Vanishing Velez

I am almost 10 weeks post VSG Surgery, and I’ve been being asked quite a bit if the surgery was what I expected, so I figured I would do a post about it.

1. Was it painful?
   • Yes and no. It’s a major abdominal surgery, so your core is sore for the first few days, but the incisions didn’t particularly hurt. My throat hurt for a little bit after due to the tube down my throat, but that went away quickly. The worst part was getting up out of a laying or sitting position.
   • That being said, the hives I got were annoying as f*ck. I was super itchy all over for WEEKS! I still get outbreaks, and we have no idea what they are from.
2. Do you have any cravings?
   • Absolutely! My biggest craving, especially early on, was tomato soup, but there are just so many carbs in pre-made tomato soup. I might look into doing a homemade one at some point.
   • Now though, my biggest craving recently has been salad and salty things. The problem is that salad takes up a lot of space with not a lot of nutritional value (i.e. protein and calories), so I can’t justify it. And salty things make me (and really everyone) retain water-and are usually super processed.
3. What was the hardest transition you’ve had to make?
   • There are a few things that I am still struggling with even 10 weeks out. The big one is getting enough water. I have never really had enough to drink, so drinking now is tough. On top of that, I drink substantially more when I have a straw to drink out of, and when I use a straw, it really hurts my stomach because of the air that gets introduced.
   • The second thing that I still struggle with is eating too fast. I very quickly fell away from what I was taught by the PA, and need to get back into that. Basically I need to put my fork down in between every bite and chew like 20 times.
4. Is there anything that you miss now that you’ve had surgery?
   • Eating and drinking at the same time-you never realize how ingrained into our culture that is until you don’t have it anymore. When we do occasionally go out to restaurants, I say that I don’t need anything and they bring me water anyways.
   • Pizza.
5. Was there anything that surprised you after surgery?
   • I was shocked at how much volume I could eat before my surgery in comparison to after. I didn’t really thing that I ate that much-and oh my goodness I did. Previously I would be able to finish a soup and at least half of my meal at a restaurant. Now, It’s usually not even half of my meal.
   • I’m surprised that I haven’t lost a ton of hair. I mean, I’m definitely losing hair, it’s coming out in chunks, but it’s no more than after I had my daughter. I don’t feel like my hair looks like it’s thinning or anything.
6. What is the most frustrating thing about surgery?
   • It’s not actually about the surgery, but about the weight loss world in general. Because of social media, it’s so easy to compare yourself to others who are also on their own weight loss journey. I regularly find myself thinking, why am I not losing fast enough? Why don’t I look any different? What am I doing wrong? And I have to keep reminding myself that I am not them and they are not me and we are not on the same journey in the same body. I also have to remind myself that I have lost more weight in the past 10 weeks than I have ever lost in my entire life.
7. Is body dysmorphia after surgery real?
   • Definitely. Its a really weird phenomena, because like today for example, I looked in the mirror and said to myself that I looked exactly the same-but then I tried to put on three different pairs of pants (that used to be tight) and none of them fit me.
8. Have you had to buy new clothes?
   • Should I? Probably. Will I? Not until I absolutely have to. I have a few pairs of leggings that fit, and will probably buy more of those, but I am not buying new pants until I’m done losing weight or I absolutely need to. I wear lots of dresses, so I can get by for a lot of things. I just can’t afford to buy a whole new wardrobe multiple times-so if you’re thinking of Christmas gifts, gift cards for clothes shopping will definitely be used eventually.
9. Is your goal weight the same?
   • Yes. My goal weight is the same. Still 140. I still don’t know if I will hit it, but it’s my goal. A more short term goal was under 200 by New Years. At the rate I’m going though, it’s probably closer to under 200 by Halloween.
10. What are you going to do when you hit your goal weight?
    • Before I get there, I want to find a nutritionist that I can meet with regularly-because I know my diet is going to have to change. But basically, I am going to try to go into maintenance mode-but I don’t know what that would look like.
    • I’m also going to do a photo shoot-either when I hit 100 lbs lost or I hit my goal weight. I love the photographer that we use, so that will probably be fun.
    • I’m going to probably have to buy a whole new wardrobe-so anybody with any ideas for quality pieces that are more capsule style, hit me up!

I’d be happy to answer anything else you want to know, so hit me up here or on any of the major social media platforms (except X – I never understood the point of that platform).