re7777

My friend who is 1 year out and down 100 pounds went from an 11 to a 9! A lot of my shoes are feeling big on me. I've been a 8.5-9, but expect to be at 7.5-8 when all is said and done. That's where I was many moons ago. The problem now is I don't want to buy new shoes if my feet might get smaller too!

I tend to journal in a book, but when I forget it at work or at home and don't have it on me, I'm not as good at keeping track of things. I think the hardest part is calculating your personal recipes or foods that aren't in the websites library. I'm looking for your suggestions for the best online food journal/tracking websites, specifcally: pros/cons for the site, the ease of adding information, especially your personal foods/recipes, and why you recommend it. Thanks so much for your input! robin

Thanks, everyone! I had a slice of what they said was thin crust pizza (didn't seem so thin to me), and mainly ate the cheese and toppings from 1 slice w/ a few bites of the crust. I was fine until the crust started expanding and then I felt really full. I think pizza will be one of those once in a blue moon things until my body can handle bread better. I haven't done raw veggies yet, so salad wasn't an option.

I'm 9 weeks out and eating regular foods. Well, I should say that I am slowly adding in regular foods (haven't done raw veggies, tomato sauce, nuts, etc. yet), but havent' had to many problems. I'm with my family on the beach and tonight they want to go to a pizza place for dinner on our way to an amusement park. If you've had pizza, does the bread just fill you up immediately? I'm definitely sensitive to the breads. I'm toying w/ just bringing a Protein shake or bar so I don't have to stress. Any thoughts or helpful hints on what I should eat? Thanks! Robin

I've been wearing Assets (Spanx for Target) with the high waist for about 4 weeks now. I think I started wearing them about 4 weeks out. Whether it helps with loose skin or not, I just feel like it holds me in better while I'm losing weight and people don't see a tummy bulge as I go down in sizes. My bottom half is the last to go.

I'm sorry to hear you are having issues w/ hair loss. One of the doctors in the practice group spoke at a recent group meeting and addressed the issue of hair loss. He said that what you do today, as far as hair loss goes, will take 3 months to impact you. In other words, if you are not getting in all of your Protein needs 3 weeks out from surgery, then you will find that the hair loss will occur 3 months from that point. Guess it takes your hair a while to grow, huh? So, the moral of the doc's story was that if you are losing your hair it is only temporary and that whatever you eat today will impact your hair growth 3 months down the road. I've been doing pretty well with keeping my protein above 60g/day, with maybe 2 or 3 days below since my first week out. I'll be interested to see what happens w/ the hair growth in another month or so. I have been toying w/ trying Biotin. Do you think it will help w/ my nails? That's where I've always had issues. robin

I just found those Peanut Butter balls w/ Protein after someone directed me to these parmesan cheese crisps. Made some up just before I saw your post. Looking forward to trying it later tonight. Never had pepperoni sticks before. Not a fan of jerky, but I'll have to see about those other ones. Are they real salty? I haven't gotten the ok for nuts yet, but hopefully I will by the end of the week. That could make things a little easier.

Thanks for the suggestions. I already eat yogurt (danon), but it doesn't have much protein, so I'm usually adding some protein powder to it. Plus, I'm trying to find some other snacks that are more portable and I can carry w/ me w/o worrying that it will melt or get warm. Thanks!

On my plan, I was technically allow applesauce, mashed banana and canned fruit in 100% juice (pureed) on the pureed/mushie stage. However, my NUT said that the goal is protein, protein, protein. At the time I could just eat my protein and no added foods. I'm now coming to the end of the soft food stage and I now have room for something else after my 4 oz of protein, so I started adding in some fruit cups. I think it's all a matter of how much your sleeve can tolerate. I was told to eat in a 1/2 hour and to stop if I hadn't finished in 45 minutes, no matter how much I ate. It's only been the past week that I've been able to eat faster and not feel so full. So, I'm not adding in a little fruit and will try some cooked veggies tonight.

Hi, everyone! I'm 6 weeks out and finishing up the soft food stage. I should be on to regular foods later this week. My typical snack is either a string cheese or yogurt w/ a little Protein powder in it (I'm still working on acquiring a taste for greek yogurt) or a pudding cup. This is getting boring and I don't want to be in a rut. I would appreciate any snack ideas that you may have, both portable and non-portable. I have texture issues, so cottage cheese and ricotta cheese are not good snack ideas for me. I figure my snack options will open up more once I can eat raw veggies, but I understand that won't be for a while yet, right? Thanks for your help! robin

Thanks for your response! That's what I was figuring but needed to hear it from someone else. When I saw my doc 2 weeks ago he said I could begin exercising, but was pretty vague on that. I think my version of exercising is a bit different than others. My 1 mile to 1.5 mile walks thru the neighborhood were fine, but I guess that other one put me over the edge. It's hard when you feel so good, you think you can do so much more than you can! Very frustrating, especially when the weather is nice and all you want to be doing is moving around outside!

It's hard to believe I was sleeved 4 weeks ago today! I got on the scale today and I'm down 20 pounds in 4 weeks! From my pre-op appt 5/4, I'm down 31 pounds! Crazy. Before it used to take my 6 months+ to lose this much weight. I also made sure to take my measurements before surgery. As of Sunday, I've lost a total of 23 inches! I also took before pics and 1 month pics and it's amazing what a difference you can see. I went back to the office for the first time yesterday (worked from home the past 2 weeks), and was actually kind of glad that folks (who didn't know I was having WLS) didn't notice anything yet. I didn't want it to be so obvious that I had had WLS. Then again, I was wearing some of the clothes I wore before. Tomorrow I'll be wearing somthing smaller, so we'll see what people notice or don't notice.

Wow! It's hard to believe I was sleeved 4 weeks ago today! I got on the scale today and I'm down 20 pounds in 4 weeks! From my pre-op appt 5/4, I'm down 31 pounds! Crazy. Before it used to take my 6 months+ to lose this much weight. I also made sure to take my measurements before surgery. As of Sunday, I've lost a total of 23 inches! I also took before pics and 1 month pics and it's amazing what a difference you can see. How are all of you guys doing? I think I pushed myself too much this weekend (long walk and lots of bending and lifting things) and now my abs are sore around one of my incision points. Went back to the office yesterday, but now working from home again to rest up whatever I did to myself.

I remember reading past posts on here that it's the state administrators of the federal bcbs plan that make the call. However, most of those posts were before December 2010. The 2011 plan brochure (p. 52) states that they cover the following: Gastric restrictive procedures, gastric malabsorptive procedures, and combination restrictive and malabsorptive procedures The sleeve is a gastric resstrictive procedure, which means that it is covered. If I recall, this language is different than the language in the 2010 plan brochure.

I am 4 weeks post op today and down 20 pounds since surgery and 31 pounds since my pre-op appt. Woohoo! I've been feeling really great. The only set back I had was I had a low grade fever 2 weeks ago. That's it! Since I've been feeling better, I've been doing more. On Saturday I went for a 2.5 miles walk (I had only done 1.5 before) and then I ran a bunch of errands. I was exhausted when I got home. On Sunday, I was a little sore around my top left incision area so I chilled out and didn't exercise. However, I did lift more than I had in the past, especially getting things together to go back to the office on Monday. Yesterday was my first day back in the office (worked from home for 2 weeks). I felt great. At lunch, I went for a short walk and that's when the pain came back. I sat for most of the rest of the day, but every time I got up, it was still sore. Then last night it was bothering me, so I am working from home again today. Any thoughts on what might be causing this before I bother my doctor? I'm thinking I might have strained myself w/ the exercise and lifting/pulling. I did a lot of bending. Do you think I could have done something else. My stomach area looks fine. No bruising or swelling. I know it's not gas b/c gas pains for me are more in my back, chest and shoulders and it's more acute. Thanks so much for your advice. robin