PdxMan

I just wish you would have posted this over in the Rants and Raves forum instead of the Tell Your Story forum ... People looking for encouragement are instead greeted with this ... Another pet peeve of mine ... folks not posting their threads in the appropriate forum ...

My pet peeve is when someone makes a post and then gets bitchy about the responses. If you can't respect people's posts, then don't create a thread. Ms Skinnines has nailed this one, BTW

Yes, it is important to remember the surgery was on our stomach, not our heads.

Check out the equipment section under my blog for all my ramblings related to clothing and whatnots. You can get them at any sporting goods shop. Amazon, of course, too. Under Armour and Nike are the ones I recommend.

Before she cursed the obese women for purchasing all the cute plus sized clothes, now she curses all the skinny women (rib cage) who buy all the cute skinny clothes. Right?

Four weeks out, I was doing purees and cottage cheese. Some pudding on occassion, but that was it. I slowly pureed my soups less and less. It just takes time. Some of us take more time for our swelling to go down. It will happen.

Yes, I also did at least 4 Protein shakes a day, but I was allowed a salad with lean protein for dinner. It's hard, no doubt about it. But it is so worth it. Also remember, what goes in, must come out. Imagine having to push a couple of McDoubles out after stomach surgery ... not going to be fun.

Nice! I was in the same boat. Couldn't have dreamed of running pre-sleeve. It has been a wonderful journey since. Congrats!

Every person is going to be different. Every surgeon is going to be different. It just does us no good to compare. The bottom line is if your surgeon has asked you to do this, they are basically telling you they feel more comfortable doing this surgery with a shrunken liver ... do you really want to battle them on this?

Uh ... IMO, you NUT is absolutely correct. Everybody is going to be different depending on their tolerances and how quickly their stomach heals and the swelling goes down. What works for one person is not going to work for another. Some folks have no problems getting in all of their liquids and Proteins a week post-op. Others, such as myself, took a lot longer. Some folks become lactose intolerant, have reflux issues ... etc ... Think about it. Weight loss is going to happen. It has to. You are going to be consuming far fewer calories than you are expending. Are you looking for weight loss or fat loss? It is my experience, when I see posts such as this, the expectations for weight loss far exceed what is reality. You have made the decision to have WLS and all you are concerned about is losing weight. Do you have any interest in feeding your body what it needs? Is your plan to do a low-carb diet like we all have tried a half dozen times before we had the sleeve? Since the low-carb diet worked so well for us before we had the sleeve, do you think it is going to work now? Sounds like your NUT is telling you something you don't want to hear, so you are going to fire them. You will always be able to find someone who tells you what you want to hear, so why even bother? Same thing here on VST. Someone will always validate what you want to do whether it be good or bad ... Remember, it was our best thinking that got us to this point, so why do we believe we really know what is best for us? It might be time to be willing to do what the experts suggest ... at least for awhile.

Yeah, early out. it does take forever to eat what used to take just a few seconds. It will change ... but not much ... and that is good.

I shopped at Goodwill for the first 6 months because I couldn't justify spending the money on clothes I knew I was only going to be wearing for a few weeks. That gave my mind time to catch up to my body. I love not having to look through the racks for the 3x or 2x clothers anymore. Looking at a manikin wearing size medium clothing and knowing I can have that look makes me smile from ear to ear. But you gotta purge the closet. Take it down to Goodwill and then go shopping there. The new clothes store will be there when you reach your body's goal.

Well, buggers to the onlookers, IMO. I wear compression garments when I work out because it simply is uncomfortable with the jigglies. Then, I caught myself in the mirror and I was like, "Hey ... this stuff really pulls everything together. I've worn it under shirts occassionally and it helped me to feel a little bit better about myself and what I was doing with this whole WLS thing. I felt good and that is all that was important.

I recall a thread about a year or so ago about a lady who was so upset. She had gone in for her surgery and during the post-op report with the surgeon, he told he when he got in there, her liver was too big to work with and he cancelled the surgery. He just didn't feel comfortable doing the surgery with such a large liver. She said she struggled with the pre-op diet and didn't follow it. The title of the post was something like, "Don't let this happen to you" or something like that, if you want to try to search for it. Bottom line ... the pre-op diet isn't to lose weight in as much as to shrink your liver (which sits on top of your stomach). So, depending on your surgeon, know that when they get in there, if they don't like what they see, they could pull out and cancel.

Oh, come on ... we're just getting to the good part of kissing and making up ... And sadly ... this very topic will be hashed out again in one form or another in a new thread in just a couple weeks.

Again, it goes to the your own moral compass. If you feel your privacy has been invaded ... perhaps the person asking is notoriously nosey ... maybe it's a person who always has to one up you. Who knows why, it doesn't matter. You have made the decision at this time, you just don't want to discuss it with anyone. Perhaps you have been shamed for years going home from school in tears because of the way people made fun of you. Perhaps you have never had a date in your life or the last 5 dates have told you how much better looking you would be if you just lost a few pounds. Even if you have never been the subject of ridicule, surely you know others have. And perhaps you have been ridiculed because of your weight, but you have always been able to blow them off. Not everyone is as thick skinned as everyone else. Some folks are sensitive and insecure about their weight. I don't know your friends history of being overweight. I wasn't their grade school friend, nor did I comfort them if they were ever made fun of ... I don't know their journey. What I do know, is they made a decision to make a change in their life to get a tool to help them start doing things different. How they choose to respond to people is their own decision. Perhaps if I had led a more righteous life, I would be justified in judging them, but I haven't. Have you? If they feel the need to respond in that manner, that is their decision. Like I point out in earlier threads, I have stretched the truth on job applications to help me make more money. I have perhaps exaggerated my assets to woo a woman and I have kicked a ball onto the fairway to better my lie (pun). Have you seriously never done anything of the sort? Why do you get to judge, anyway? It is a touchy subject for me because I know the pain obese folks have to endure. If we want to protect our privacy by telling a white lie, I am not going to judge them and I will defend anyone who feels this way. I understand what you are saying. I do try to live a life of rigorous honesty now. But i am by no means qualified to judge the reasons why somebody either tells or doesn't tell people about their WLS. Just curous, have you read my other posts on this thread? How would you respond to the infertile couple? Just curious ...

Wow! You also lost about 5 years, too. Congrats!

Of course we're cool, GMan. I love your contributions to VST. You bring needed clarity to this place. You are the hippy uncle who can right-size an issue with a few words.

I have good news for you, Recycled. The crappy food and drink period is only a few months. Everything will be back to normal in 6 months or less. Just far smaller quantities. Welcome to the board. We are a family, a disfunctional family at times, but in the end, we do love and support each other.

I was not present during any of her exchanges with her friend, so I cannot speak to that. I can only go by the words she identified. As I have pointed out, we each live by our own moral compass. It cannot be written on parchment with chicken blood and stored in a vault. I do not wish to live by your moral compass and I am positive nobody wants to live by mine. If I am not 100% honest on my resume or job application, to what degree am I guilty of lying in order to make money? Have we ever told a white lie to tip the scales in our favor to get ahead ... to get someone in bed ... what weight was on your driver's licence pre-WLS? Are all of us saints? Really? Sorry, folks. I am far from perfect. I have lied like M/F in my days. But I'm trying to make myself a better person. I'm not perfect, but I'm trying. I just don't like it when other saintly folks have to drag others down. Perhaps they are dragging others down to their level or something ... don't know. I'm going to try to keep my side of the street clean. How does your side look?

Yeah, I have two flights of stairs ... no problem. Just take it easy, one step at a time and you'll be fine.

I believe I take ownership of my role HERE. But I do not call her a bully. I state that she is attempting to bully someone ... can you really disagree that in this context there is not bullying going on? Again, I take ownership of my role ...

Oh, I know ... Believe me, I love all the newbies more than anyone can know. It is the newbies that become the vets who continue to support all the other newbies. For the most part, I stay away from these threads which, as you can tell, is very polarizing. I think IAmDeborah summed it up nicely in THIS post. People who have found the "answer" want to share the good news with everyone who will listen and can't understand why everyone else wouldn't want to do it to. It reminds me of my father. He loved having children (had 6) so much he often proselytized the virtues of being a parent and would tell you to your face what a dis-service you were doing to yourself and those around you by not having children. Of course, those who choose not to have children do so for their own reasons. They have been on their own journey in life and have their own reasons for not having kids. When asked about their reproduction status, as happens constantly when couples don't have kids, are they responsible for sharing something they want to keep private? Is it wrong for them to even tell a white lie to protect their privacy? What if you overhear this conversation with your friend and you know she has fertility issues. Is it your responsiblity to tell her she is lying ... that she should share her journey because somebody else may also be suffering infertility issues and could benefit from her story? Whose job is it to determine whether this information is shared? As for myself, I don't care at this point. I do share with most folks now that I am at goal. Even when I am not asked. As I have pointed out a few times, my concern is with the person researching WLS or the freshly sleeved individual who, because of the strong nature and language of the OP, feels coerced into doing something they may not feel comfortable doing. That if they decide to keep a personal matter private, they are lying. I just don't think that is fair and is irresponsible. We have to remember, there are hundreds if not thousands of people who merely browse these forums never joining or posting. They are researching and figuring out what the procedure is all about. It is my belief they should come away from the forum knowing that it is their decision to divulge whatever information they want to whoever they want. As has been pointed out on this thread and dozens of others, many people believe saying "reduced portion sizes (carbs ... whatever) and exercise" is not lying. I agree. The OP has said I (or others) have put words in her mouth or twisted them. I have been quoting her postings, so I don't know how I could have done that, but ... That is fine. It seems she has softened her tune, which I appreciate. GMan, you know I love you, but I, too, must disagree with your disagreement that this is not a form of bullying. Per wiki, bullying is: the use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others. Calling someone a liar is coercion to change their behavior. So, in about two more weeks, this topic will be posted again. Perhaps I will be smart enough to avoid this serenity trap.

I've heard miralax works ... I didn't find MOM that bad ... they have different flavors, too ...

Yay! I know. It is amazing to start noticing all the different places where we lose weight. Congrats. This is the first of many more to come.