Lissa

I can't see your pics either, but your profile pic shows a huge difference from your before pic! Great job!!!

Welcome to VST, Prissy! Ask away. There's also a great search function here for lots of questions!

You're doing great and you will thank yourself for all of your hard pre-op work when you are sleeved! Having built up some endurance ahead of time will make recovery much easier.

Amytug, this won't happen to you unless you let it happen. The OP has taken responsibility for herself and is trying to get back on track. GO, SkinnyAgain!! You CAN do this. Artsy gave you a very good starting point. You know you need to eat 70g of Protein per day and drink 64+oz of Water. Start with that, then gradually add in some exercise. I understand kneee pain. I have RA in my knees. But, it IS possible to find exercise that will not make your knees hurt. Walking short distances is a great place to start. Find a recumbent exercise bike that you can use and start doing it. Even if it's only 5 minutes a day to start, you WILL get better at it. It's GREAT cardio for a beginner. Start lifting small (1-2 pound) weights. Do as many reps as you feel comfortable with; I started with 10 reps each for biceps curls, front arm raises and triceps kick backs. I'm now working out at a gym where the minimum weights on the machines are 30 pounds and I'm able to do more than the minimum for many of the exercises. How you think is how you behave. If you believe you CAN do this, then you can. If you believe that you CAN'T do this, then you can't. Only you can change your way of thinking. This tool is permanent. YOU can start working with it any day of the week. Make today that day. Please let us know how you're progressing. I know you're going to be successful at this and you will be Skinny Again!!

I like the idea of a monthly thread as well. My weight loss has slowed down tremendously, but I'm still dropping sizes in a hurry, so I'm not too worried about the scale. I've lost 94 pounds and nearly 10 sizes. I'm in between size 18 and 16, depending on the cut of the clothes. I started in a 24/26, so I'm thrilled. I'm still trying to stay around 1,000 calories a day and I'm doing very well with my Protein and Water goals. I've also been ramping up my exercise as I go. I'm now doing 30 minutes of cardio every day. 3 days a week I add in a second 30 minute cardio session. 3 days a week I do weights for my full body. On Saturday I rest, but I am still doing either cardio or a lot of walking on Saturdays. I had an EKG recently that shows how much good the cardio is doing me, along with chest x-rays where they could actually see my lungs without all that fat in the way!! Althought I don't talk about it much now, my libido is still extremely high! It really sucks when you're single!!

sublingual B12 just means that the pill dissolves under your tongue. I take 500 mcg daily. The Biotin helps your hair, nails and skin to regenerate themselves supposedly. Nioxin makes a biotin type med, but it's sold in hair salons and costs a WHOLE lot more than mine. I buy my Vitamins and supplements at either CVS or Walgreens when they have B1G1 sales. It seems to work out that I replace half my vitamins one month and the other half the next month. I've never been a big fan of anything gummy, so I preferred the chewable Centrum, actually Spectravite, the CVS brand. It has 100% of the RDA of most of the vitamins we need except Biotin (13%) and Calcium, both of which I take in other forms. It only has 2% of the RDA of potassium, but I eat a lot of bananas, so I'm not concerned about that Vitamin too much. You definitely want to go over your vitamin regimen with your doctor or nutritionist to make sure you're getting what you need. My nutritional needs are slightly different than yours because of Rx meds. Yours will be different from others because of a variety of factors including age, how much you have to lose, what makes up your diet, etc. I get a lot more Vitamin D in daily than someone who lives in a snowy or rainy climate, so I don't have to supplement there. I also get in more Iron than many because I love collard greens and spinach. Others may need an iron supplement even with a multi with iron in it. I've NEVER had a problem with anemia. Just some things to keep in mine while you're building your routine. BTW, I used to take glucosamine chondroiton for knee pain. I've eliminated that completely because the knee pain is gone, gone, gone. Some people add in magnesium for knee health, but my doctor says I don't need it so far. What's in my multi is sufficient. If this all seems overwhelming, I'm sorry. I remember reading other people's vitamin regimens pre-op and thinking I'd NEVER be able to figure it out, but it has evolved over time into the current set up. It may change later.

How many calories a day are you getting? You may need to actually raise your levels to keep yourself from the fatigue. Use a tracker like My Fitness Pal to help you see what you're eating. I try to stay under 1,000 calories a day, but I'm finding that I need to raise that number some as I continue to work out more and harder so that I don't feel major fatigue. It's also possible that your fatigue is from residual medicine in your system. Hopefully you'll feel better very soon!

I should probably add that I like the shakes just fine, but I will add protein powder to my coffee or make a shake in my blender if I'm home rather than do the ready to drink shakes.

Amy, the shakes keep pretty well, so even if your taste buds change early post-op, the shakes will still be good in a few months when you're ready to drink them. I'm on only my second or third case of them, at 8 months out, so you may want to stick with what you currently have.

Awesome! Onederful!! I know you're happy dancing right now!!

PEvette is right! You dont' want to drink too soon after you eat because it will push your food through and you'll lose the feeling of satiation that you get from eating. That will sabotage your weight loss efforts. Good luck!!

DesertRat, My ethnic background is primarily American Indian as well. ALL of my great great grandparents were full blooded Indians (choctaw and cherokee, IIRC). Diabetes runs rampant through my family as well, including my father and my youngest son are both Type 1 diabetics. While I was in the hospital last year, I was diagnosed as pre-diabetic as well. My father died at 54 from complications of uncontrolled diabetes. I'd like to NOT follow in his footsteps. I'm glad your PCP steered you toward the sleeve. From my reading, it seems that the sleeve works much better than the lapband, with fewer complications. Maybe my willingness to tell is because I'm "older" and less worried about other people's opinions of me. I don't know, but I'm pretty open about it. If someone wants to ignore my WLS posts on FB, they are welcome to unfriend me!

Good luck! Hopefully the date will be soon!!!

NewMe, That's awesome! Your liver will thank you for following your pre-op diet!

You aren't listing your water in there, but I hope you were drinking water in between your food. Your food doesn't actually look too bad. I have days where I'm "hungry" even now. I just try to make sure that whatever I eat is protein heavy and it looks like you're doing well with that.

I'm off to the gym in a few minutes to do my workout. Yesterday, on my rest day, I walked around two flea markets and wore out the person who was with me. He's 30 and has a manual labor job, so in much better shape than me! LOL I'm looking forward to some elliptical time, then to hitting the weights HARD. This evening, I'll do my second workout, which will be at least 30 minutes of hard-core cardio. I can't wait!!!

What kinds of exercise are you doing? Does it happen while walking or while lifting weights? I'd definitely ask your doctor about this!

I walk stairs for fun now! I've posted before about the "zombie stairs". Our courthouse has a parking garage with 4 flights of stairs that I try to walk daily. I can do 4 or 5 sets up and down of those stairs, although I keep expecting to see zombies outside the door when I get to the top floor! My Fit Bit inspired me to start doing the stairs. I want that darned stair badge every day!

DesertRat, I agree that acting to change something, even if it requires surgery, is very courageous. A friend from HS told me on Facebook yesterday that she'd have never been brave enough to have this "cosmetic" surgery! I immediately corrected her and said that this was NOT cosmetic. For me, being sleeved was a lift-changing and life-saving decision. I had to decide that I was going to do something or I was going to lay down and die. Dying was not the option I wanted to choose, so I climbed on the OR table and took a big gamble...and I'm winning! I am completely open about my surgery, with everyone. I don't care who knows. My theory is that the stigma for WLS patients will not disappear until more of us are willing to be open about our journey. I've had several people contact me and say that I have inspired them to look into WLS for themselves. THAT outweighs every single person who thinks this surgery is "cosmetic".

You need to be strict with your liquid diet. This is a test to see if you can do what you need to do for yourself. Cheating on the liquid diet only cheats yourself. If your liver hasn't shrunk enough, your surgeon could decide to not do the sleeve, and then where will you be? I know there are lots of different diets prescribed by different surgeons, but your doctor has asked you to do 10 days of liquids because your doctor feels that will give you the best outcome with his or her surgical technique. Please follow your doctor's instructions to the letter. It's a gift to yourself!

Obsess away! You're going to love the new you! It will be so great to be able to walk easier, to feel lighter, and to be able to do what you want to do instead of worrying about whether you'll "fit" somewhere.

Nerves are normal, especially this close to surgery! Just keep deep breathing and remind yourself of why you decided on this surgery and this doctor. I can't wait to see all of you on the loser's bench with me! Imagine how much better your life will be in a few months when you've lost a significant amount of weight and you can move and breathe easier!

MamaM, There is a forum here for people who have revised from Band to Sleeve. It seems to be a fairly common revision and some of those folks only had one surgery. I never had a band, but that forum is a great place for answers to your questions...or maybe to tell you what questions you should be asking. Several of our most successful posters are band to sleeve revisions: Lil Miss Diva, Tiffykins. Good luck!! Here's hoping you get some relief very soon!

I take a daily Multivitamin (Centrum, was chewables until about 8 months out), Tums 2x a day for Calcium (Tums because other calcium interferes with an Rx med I take), sublingual B12, and Biotin daily. My surgeon told me I could reduce the B12 to 3x a week, but I can tell the difference in my energy level and mental acuity on the days I don't take the B12, so I'm back to daily. I started the Biotin at 2 months out and, while I see a lot of hair in the shower drain, I don't think the thinning has been that severe. FYI, I also use Neutrogena Body Oil daily on all of my skin except my face because I think my skin is dryer than it was before surgery. I use moisturizer on my face and neck morning and night and I've just added Jergens lotion to the mix at bedtime to help with skin tone. I'm willing to expose more skin than I would have shown 100 pounds ago and the areas that haven't seen sun in years are glaringly white. A little Jergens lotion is helping to even the color out. We're talking upper arms, thighs and slightly lower cut shirts than before, not belly yet.

Are you on an acid reducer? It truly does help with the urge to snack.