emily_0192010

I slept halfway on my stomach (half on a pillow, half off) in the hospital! As my doctor says "if it hurts, don't do it". If it doesn't bother you, I see no reason why you shouldn't. If it worries you then wait till either your stitches are out or your incisions healed before.

I bought new (used) clothes when I literally couldn't wear my old clothes. I actually made do with what I had for the most part until I lost 60 lbs. That number was big for me... I dropped sizes like crazy afterwards. To buy a whole new wardrobe I would wait until you were at or much closer to goal. I only buy the bare minimum right now, just in case I do switch sizes.

Spicy food still makes me very uncomfortable BUT I never really enjoyed it. I do know a few people who LOVE it post-sleeve! I would just be very careful when you re-introduce it and make sure you wait until you are for sure healed 100%!

Great reminder

CONGRATS!!! You look amazing and so happy! Thank you for sharing

Well, I'm not african american... and I'm only 21... and i'm not over a year out... BUT I have lost over 100 lbs and I thought i'd share that yes, I have extra skin and yes, I can see that it is "tightening up". I can definitely see a difference in my "bat wings" and my calves are tightening up nicely I am hopeful that it will continue to do so. I have very little hope for my stomach though... Since you are looking for something more specific, you might try searching for it. I know i've seen this come up before. And check out the "ladies room"... this DEFINITELY comes up there pretty frequently

Congrats and good luck!!! Are you doing the liquid diet?

I was actually told "NO SOUPS!" At all! LOL. My surgeon wanted me to follow low-carb, high Protein. So even during my liquids stage I had to stay away from soups... at that point I pretty much only did Water and Protein drinks. Now that I am 9 months out... I would not chose to have soup because mixing solids and liquids hurts my sleevie. And it causes me to have hiccoughs. Also, unlike lessofme.... I can only eat 2-3 oz of anything solid at a time... so that really limits the amount of protein I can eat at one time. I simply don't have room for any extra liquids. I have to really focus in order to get my protein and water in.

I would simply call your doctor and ask. At best it is some sort of muscle cramp, at worst you have to make an appointment to get it checked out. There is no sense in dragging it out. I also had a "weird" pain post op and it ended up going away unexplained. I DID visit my surgeon just to make sure though. ((hugs)) don't panic! you'll be fine no matter what!

Right away lol! My surgeon put me on a prescription antacid. It was very small though. At my follow up appointment a week later I asked about things like advil and pamprin and I was told "try it" and "if it hurts, don't do it" LOL. I was fine I did take them with a teaspoon of pepto. I know each surgeon has varying ideas about this, so double check no matter what!

That is very interesting! I'm proud of her for being so confident and doing what she loves! The only negative I could see was that her habits (the chipotle, all the time spent with video games) might one day land her with bad health. I simply hope that that does NOT happen. Also, I hope her weight doesn't make her injuries more severe Congrats to her and I'm looking forward to watching it!

Hey everyone Recently I've come across some very interesting and varying information about cardio vs weight training to weight loss and I was curious to know what you opinions are! Now, I haven't spent as much time as I'd like figuring out what is medically accurate... and even what I have read seems to contradict itself... that's why i'm asking for opinions! I've heard that - cardio is the best for weight loss because it gets your heart going and makes you sweat - cardio is only for what it stands for :cardiovascular. It only benefits your heart and won't affect your weight loss - cardio is not effective for weight loss because the amount of time you spend versus the amount of calories burned it not enough -weight training is best for weight loss because for every pound of muscle your body puts on you burn x amount more calories doing nothing (it raises your base metabolism level) Recently I started working through the C25K program. I am currently on week 3. My problem is that the "jogging" parts puts my heart rate just out of my target heart rate zone. The thing is, ANY amount of jogging will do this. Just walking will put me there. So do I stop the program and switch to just walking and then focus on weight training... or do I continue working through the program (which i'm starting to enjoy... its just so gratifying to actually be able to do it!) and slowly start to incorporate the weight. Either way I'm going to do some of both, I guess I'm trying to figure out what will work best for me. And before people suggest it, at my next visit with either one of my docs (the surgeon or my PCP) i'll be asking about the whole Target Heart Rate and what is healthiest for me. So, what are your opinions on the cardio vs weight training? And, when you do cardio, do you make sure you stick within your target heart range? Thanks! (sorry for the length... its been on my mind for awhile).

SMILES!! I'm so happy for you!! I waited until my clothes were literally falling off of me before buying new clothes (financially I am really tight, so waiting was the best for my wallet!) and it was GREAT because I would often SKIP a size! Isn't it just the BEST feeling ever I love my sleeve too! I no longer refer to it as a body part... it is it's own entity! Everyday I try to take care of it, so that it takes care of me!

I think its amazing sometimes the amount of variance in what our surgeon's tell us!!! I was told it was fine to take NSAIDS. He said that I should take it with a teaspoon of pepto or something similar... but that was when I was only a few weeks out.

Yes it has! Not very often because 1) I don't go out much and 2) when I do go out I go to my fave restaurant where my neighboor is a waitress and a good friend. So we ALWAYS sit in her section Just last week a friend (who also has the sleeve) and I went out for "lunch". We wanted to share their one lunch dish and she came up with the brilliant excuse "we just want a snack". It worked... or so we thought... he ended up bringing us the dinner portion. Neither one of us realized it until we got the check :/ We ended up carrying out more than what we ate! There are times when I really wish people would accept my order and not try to change it or analyze it. The ONLY time I did not have this problem was the 5 months I spent in NY, NY. I could order a burger, no bun. I could order only a side item. No one blinked an eye... they are used to people with picky and/or unusual eating habits.

I lost 40 pre-sleeve and 80 after. My pre-op diet started in June (so about a year ago) and my surgery was 9/19/2011.

I'm 5'2", started 262.2. Now i'm at 142.

Congrats!!! I'm so happy to hear this I am thinking about making an appointment with my surgeon to talk about goal weights (we never did...) since I lost a lot more than I anticipated (NOT that i'm complaining!) in only 8 months. My next appointment technically is still 4-5 months away (at the 1 year mark)... I don't know where/when I should stop! And i'm starting to worry about the HOW lol! Congrats again! Thanks for sharing

I have noticed a difference!! I feel like people take me more seriously when I speak. If I don't style my hair or wear makeup (even when I do it is always very minimal, but apparently its makes a difference) or wear my glasses... apparently I look like im still in my teens. It honestly sucks sometimes. BUT, now that i've lost the weight it doesn't happen nearly as often. I have noticed that waiters/etc treat me slightly better now. Or its more that they are less "by the book" professional. Does that make sense? Still professional, but it doesn't feel forced. I wonder a lot whether it is me who has changed personality wise. I am more confident and I don't feel pressured to make up for anything when I'm speaking (i didn't realize I felt this way, until it went away). So it could be that the change is because i'm happier and more confident and the people I interact with respond to that.

It's true!! The difference though is that with our sleeves we don't feel like we are killing ourselves!

Good idea! It will probably look funny, but I remember reading somewhere that serious runners will often lace their shoes backwards (so you tie at the toe) so that they can do this. Maybe i'll give it a try! Or at the very least loosen them. Would you loosen them allover or just by the toes (that's the part that goes numb for me). I would worry about loosening them too much because I wouldn't want to lose support.

They are lifefitness brand I already alternate backwards and forwards... I heard once that this helps prevent shin splints (not sure if it is true though). Thanks for the advice!

Thanks for the advice, the only thing is that I workout at the gym... so I can't switch brands or anything. Where would I get that foam thing? I don't know if I'll try it yet, I'm already very unbalanced on it so I don't know if I want to do anything to make it worse.

I normally just do my cardio on the treadmill, but i'm working on mixing it up. When I use the elliptical I notice that my feet go numb! Like, all of my toes are tingly and then numb. They go back to normal once I stop... it's very odd. Has anyone else experienced this or understand what's happening? Thanks!

Oh wow! I cannot wait to try this!!!! I have never been a big bread person, but there are some things that just "work" better on a bun... like tuna or a cheeseburger. I am saving this for sure! I just hope sleevie likes these. Does the texture "sit" like regular bread? If I does i'm in trouble, but it is so worth the try!