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Before and After pics and stories?


Rock
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I've always been ashamed to post pics on here because of my obesity. But I've lost a bunch of weight and continue that trend, so I thought I would monopolize a thread with some personal pics, stories. It's primarily for peer-based encouragement for myself but maybe it can help inspire others to make positive changes in their lives? Thoughts? Dumb? Waste of time? Helpful?

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Guest El Chalupacabra

I've always been ashamed to post pics on here because of my obesity. But I've lost a bunch of weight and continue that trend, so I thought I would monopolize a thread with some personal pics, stories. It's primarily for peer-based encouragement for myself but maybe it can help inspire others to make positive changes in their lives? Thoughts? Dumb? Waste of time? Helpful?

 

I think if it helps you, do it. It might help someone someone else, too, so it's win-win. I say you ought to.

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Turns out, the picture that pretty much changed my life is buried deep on facebook.

 

here we go!

 

 

 

June 2010 - It haunts me.

 

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Seriously, I found this picture totally terrifying. I look like I'm literally suffocating inside my own body. It's hard to look at even now.

 

I had a Vertical Sleeve Gastrectomy 5 months later. I'll spare the gory details unless anyone actually wants to hear them.

 

Anyway. I spent the next year or so pretty much hiding, and finding unique ways to keep my old pants from falling down during the weird rapid-shrinkage months where people worry that you have cancer.

 

Almost 100 lbs and 1 year later: May 2011 - Mid-laugh is always (not) flattering.

 

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Up until this point it is near-impossible to get me to take a group picture. It's kindof sad how many events it looks like I never even attended.

 

Takes about another year for me to agree to this: August 2012 - Standing alongside my hot friends.

 

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A few months later: visiting Nikki (ignig) in Chicago

 

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My travel albums are no longer pictures of empty landmarks and OTHER people. By the way-- Nikki is one of the most beautiful people on the planet. I highly recommend spending a good amount of time with her.

 

And now we arrive here: New Years Eve 2013

 

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Obviously, I'm still not thin. I'm not sure I ever WILL be, honestly. I come from a family of Amazons... and while that used to be an excuse, it's more a point of acceptance now. I still see that first picture when I look in the mirror and that's rough... but even though I still would LIKE to be thinner/taller/whatever, I don't hate myself anymore.

 

So yeah... there's all that. I've grown up on Nightly... and now you guys know me even better than before. Hopefully that's a good thing.

 

 

 

 

Rock-- this was totally scary, but it's worth doing. Thanks for posting this thread <3

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Ericka, was the surgery deemed medically necessary kind of like Rock's was, or did you just get to a point where you said enough is enough and decided to take drastic action?

 

I think you look fantastic, and I have noticed a difference over the last year or so, especially, in your facebook pictures. (Maybe it's been longer than that. I use the mom brain excuse where I no longer can measure anything in terms of time, other than before kid was born and after.) And you still have your rockin boobs.

 

Alright, I think that means I'm up next. Let me go convert the sucker to a JPG or do some major cropping. Much as I love people in the fitness industry, they make me go facepalm when it comes to technology.

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I would share pics of me... unfortunately I am the reverse. I have gained a significant amount of weight and now I'm fighting to take it off.

 

 

ERICKA: if you don't mind my asking, how much did it cost for you to do the surgery? I assume your health insurance didn't pay for it because most won't unless you have a PPO (and seriously, who can afford that?).

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whoa nightly is totally accidentally'ing my replies. let's try this again:

 

Destiny-- Yeah... it's been over 2 years now! Which is really weird when I think about it. You know you're getting old when everything feels like "just yesterday."

 

I've spent the majority of my life without insurance, so there was no doctor telling me to do it. My weight was always brought up when I DID see a doctor of course... but as far as I know, my surgery was more preventative than anything. But I still can't say for SURE that I didn't have diabetes or high cholesterol etc. because I never got tested. I know I cut down on snoring a LOT though-- so I think there was probably sleep apnea or whatever. Oh, and my depression has improved by miles.

 

So since I didn't have insurance or doctor approval, I had my surgery in Mexico. It sounds way scary but it's actually still the best medical/hospital experience I've ever had, bar none.

 

April-- including everything, it cost about $7k.

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It's sounds like it, yeah... but the same surgery can cost anywhere from 12-25k in the U.S.

 

I'm still paying off my loans, but when I think about how many times I wasted gym memberships or went on Weight Watchers and got nowhere, it kindof feels like a bargain.

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Not gonna lie. To essentially lose 20 lbs, it cost me about $500 in 6 months for personal training (included diet plan) and workout classes. And that's only because I got a LivingSocial deal on the 2nd session!

 

Gonna have to wait until I get home for pictures. The file is so big (12 MB) that my work email rejected it, and I don't want to download from Gmail onto a work computer.

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I would share pics of me... unfortunately I am the reverse. I have gained a significant amount of weight and now I'm fighting to take it off.

 

Oh God dude. This is me as well. I have packed on the weight in the past 5-7 years; and the last 2 have been hell on me. And I think a large part of that is the fact that now I have an office job and I'm not on my feet all day walking around a giant store, and I work 10-12 hours a day 5-6 days a week, so I really just don't have time to work out, and I have zero energy.

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Yeah. I feel ya. I don't really have an excuse besides the fact that last year I was SUPER depressed and ate my emotions in the form of mac and cheese, gummy worms, tortillas, cinnamon toast crunch cereal and did I mention cheese?

 

 

Still having a rough go of losing weight but things are going down at an incremental level so that's good. I want results INSTANTLY of course but I'm learning patience. Bit by bit, day by day.

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The best that you can really do is 1-2 lbs a week. Otherwise you're probably starving yourself or setting yourself up for a giant binge later. And I'm starting to think that "dieting" is best done in small chunks or with an occasional "meal off" where you get to have a piece of cake without freaking out. The trick is that the "meal off" really needs to be occasional, like every 2 weeks, or you just start sliding into eating junk food regularly again.

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Agreed with everyone else, Ericka, always thought you were (and still) very beautiful. But $7k is sooooooooooooo worth your physical health. You can't put a high enough price on adding YEARS to your life. Cardiovascular system is a vengeful bitch left neglected...I know this. I've prolly taken a good 10-15 off mine easy, although my cardiologist says that with the weight loss, a healthy diet for the rest of my life, I can reverse some of the damage I've done. Might wind up with a bypass in 15 years or so, which will suck, but they are already so good at it now that in 15 more will be better.

 

Well, there's no going back now, thanks to Ericka. I gotsta post them now. ughhh. I'm going to NC this weekend, and I'll have my friends take plenty of current pictures in my new clothes. I'll find as many fat old ones as possible during next week and present them the following weekend.

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