MegInNOLA

Surgery date 4/18/2011. Morning of surgery 306. This morning I'm still 183; down 123 pounds. BMI normal at 23.5. :-) YAY sleeve!!

Hey, congratulations! I'm at 14-1/2 months out too. You've got a lot of exciting things happening in your life--way to go!!!! You look terrific!

Yep, and I would add, vitamins and water! Be sure you're hydrated--when I don't get enough water, my skin gets all icky and I get circles under my eyes. Water= energy for me.

I completely "get" this. It's humbling for me to imagine where I would have ended up... and sometimes you get to see it with your own eyes. Thank goodness for the sleeve!

I'm over a year out and my sleeve still doesn't like meat or chicken or tuna or egg yolks. Everybody (and every body) is different. :-) What makes the sleeve different from a high-Protein diet, I think, boils down to three key things: 1. Restriction and volume control. You can't physically eat as much volume as you used to. 2. "Type of food" control. At various parts of your sleeve journey, you will tolerate different types of food--for instance, at the beginning, I bet money that you don't enjoy sweet things like you used to--all that sugar will hit your system so flipping hard you won't believe it. Eventually, you will be able to enjoy fruit and maybe the occasional piece of dark chocolate (oh wow, yum), but at first, not so much. For me, my sleeve rejected and still rejects fried food and most flour/grain products. Frustrating, but not really. I actually appreciate that I can't have those things; it's not even tempting to try, because I remember what happened last time--sleeves rejecting food is not pleasant. 3. Hunger control. Many people who are sleeved find that their hunger lessens. Not everyone, definitely, but a number of people do find that. And as you drop weight, your body requires fewer calories to sustain itself, and you might find yourself in the happy position of thinking of food as fuel--as in, you're not really hungry, but you eat healthy foods because you know your body needs it to perform at its peak. Best wishes as you gather information--please let me know if I can be of any help. My husband and I are both sleevers.

Shellfish and occasional grilled white fish are actually the only non-dairy, non-veggie protein I eat now. I used to love grilled tuna, but sleevie does not. Shrimp are super easy on my sleeve. You'll be back to them soon; hang in there!!

BigD, I didn't do sugar-free, either... at first, I used regular chocolate syrup (only a little!) in my shakes (I had to make my own because I couldn't tolerate the powders or ready-to-drinks). Over time I have stopped using any sort of sweetener and only this week have I started adding Mio and other sugar-free flavorings back into things--I need to be sure to get enough Water, and the Mio lemonade and sugar-free Torani raspberry syrup make water taste SO GOOD! My point is, do what you can do now. You won't be able to drink tons of calories, so if you have some regular Gatorade and you tolerate that well, just water it down a bit to cut the calories. If you feel comfortable moving to artificial sweeteners, great. I was concerned about it, actually, which is why I had avoided them for so long, but I seem to be just fine without any headaches--come to think of it, a lot of things that used to cause migraines don't now that I've lost the weight. Yay sleevie!! Best wishes to you!!

Yep, you'll lose some, for sure, but I think if you always had big ones, you're still going to have some when you're done. It's not only the size; it's also the texture and directional change, if you get my drift--sagging is pretty common and there's not a lot that can be done about that nonsurgically. I'm a big believer in great, expensive, well-made bras; that's my new indulgence, since food isn't such an expense any more.

I'm on biotin regularly and haven't noticed anything like that; in fact, since surgery, my hair seems a bit drier than before. Maybe it's the hot weather? I know in the past my scalp has been a lot sweatier in the summer... and I wash my hair every day and use just a little conditioner on the ends. And HI MGM--nice to see you! (waving from across Lake Pontchartrain)

This was me, too. I woke up from surgery really, really angry with myself for not losing the weight "the natural way." Then I realized that the reason I had the surgery wasn't JUST to lose the weight, but to keep it off, and if I could have, I would have. I was mad for a couple of days and then realized that it was a done deal, I needed to learn how to adapt to it, and that was that. After every big change, there's a period of accommodation in which we have to find "the new normal." It will not be the same as before--you'll be a different size, have different priorities, have more energy--so if you think of it as an adventure to find "the new you" and "your new/improved life," that will end up being closer to what actually happens. It has definitely turned out that way for both me and my husband (also a sleever). Yes, it's challenging to try to imagine what it will be like--and let me tell you, you can't. It's so radically different that it's not possible to feel it ahead of time, no matter how good you are at imagining things. But it's BETTER different, not worse. :-)

My DH and I go out to eat a lot, and our favorite places are Tex-Mex and Mediterranean/Greek. Because I can't each much at once, we always order meals "to share," and we have never had any raised eyebrows at all. I think restaurant portions have gotten so big that it's not uncommon for people to share, and the restaurants we go to just bring an extra plate. I serve myself off the plate, and then my husband eats the rest (he's also a sleever, but he can eat WAY more than I can). It works perfectly--sometimes we still have leftover food, which we bring home, but that's usually only if we order with the intent of bringing home leftovers. You'll learn what travels/keeps well, and you'll quickly learn how to visually size up the amount of food to put on your plate. It's always better to undereat (the rest usually will keep beautifully) so that you can truly enjoy your food and the experience and not worry about that "one bite too much" horrid feeling. We actually love eating out--we certainly spend a lot less money on restaurant food now!

YES you're a success right this second. I honestly feel like we're all successes when we make the decision to do something proactive for our health and our well-being, even before we actually follow through on it--just that committed decision shows me that something has 'clicked' in our heads, and we are aware that there's an issue that we need to work on, and we're going to work on it. That also says, "I think I'm worth all this trouble, money, and hassle." THAT is a success, period. Losing the weight is just an outward sign of the inward change. You'll see yourself in the mirror soon--I promise. You're looking at your body right now, but eventually those things will come back into alignment for you. I see me when I look at pics now--not me in a fat suit, just me. I FEEL like me now. (Colder all the time, but yeah, this is me.) This outside matches my inside. And yeah, we're all successes at this very moment, no matter where we are in this journey, because, like so many other good things, it isn't about "being there," it's about "getting there." :-)

Oh, yeah, I eat frozen yogurt from Red Mango almost every day--as a meal substitute. They have nonfat yogurt (I don't worry too much about the sugar, but that's just me) and slivered almonds. It's delicious and a great way to get some calcium and a touch of protein in yummy form. I end up eating around 250 calories of this when I have it--small amounts, please!! Ask the counter staff for a smaller or child-size container--those regular "bowls" really encourage over eating and supersizing. You can also get your yogurt in a coffee-size cup if you ask for one; they may look at you strangely at first; the staff at Red Mango just hand me the appropriate cup when I walk in now. :-)

I burp SO MUCH post sleeve--still do, at more than a year out. I think it's so tight in there that it's just a necessity. I burp after every sip; happily, they are mostly tiny, silent ones, but yeah, VERY burpy. Wait until you get to the gurgle stage!! Also, for a lot of sleevers, a big burp, maybe combined with other signals (for me, a runny nose--don't know why) means that you shouldn't take another bite. It's my sleeve's "I'm full" signal, and I have learned to listen to it or else!! Actually, at this point, I can anticipate when that's going to happen, and I stop a couple of bites before that--no longer eat until full, just eat until not hungry any more. So welcome to the losers' bench, and definitely keep us updated on your progress!!

Not trying to hijack, but thinoneday, us tall Texas chicks are rockin' it! :-) I'm from Longview originally, now exiled in south Louisiana, LOL. Seriously, I've got you beat in height, but I have a pretty small bone frame for my height--now post-sleeve, I can actually tell that my body build was secretly thin the whole time--who knew?!? And all of you who are dropping from really high weights--GO, and YAY!! Super proud of you--every one of you, definitely post and keep us updated on your progress. Threads like this are celebrations!

Nannie, I'm pretty sure that some of that is Fluid gain--especially if you were low-carb and added some processed carbs back in, plus salt. No panic!! Even though I don't follow the low-carb lifestyle, I know from reading this forum and others that just the addition of some low-quality carbs can mean water/fluid gain; that's why we all lose so much right at the beginning of being sleeved--we've cut those "bad" carbs out and our bodies release all that fluid. Complex (healthy) carbs don't seem to have the same effect. There's going to be times where I have a margarita, for instance, or a pickle, and that salt is going to cause my weight to pop up a bit in a day or two. It will go back down, but meanwhile I have flipped out. I bet if you up your Water and cut your white carbs, you'll get back where you want to be super fast. :-)

Hey congrats on giving up smoking!! I started with tomato at around 5 months--I think it was allowed earlier on my plan, but my sleeve didn't like it. I had to wait for a couple of months after that to get some lettuce in.

I'm a little further out than y'all, I think... I'm at the 14-1/2 month mark. I can say that I've had a pretty good 5-month "plateau" in the middle of all this--I'm not going to dignify it with the word "stall"--and that after my loss slowed, weight loss comes much more infrequently and with MUCH smaller drops than before. I think we get super spoiled with that first rush of weight loss! It's pretty thrilling to hop on the scale and find you have dropped 7 pounds that week!! It's not so thrilling to see that bounce up and down when you're still higher on the scale than you think you should be--and we beat ourselves up. I don't really have any great advice or wisdom to share, just a communal hug for everyone who's struggling. I know first-hand that stress and feeling pressed for time are the enemies of weight loss, period. And I think especially for us women, it's HARD to take time for ourselves--we've been taught that others come first, others' needs trump ours, and it feels self-indulgent in a bad way to take time out for relaxation, exercise, whatever it is that recharges your personal battery. So I say to my sisters, be a little selfish. It's okay. It's necessary for your long-term physical and mental health. Make YOU a priority. I get a lot of traction when I think about treating myself the way I would treat anyone else I know--I would be kinder, more understanding, less worried about flub-ups, more supportive. That critical inner voice is hard to re-train; that's what I'm working on now. :-) HUGS y'all. Life can be horrid. We need to be nice to ourselves.

Hey there! My highest weight was 337. A year later, I had surgery at 306. Currently, I'm 183. I'm 6'2", so even at that high weight, I'm in a normal BMI and normal weight. :-) Yay Sleevie!!

I'm a gummy nut--we use the VitaSource multis, Vitamin C, and my husband takes a b12, and I take Caltrate chewies plus D. The only pills I take are my Synthroid, my liqui-gel super B, and my teeny-tiny liqui-gel Biotin. I tried other chewables and also swallowing vitamin tablets, and they did NOT work with my sleeve. If you tend to push your calorie limits right up to the edge, gummies may not be for you, since they definitely are not sugar-free (I think they do make sugar-free ones, but I've never seen them in our local stores). To me, since I take my Vitamins at night, it's like a nice little before-bed treat. I will say that since starting the gummies, I have been in a GREAT vitamin routine; I never took vitamins this regularly pre-surgery. You might not require all the vitamin supplements that I take--evidently I tend to be low on thiamine, thus the super B, and my hair was falling out like a long-haired dog in July, thus the biotin. I don't really take the extra C on most days, since I eat a lot of Vitamin C containing foods, but occasionally I'll chew one (which is 1/2 a dose).

Hi Rootman: I'm just seeing this thread--I'm so very sorry for your loss. Losing a beloved pet (in your case, 2) is losing family members--period. We had our beautiful old cocker spaniel put down in December right before Christmas because she had what our vet called "doggie Alzheimer's." She kept getting lost in the house, sometimes forgot how to eat, and would easily get trapped in crevices and be unable to get herself out. It was heartbreaking; we knew when we took her in that we were doing the best thing for her, but it was SO HARD!!! I know you wish you could have said goodbye to them; I guess maybe your wife was thinking she had the time and the strength to take them (perhaps also saving you the grief and saving them from further suffering), so she went ahead. I agree with the poster above who said talk, love, forgive, and look ahead. We're not getting another dog at this point, either, but we are happy that our rental apartment comes complete with 2 beautiful golden retrievers for us to love on whenever we like--my husband is going back to college full-time, so we've rented a garage apartment close to campus for a weeknight sleeping place (our home is about an hour and a half commute in to the college--I teach there); the owner of the apartment lives right there in her home with these beautiful dogs, so we'll see them frequently. We find ourselves petting other people's dogs sort of maniacally because we miss Lili so much... Eventually, all the love to and from pets must make this world a better place... so never say never to another one. They sneak up on you with their cute furry faces and pure souls. I still cry for my dogs (and am doing so right now, in fact); they were/are a part of my life that I wouldn't trade for anything. We miss them, absolutely, but eventually you'll also be able to Celebrate that you shared your life with them. HUGS!!

That same thing happened to me; I purchased some clothes on sale right after surgery that I thought would make great back-to-school clothes (I was sleeved in April of last year) in what I thought at the time was a dream size, 18 (I started in a super tight 26/28); by the time it was time to wear them, they were all too big!! Now I know I have to try everything on or buy online only from vendors whose sizing system I'm really familiar with, because things change really fast.... odd how 3X had a huge weight range, but 14 to 12 is a matter of 10 to 15 pounds' difference. :-) Ah, well, that's what Ebay is for.

I was really surprised when I read the Quest label that my favorites have 17 grams of fiber!! That is a HUGE plus for me. Also, the new flavors don't have those sugar alcohols that are in the first-round flavors--the new flavors are the strawberry Cheesecake, Cinnamon Bun, Coconut Cashew (my new obsession), and--oh, phooey, I can't remember. But they're also sweetened with Stevia. And like others have noted, they are a little more expensive, but since Sleevie can tolerate them and I actually look forward to eating them, I consider them a bargain. One bar equals two mini-meals for me because they fill me up so well.

I blended a lot of stuff early on and ate it on cucumber slices as opposed to crackers (or you can wrap up in lettuce leaves)--just be careful if you're still early that the seeds and/or ribs of the lettuce might be difficult to handle. You can also use the blended stuff as part of a filling for baked mushrooms or squash pieces. Yum!

I had/have trouble getting enough protein in, too, since I can't eat meat/chicken/some kinds of fish/egg yolks. I eat mostly vegetable protein and dairy, along with shellfish. Can you tolerate tofu or other soy products? What about thin-sliced lunch meats? I can eat a little ham lunch meat (although it's not a guarantee), and I can eat egg whites--I LOVE a hard-boiled egg and can eat the entire white (if you have a pet, they'll be happy to "assist" you with the yolk, which is good for their coats).