Yasman

today's weigh in: 326.1

dude, what a good idea. I'm surprised I didn't think of that. sashimi, here I come!

this term, head hunger, just hits the nail on the head about how I've been since my surgery July 14. My stomach tells me when i'm not hungry, when I'm full, when I'm dangerously full... my portions tell me when nearly done or done, but my brain keeps thinking things like.... but i haven't eaten enough or... but i'm not getting as much of a portion as *he/she* is getting (like its a competition) or... having cravings between meals and having to count the minutes until its an appropriate time to eat again. I've had a suggestion for therapy but when I looked into it my health insurance doesn't cover any therapy other than the physical kind.

I've got applesauce, cheeses (cheddar, cottage, babybel), greek yogurt, sugar free pudding as options if i really can't make it until another meal, but I find that I rarely reach for these.... writing this is a good reminder so maybe I'll remember this and start using them now.

good topic.

Thank you so much for sharing your photos. That's the first time I've seen what the mystery of excess skin really looks like. As others have said, you are beautiful and I love your clothing choices. I'm also encouraged that the extra skin seems to sort of disappear into your clothes so that's hopeful for me. I'm still near the beginning of my journey so have a long way to go before I see a lot of excess skin, although I have noticed some looseness already.

I also like your before photo with the elephant, that must have been fun!

If it helps (if misery does love company) then I'll share that i'm in my 3-week stall, still, too. Just keep on keepin' on, this is supposed to happen. Your body is a complex organism and its busy doing magic tricks and hiding things up its sleeves. the "and, Voila!" moments will come.

Heck, I discuss my BM's freely in the beauty salon when I'm getting my hair cut. Tales of my C diff infection, pooping in a litter box at work and my fecal transplant were all big hits!

dare I ask, where was the toilet at work in all this? I think this is a BM story I need to hear from beginning to end.

I was sleeved on 7/14 and I'm still on my 3 week stall....now at 2 months so I definitely feel the frustration. I've got a measuring tape that tells me my measurements are the same (what?!) and a scale that has me hovering +- 2 lbs for so many weeks. it's definitely frustrating but.... life does go on. Just trying to keep sane with the portion sizes and the kinds of things I'm eating and I am trying to keep up with the exercise. I'm in Southern Florida and its hot hot hot. One of my doctors told me I have difficulty regulating my body temperature because of some medication I'm on so I am NOT allowed to do my walking or bike riding pretty much until the weather cools (november?) or after nightfall (which I don't think is too safe) so I've been focusing on doing laps in the pool as many times weekly as I can find an empty lap pool, which is working out to about 3 times a week.

I'm struggling with exercise! I'm walking about a mile a day but know I need some strength training too! What have you been doing? I need help in this area as well!

My surgeon's practice has an exercise consultant who has me doing strength training at home with resistance bands. These are super easy, don't cost much, and it doesn't take a huge long time to do the complete round of reps and sets. This is for once every other day.

This has been bothering me now for several weeks, asked at the doc's and got multiple recs from them so I thought I would ask here and see if we can narrow it down.

I went from fairly regular pre surgery to going 4+ days between bowel movements (everybody's favorite topic, eh?) and when things finally move its... in a word, unpleasant.

Is anyone else in a similar position and if so, what do you use to combat the issue?

I tried beneful but it needs 3 times a day and I found that difficult to keep up so never really saw results. I just tried ex lax the last few days and that helps but its not meant to be used more than 1 week at a time, not intended as a habitual usage sort of thing.

What have people tried and what were your results?

No personal experience to speak of, but in the pre-op class I just attended the nutritionist said it was okay to start trying things like popcorn and nuts after we're back on regular food...she just said to go slow, it's really more of an issue of individual tolerance.

I'm glad to hear it because I went ahead and tried popcorn right away at the regular food mark. popcorn was a staple in my dad's house growing up and I was missing him...

it went well! No complications with the surgery, only minor pain for a few days. the hospital stay went very quickly, which was especially welcome. I've lost 30 pounds and am stalled since the second/third week, which is frustrating but still 30 lbs. in 60 days is unheard of in my past weight loss efforts so all is good. I'm struggling to get my exercise in because another doctor I have and medicine I am taking make my body unable to sweat properly. I'm in southern florida so finding a time when its either not ungodly hot or raining (hurricane season) is tough.

how is it going for you?

weighing in today as 327. goal is still 309 by halloween.

1. being able to stop when you're full and still sit with food in front of you while your dinner partners are still eating ... without the food calling your name the whole time

2. finding some extra skin sagging.... on your feet!

3. knowing that you are doing something proactively good about your health.

<snip> Keep a food journal (this is actually really important) <snip>

A bunch of people on here, myself included, track our daily eating habits (and exercise) in apps that we have on our phones. The one that seems to be most popular on here is called My Fitness Pal, although I use one called LoseIt, which if you don't have a smart phone you could always track with their website. I find it helpful to see the trends in what I'm eating and how they relate to how well I'm losing (if/when there's a connection). Just a thought, you might find something like that useful.

Yas

You set your own goals-- So maybe 5 lbs to lose for the whole challenge (start to finish) or just maintenance or maybe it's 2-4 l a week if your just starting out- whatever it is is yours and u add your new weight each Friday (or when u remember) and that's it

So enter on Friday your weight and then what your goal weight for Halloween is

I want to join in the fun. I'm 6 weeks post op and hoping to lose 20lbs so

SW 329

GW 309

potentially to be revised depending on what my weight is on Friday.

I would still call you tall. I would re-ck your height at home. Three inches is a lot of height to lose! If they were trying to make sure your BMI qualified you for insurance to cover they may have made you shorter! I have been 5'11" since high school. My primary doc recently measured me at 5'10"! I'm not giving up an inch without a fight!

Well, not so recent now but between the last time I was measured at 6' and now, I have had 3 herniated disks in my lower back, which is what I am assuming accounts for the loss of height. But still, 3"? I feel like it's absurd and not possible. But I had another team member measure my height in a different room and he got the same result, so go figure.

lol, 3 chips makes a very angry tummy.

i have the noises too and it sounds like hungry stomach growl fro pre-surgery but really its just noisy for its own reasons, not anything related to what it wants me to do. totally gratuitous noisage.

Hi everybody

I am more of a lurker than a poster but read the forums every day and love hearing how everybody's getting on. Before and after pictures really kept me motivated when I was starting out, so here is mine as I officially hit a normal bmi yesterday! Taking a lot of courage to post my before pictures, they make me so sad. I can't believe I was ever that big - I certainly didn't feel it at the time.

I was sleeved on the 5th October 2013 with a BMI of 44 weighing 240lb. As of yesterday my weight is 132lb with a BMI of 24.9. I have gone from a size 20 a 4/6. I want to lose another 12lb to give me a bounce range, but now mainly working on tightening everything up .

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What a great anniversary pic... although I guess you beat the year in getting down to your BMI target. You look fabulous! Congratulations and thanks for the inspiring photographs.

Just a quick shout out to all those ladies who posted pics here to inspire us. A roll call (iirc) Soocalchick, deedadumble, DeezJeans, SleeveNZ and Livilu.

I'm not sure if I still qualify as tall. All my adult life since sometime in high school I have been 6'0" tall, but when I went to the surgeon's office for the initial intake they measured me as 5'9". So, am I still tall??

I'm at the beginning of my journey, just sleeved on 7/14/14. I put my goal down as 162.5 because somewhere in my past I had a doctor say that number to me. My surgical team hasn't set a goal weight for me yet so until they do, that's the one I'll use. I think, though, that I may decide I'm happiest at something more like 185, but I guess we'll see how things are when I get down to that weight. (Notice I said "when")

Hi! I'm a newbie like you ... had my surgery 6 weeks ago. I bought the lean body value pack of 12 Protein shakes because I didn't expect to be making them from scratch like so many do. I like how they taste but drinking them, even half of one, is hard work because something about them just bugs me. I have been tracking my food in an app callee Lose It and I seem to be able to get my Protein from what I eat. I'm eating a "normal" diet in that I'm not doing all the liquid schmiquid anymore.

I have been bad since about day 4 re waiting for drinking liquids. I hope it's not stretching my tummy but I just can't not drink with my meal. I am, however, drinking very very small amounts of liquid with my meal. In the past I would be, easy, 4-[5 glasses of Water. Now I'm maybe 1/4 to 1/2 of a glass of Water with a meal. So hopefully "in moderation" makes it close to ok.

Good luck with the blah's. they can be tough!

thank you for asking this.... it's a good question. I'm just 6 weeks out and have noticed that (their not having deflated yet) actually my bazongas are the biggest they've ever been and hadn't really paid attention to the fact that I was rotating between a small selection of bras that fit... mostly sports bras. I'm hoping that I can use these and work my way into the other bras that pinch later on in the weight loss game. I will definitely spring for new beautiful bras when I get towards my goal!

Definitely an inspiration! Congratulations and may I say Good Work!

My menu is not really a certain calorie....it's Protein and carbs....10-14 gms of protein 6 x's per day. 7-10 carbs 4 x's. I have lost a lot of inches. My surgery was 7/14 and I am only down 25 lbs since surgery; 35 total. I look at it like this... I am not gaining and slow and steady means less hanging skin.

We had surgery the same day! I would love it if you would post some of your measurements where you lost inches. is that too personal to ask?

I'm doing really well. I have lost weight, stalled, and now am losing weight again, but I understand that is normal. I'm learning, or relearning, my digestive signals (hungry, full, dangerously overfull) and the associated portion sizes. When are you going to Mexico for your sleeve? The traveling on top of the surgery seems a little overwhelming to me. Good luck!

I have not had this problem at all. Sometimes late at night when I am laying in bed my stomach makes growling noise like it used to when i was hungry. I am 4 wks post-op also.

re gurgling. i also don't have the throat noise problem. that said, i am now, after eating or drinking something, constantly burping these little burps. it's like for every sip or bite i get 2 or 3 petite wanting to be polite burps. so frustrating!

But gummys are not advised as they are sticky and can get stuck. I was told chewable did NOT include gummys

interesting. my surgeon and support team aok'd the gummies for me. I guess we can chalk it up to one of those things that doctors have differing opinions about.