LindaS

The suture line along your stomach takes about 6 weeks to heal, and most doctors suggest you don't drink during that time. But I understand that you want to go out and have fun. I found that a glass of Water with a shot of cranberry juice added to it looked like a mixed drink enough that I didn't have to answer "why aren't you drinking?" all night long, plus it was good. It also helped me get my 64 ounces of water in.

I get this if I eat too much too fast. I am also very uncomfortable in the center of my chest just under my breasts.

Woohoo! I'm so glad you were able to reverse that diagnosis/prediction!

One of my first thoughts waking up from surgery was that I didn't really need surgery. I could do it on my own. Obviously,I was delusional from the drugs. I am so happy I didn't wait any longer.

I started at 255, and I am down to 183 in 9 months. I am still losing,but it has slowed down.

OP: It means original poster -- the person who started the thread Thread: The topic/subject started by an original poster.

I do Zumba about 3 times a week but usually more. I do weight lifting as part of that at least once or twice. I also do stability ball and arm exercises 3 times a week or so. I believe Lissa does arm exercises every day at least 100 reps.... Start with what you can do and add on. I started by sitting on my stability ball and doing arm exercises -- two sets of 15 reps. I've increased since then. I would sit on the stability ball instead of the couch and do my exercises while watching TV with my family. I do about 8 different arm exercises. I don't keep a regular schedule of what to do when. I do something every day, but I do what I can fit in. The closest I come to a schedule is with my Zumba. I have the DVDs, and I alternate between the Exhilarate and Ripped DVDs.

My pre-op diet allowed me to eat all of the veggies I wanted, which I love. I don't know how that would impact someone with diabetes, but veggies won't interfere with shrinking your liver. It sounds like even though you didn't stick to the pre-op diet you were given, you made very smart choices when you got the sub, added lots of veggies and didn't eat the bread. The pre-op diet shouldn't make you sick. I second what others have said and make sure the diet they gave you works for diabetics too.

I buy the danskin brand from walmart for most of my workout clothes. I've tried different types of pants, but I like the yoga style the best. I have some with a drawstring waist, but I don't like the way they fit on my legs. For shirts, I tend to buy the tank tops with racer backs, and I make sure to get the ones that wick sweat away from you. Recently, I've bought some different capri style workout pants because of it being summer. Again, I like the ones that are tighter on my legs.

I'm not sure where to put this, but I figure exercise is the closest place to put it although a mental health forum might be a close second (if we had one). Last night, I watched the plump pole dancer, and I was horrified and in awe all at the same time. She was doing things and seemed so much more confident with her body than I have ever been with mine. Plus, she was athletic. I doubt I could climb that pole now let alone when I was at my heaviest. It just made me feel like I did in gym class and couldn't climb the rope. I have never had upper arm strength. But here she is, and she is big but strong and flexible. She did drop splits! I watched the whole thing imagining myself doing that, and I would be horrified. I found myself feeling embarrassed for her, and she wasn't embarrassed. Why should I be on her behalf? Two of the judges X'd her, and I was mortified for her. I swear I was cringing from the crowds booing her. Today, I was worried about what people would be saying about her. I found this story online about her performance: http://www.baltimore...,0,608245.story And suddenly, I had to rethink what I was seeing the night before. The story put a positive spin on her performance and even claimed the audience wanted to see more of her. My impression the night before was that the the audience was against her. To figure out the truth, I watched the video, and the audience was cheering. I realized that last night as I watched her, I projected all of my negative self talk onto her. That little negative voice that was in my head for so long when I was heavy but had disappeared since I've lost weight? It was still there and going full speed. Last night, I remember being so impressed that she went out there in a bikini. I have never worn a bikini in public not even when I was a teenager and cheerleader. Her ability to go out there wearing that was amazing and something I couldn't do. Today, I also realized that she wasn't really wearing a bikini. It was a one piece that looks like a bikini with skin-colored material in between the top and bottom, but still she was wearing less than I would in public, plus she was pole dancing in front of a huge crowd. The girl has gumption and is athletic too. It made me realize that I still have that negative voice inside my head, and I need to be on guard against it. I need to make sure that I'm not talking myself out of things before I really try them. I need to develop a more positive voice -- one with confidence and guts and a "who cares?" attitude. I should call the new voice Lulu.

I was low on energy for the first couple of months. I was falling asleep before 8 p.m., which is unheard of for me. It takes a lot of energy to lose weight, and it was doing me in without doing anything else. Exercising helped me become more energetic. I also felt much more energized as time went on.

Awesome job, Lissa!

I used to love salad. My preferred restaurant order was the salad bar. But since being sleeved, I don't eat as much salad. It took me a long time to even want to eat salad. I think I tend to add too many fattening things to my salads, so it is something I really need to be careful about when eating. It sounds healthy, but it can also be unhealthy with some of the extras I tend to add. As for wine, congrats! I love being able to drink a glass of wine. I'm not as fond of the calories though....

Yes, you can stall in the later months too. I'm 9 months out, and I've lost only 9 pounds since February. That is about 3 pounds a month, and it seems that those 3 pounds happen within two days and the rest of the month -- nothing. I am exercising and eating right and drinking right. I can feel the muscles forming, and I can see definition in places I've never had definition before. I think the stall is because my body is transitioning. I know I was really worried that I wouldn't show a weight loss with my doctor, and I was pleasantly surprised to learn it was a 9 pound weight loss. My doctor said that it is normal to lose slower as I get closer to goal. He also mentioned that my body may change and go down in size without actually going down in weight (he's right). The good news is that I haven't stopped losing. When I haven't lost pounds, I have lost inches. I've also noticed that even when my measurements don't necessarily change, the way clothes fit me does. Something is going on as a result of all my hard work even if it isn't showing up on the scale.

My local Walmart and Kmart sell them in the "Seen on TV" section of the store. I paid less than $20 for 2 bras. They come in a box with two bras in them. The sizes are like t-shirt sizes: small, medium, large, etc., which is why they fit better when losing weight, IMO. His2my2our4, you may be onto something. I didn't remove the triangles when washing, and it probably would prevent the rolling that happens if I did that.

I bought a stability ball, and I really like using it. I do my sit ups sitting on the ball, and I also do my arm exercises when sitting on the ball. I bought a couple of stability ball workouts, and the ball I bought actually came with a DVD too. I like the 10 minute trainer videos. I also do Zumba. I absolutely LOVE Zumba. It is a great workout that is fun. I searched places like Spark People for exercise videos and routines when I first started. I also met with a personal trainer that gave me a lot of ideas for what I can do at home using the equipment I already owned (a treadmill, resistance bands, the stability ball and some hand weights). I am now looking to buy a weight bench that has a leg lift. I really want to be able to target my butt and the backs of my upper legs, and I feel I need a weight bench to really target that area without going to the gym.

I have the same nippy problem, although if it gets a little nippy outside, there is nothing "little" about what I tend to do. My Genie bras came with these little triangular-shaped pads that you slip in for some extra support. They are enough to rein in my nipples. They tend to roll up when washing the bra, and I frequently have to readjust their position when I first put the bra on.

The Genie bra doesn't flatten me out as much as a sports bra does, and I like that. I love how it smooths out the back and under the arms. I like how comfortable they are, and I like that they can look like a tank top rather than a bra strap when wearing sleeveless shirts. I think sports bras have many of these same advantages except sports bras tend to flatten by boobs right out. It may be that I need to find better sports bras. The fat under my arm (just over the bra strap on the side) is the thing I like least when wearing a real bra, and this isn't a problem when wearing one of my Genie bras. Once I put on a Genie bra, I have to lift my boobs up to get them adjusted right, but once I do that, they stay there. It gives me cleavage better than most bras. My breast are spaced farther apart than most boobs (I think). I have almost 3 inches of flat chest space in between my breasts. The Genie bra helps me push them together, so I actually show some cleavage instead of a ravine. I am planning on buying two more in a medium. My first two are starting to show some wear, and they are getting too big (size large).

Ellipticals are hard! It can kick my butt so quickly. Congrats!

I didn't hesitate to tell people, but when I first started talking about it most told me that I didn't need to do it. My BMI was 40, and people were telling me, "you're not that big." I talked to an aunt who had had bypass surgery, and she said I didn't need weight loss surgery. Others were surprised about my choice. Co-workers wanted to know about the liquid phase. One asked why I couldn't just do that and lose weight. My answer was that I'd never be able to maintain a liquid diet without the WLS. I'd cheat. My mom absolutely thought I didn't need the surgery, but I knew she is delusional when it comes to weight issues. She isn't overweight herself, but my dad weighed over 400 pounds for most of my life until he died, and she was an enabler for his weight. My husband was VERY nervous about it. He was really worried that something bad would happen. He was worried about losing me. I knew he was nervous, but it is only recently that he really told me how he felt 9 months ago when I was determined to do it. He was supportive. He told me he would love me no matter my size, but if I felt I needed to do the WLS, he'd support me. Now, I'm learning he wasn't as on board as I thought because of his own concerns and worry, but he bit his tongue to support me. (I am a very lucky wife.) My kids didn't think I was obese, and they weren't sure why I was doing it. Now, 9 months later, and 72 pounds less, everyone else finally sees that I needed this surgery. My kids have even had the experience of looking at pictures of me from a year ago and finally seeing that I was obese. They never saw me as obese until I was smaller. It was a really surprising moment for them to look back at those pictures of me and finally see how big I used to be. I think the unsupportive family and friends comes from the blinders people have on as well as their own worries about losing you. My kids never would have called me obese and didn't think of me as fat until I lost weight. As a kid, I never thought of my dad as obese even though his waist was 60 inches. It was normal to me. It may help to look at this a bit differently -- it isn't that your family and friends are unsupportive of your idea of having WLS. It is that they are supportive of you the way you are now, and they are worried about you being hurt by what they see as an unnecessary surgery. My husband has noticed and commented that the biggest changes in me have been emotional not physical. I am happier because I don't have this negative dialogue in my head all the time telling me that I can't. I don't have the mortifying experiences in dressing rooms anymore. I don't have to worry about how I will look or if I can do something. I know I can. I am happier with myself, and it colors everything.

I bought two Genie bras because I was changing sizes so quickly. It worked for me, but I know many others don't like them. I liked them because they were comfortable, and they fit me for a long time as my band size went down almost 10 inches. I also like how they smoothed out my back fat as I was losing. I have recently bought several new bras, and it is so expensive. It is also hard to find bras in my size. I am currently a D cup, and my band size is between a 34 and 36. Most of my local stores don't offer anything smaller than 38D in the cheaper styles. I've had success finding good reasonably priced options at TJ Maxx. I'm not done losing yet, so I don't want to spend more than $20 on a single bra, which can prove to be almost impossible with the size I need.

I remember how hard it was when I just wanted to chew on something. What helped me was to switch up what I was drinking. It seems like so many of the Protein stuff is in chocolate/vanilla/strawberry flavors, and I was TIRED of those flavors. Being able to have something like warmed up chicken broth was nice because it offered me something new. I also used those 15 calorie popsicles to get that chewing sensation. One warning -- I tried gum once early on. I thought it would be nice to chew on. I ended up swallowing it without even realizing it, and I had a huge moment of panic. I realized I couldn't chew gum because I tend to swallow it, and I was worried about doing that. I didn't have any problems from the piece I swallowed other than mental worry.

I was amazed at how quickly my upper arms became flabby -- after only losing 2 inches in the arm circumference. I quickly picked up the weights to help combat it, and I saw results in just three weeks. That was a long way of saying, I agree with Lissa. Low weights with high reps. I use 3 or 5 pound weights.

You and your husband look great! You've done so well! Be sure to take time to realize how much you have accomplished. My only question is how are you doing on drinking your Water? Are you getting in at least 64 ounces a day? It can help you feel full, and your body needs the water/fluid to lose weight. I started off losing quickly, but I am now a slow loser (9 pounds lost since February), but I am still losing. I find that I need to constantly reevaluate my eating choices. I have recently been eating a lot of Oikos Greek yogurt, and then I read a thread on here about the yogurt and someone mentioned the sugar content. I realized I hadn't even looked at the sugar content on the label. It was a reminder to myself that I needed to make sure I wasn't eating anything with more than 6 grams of sugar in a serving. I will have to go back to a different flavor of Greek yogurt. Looking back, I realized that I made the choice to buy the Oikos brand not based on the food label but based on the price. It was on sale for $1 per container (5.3 ounces), so I grabbed it. This experience made me reevaluate what I was doing, and I ended up losing a couple of pounds. I realized I needed to stay aware of what I was eating and doing even when I think I know.

My family member is 63, and she self-declared herself too old. No doctor has told her she is too old, but she wasn't considering surgery until a doctor suggested it. As for technology, her husband thinks it is evil, so she won't be connecting online. She has started drinking Protein shakes as Meal Replacements. The big thing is that she needs to move more, but she has some knee problems that are keeping her from doing so. Thanks everyone for the advice and tips. I welcome more! The woman is my mother-in-law, so I am nervous about it all. We have a good relationship, but she can hold a grudge too.