Writergirl

I was a women's size 36 (5-6X) last September. Could only shop online and in Catherine's. I'm now wearing (4 mos out) size 26 pants (2x or 24 if they have some stretch) and a size 22/24 top! I know that's the starting point for many here, but I couldn't be more excited! I just realized 2 wks ago that I now can shop in Macy's, Coldwater Creek, etc. Haven't shopped in a dept store for clothes in so many years I can't remember the last time! Unfortunately, I'm going bankrupt shopping for a whole new wardrobe!

Here's the link! http://www.nutressential.com/pages/ProCare-Supplement-Program.html

I think we can all relate here. But I promise you this... the best is yet to come. You're going through the absolute worst part right now. Pain, nothing but liquids, the aftermath of anesthesia. I was SO miserable for the first couple of weeks. It's ok to cry. It's ok to acknowledge the huge loss you have just experienced. But now is not the time for regrets. There's no going back. Now is the time to really start envisioning just how wonderful your life is about to become. I thought I'd never get over the loss of food. Well, guess what... I still love and enjoy food, entertaining, dining out, and eating. The major difference is that I now choose to have what I REALLY want instead of just glomming down a ton of meaningless crap. Get plenty of rest, fluids, and reach out to friends or this board. It really does get better! In the meantime, I'm sending you a big hug!!

Thanks! My new number is: 3 I'm getting excited!

I have days where I want to eat all day and can consume 1300 calories (4 months out) and days where I don't want to eat, and can easily get by on 700. On those days when I want to eat, I choose what I eat carefully. I'm not stressing out too much about it now, but I would just say to track every bite you put in your mouth and don't do it two days in row. The other thing is that snacky foods like nuts will pack in LOTS of calories. Maybe you could switch to something like yogurt or cheese that fills the food need but doesn't "feed" those old habits.

I was on Optifast prior to surgery and it was about 80 carbs a day, so I never went too low. I was taking a long acting and short acting insulin, but I gave up the short acting prior to surgery. Since the day of my surgery I've been completely off diabetes meds! My BS now runs from about 110 to 130. If you have an endocronoligist you need to work with him/her to create a plan specifically for you. I was given ranges--if my bs was between this and this, take this. It's never gotten up to that range!

Fantastic! Keep us posted!

Walking. I'll hopefully be having both my knees replaced in about 30 more pounds. I just long to walk around my beautiful neighborhood, walk in the mall, walk with my grandchildren. sleeping on my stomach! It's been too big for many, many years. Traveling. Sitting on a plane and being able to lower the tray and not raise the arm. Photography. Being able to take pictures from a vantage point other than a car window. I'm so tired of being disabled. I can't wait to have my authentic life back. Your list is great! You're going to do all these things and more!

This is definitely the place to voice your fears, so don't apologize! For awhile after my surgery I couldn't tolerate sweets. Sadly, I now love them again. I also didn't like seasoned food, but that's over with now, too. The only things I continue to have trouble with are chicken (feels like a board in my stomach) and other dry meats. I haven't eaten bread, rice or Pasta yet, either, as I was advised to wait 6 months because those things expand in your stomach. I think you'll be fine. But if there ARE things you don't like, it won't matter, because you won't want them anymore!

OMG!! Thank God you have survived and have finally found a good doctor. You poor thing!!! When I had my surgery I went to a bariatric center of excellence, and I would never go any other route. I hope that others who are considering the surgery read your story and come to realize that even if it's more expensive and inconvenient, your life could depend on finding the most reputable, skilled, and trusted doctor in your area. Thanks for sharing.

WOW!!! You must feel so great! Congratulations. What an accomplishment!

I thought that this was going to be torture, but after the liquid diet, it's really ok. I strongly suggest you do what I did... make a bunch of meals in advance and freeze them. You could make meatloaf, soups, potroast, lasagne, and whatever you family likes that will freeze well. Then, all you have to do is stick them in the oven or microwave. No handling food or ingredients. It worked very well for us.

I see that a number of you are, like me, approaching a 100 pound loss. Are we awesome, or what!!!! My friends and family are kind of losing interest in hearing about this all the time, so I was hoping I could find some friends here to join me, if you're also close to 100, or just cheer me on as I cross that line. I was sleeved 1/24 and I've lost 95 pounds, 50 of them since the surgery itself. I'm a slow loser, so it may take me a month to lose the next 5 pounds, but I'm pretty excited. I still have about another 100 (conservatively) to lose, but I'm having a blast buying clothes in stores I couldn't go to before!! Shopping is my new addiction. It's terrible, but when you look in your closet and literally have nothing to wear, it becomes a necessity. So here's my countdown number: 5 What's yours???

My first tip: Do NOT watch videos of this surgery on YouTube. My second tip: While watching videos of this surgery on YouTube, I found one by a doctor in California who was giving a presentation to other docs on this. He said that almost all of his bariatric patients are deficient in certain vitamins/minerals that are essential to healing, and most docs don't think to check for this. I had never heard of the things people were deficient in, so I don't think you'd find them in normal Vitamins. He puts them on a product called Pro Care prior to the surgery to boost their nutritional readiness. I found it online, and there are several products, including one for surgery prep. When I have my knees replaced this summer I plan to go on this for a few weeks prior. Please let us know how your surgery goes!

Prior to the surggery I spent several months in a downward spiral, eating everything in sight, and thn some. I then had to make a decision... either lose weight, or go into surgery at my highest weight ever, with the outcome of that terrifying to me. So I went on low carb, and lost about 30 pounds. I can't tell you how good that was for me. Just getting the carb monster under control made it so much easier to face all the changes I've had to make after surgery. Now, almost 4 months out, I am facing all my other bad habits. Boredom grazing. Emotional eating. Late night snacking. I'm tackling them one at a time, because, as you mentioned, I want to succeed for the rest of my life. This is quite a process, and you'll come face-to-face with ALL your eating issues if you are going to succeed. I find this website and constant self-monitoring are very helpful.

My bp has been 90/53 or thereabouts every time they check it, and no one has seemed concerned! Finally, the nutritionist saw it and scolded me a bit. She said it's that low because I'm not drinking enough liquids. I got the message!

Congratulations! Other than that you're about 100 pounds less than me, we're kind of in the same place. I have lost 89 pounds and am getting really excited about the big 100 mark! I, too, have a very slow metabolism. I was sleeved in January and have lost (only) 44 pounds since the surgery. We should support each other and cheer each other on as we work toward our goal!

Nothing's wrong! You're probably just hungry! Since my surgery in January, I get hungry every 2 hours like clockwork. Frustrated, I asked the doctor about it, since I thought I'd never be hungry again after the surgery. He said in a small number of cases people just go the other way and get hungry all the time. (yay, me.) Meanwhile, I was on an acid reducer so it wasn't acid. It stands to reason that we would get hungry when we're eating such small amounts. I will say this, though... I've learned that sometimes when I feel hungry it's just stomach irritation. If I've just eaten and feel hungry, I know it's not hunger again. So now if I'm really hungry I drink a small amount of ice water. If I can feel the cold in my stomach, I know I'm empty. If I don't feel it, I know it's something else and I just ignore it for awhile and it goes away. Don't panic! It's no big deal.

Wow! Whew! Take a deep breath! You have a LOT going on here, including complications that you've had to deal with. Your body is going through a tremendous shock and tremendous changes, and everyone is different at this stage. Let me just address MyFitness Pal, though. I, too, log every single bite, and when I reached stalls it was SO beneficial to look at everything and see where I might tweak things. I highly recommend you continue to do this, now and forever. At the same time, the calorie goals set my MFP are for people who are on traditional diets. The unsleeved masses could not comfortably or successfully consume the small number of calories we can consume after surgery. The nutritionist at my bariatric center (of excellence) told me I should be consuming about 800 calories per day, including the 250 I get from my two protein drinks. Right now, you should be highly focussed on water, protein, vitamins, and as much exercise as you can do without injuring yourself or setting yourself back. After a lifetime of failed dieting, it's easy and natural to feel that once again we are failing. However, this is a game changer, and all the rules are different. Again, take a deep breath, track, relax, and go through the process. It's going to be ok!

Very good question. As Cheri said, this is exactly the reality I'm dealing with at about 3 months out. I was so sure prior to surgery that I was going to be absolutely miserable and deprived over the small portions, but that hasn't really bothered me. The going got tough when I stopped losing and had to really address my eating issues. Luckily, I've been tracking every morsel I eat in My Fitness Pal, so it was easy to see that snacking is a big problem for me. I've been a grazer for my entire eating life, and I've determined that this is the habit that has to go if I'm to succeed long term. In the past, I wanted to lose weight but I didn't want to change. Now, for the first time ever, I WANT to change. So I would have to say my biggest obstacle to overcome is me. It's a work in progress!

I was JUST looking at that gadget and wondering about it. Does it measure how many calories you're burning based on your actual metabolic rate (body temp, etc.), or is it just measuring movement and applying some kind of formula for estimated calories burned? I think the Body Bug actually goes by your body temp, perspiration, etc. But I'd like to get this and sync it with MFP.

I went on low-carb for the first time several months before my surgery, and for the first time in my life, I lost a good amount of weight fast. When I went for the surgery I was already down 50 pounds. I nearly drove myself crazy with the decision, and my family and friends said they would support me either way. Finally, after being really honest with myself, I admitted that every diet I had ever been on had come to an end at some point, and the weight eventually came back and then some. The time to end that cycle of self-abuse had come. I'm about 11 weeks out and even though I'm losing slowly (probably because I lost so much beforehand), I don't have a single regret about my decision. You're on this path for a reason, and you just need to remind yourself of it. Good luck!

What a sad and terrible thing. I know that most of us, as we consider the surgery (ANY elective surgery for that matter), consider that this might happen. For many of us (certainly for me), the decision to have surgery comes down to whether we will die young from weight related illness or take the chance to increase our health and well being for many years. I pray that your family finds peace.

I remember when you lost your mom. I was also sleeved in January, and I commented to my husband that I couldn't even imagine what you were going through. This is what I do know, though, after having lost a baby daughter and my brother (teen suicide, many years ago)... there are some hurts that no amount of food, friendship, talk, prayer, or any other thing will completely heal. These are the things we take deep inside ourselves, and really, the only way to cope is to acknowledge that around this subject there will always be sadness, and that's ok. Eating and other distractions are things we do to try to make the pain go away. Once we acknowledge that it never will, we can just take it out and quietly talk to it every now and then, but we don't have to let it live with it's hands around our throats. Does this make sense? I'm trying to say, I feel your pain, and it's ok for you to feel your pain. It's part of who you are now. The first year is the hardest, but it will get better. Your husband sounds very wise. You're on the right path.

We all have those days. Luckily, they end when we go to bed!