"Martha Gallagher" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:I wasn't going to out myself here and I'm sure when I get some of the
replies from the usual suspects, it will be clear why. But, I'm going to
do it anyway.A while ago I came to the realization that I'd probably done all I could
with diet and exercise. I'm 5'6". I could get to ~165 and maintain there
reasonably well, but I've never been able to get and stay significantly
below that. Every time I've tried by severe calorie restriction or
obsessive compulsive exercise, I've ended up gaining *all* the weight
back. But, I decided to give it one more try using increased, but not
unsustainable extra exercise. Over the summer, I significantly increased
my exercise, swimming for an hour or more at least 3 days a week, and
hitting the gym on days when swimming wasn't an option. I probably ended
up a bit fitter, but not enough to think that I could diet and exercise
myself down to what society considers an appropriate weight.So, I decided to go for more direct means. I started researching
liposuction. I made an appt. with a highly recommended plastic surgeon in
my area and went in for a consultation. He said I could get good results
on my legs from lipo, but that a good bit of my abdominal paunchiness
wasn't from fat, but was from sagging ab. muscles (don't know why, never
had kids) and the only way to correct that would be a tummy tuck with
muscle repair.So, that's what I decided to do. I had the surgery on Sept. 24th. The lipo
part wasn't so bad (although you stay sore for quite some time) and the
tummy tuck part wasn't particularly painful either, although you end up
with a big ole incision, but wow does the muscle repair hurt. I had about
3500ccs of fat removed with the lipo and I'm not sure how much got scooped
out for the abdominoplasty, but I'm guessing several lbs.It was expensive and I burned up a week and a day of accrued sick leave
(although I've got so much that I might as well use it). But, I'm really
pleased with my results. I've always been the poster girl for body
disproportion. I can usually wear a size 6-8 on top, but in pants, even at
my thinnest maintainable weight, I was a 16, maybe a 14 if the pants were
voluminous from the hips down. Now, I'm between a 12 and a 14 and I no
longer look like I'm smuggling pillows strapped to my hips. I still have
swelling some places and I think I may go down some more, but overall I'm
very pleased with my results. I'm still not small by any means, you can
see and pinch plenty of fat on my hips and thighs, but now I'm much better
proportioned. I was never aiming to have Svetlana Khorkina's thighs,
anyway. I'm down around 9 lbs from my pre-op weight and that's about
consistent with the volume removed.I know our mantra is "diet & exercise" and I believe that has to be the
foundation. I wouldn't even have considered doing this surgery until I'd
gotten as much off as I thought I could and, more importantly, maintained
that weight loss for over a year and a half. But I also know that for me,
I was always going to look unbalanced in clothes if I had limited my
options to just diet and exercise. I'm finding that while I haven't lost
additional weight from dieting as a result of the operation, I find it
even easier to maintain portion control (the tummy tuck sometimes has the
side effect of making everything in that area more crammed together, so
less room for the stomach to expand) and it has definitely made the mental
discipline of staying on plan even easier. When I think of having a food
that's off-plan, it's really easy to see that it can't possibly be worth
jeoparizing what I've accomplished.So, there you have it. I'm out.
Martha
--
"I went to Ohio, and all I got was this lousy President"
You go girl - I bet you look great! My goal is to lose weight and maintain,
then have tummy tuck and [censored] lift. My body is a wreck from having 2 kids
and no way I can repair it all with diet & excercise alone.
JoAnna
176/145/120 (I'm 5'3"😉