Chimera

I am sorry you are so upset! My husband can be a bumbler at times, but I have to watch it because I am a perfectionist and oftentimes just prefer to do things myself so they are done to my standards, at least where domestic matters are concerned. I have to be careful not to hurt him (usually this happens during PMS week when the sharp tongue can rear its ugly head). With that said - can we ever have too much Protein? I would kill to get another 12 g in and would not matter if I had already consumed 100+ Now if someone slipped me another 12 g of carbs I would be pissy, or 250 calories this early out. Are you journaling your nutrition? getting at least 64 oz of liquids? moving daily? moving those bowels in a reasonable number of days? I know that if I look at the trend of my WL over weeks and months - I see that I am losing slowly and steadily, and I will take it! Don't fret - the weight WILL come off, this process of the losing phase can last years for some, for others it is a handful of months - from your ticker, I would say that I think you are a stunning success.

My husband - who was sleeved two weeks before I was, keeps getting the same thing at work. He works with a lot of big guys, they are aerospace engineers and keep poking fun at him that he is wasting away to nothing lol. He looks fantastic and light years healthtier than he did 3 months ago - people are goofy.

Down 3 lbs this week

I need to get some strips! I have not been checking my levels. Mark's Daily Apple is a great site that I look at often - it is about eating Primal and there is a lot of information about carbs, and how our bodies work in general - check it out, it sounds like you might like it. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/#axzz21BfBiYQf

My nutritionist say that there are no essential carbs - especially if we have weight to lose - if you can get into ketosis - ketones is a prime fuel for our bodies and brains - ketosis - not ketoacidosis (which is a whole different animal) is where I wish I could be all the time. Just my bariatric Vitamins, calicium, and Protein Shake can bring me to about 15 g of carb so it is tough to keep it that low right now, but I sure feel better the lower it is. Now once we are closer to goal and are exercising, working out a lot - I think that upping the carbs is a good thing. PDXman here is an athlete and he always has fine information btw. I did as close to Atkins 72 as I could pre-op - which is trying to get carbs to essentially zero.

What really made up my husband's and my mind about the surgery was the statistics outlined by my surgeon during the information seminar. Pretty close to that dismal figure - if you have 100+ lbs. to lose the long term success rate is something like 1%. Bariatric surgery is the only proven way to get it off and keep it off. I had a long time to prep and like many other folks here - I started to eliminate things from my diet in the year prior to my surgery, I quit smoking a year and a half ago, gave up white flour, Pasta, rice - processed carbs for the most part - no sugar, I wanted to make the post surgical transistion as easy as possible. My husband sailed through his surgery and mine was like getting hit by a Mac truck (possibly becasue I was a smnoker for so long I may have reduced my ability to heal well or rapidly is what I think). I see the connection between addiction and food for me, it will always be a challenge, but what a wonderous tool we now have to help us get healthier. This is a great book that you might take a look at - it is written by a bariatric counselor and goes over many of the emotional, physical, societal issues bariatric patients experience. I keep it in our bathroom haha. The Emotional First + Aid Kit: A Practical Guide to Life After Bariatric Surgery http://www.amazon.com/The-Emotional-First-Aid-Kit/dp/0976852659 and another one - one of the best I have read about our food industry, carbs,sugar etc. The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable American Appetite http://www.amazon.com/End-Overeating-Insatiable-American-Appetite/dp/B004NSVE32/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342745209&sr=1-1&keywords=the+end+of+overeating

I hope to lose 10 lbs a month after that first month. I am about 8 weeks out and my losing pattern is changing from that "I'm losing a pound a day" that happens the first month after surgery - to drop 2 and then hang out at that weight for 4-5 days, drop again etc. Stair steps. I would be happy with 8-12 lbs - actually I am happy with losing anything haha!

Thats great Lizzy You had surgery the day after me, and we have a similar amount we want to still lose - Did your co-workers notice? I don't return to my teaching job until faculty meetings begin in late august so I have feeling some folks may notice my losses. Best of luck with your continued good health!

Only 8 days out? I would not worry one bit - I gained 20 lbs in the hospital with all of the medical shenanigans my body decided to go through - statistically they say anywhere from 10-25 lbs the first month is normal, again I would not worry at all. I think we are conditioned to freak a bit when the scale isnt moving as fast or at all as we think it should, but really it has no choice if you are following your Dr. and NUT's orders

Try to keep mine under 40 g a day during the losing phase.

A good tip I picked up from a vsg member in my hospital support group is to eat a wee little bit every two hours or so - I have weeks where I have the hungry rumblies in the little sleeve - this really helps - babybel cheeses do wonders lol. My surgery was 5/21 but I count my 8 weeks on Saturday which I will do on the 21st of every month. HW: 318 SW: 274 CW: 238 Down 36 since surgery - lost 44 pre-surgery. But this info is always in my sig Great job May sleevers!

Welcome guys technically I need to lose 188 - but its close to 200! Best of luck on your upcoming surgery!

When you have your sleeve with the intact valve at the bottom of the stomach, coupled with the much smaller size of that stomach - pressure builds up and thus the gurgle lol. I was cracking up at my last support group meeting because two sleevers on either side of me had the gurgle going on - then I started in ha-ha.

I can relate - I just came off of a set point weight that I lingered at for years, when I would lose I would gain right back up to it and stop - until I eventually gain past it. Losing past it has been a bit of a challenge. I am approaching my 8th week post vsg (saturday) and losses are starting to slow. I think I am getting into the pattern that I will probably experience through the rest of this journey - lose a pound or two and then stay at that weight for days to a week - I have not yet experienced a stall that lasts a few weeks, with all of the great support and advice here I hope to weather it gracefully as so many others do. Looking at the trend over weeks is something that makes me feel better - such as what weight I was at last month on this day - that is when I see a better number. I think my goals are reasonable, and that is 10 lbs a month.

Sweet! I loved milk those first few weeks, it really helps when everything else is tasting like caca lol. Congrats on your halfway point

Maybe I am just re-living past dieting failures but this last week I have been feeling nervous that I suddenly won't lose another pound from where I am right now, no matter what I do. I journal, get plenty of Protein, do my best to get all of that Water in and havent had any bad carbs in months, do my best with activity as well though I am a bit limited at the moment with arthritis - Do you guys ever feel like this? Or folks who are a long way out - did you have that feeling too? I think I am just freaking myself out lol. I want it so bad but I guess I've felt like such a failure with taking care of myself for so long that I still am thinking that a healthy BMI will be forever out of reach for me.

There are no long term stats for the sleeve - it is too new as a stand alone procedure. The stats from my surgeons practice~ RNY Gastric Bypass: patients lose 50 to 80% of their excess weight within 2 years. Sleeve: patients lose 50 - 70% of the excess weight within 2 years AGB/band: 50-65% in first two years. VSG can be the first surgery for folks with high BMI's - it can be converted to a RNY or a Duodenal switch if things are not working.

I could only get 1/3 of an egg down after a month - I can now eat one egg over easy and a slice of turkey bacon (most days - sometimes it is just too much) - now scrambled eggs I seem to have a harder time with for some reason and cannot get much down at all. My husband who had his vsg two weeks before I did can eat 2 eggs.

Eggs were my best friend - and I made chicken salad in the food processor, it seemed less disgusting as chicken salad than just pulverized meat. I focused more on the protein and fluids, and still am - the advice to mix veggies in with the protein is good to know and I am going to try that. I do have a thing for summer nectarines so I have those a couple times a week as their own meal.

Congratulations on half-way - I want to be there too! 14 more lbs to go

One of the providers at my surgeons office says that they do occasionally prescribe Phentermine post surgery to their bariatric patients if they are struggling - I would consult your doc.

woo - that is very high - I think a lot of folks around here try and keep it 40 g and under during "magic year" - or our biggest losing phase. My NUT wants us to have 600-800 cals, 80+ g protein, and I try and get between 20-40 carbs a day - which come mainly from fruits, and my vitamins and calcium chews contain carbs. I dont worry about fat, with what we are supposed to eat it is usually fairly low, yesterday I had 29 fat grams, day before it was 17, etc - never seems to get that high - it is the carbs that are the devil lol.

I think it is important to remember that written text carries no inflection - whatever our reaction is tends to be more about ourselves than the writer...I really don't think that Benjamin means harm - he is one of the most positive folks around and always has good advice. shake it off, no one is out to get you. I think most of us struggle with head hunger after surgery - I know my head and my mouth certainly can get me in to trouble, as they always have - so I have to work the tool and follow Dr's and nutritionists recommendations to be sure that I am doing things right - yes it sucks. But hopefully it will get easier with more experience. It's like it was when I quit smoking after 28 years - that craving is like a needle skipping on a record it was so strong, then it eventually begins to subside. I think you should prepare and do your best to take care of yourself during these family events that center on food - make a healthy choice and get those 5 best bites youv'e ever had thank goodness for a board like this where we can share our feelings, no matter what they are.

I can't seem to resist the nectarines in the stores right now - they are always as hard as a rock when I get them so I buy 4 at a time and ripen 2 at a time in a bowl on the counter - so 2 nectarines a week for me right now - I know that they are higher in sugar than other fruits, but I enjoy them so deeply and I savor them that I think this is a good thing for me, emotionally and physically. I don't eat much carb on a daily basis as it is (usually under 40g). I've spent a lifetime just gobbling garbage that was no good for me, and not paying any attention - I am very mindful of the nutrition count of that little nectarine and I enjoy every morsel of it. Once they are no longer in season I wont have them any more until next year It is an astronomically better choice than the things I would eat pre-surgery.

Congratulations on an amazing achievement - I too have arthritis and some days are simply agony, hoping that all of our sore joint heal as we lose more lbs.