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My surgeon had me walking the day after surgery (It helps in the healing process) I continued to walk after I was home from surgery. Each surgeons’ instructions are a bit different. Your Dr. will release you for lifting and exercise. After you are healed, you will absolutely be able to get into activity/exercise of your choice. Start slow and work your way up. What did my post op work outs look like? My goal after surgery was to run race for the cure 5K in memory of my mother. I started walking 30 mins and worked it to an hour a day for the first three weeks. Third month I had a major stall. I sold my treadmill and bought a gym member ship. Third month: I did weight lifting with an hour of cardio 5 days a week. I mixed icardio up on elliptical, treadmill, stairmaster and treadmill. I took a women’s lifting class. What I learned is too much cardio will slow down building muscle. I altered my workout program. My workouts have changed and evolve over the years. I am 50. I love being a bad ass grandmother. You never know where your weight loss can take you. We are all stronger than we give ourselves credit for. I have completed 5K to a full marathon. Last year, I ran two mountain elevation/ trail half marathons. This year my bucket list run is Revel Mt. Charleston in Las Vegas. Find exercise/activity’s you enjoy and be consistent!

Wow thanks for the great ideas. I do cook dinner every night and never serve myself any carbs it is normally protein and veggies or a salad. I struggle most with my time between jobs 2p and 8p. I have set some small goals to exercise within that time, spend active time with my kids which we swim at the Y and I am now meal prepping tons of chicken with dinner tonight. I have faith in myself and hope I can keep my determination going. Thanks guys!

Wise ones, At my goal weight and just over 18months past surgery, I am becoming aware of some of my old, bad, eating habits creeping back in. The one I'm focusing on at the moment is this: When I am eating, and just after I'm done, all I can think about is eating more and/or again. I'm not hungry, but it seems that if I haven't eaten so much that I feel uncomfortable or sick, I just want more. I try not to give in, try to wait for a specific period of time, try to write down what I've eaten immediately.... but I'm really struggling with this. I guess I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop and start gaining weight again. This hasn't happened, but I worry about my capacity for self-fulfillment of my fears! Any advice or empathy is welcome! I'm going to work on checking in more on this forum again. I had gotten out of the habit in the last year, but I think it will help.

I have been allowed to have fruit since the mushy stage. Tinned or stewed and mashed up with yogurt or custard. I also have tinned peachs with my oats for breakfast.

I'm back to walking 6-7days per week/1 hour per day. I weighed 222.4 on surgery day (Feb. 20, 2018) At 6 months I'd lost about 58lbs (weighed 164.6lbs) of my 72lbs that I'd set for 1st Goal (1st goal=150lbs). Now at 12 months (coming in 2 weeks), I'm working on my second goal: 140lbs and today I'm 6.8lbs away from reaching it. I doubt I will pull it off in 2 weeks, but I'm pretty close to being able to call 2nd Goal. I reached first goal on 11/02/18.

I echo what others have commented above. You've got this!

Healthy_Life2 is giving some really solid advice and feedback. I appreciate her comments. I am only 2 months out so can't comment on weight regain. I can say that I have made a complete 180 in my lifestyle choices. I am extremely diligent in following my post-op dietary plan. I track daily caloric intake using the MyFitnessPal App and then go over my macros in the evening to make sure I am on target. I wouldn't even call it a diet--because that's such a temporary thing. I am looking at this as a new lifestyle. I have deviated from the standard plan provided by my doctor (I did discuss it with him and my nutritionist) and I am following a very low carb keto style plan (although too high in protein intake to be a true keto diet). This type of lifestyle provides me with very clear guidelines of what I can and cannot eat--which makes choosing foods easy, I do track calories too and set a limit to how many calories I can consume in a day, but this isn't hard since I am usually very satisfied sticking to my plan. Even if my ability to eat more increases, I feel like I can make good choices that may increase the volume of food that I eat without causing me to over-consume. When they say the sleeve is only a tool, they do mean it. Losing weight post-op is still a lot of work and requires a lot of discipline. The big difference is you are no longer fighting against your high set point, so instead of heating a plateau and suffering terrible hunger and cravings, you don't have that set point fight against you. The volume restriction is also helpful, but as Healthy_Life2 said, you can eat more frequently and undermine this process. I also now get up early in the morning to hit the gym before work and I love that "me" time. Even though this new and still "exciting" for me, it's a lifestyle that I can be happy with for the long term. I do not miss sleeping in late or eating carb heavy foods. I hope I still feel this way 2 or 5 or 10 years from now, but I am definitely happy right now. I can say that you need to be mentally prepared to make major lifestyle changes after you have the surgery (before as well!!). You need to have a healthy lifestyle plan in place and be 100% committed to following it through after surgery. I think the people that commit to following a healthy lifestyle plan will be successful long term. The people that only follow the post-op plan "most of the time" and "only cheat a little" are probably not following the plan very much at all and are cheating a lot!! I have gone to a few support group meetings and there are so many people that show up that can't understand why the weight isn't coming off them, while their friends lost so much. After talking more, it turns out that, as a result of surgery, they cut down their portions of crappy processed fast foods and other junk foods, but they continue to eat the same crap they ate before surgery (just less of it). That's not how you get down to a 25 BMI!!! You have to use this opportunity not only to cut down on your portions, but change your food and lifestyle choices. The people that make these changes and stick to it don't seem to have issues with regain (other than the normal 5-10 pound fluctuations that should be expected).

What does your Dr say? It seems everyone's program is different. For the first several months mine said to focus on protein and liquids only, not to worry about calories.

Omgosh, I had forgotten about that. It was sooooo irritating!

I found a cubic zirconia ring to wear while in weight loss mode. I waited until I got to my goal weight to resize my set.