My Gastric Bypass: Two Month Photo Update

I know that when people who have WLS do blog updates, one of the things people are interested in most is seeing the progress photos. At least that’s what *I* always wanted to see most.

I have been taking photos along the way but I have to say I’m not really loving it yet.  From my experience and what I see on different groups and forums, we are all most critical of ourselves and we rarely ever see the differences.  That’s unfortunately something I am experiencing at the moment, which is why I didn’t even bother posting photos when I was at my one month point.

I promised to keep things as real as possible though, so I put some photo collages together showing myself on the day of surgery, at one month and at two months.   I wish I’d thought a little more when taking the photos, maybe smiled or worn something different, especially in the operation day and one month photos.  What on earth was I thinking taking my one  month photos after getting off my exercise bike?  Man… not my brightest moment, that’s for sure.

I am posting these photos in the hopes that one day I will look back on them and be thankful that I looked so horrid, because then it will be a glaring difference from my new, thin, rockin’ bod! haha

First, let’s look back at my before photos… my way way before photos.  Back in 2008 and 2009 before I started trying to lose weight at all.

The photos on the bottom were taken in 2008,  I’m not sure if I was actually at my highest at that point, but I was definitely somewhere between 280 – 300 lbs.  I was so unhappy and hated having the photos taken of myself but I wanted to have photos of me in these places because I loved them so much.  I’m glad I took them now as they are the only real ‘before’ photos I have!  I made a point of always trying to behind the camera.

The top photos were taken June 1, 2009.  I remember the day like yesterday because we were taking photos for my mother in law because she wanted to do a painting of us.  She asked for us to take photos so she could look at them to get our features right and stuff, so we got the camera out.  I was at my absolute heaviest at that time and I had a total tantrum that day because I did NOT want to take photos of myself.  I felt fat, ugly, and gross… I never bothered to do anything with my hair or try to make myself look nice because I felt like it was an impossible task.

That was the day everything changed. Seeing those photos of myself, together with a kick in the ass from my doctor, is what started this long portion of my weight loss journey which finally lead to me having the surgery.

Now for something more recent…

This is the only decent face shot I have since the surgery, from a few weeks ago.  Excuse the wax statue look, I was playing with the ‘magic skin’ feature on a new camera app on my phone. Apparently it’s supposed to remove blemishes but it also removes all signs of you being human and having human skin.  It still does the trick and shows the shape of my face at the moment I think.

Now for the dreaded body shots!

Remember, the morning of my surgery I was nervous and freaking out… and at my one month mark I was still home a lot, in recovery and not firing on all cylinders.  I wasn’t thinking that I’d actually have to SHARE these photos one day.  I think I’m going to hire a stylist for my three month photos to make up for this fiasco.

Yeah you thought I was kidding about how horrid my earlier photos were, didn’t you?  I can’t even believe I’m putting these out there for public consumption.  Egads!

When I look at it I try to see the differences, I really do… I know my face has gotten thinner, I know that I’m wearing two sizes smaller in jeans and that I am more comfortable in smaller shirts, but when I LOOK at the photos, I just don’t see it.  It’s so incredibly frustrating.   I do hate the photos on the right a lot less than the photos on the left, so that must mean something is changing.

Now it’s time for my least favorite part of all…

The BADONKADONK!! 

Man oh man, I have enough ass for three women!  This is one area where I can see a slight difference.  I know the area that I lovingly call my ‘butt shelf’ is starting to go down but I really can’t wait for the time when I just have a normal butt rather than having that serious junk in my trunk look.

I know I’ll be disappointing African men all over the city by getting rid of my ridiculously large ass, but they’re just going to have to deal.  This arse has GOTTA GO.

So that’s it!  People can stop harassing me now about showing photos!  Hopefully I’ll see a bigger difference in my THREE month photos when I should be lower than my lowest weight from 2010, less than five pounds to go!