that they were talking about Any time they go in there and they mess around with your works inside there in your abdomen You have the possibility of a bowel obstruction My doctor that I had to do the surgery had less than a one percent rate of complications So I thought that was great. And you know less than one percent You're not necessarily going to have anything but what I didn't realize is post-op complication So kind of mentally just keep that in the back of your head Don't dread it. Don't worry about it. Don't let it deter you from your goal Because the majority of people do not have those kind of complications Number seven you might be nauseated after every single thing you eat and drink for a very long time I was such an advocate for drinking water and drinking a ton of water every day and flushing my body And now I can't chug water. There's no way you have this tiny little pouch that you're dealing with as your stomach And you cannot just gulp and gulp and gulp even when you're super thirsty You have to sip so I can usually take two pretty good swallows And then I have to slow down and you know take a few sips at a time You can still get your water in and you have to get your water in if you want to be successful And if you want to stay healthy, but it definitely changed and I wasn't ready for that even about the food part I wasn't ready for the feeling that every single time I ate something I had to wait for it to hit my stomach and that there might be a little bit of pain or nausea each time it hit my stomach I'm still experiencing that pain and the nausea at times But it's not nearly as bad as like when I first started Again, don't expect it But keep it in the back of your mind that you could be nauseated and have pain for quite a little while Number six and this is one that I wish that I had been prepared for Realizing what not being able to ever take an NSAID or ibuprofen, alea, aspirin Anti-inflammatory pain relievers will mean for you this particular one was really really hard for me Because I had been taking that kind of stuff on a daily basis You know after the surgery you have a greater risk of developing ulcers or stomach bleeding because of you know All your works have changed down there NSAIDs or anti-inflammatory drugs I didn't realize what a huge role they played in pain relief for me like now even when I get a headache I want ibuprofen not the Tylenol that I can take so just kind of mentally be prepared for that Don't you know worry about it again. So number five, which is super positive is that your pain level is going to Decrease dramatically when you're not taking in so much garbage into your body And I didn't realize that sugar simple carbs pasta Pastries all that kind of stuff that we crave and that we want candy that kind of stuff All of those things are super high inflammatory foods And so it causes all that inflammation inside your body But when it gets taken away all the inflammation goes away and your pain goes down I have really noticed that at the beginning every 10 pounds now It's every five pounds that I lose I noticed my pain going down more and more and more So I'm not as worried as I was in the beginning about not being able to take Advil or ibuprofen As that pain goes down. I really wish that I would have known before how fast the pain would diminish So number four is kind of a positive as well I didn't realize how quickly the weight would come off and especially for me And having the second complication I didn't get to like start On the liquid diet and then you graduate into softer food and on and on I didn't get to start that as quickly as someone that didn't have any complications So my weight loss has been dramatic and it's been very very quick It is exciting to see the scale go down But at the same time you want to make sure that you don't sacrifice any of the nutrition So that kind of goes hand in hand with the one about being nauseated all the time You kind of stop when you get that feeling and you don't eat and it kind of gets a little bit where you're trying to balance Being nauseated and needing to take in food and making sure you're taking in the right foods And that comes into maybe what you're eating You might not be able to eat steak and pork for a while or things like that You might really need to stay on soft foods longer than you think So, you know, those kind of things kind of just get balanced out as you go along But the weight loss can be tremendous and it can be fast And I just told you that I'm about four months and a few days into my weight loss journey And I'm sure you're sitting there thinking how much has she lost And so I did start on a pre diet program and you do that several weeks before you actually go into surgery to shrink your liver So that your liver is not covering your stomach in the fatty. It's not so fatty and everything like that So in that five months, I have lost 98 pounds, which I'm really really proud of And I'm just looking forward to getting the rest of it off and everything kind of being more stable But that is a pretty fast weight loss when you think about it 20 pounds a month is five pounds a week Very fast weight loss really it's only recommended that you do about two pounds So that kind of leads me into the next one when we're talking about needing to get the right amount of nutrition and stuff And that is that if you have weight loss surgery 99% of the people will experience hair loss The people that experience hair loss of those about 75% of those will experience extensive hair loss even now I've lost about a quarter of the volume of my hair and it does come out in handfuls every day all day long But my thing was I thought okay if I get all the protein they tell me to If I take biotin if I take a hair hair nail and skin formula if I use the right shampoo But scientifically what it boils down to with hair loss is truly nutrition Not vitamins not, you know, just proteins all those things It's actually the complete nutrition that you might need and the things that are the least important to the body Are the things the body's going to sacrifice as it's in kind of starvation mode and the hair follicles Those are the one of the things that aren't necessary for our body function So it's going to protect your internal organs and your bones that kind of thing Before it worries about what kind of hair is on your head. So during your weight loss phase Yes, you will lose hair more than likely now There are some people that are the exception and they get away without ever losing it And I thought I might have been one of those people because I had learned so much from losing hair before But I'm not the good news is is that it will grow back And there are things that after it starts growing again that you can do to make it very healthy and even thicker And I do have a couple videos on that which I'll post down below Okay, number two this and this one is becoming more and more hard for me every day And that is I didn't realize how bad my skin would sag But here's the thing you guys I didn't realize until looking back on some of my past videos how big I was So when you think about Expanding a balloon or blowing a balloon up once you let the air out of that balloon the balloon never looks like it originally did So I'm kind of comparing it to that It stretched out and you can tell that it doesn't have the elasticity that it did before So I'm noticing quite a bit right here on my neck that I never noticed before I would say that if you need to lose more than 75 pounds kind of prepare yourself for that extra skin And okay the number one thing that I wish that I had been told or that I had been prepared for And I actually had read a book on this But like I said at the beginning this is one thing that until I experienced it I didn't realize how difficult it would be when you go on a diet And you just lose weight without having weight loss surgery whenever you feel like it You can go back to that food that you loved and have some and lots of people after they take their weight off They maintain their weight, but they occasionally give themselves one of their favorite treats Be whatever it is pastry sugar carbs, you know, whatever it is When you have weight loss surgery, that's no longer an option for you You can eat those things, but lots of times they'll make you sick The other thing is why go through all of this if you're not going to follow through with the actual diet So the reason that I put this at number one is that because I think this is a whole Emotional thing not just a physical thing You will mourn the loss of not being able to eat What you want Let me say it one more time I mourn the loss of not being able to eat a brownie or a donut And that really is what it boils down to you cannot do it anymore It's gone out of your life. I can't turn to my best friend anymore and go. Oh, you're so beautiful little donut And oh my goodness, you make me feel so good. I can't do that anymore. It's gone So I had to completely learn a new coping mechanism It is absolutely definitely just like an added and I find that I play that battle over and over in my head And I think well, I'll just have a little bite that little bite usually either makes me feel so guilty Or it makes me sick. So either way. I'm in a bad head space, right? So kind of replay that over and over in your mind would be my suggestion Because you are really letting go of something and you have to really tell yourself what this can't be in my life anymore Because this was the drug or the substance that really almost killed me So I want to get away from that. But you know, when you don't have weight loss surgery, you can still go back to it You can still eat it if you really feel like it once you have weight loss surgery. That's gone So you have to make a realization in your head. Yes, I'm ready. Yes I know that this is going to be a huge sacrifice But yes, I'm going to commit to this and there will be days Just any any addict will tell you any substance abuser will tell you There'll be days that you feel like you can't get through that day But you just take it one hour at a time one minute at a time that kind of thing So that's my number one thing you will mourn the loss of your best friend food And I feel that so strongly. So try to mentally and emotionally prepare yourself for that That would be my best advice to you that I could ever give And I don't know if any of this has resonated with those of you that go on diets or anything like that I would love to hear your feedback in your comments below because weight loss Obesity being overweight all of those things are are just rampant in the united states today So these things that I have experienced are things that everybody's experiencing that is trying to lose weight It's not just unique to me But I wanted to make this video to see if I could possibly help somebody that was starting on a weight loss journey Or if I could possibly help somebody that was contemplating bariatric surgery going right into it Whatever the case may be So I hope that you did enjoy this video today. Please give it a thumbs up Thank you guys so much for being a part of my day. I hope you guys have a great day I wish you well. Love you very much and I'll catch you all in my next video. Bye. Bye guys