Forensikchic

did you lose all the weight you wanted to and are you able to maintain your loss? That is the burning question that I have....

I am interested in this too! My sister is having her VSG with Dr. Alvarez June 1. I had mine in San Antonio about 8 months ago. I want to know everything there is to know about Dr. Alvarez so peeps who had their surgery there please do chime in! If you dont want to put it here, (if you are a newby and the OP is looking for more expereinced peeps) in box me please!

I just moved from Huntsville a few years ago. My last child who is 14 now, was born there. I lived there for 12 years. (Madison area). Welcome! I was self pay also here in San Antonio. I went from seminar to surgery in 9 days! I went to a saturday seminar, made my appt on Monday and then had surgery the following Monday! I had a one week liquid preop diet, lost 9 pounds, and now I am 8 months out and 80 pounds down! It really works and after the first couple of weeks, it will be smooth sailing. It is hell week during preop and getting used to sipping such small amounts but that will pass. You will lose and plateau, in a pattern, over and over. Dont worry if you didnt lose what you thought right off the bat. Your body has to adjust and you have to be pateint! Just remember that when you are in a stall. It will pass! Good luck to you!

She has seen the pics but unfortunately, she has only been here once or twice. She doesn't want to participate in this site right now. It makes me sad but she is her own person and each one of us has our own journey so..... maybe she will visit here more after her surgery. Who knows.

Thanks Wishes! I enjoy this forum and it keeps me motivated to keep going. My sister is having a VSG done June 1! So excited for her and everyone that is going on this journey with me!

I am 80 pounds down from surgery on 8-8-2011. My hubby took a pic of me this morning on my way to lecture at a local college. I dont usually dress fancy for work because of what I do, but since I was dressed up, I let him take my photo. I will include a before pic so you can appreciate the difference! The first two pics are from my trip to Brazil with my family in March of 2011. I was about 235 pounds then. I am 154 today, the last picture. I am so excited to have made it this far. I am 9 pounds from having a normal BMI. I am still working my sleeve and trying. I am in a bit of a plateau right now and they seem to be coming closer and closer together, just like the surgeon said they would. I am 20 pounds from my personal goal. I felt so good in these clothes today. Size 10 banana Republic slacks and a size medium blouse. Yay me!

SW 155.2 CW 154.5 GW 144.2 Pounds to lose by Memorial Day-- 10.3 I lost almost a pound this past week. Not a great start but its a little and all the little oz's add up to pounds! I hope I have a better week next week. Good luck to all!

My sister is getting her sleeve on June 1st, 2012 with Dr. Alvarez in Mexico. I was wondering if there is anyone else who is having theirs that day or weekend. I live in San Antonio so she is coming here from Mississippi and we are traveling together to Eagle Pass, Tx. I want to find some buddies that will be there at the same time! Please let me know if you had Dr. Alvarez as your surgeon, your experience, but especially if you are going to be sleeved on June 1! Would love to have a buddy to visit with while we are there and share experiences with.

Yay Stacey! Its awesome that you are doing so well!

I looked it up to see how much protein is in it. Only 5 grams. I dont know if it would be worth 150 calories and 29 g of carbs for only 5 g protein. I guess you could always try it and see if its delicious and it helps get your fluid in, it might be worth it.

Where would you buy this? I havent seen it anywhere.

My surgeon told me this would happen. He said to set my goal at whatever I wanted, I chose 135 because of my height, but to know that I really needed to go down about 5-10 pounds more because my body would bounce back some. So to compensate for that, I intend to get to 125 as my lowest and then I have 10 pounds of wiggle room for the bounce back that he said was coming. I am happy to hear of someone that this happened to, it gives what he told me some creedance. Maybe it will give you some comfort knowing this is totally normal and expected.

There are a mulititude of non starchy veggies.. its easier to list the ones that DO have starch and avoid those. Starchy ones are potatos, including sweet, lima Beans and other varieties of beans (they do have Protein though) and corn. There may be a few other starchies but I think thats about it. All the rest do not have starch. You know like tomatoes, green beans, asparagus, cabbage, all green leafy, peppers, onions, squash, okra and the list goes on and on.

Good luck and may you have an uneventful recovery!

I decided to go for 11 pounds instead of 10. I want to have lost 90 pounds by Memorial day and its just one more pound. I think I can do it.

When I started doing these challenges, I started with 20 pound goals. My first was a halloween goal and I lost 18. Then it was Christmas, set it for 20, lost about 18, then Valentines day, set it for 15 and lost 13, then Easter, set it for 13, lost 12, Now I am setting it for 10+ and I dont know where I will land, probably 8 or 9. All these challenges have been roughly 7 weeks long. I hope to make one eventually! It gives me a real challenge and pushes me to do my best. I want to say to all my peeps that you dont really know if you will have a stall so set it for 20 or so pounds if you are early out and then if you exceed that before the challenge is over, set it again for a few more pounds! If you have a stall and dont quite make it, like me, thats ok too because you can at least get close and you will be closer to your goal than you were to begin with! We are all winners here and we can only do our best and the rest will follow. Good luck everyone!

Remember that chinese has lots of salt which will make you retain water. If you must have some chinese this early out, just pick the meat out of it and dont eat the noodles or rice. It wont take but a few bites and you will be full anyway. I ate the shrimp and veggies once but i only at the shrimp and one other time I had mongolian beef and just had a few pieces of the soft beef since they cut it so thin. Good luck and drink plenty of water after so you flush out the sodium. It can cause you to retain that water and not lose weight.

Hi. We are the same height and near the same starting weight too and the same age! I am 8 months out and have lost 79 pounds so far. I dont want you to get discouraged with these little stalls. They are going to happen along the way. Just accept them and know in the back of your mind that you will keep losing and get to your goal! I am 20 pounds from mine and that is nothing compared to 100 that I started with. Hang in there!

Okay.. here goes. SW 155.3 CW 155.3 GW 145.3 Pounds to lose by Memorial Day-- 10 I was actually up just a smidge this morning because I ate something salty last night... Im not counting that...lol. For those who have never participated: We weigh in once a week until Memorial day and that day is your final weigh in for the challenge. The SW is starting weight for the challenge, not starting weight from your journey. CW is current weight, gw is goal weight etc. Lets have fun and get busy!

Okay guys, Its challenge time again. Who is with me? Memorial Day is about 7 weeks away and I am going to start this challenge off right with a doable goal of 10 pounds. I am 8 months out today and I know my losses will be continuing to slow. I used to set my goals at 20 pounds, then 15, then 13 and now 10. I want to be realistic and I am only 20 pounds from goal so I think 10 pounds is a good realistic goal for me. How about you? What will be your goal for the next seven weeks?

SW: 166.8 CW: 155.3 Easter GW: 154 Well girls, we have reached the end of this challenge. My goal was to lose 12.8 pounds and I weighed in today at 155.3. I am so close! I lost 11.5 pounds in this challenge and so I am happy about it. I have yet to make a challenge but I get closer each time. I had fun with it and it kept me motivated so I am glad we did it. Congratulations to everyone who reached or surpassed their goals or came close! Close does count in horseshoes, handgranades and weight loss challenges. I am making another challenge starting tomorrow. It will end Memorial Day. That gives us about 7 weeks (like last time). I am going to set my goal to losing 10 pounds this time and maybee I will hit it. That will be 145 and I will be considered a normal weight. Who's with me??? I will be starting that thread today. We did a great job!

Im down 1 pound this week to 155.2.! I have been stalled at 156.3 for two weeks!

I have reconsidered and I think I will stick around a while! My sister is about to be sleeved in June and I want to be here for her too. She lives in another state so it helps for her to have somewhere to go to with her questions. I was a newbie one time too and I know I sure appreciated getting answers to my questions. Sometimes no one would answer me and i would be so upset! I try to help all those I feel I can contribute something useful to. Good luck in your journey and I am always available via PM if anyone has a particular question they think I might be able to answer and no one is answering them.

I feel that the sleeve gives me great restriction i.e. I cant hold much food. I still eat what I love but I have to put Protein first or I will not feel my best. Sure, I can eat cheetos now and ice cream and other slider foods with no nutritional value but you will learn that you dont feel very good after eating that type of food. I have the occasional snack and maybe a small icecream at the zoo but I dont eat it every day. Before surgery it seemed I never got full. I would eat the things I loved until I couldnt move because I liked the full feeling and i wanted to keep tasting it. Now, I cant eat but a few bites, its still just as delicious and i get that really full feeling, I used to love. I dont love it anymore. I try not to eat that extra bite that will take me there. I like being satisfied but not overfull. I like the way I feel when I eat lean protein and I only pick the reallly good tasting meats, etc. If you arent eating much, you might as well have the best of the best! What I am saying is it is really the best of both worlds. You still get to eat the good foods you always loved, its just much smaller portions. You can have a small snack here and there of cheetos or icecream or whatever and you will still be fine as far as weight loss goes. I dont mean get a big full fat latte at starbucks everyday and milkshakes and all that crap. You will not feel very good if you drink all your calories and you wont have any energy (kinda like you feel now when you overeat and are sluggish). So, the word Tool is there to remind us that although it helps tremendously, think hammer and nail, you stilll have to swing the hammer to get the nail to go in, but the job is so much easier than if you had to get the nail in the wall with your fingers... I hope this helps. T