Swiftflow

Too late! you made me feel good anyway! Thanks to all for the kind words!

I have not had them yet, and inadvertantly ended up on a half dosage of actigal--I remembered to take them only at night and then just stayed with that. I was supposed to take twice a day but I had to balance what I could take at certain times due to the pill size, Night times just worked out so I stuck with the half dosage and since my loss has slowed down I am not refilling it now.

I hit another goal of mine today and completed a 5 mile run today. I only did 3 one minute walk breaks during time and was able to complete it in about 47 mins. On another note-- last week, I did my own 5k using my GPS to measure the time and distance with no walk breaks and got it done in 26:50. Not my yet beating my previous goal during one of my past weight loss journeys--but I am building up speed as the weight drops. All of that said I am struggling to do anything but run now... I really need to mix in more strength training. I seem to eat more when I am running regular and tend to use it as an excuse to not make great choices. The good thing about the sleeve is that it keeps portions in check. If I could ever get the correct allignment of Strength training, cardio, and eating I am sure I would be loosing much better. Pre-sleeve I would get to where I was going 1 step forward and 2 steps back, at least now with the sleeve its 1 step forward and only 3/4 step back

Good stuff, It seems all my weight loss now happens in chunks with stalls in between. I have tried to just ignore the stalls now as they seem to be part of the process, but I love the days where all of the sudden weight falls off again. Keep it up, it will all happen in time.

I occasionally get the sneezing and mucus production when I am overful--Early on that would have been a foaming/throw up ending, now I just relax, breeth deeply, and stop eating of course and it passes. It is wierd how some days and some food types I just get full early and stop because I know it will hurt me to do anymore. You do get a good feeling for it especially after being on solids a bit.

Just remember to take it slow and do what you can. P90x is very intense and allot of the exercises are body weight based--this can be hard on some of us bigger folks because we are heavy and doing something like normal push ups may be out of the question let alone 6 different types of a push up in one workout. So you do what you can with push ups on your knees or against a wall leaning etc until you build up to doing them regular. The Pause button is your friend. That said, the principles are very solid and I plan to use some of the videos as tools in my journey to help challenge myself. I think the best part about the whole thing is you can do all of it without having to go to a gym. Some may not be aware, but there was an original P90 program before the P90X that starts at an easier level if you feel overwhelmed at the intensity level. Personally, I am continuing to run for my cardio and try to mix in some of the exercises now and then from P90x as a tool.

The good news is that "this too shall pass"... but it does get annoying. I rember trying everything from walking to sort of bouncing to try to get the gas to move. I walked every day and took the Gas X--not sure if it would have passed anyway with time, but at least I felt like I was doing something towards it while waiting. After a couple of days the gas was more annoying than painful--its gets better until one day you feel more normal again.

Thank you all for the encouragement. It does feel like a whole new me, I am very active and running on a regular basis now. I feel so much younger as well. It's sad to look at my first photo--I just look so worn out and tired. Although I hate seeing that before photo of me, It is important to remember why I started this journey and I never plan to go back to being fat and tired again. When I was puting the photos together for this shot, I was shocked at the amount of change. Seeing myself everyday in the mirror I still see flaws I don't like and don't remember how far I have come. The other day at work a guy I met just a few months ago introduced himself to me like he had never met me--we had met and had a lunch together with friends then, so for a minute I was thinking how can he not remember me... Then I remembered how different I was the last time we met. That made my day!

At 5 Months, 1 week post op I finally hit 80 lbs lost post-op. 90 lbs lost total. I figured it was time for some new photos showing the progress. In the first picture I was pre-op and around 320 lbs takin April 2010, current photo was taken today October 7th 2010 at 240lbs.

Early on I had problems in transitions to more solid foods. First of all let me just say over time things get much easier--even if I start to overdo it I can feel full and not hurt like I used to for the first few weeks on solids. It has to do with the stomach healing completely and not being as sensitive. It has been a couple of months now that I have avoided the foaming and throwing up that I got when eating too fast or not chewing enough. I still can't do really sweet foods in any quantity like a very sweet ice cream shake without getting a real blah feeling--this is good and it keeps me away from the real rich foods except for a small bite here or there which is fine. The bottom line for now in the transition phase is to go really slow and chew allot--it gets annoying, but it prevents issues. I don't have to be so cautious now as I was at first--so look forward to things feeling more normal in just a few months. One wierd thing that happens if I get a bit too full is that I get some sinus congestion and sneeze--like the body is turning on the mucus production. Early on that could progress to full foaming or throwing up, but now I can tell better when to stop it seems and at most I get mild congestion and it passes quickly.

Wow! looking great sleeve sister! Has it been 5 months? Time seems to just fly by these days. Keep up the great work!

Tomorrow is the day! wow it is finally here. Congrats on making it through the long waiting process. You are going to do great. Looking forward to your first post-op update!

Thanks all for the kind words--you guys keep me inspired!!

I would think it is fair to say that long term with the vsg, we should continue to eat properly and test blood (vitamin, calcium, etc) levels at least annually as a precaution to keep ourselves on track. The risk is not near what a malabsorbtion WLS would be. We see some bone loss issues with other WLS, extreme diets, eating disorders, and even poor eating habits. Long term we are only guaranteed to have less stomach tissue than we did pre-op. We still have to eat proper nutrition and supplement where we are lacking in our foods.

I am not quite near maintenance yet, but I am thinking of adjusting my goal weight now. Personally I think BMI is a pretty bogus number, at least for me. Example: My doctor measured on my last visit and had me at 25% body fat now and then I was 255 pounds. Thats just over 190 lbs of lean body mass. Technically I would have to be 190 (6' 2" Height) to be a"normal BMI" of 24.4. So in order to ever be normal for BMI I would have to loose lean body mass as I don't see me getting below 10% body fat and being healthy. I think I am going to aim for 210 with 10% body fat as opposed to the 195 I had picked early on. 210lbs 6'2" will put me in the overwieght BMI of 27, but 210 with 10% body fat I would be extreemly lean regardless of the bogus BMI number scale. All of that to say: forget the scale number and go for the goal where you feel comfortable. Weather its a body fat % or clothing size, you may want to drop the scale # at some point.

Check with your doc to be sure, but my doc had me wait 6 weeks to do anything more than brisk walking.

As of today I am down to 250 lbs which is 70 lbs lost since my surgery or 80 lbs total with pre-op included! I also updated my vlog on youtube if you want to check out my channel it is at YouTube - VSGswift's Channel

I am about the same stage as you, really needing to wear smaller clothes as the baggie ones actually look worse on me. I specifically remember after visiting a customer site and having to dress up-- wanting to get out of the business attire into baggie clothes, and just this week I enjoyed wearing the nice clothes and staying in them.

Great work! I seem to be on the 2-3 week stall followed by 2 weeks of loss thing too.. I have stopped worrying about it as long as the 2 weeks of loss do come around. I secretly had hopes of hitting my goal in new record time when I began with all the running I do--but it does not seem to make a huge difference. The good news is that I get so many other benifits from the exercise, I am going to stick to it.

It took a few days, then seemed to stop up again a week or two out--Miralax ( or the generic walgreens version of it) really helped. SInce it mixes in liquid and does not have a taste it was easy to get down with crystal light.

Overeaters Anonymous. Never tried it, but that is what it stands for. They address the food addiction itself using 12 step methodology.

Understood, but its not a guarantee. Some people get the hunger back. Like you I don't have the hunger either so thats a bonus for us, but I never had to be hungry to eat pre-op either. We have to remember the only guaranteed result is the smaller stomach. For those of you who do have hunger, that is not a bad thing as such a small amout of food now satisfies! We still have to choose the right food to satisfy though!

Keep in mind the only guarantee of the sleeve procedure is that it will physically limit the volume of solid food you can eat in one sitting. It is a tool. EDIT: some people also get the benifit of not feeling hunger due to reduced ghrelin production, but some get feelings of hunger back and some report not loosing hunger--however they can now feel full with just a small amount of food. If you graze all day or choose the wrong foods when eating, the tool is not helping you at all and not being used properly. The stalls are a whole different story--everyone looses weight differently, does not matter if you are on a diet or have any of the weight loss surgeries available--if your body is going to stall it is just going to stall and adjust. There is frustration and impatience that stalls cause, but if you keep using the tool properly the weight will come off. Look at the studies and percentages with WLS some may have as high as 85% success rate--that also means that 15% of those in the study did not stick with the program and choose not to use the tool the right way. You will do well with the VSG if you use it as a tool in your diet and exercise program. Diet and exercise alone has a 90%-95% failure rate so I like my chances much better with the Sleeve in my tool belt.

Just wanted to stop in and say that this seems common at this stage to slow down. Last month was 10 lbs with a big 3 week stall in the middle- so 1 week of great loss followed by 3 week stall and then another half a week of great loss. Then, I thought I blew past it as I quickly dropped 8 more lbs and was expecting to be on track for 10 lbs in 2 weeks, then this last week @$&*)BLAM!@)#! I hit a wall and woke up 3 lbs heavier than the day before and have stuck there again this week. I am not saying this to vent really--just that its a common theme regarless of the level of exercise. I am up to 4 miles on my running every other day and I am adding in weights a couple of times a week too. I mention this to say that its not just the level of exercise that plays a part. The body can only take so much weight loss it seems and then it has to adjust. I guess I am fortunate that even with the adjustments I was able to drop the 10lbs last month--I hope to at least get in 10 this month too.