MegInNOLA

Shimmying along here in N'awlins, too, dawlin! Congratulations!!

I don't think I understand the problem. :-) He's eating food that's healthy and good for him, right? If he's eating yours instead of "his" regular food, just change over and buy double your stuff and let him eat--no need to waste money buying stuff if nobody's eating it! At our house, the entire contents of our fridge have changed for the better. Your hubbie may be seeing how much better you're looking and feeling--you may have motivated his change to a healthier diet and lifestyle! Just adjust your shopping to reflect the change. I personally Celebrate every time I see my husband eating great food, healthy food--because I remember the days of gravy, extra piles of spaghetti, and a 330+-pound husband (my DH is a sleever, too!). No more, and I get to keep him with me longer!!

:-) At the end of the school year, I went summer-clothes shopping and actually burst into tears in Penney's because I felt so disoriented--I knew exactly where to go for "my" clothes--the women's department, duh, and Lane Bryant, and Avenue--in these "new" stores, it seemed there were so many choices, and I had no idea what size I wore or how to find anything! I had a little melt-down. At that time, i was just about a year out from surgery. I was almost used to being at my goal weight, and I was almost used to NOT being "the fat one." I can tell you that in three short months of summer, somehow I have blown right into "YAY!! I can shop anywhere, anytime, for anything!!!!" and it's a fantastic feeling! YES you will get past that discomfort. YES you will learn your "new" body and its sizes and what looks best, and YES it will be FUN. This is a HUGE deal for me--I, too, have to dress professionally for work, and I always dreaded trying to find appropriate plus-size clothes (I wore 26/28 prior to surgery) that didn't look like tents.... SO difficult! And I used to sweat so much during hot weather or when I got hot working (I'm a conductor, so a pretty physical occupation) that my clothing also had to not look gross when dripping wet--another layer of complexity. Now all those problems have been solved--I rarely break a sweat any more, even in this HORRID south Louisiana heat and humidity, plus I can wear button-up blouses without worrying about a clothing "malfunction." Oh yeah, you'll get used to it!

Both the super B complex liquigel and the thiamine that I have are Nature Made. I can't tolerate the burps from B vitamin tablets, but the Liquigel is smaller to swallow and I don't get those horrid burps. :-)

And height matters, too. At 6'2" and 182, I'm well within "normal" weight now and wear a comfortable size 12/14 (even a couple of 10s, bless Eddie Bauer!). Some tiny girls on this forum start their surgery process where I left off! Plus, body composition really matters, too. There are some folks on here who seem to have a lot of muscle per inch--as in, they wear tiny sizes (0, 2, 4) but are muscular and weigh more than one might suspect. So it's all very individual. My advice is not to sweat it--you're going to end up where you end up, and you can tweak it a bit, but there's no way to get any sort of consistency because of the way women's clothing is sized. Just enjoy the ride!

My husband loved/chased after me before, and it's MUCH WORSE now, LOL!! We're both sleevers, and I know from personal experience that yes, I definitely loved him and his body before, but both are so much more fun now! We've talked about it a lot--it's a combination of better energy, better mood, better self-image, more confidence, plus from a purely mechanical perspective, we just seem to work together better, if you get my drift. So yeah, it's something to look forward to, for sure.

I agree with Dooter--it will happen. Stalls suck, but they're temporary IF you stick with your program. If you can't do the protein shakes, make your own from "real food" items--use Greek yogurt, milk of some sort, flavorings, and ice cubes. I added nonfat milk powder to mine to up the protein, but you could also add Egg Beaters (they're pasteurized) to up the protein--you can flavor to your heart's content with sugar-free syrups, cocoa powder, instant coffee, sugar-free pudding mix, sugar-free jello, whatever floats your boat... and you can get it all at a regular grocery store. Be sure you're getting enough fluids--dehydration will stall you out super fast. Hang in there!!

I couldn't tolerate any form of protein shakes, either, until I made my own using "real food." Greek yogurt, milk, flavorings, a couple of ice cubes. You can bump up the protein by adding nonfat milk powder or Egg Beaters (they're pasteurized). Zap in a blender and voila. It's not as high in protein as a ready-to-drink or powder, but you can get all the ingredients at the store, plus I found it really easy to customize to fit my tastes (plus my sleeve actually let me keep these down!). Hang in there. It gets easier when you can move to mushies.

Yep; get a tiny tablet form that you can just swallow. I have some, and they're teeny, tiny. Can't taste 'em or smell 'em. I switched to a liquid gel super B that also contains B1; you have to read labels, because not all B complexes have it. B1 --thiamine--is so common in flour products like bread and pasta (in the US, our flour has added thiamine) that it's hard to have a deficiency, so most B complexes don't have it. But at any rate, get a pill that you don't have to chew--I can't imagine anything nastier than having to chew a B vitamin of any sort--ick!!

Congratulations!!

Don't forget to try things at different temperatures, too. Sometimes warm or room-temp liquids feel better (or at least don't hurt as much!) than chilled drinks. For me, temperature didn't matter, but I've read a lot here about that. Also try flavorings in your Water. I know it seems odd, flavor shouldn't affect the feeling of the drink as it goes down, but in my experience, it definitely does, so try different things and see how they work. Hang in there--I had a very difficult time at the beginning with getting in any Fluid. As your body heals, things will improve rapidly.

Yep, that's what it feels like. I don't think it was the water. I think your sleeve just isn't up for tilapia yet OR you ate past today's limit in your sleeve. Sometimes food that works one day won't work the next. Sometimes you can eat a particular volume one day and something else the next. When this happened to me, I backed off to softer textured foods for a day or so and let things calm down. I'm sorry it happened, because I know it feels horrid, but eventually you'll figure out after only a couple of bites if you're going to be able to handle a particular food, AND you'll be able to tell you're getting close to max with your sleeve. For a lot of us, there's some sort of "signal" that's different from pre-surgery. Mine is that my nose starts to run. I know when I'm eating and I get the sniffles it's time to stop. :-)

You know, just because you "can" doesn't mean you "should," and I'm not talking about "oh, you're being naughty, eating that 'bad' food." I'm talking about you can do damage to your sleeve! Please be super careful during these first couple of months and let your incisions heal properly--there's a serious reason your physician has you on a particular diet after surgery, and it's really not designed just to keep you from enjoying your food! Be careful, please--you really don't want to end up with a leak or a complication!! HUGS!!

Sadly, I agree--LOL!!! But I have a new appreciation for why those bombshell girls of the early film era used to pose like that--everything perks up! And then you put your arms down--yeah.... Oh, well.

I love them--also check out Torani!

Congratulations!! I love this on a bunch of levels!!

First, congratulations on your loss so far! 60 pounds is a great accomplishment, and I know you're feeling better. Gatorade has definite pros and cons. Obviously, the pros: If you exercise heavily, especially in the summer, you may want that extra sodium to help you stay hydrated. It tastes good. Cons: It tastes good because it's got a lot of sugar and some salt. I agree with the poster above who suggested switching to Crystal Light or another sugar-free drink mix. I believe you will be able to meet your sodium needs (which are surprisingly small, by the way) with regular food at this point in your diet. If you eat any processed food at all, you're probably getting enough sodium in the form of salt--it's super hard NOT to get enough. I don't believe you need Gatorade to get that. To stay hydrated, be sure you're consuming WATER--I like mine with Mio and some Torani sugar-free syrup added in (I make a kind of raspberry lemonade that I guzzle for ZERO calories). The salt and sugar in the Gatorade might not be "the" culprit in slowing your loss, but it might be making your body more susceptible to cravings for additional carbs--that's how that sugar thing works, right? When you eat it, your body begins to crave more of it. I'm 100% sure you can do this! Taking bites of your son's supper isn't going to keep you from losing weight, ESPECIALLY if you plan those bites into your menu. It seems like maybe you're just tracking after the fact--do you plan ahead for what you're going to enjoy that day? Tracking is good if it's helpful for you, but I find that planning ahead is actually a bit more helpful for me, even at this stage (I'm at 15 months out, in maintenance), to be sure I'm getting the nutrients I need. Hang in there--make a plan, ditch the sugar, and I'll bet you see that scale moving down almost immediately. We're here for you--keep us posted!

Early 20's, I was a lovely curvy hourglass. Highest weight, a serious apple--broad across the butt, but it never had "oomph" or shape--and my belly was horrendous, kind of moving in a big curve from the top of my thighs to underneath the girls--at my heaviest, my belly was the first thing to enter a room (and I have BIG girls and big feet, so that's saying something serious). Now, minus 120-odd pounds, back to my hourglass, not so slender through the mid-section and actually not that wildly curvy. I was disappointed to find that my waist and hips aren't that far apart, although everything is a lot smaller now--I require a really great bra, as well (poor deflated girls!). My biggest pet peeve area is definitely my front view--saggy girls plus droopy/oddly bumpy belly--does anyone else have strange bumps and weird pooches along the front of their abdomen? If I stretch with my hands over my head, it looks pretty good, but when I relax--YOWZA. But you know what? I'll take this in a New York heartbeat when compared to pre-surgery!!

Karen, I think your family will be so happy to see how much healthier you are that even if they do think "what if he had started the process sooner," they will still be glad for you. If you get even a touch of negative feedback, I'll be really surprised. If someone says, "Gee, I wish ___ had gotten to have his surgery," you can always reply honestly, "Me, too--it's really been a blessing for me," or something honest that you feel. But I'd be really surprised if it comes up like that. I hope you enjoy yourself and can relax with your family. I haven't seen my brother's family since a couple of months post-op and I'm down 80 pounds since then--I'm looking forward to having them see "the new me," but more than that, I'm looking forward to being able to visit them without worrying about how I look or all the formerly pressing problems (where do I sit, do we really have to go swimming, I hate that I'm so hot and sweaty, etc. etc. etc.). Enjoy your visit!

Hetera, I saw a counselor for a few months before making the decision to have surgery. I got my head straight, and that really helped me see that I wanted/needed my outside to match my inside! I think anything that someone can do to arrive at a healthy relationship with food is a positive. Best wishes!! Your new best friend and greatest love is going to be yourself.... any steps to being the best you (and that definitely includes physical health) are good steps.

I still pause before sitting in a "new" chair or booth--I still turn my hips sideways to fasten my seat belt--I still automatically look for the "women's" department in a store--I still scoot WAY over to the side when passing someone in a narrow hallway-- Eventually I'm thinking my head will catch up with my body!! But when these things happen, they just help me remember how far I've come and how grateful I am.

Congratulations, Lissa! You definitely help so many people in so many positive ways! A much-deserved reward. :-) Enjoy!

Butterfly, keep a drink at your desk if you can. I drink a lot more when something cold and delicious is sitting right next to me than if I have to get up and go to the kitchen and get something. I have started getting really picky about the flavor of my water, too--I took a "time out" from all sweeteners, sugar and artificial, and drank just plain water for a couple of months, not on purpose, just to avoid the artificial sweeteners, which had a horrid taste to me. But I realized I wasn't drinking enough for our hot summer weather (and I'm from Longview, TX, just down the road from you, living in south Louisiana now!). So I got some Mio--love the lemonade--and some Torani sugar-free raspberry syrup, and I make a raspberry lemonade that I can't WAIT to drink. I drink a LOT of water now. :-) Try flavoring your water with something you find irresistible and keep it handy.

Melba toast is thinner and crispier (and smaller portion-wise). Greek yogurt has more tang than regular yogurt--it's thicker, because they strain it to get out some of the excess Water. It's also got more Protein than regular yogurt. Greek yogurt has consistency closer to cold sour cream--it can be flavored with either sweet/fruity stuff or savory/herb stuff, so it's pretty useful. You can also use it in place of sour cream or mayo in things like chicken or egg salad or in a dip recipe. I didn't worry too much about Melba toast, since my sleeve didn't/doesn't like a lot of bread, but I eat Greek yogurt daily, even though I don't really like the taste--I hide it in my daily smoothie! I can't tell it's there, but I'm getting the protein. :-)

That's so cute! Congratulations on your loss so far!