Lissa

Kie, Your weight loss is actually right in line with mine and I was sleeved August 30, 2011. Take a deep breath and drop the gym membership. Use that money to buy better food to fuel your body with. Let go of all the stress and start working out by walking, then adding in some weights ($10 for 2-2 lb weights at walmart). Once you get yourself in the habit of working out, it will be easier to increase your workouts. Don't think you have to be perfect. This is a journey and we all stumble. What's important is that we get back up and keep working on it. You will learn to eat better. Make it a priority to get in your Water and Protein every day and then worry about adding in other foods. Goodness knows that we're all tough enough on ourselves without beating ourselves up for everything under the sun! I suggest you get back into the online forums, which you're already doing by posting today. Try going to a support group meeting, just one, and see if it doesn't make you feel much better. I know that the members of my group are terrific! This is not a race and you don't have to be perfect every day. You just need to work on you a little at a time. You've made the biggest choice for yourself by getting sleeved...now use that opportunity to improve the rest of your life. Good luck on your journey!!

That's why we are all here...to give and receive support. I'm toasting you right back with my decaf, high protein, coffee!

I've slimed once at nearly 8 months out. Too much food, then took a drink too quickly afterwards. What a waste of a nice meal! Bread, Pasta, rice, all leave me feeling gross, so I avoid them all.

Great job already! Welcome to the loser's bench and keep on rocking that sleeve!

Oh, yeah!! What an amazing NSV! To look good and be pleased about how you look in clothes.

I think that's a natural reaction to the changes we're going through. I'm glad your new cravings are positive rather than for junk food! Enjoy the sushi!

I have to agree with the previous posters. You must make yourself a priority because no one else will. You can't take care of others if you're in bad shape, either. Get in your water and protein to make sure you are capable of taking care of someone else. Good luck and I hope your kid is okay!

Yep, they are. Just wait, though, you'll get yours back when your fat cells start duming all those hormones and you become b*#@(y at him.

Nope. My doctor actually does not recommend them to his patients. Instead I have a couple of things: I carry the ID card he gave me just behind my driver's license in my purse and, under ICE in my cell phone I have 2 listings. One is for my emergency contact person and the other says SEE NOTES SECTION FOR MEDICAL INFO. Under the notes on my iPhone, I have listed my medications, my surgery and the information specific to my sleeve (date, doctor name and number, bougie size and NO BLIND NG TUBES). Actually, once we're healed, the NG tube thing isn't as important, but I haven't deleted it.

I love a good scale victory party! Count me in!!

Welcome to the loser's bench! We're glad you're here!

Please don't hesitate to call your doctor. Dehydration can do more than make you feel bad. It can impede your healing and put you back in the hospital. In the meantime, make it your priority to get more liquids in, even if that requires that you use a spoon to dribble the Water down your throat. Try a different temperature than you've been drinking, switch to hot, warm, cold and see which goes down best. Try drinking some broth, or decaf coffee, or decaf tea, whatever it takes to up those fluids. Another benefit to drinking enough is that you will help kick start the weight loss. Dehydration can make your body act like it's in starvation mode and hang onto every ounce with an Iron fist.

The bionic broad isn't picking on you. She's making a valid point that we influence how our children eat for life. This is a great opportunity to show them that healthy eating is delicious and can save them from enduring what we have gone through. I'm proud of you and your daughter for passing up the treats, though!

I'd recommend talking to your primary care doctor about what you can do to make surgery safer for you. Perhaps start the liquid diet earlier than others might. Paola, one of the posters here, lost 80 pounds pre-op, which I'm sure helped tremendously when she had surgery. You might also want to start exercising as much as you can now. I was barely able to walk pre-op, and started out literally walking up and down my hallway to get the gas out after surgery. I'm now up to walking to and from my gym, which is about .7 miles each way. One bonus of building up muscle is that it continues to burn calories even when you're not being active. Another great bonus of walking is that it improves your circulation, which will help prevent blood clots both pre and post-op. Start now to work on breaking any addictions you may have: smoking, caffeine, etc. It's much easier to do those things before you start the pre-op diet rather than struggling with two or three different stressors at the same time. Read all you can from others who have gone before you. It will help you mentally prepare to deal with the after effects. I know there are a couple of guys on here who have lost large amounts of weight. Their threads would probably be very helpful for you. There is also a forum specifically for those who have "200+ pounds to lose", also. Good luck!!

60% health, although this number should be higher considering I was told I only had about a year to live if I didn't lose the weight, 30% vanity and 10% emotional.

Great NSV's, especially the blood pressure!!!

I'm now using my protein powder as creamer for my coffee. I'm able to tolerate most of them that way and I get a protein boost as well.

NSV Means that Lissa is gonna open the thread. See my signature below! LOL

I have to laugh about the cold thing. I've always been naturally cold, so I've been freezing since surgery. Some friends stayed a few nights recently and he has heat issues, so needed the ac turned to 70 in order to sleep. I had 3 quilts on my bed, plus socks, full pjs and a pair of cotton gloves in order to stay warm.

I think that I'm still at low intensity compared to many others here, but it feels intense to me! LOL I started on the treadmill and exercise bike about 3 weeks out, weights at 6 weeks, and have been gradually building up my workouts each month. I bought a fit bit yesterday and we'll see what it has to tell me after a few days of use.

I strained and drank egg drop soup during my clear stage without issue. It was a welcome and delicious change... and I could only drink about 2 oz of the broth.

I think I'm a 34 bougie, and I've never had heart burn issues from surgery. I figured I would because I had horrible heart burn with both pregnancies. It's interesting how different people react to this surgery.

I had surgery Tuesday morning and drove myself home Wednesday night. I quit taking pain meds in the hospital at about 9pm Tuesday night, but I have an unnatural fear of narcotics.

I've been allowed decaf coffee since week 2 post op. I drink a few cups a week and find that it helps with bathroom issues. I have literally been decaffeinated since beginning my pre-op diet and don't find too much of an issue with it now. Pre-op, though, I was a diet coke addict and I'm sure the caffeine had a lot to do with it! I'm amazed that my energy level is very high even with no caffeine now. I didn't notice a real problem with coming off the caffeine, but that may be because I was so involved in trying to deal with my two weeks of liquid diet pre-op. Good luck, however you do it. Caffeine has a tendency to rob the body of Water, so it is worth the effort to get it out of your system.

Big Craig, There is no hard and fast rule that I know of about staying under 20 carbs per day. That said, everyone's body reacts differently to carbs and I unofficially tried to keep my carbs very low for the first six months. Once I started doing more intense workouts, I found that I had to increase my carbs to be able to have enough energy to finish a 30 minute cardio workout. I'd start really dropping out about 15 minutes into my bike ride, but once I added in some good carbs (as opposed to junk food), it became much easier to reach the distance and time goals I've set for myself. Now I'm actually increasing the resistance on the workouts, which is only possible because of the carbs. PDXMan and MassIndex have a big thread under Fitness and Nutrition about carbs and exercise. Since they are both running marathons, I figure they have some experience in this. I did not mean to imply to Mrs Brown that carbs themselves are bad. But, she stated that she is having an issue with a sugary cereal. If a food causes you a problem, it's time to eliminate it from the diet until you can get it under control. My personal achilles heel is baked cheetos. I love the darn things and will eat an entire bag of them at a sitting. They are a slider food for me, so I must keep them out of my house. If I'm planning to have some, then I'll buy the small vending machine size, enjoy the treat, and work out a little longer to make up for them. But, I've learned that it has to be a very occassional treat or I stall.