Lissa

Oh, Sabrina! I'm so sorry you're having a rough time! Hopefully, the tests will all be good and you can go home today, but I'm also glad that your doc is being cautious and careful! I'll give you good news about the bed, though. I slept in mine the first night I was home from the hospital, or the second night after surgery. I also didn't take any pain meds after the first day in the hospital, but I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. Hopefully, once they rule out any problems, you'll be heading home and be able to relax and rest. Hospitals are no place to actually get any rest!

I use salad dressing: ranch, vidalia onion, and italian are my current favorites. I either cook the food in the dressing or use it as a dip. Egg Face has a ton of recipes for dips made from greek yogurt and other liquids if you like different flavors. I'm still working on the flavor/spice thing as far as my tastes go, so dressing works well for me. I adore cocktail sauce these days, too!

Lizbeth, I have no tips, but had to say hello to you! I have friends in Phenix City!!

Measure yourself and notice if your clothes are getting looser. Those things count more than that darned scale anyway! I've been "stalled" on the scale since mid-January, except for a 1 pound loss last week. However, I've lost two pants sizes and I can see and feel the muscles in my arms and thighs! I even got a comment from a customer today on how muscular my arms look! (Posting that one in the NSV Shout-outs in a minute!) Don't let the scale run your life and, at just about 3 weeks out, EVERYONE stalls. Keep drinking your Water, adding in your Protein and do NOT let this get you down. You WILL continue to lose, and at an astounding rate! Good luck!

I agree with Meg on the cabinet sweep! It's way too easy to eat crap if it's in the house. Much harder if you have to go somewhere and get it to indulge in junk. You're not failing, though. You will overcome this. The reason I know it is because you brought it here and left it on the table. Now you have identified the problem, so it's time to do something about it! Good luck!

Irene, I'm so sorry for the difficulties you are having! May your mother-in-love rest in peace! (((Irene)))

Good luck to both of you! I can't wait for your update posts that you are sleeved!!

Awesome!!!

Yeah, there's definitely a learning curve with a brand new sleeve! It's tough to remember all the things you read somewhere when you are in the middle of a bad bout of shoulder pain, or you're feeling like things are just "off". I think that's why we all say "Walk, walk, walk, sip, sip, sip." That was my mantra for the first couple of weeks, and I was concentrating so hard on it that I didn't realize my shoulder pain was from a full sleeve. I kept sipping my Water and walking, but the shoulder pain was pretty constant...until I realized that my shoulder hurt when I took a drink. DUH moment for me! That's when I realized my shoulder pain was actually my full signal! It's changed now at 5 months plus out, but those first few days were tougher than they needed to be because I didn't realize what I was doing wrong. Once I backed off just a tiny bit, the shoulder pain went away. I was just drinking too fast.

Sabrina, Hopefully you'll be heading home today! Congrats on taking a huge step for the rest of your life!!

I love My Fitness Pal as well. I notice that I do much better when I use the app religiously. I actually started out with a paper book, but then I was always looking up how much protein was in different foods. MFP figures it up automatically and helps me track my progress as well.

Rainydayz, You just said one of the most important things I've ever read about VSG. "With the sleeve, if I slip - and I have- then I don't fall all the way back down. I stay right where I'm at until I have the energy and gumption to keep moving forward." That's profound! This is not a race to the finish line. Sometimes we do just need to rest a bit before we start working hard again. Our bodies definitely know this, that's why we have "stalls" or "plateaus".

Some great scale and non-scale victories in that post!! I know you're feeling and looking so much better!! I'm happy to hear that you're rocking your sleeve, but I knew you would! You go girl!!!

LOL, Peacequeen! I'm not an encyclopedia, but I have a great capacity for storing (sometimes useless) information and then recalling it later. Now, if you ask me to recognize a name without a face (or vice versa) I'm totally lost these days!

peacequeen, there are no dumb questions. Dense Proteins are anything that fills your sleeve well. I eat chicken (cluck), pork chops, steak, hamburger, ham, and a lot of Beans. For me, all of those fill me up quickly. Basically, any meat that requires you to chew well is dense Protein. I do eat bacon, both kinds (turkey and pork) and I find that it fills me up fairly quickly. Also, I eat sausage with my eggs quite often. 1 egg and a sausage patty usually fill me up completely, although there are some days that it takes two eggs. Hope that helps to answer your question. Ask away.

blackanese, You'd better! We'll go have a good time! BTW, Ourborous, nice to get a male opinion on boy toy status!

A slider is any food that goes in and out of your tummy quickly. Ice cream, cookies, cake, Cheetos (for me). Dense protein and veggies are so much better for our sleeves and they stick around longer to help us feel satisfied.

Dang, Blackanese!! I think we need to hang out!!

Now I'm SMH! My libido is off the charts, especially since I found out I can once again wear sexy shoes!!! I'm either gonna have to be nice to my dumb DH (we've been separated for 8 months) or find me a boy toy. Hmmmm, dilemma, dilemma.

Amazing transformation!! You look awesome and I bet you're feeling wonderful! You go girl!!

bean, I think that lots of us have issues with eating too much food. Many don't go all the way to "addiction", but it's a common problem for bariatric patients. I suggest seeing a therapist to help you deal with the issues you have with food, both before and after surgery. It will definitely be money well spent. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't think the sleeve can help curb food addiction. I do. But you are going to have to do the head work. Our tummy is sleeved, not our heads. You simply cannot eat the volume of food after surgery that you could before surgery. It's not possible without doing great physical harm to yourself. You'll have to re-learn how to eat, both smaller amounts and healthier foods. It's definitely something that can be done, but you'll have to put in the effort, too. Good luck with whatever route you choose.

I've been to Golden Corral a couple of times since surgery. The one near my house will only give me the senior discount, which is fine. I don't mind so much because I know they lost money on me for many years! LOL I figure I'm just paying it back now. I usually have baked chicken and some kind of Soup. If the seafood salad looks fresh, I may have a bite or two. If I'm feeling really adventurous, I'll put a teaspoon of different kinds of food on my plate. Since surgery, many of the things I liked before don't sit very well. My local GC has installed a chocolate fountain. I sit FAR away from that temptation. Although, since most of the kids that visit it don't really take care to keep their hands out of the flow, it's not that big a deal.

go to the bar to watch the game and order Water or tea. There's no rule that you must drink alcohol. I went out last weekend with friends and had no problem ordering a non-alcoholic drink while they had beer. Nobody even noticed. If you go to dinner, then just order some Soup. Claim you had a big lunch if he asks why you're eating so little and you don't want to share about surgery yet. Enjoy the date!!

I think spinach and greens might be a little too tough on mushies, but they would be fine once you hit solid foods. I eat cooked spinach and cooked collard greens at least once a week. Be careful if you're still on blood thinners, though. The greens increase the actions of the blood thinners.

What are you mixing the Protein with? If it's milk, the milk could be causing your issue. I became lactose intolerant after surgery, even though I never had problems with it before. Keep trying other liquids besides milk and see if that helps. You can put Protein powder in decaf coffee, or anything else that you think sounds good with the flavor of protein powder you have. powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury makes an unflavored powder, but I've never tried that one. I just add protein powder to my decaf when I need a shot of protein. I also drank lots of chicken and beef broth when I was very early post-op. Good luck!