Dooter

Outstanding!!!! You look beautiful!! Love the haircut!

I concur...

They come in "spicy" too!

Low sugar protein bars and protein drinks on hand would help you to resist temptation. I would not rely solely on them, but get take out salads with chicken, or .....can you have a mini fridge? you could keep low fat cheese and meat type snacks, OH...those little mini cans of tuna!! no refrigeration required. A minifrige would help you out a lot! Just a few ideas.

Don't do it!! After a while you won't care any more. That stuff will rot you from the inside out and stretch your sleeve. (even if it didn't, it's not good for the gut.) Powerade zero is my new favorite. I'm a big baby when it comes to water, and I had trouble tolerating it for a while, so I drink this a lot now.

cucumbers? carrots? celery? Celery is virtually a freebie, nutritionally speaking. it actually takes more energy to digest it than it adds to your diet! Carrots aren't bad either. If you have celery, strip off the stringy stuff so it doesn't get caught up in your belly.

All i have to offer is what i've experienced in the last four months. Which is this: I was doing cardio, then some pretty aggressive weight training. My weight stalled at the usual three weeks where most of us DO stall....well, it lasted for six weeks. I think what was happening, is that I was building muscle as I was losing fat, so it looked like I was stalled out. I'm all about the scale, so I could not have that. For a time, i have been doing cardio only and slowly increasing my time. I can do 45-60 minutes on the elliptical now. I just went in for my four month follow up and the PA told me to do some strength training twice a week with very light weights and very high reps (up to 60) so I will not be a frail thin person. This way of strengthening will not add bulky weight to my muscles, just make them strong and add some burn to the metabolism. So far so good.

NOOOOOO!!!! Don't do it. This is a very hotly debated topic on whether or not carbonation will stretch your sleeve. My surgeon forbids it because of that. The way I see it...if something is going to endanger the effectiveness of my sleeve...it's GONE!! I was a serious soda addict, but I don't care now that I have given it up. The craving is gone. There is no redeeming features to it anyway. Anything that can clean battery acid off of car parts? hehe...ya....lose it!!

This was posted some time back, but I recently found the picture again online and thought it might interest the newbies to see that there is nothing to worry about if you are getting a "big" bougie for your sleeve. The difference between the "30" and the "40" is very very very miniscule. The smallest that is done is really a 32 from what I've heard. people with the 40 have reported great success. It's not the size of your tool that counts, it's what you do with it!

This is an awesome place to visit. I've spent quite a few hours hanging around! Welcome!

at six weeks i was allowed to take pills the size of an m and m or smaller.

My hub would be SO thrilled if I got a transfer addiction to sex! "Hey babe...I'm kinda hungry...Let's go!" LOL

I've had wine 2 or three times after maybe ....the three month mark? All three times it was delicious, but the next day, I swelled up like a butterball turkey and felt like the poo. I have determined that it is not worth the week and a half of playing catch up with my weight to even bother dabbling in it. And YES, it hit my senses right away and pretty hard! I didn't even have that much. Maybe 4 oz the third time. (less the other two times) BLEH. I'm done with alcohol.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!! :lol: I'm not laughing AT you...I'm laughing WITH you, because I had AAALLLLLL those same feelings before surgery. I was a total FREAK!!! I look back at some of my old pre op posts on here and just laugh and laugh. It's a very hard, emo time. Roller coaster city, and people need to learn to back off when you're in a mood or they will get EATEN!!!! HAHAHAHA Godspeed dear. I'll be praying for you....

Dang! Sounds great to me!!! WOO HOO!! As was pointed out...you're a light weight, so it will be a smidge slower. But that's pretty fast by any standard.

Here is my question: Did you have a hernia repair?? I have had that same pain intermittently for four months. Not bad and not for very long at a time. In fact about 10 minutes ago I called my surgeons office to make sure this was still normal at 4 months. She said it is. If it is hernia related, there is a mesh they use to repair the hernia that as it heals it absorbs and kinda pulls for a little while. Sometimes there is scar tissue that pulls as well and causes discomfort. Increased or varied activity will make it worse sometimes and/or pull it loose (in a good way, not breaking) then it stops hurting. I think that is what happened to me today. I've had the pain for a few days, went to the gym, now it feels better. If it's not the hernia, it could still be the incisions healing and pulling. Or gas. I had a bad bout with a sharp sharp pain in roughly the same area the first week after surgery, then when i had my first sips of cream Soup, it whooshed out!! It was weird. I hope there is something helpful in my ramblings.

I'm down 6 of my 11 goal and I've been going to the gym 5 days a week, which was my goal by July 4th also!

Call it blessed, KAT!

Wow. That's pretty much how I lived most of my life up until about 2010. I started a diet to combat intestinal yeast, and I've not had the problem again. I'm not saying that's your problem, but a LOT of people have it that don't know it. It causes all kinds of different problems in the body. Are you taking in any fat or sugar? At my worst times, fat and sugar sent me RUNNING for the bathroom. Chocolate especially. How the heck are you supposed to get in ALL your fluids and ALL your food when you can't drink an hour on either side of eating?? Criminy!! Just throwing out ideas here......

My doc gave me a choice of BariEssentials or Optifast. I chose the BE, and I got 4 a day if i used skim milk, and 5 a day if I used water to mix it. The thing they are trying to accomplish with the pre op liquid diet is shrinking the liver. Weight loss is a bonus, but they really need that liver out of the way so they don't damage it during the surgery. If it is too big, they will either cancel the surgery, or convert to an open incision where they can manually retract the liver out of the way. TMI??

iiHola Tess!!

I went nuts and I don't regret a bite. But everyone is different. I know me. I would still be mourning the things I didn't taste "one last time." I don't plan to visit Krispy Kreme anymore or eat half the junk I used to. It truly is dead to me, so I'm glad I said goodbye. I think I gained 10 pounds after I made the appt. I crave good food now. It's a good thing

Hey Bethany- I miss your pirate pic! I was sleeved on 2/13 and I'm down 67.5 lbs....BUT (we all have a big but, don't we??) 15 of those were from pre op liquids, but I count it because if it weren't for surgery, I would not have been on liquids for 2 weeks. SO....if that helps you any....

10 days out, I drove home from Dallas to Albuquerque. I actually did most of the driving, as my mom cannot do major highways with the big trucks. I had a blanket to buffer the seatbelt and made sure I was off my pain meds for the drive. I did just great. If I was only being a passenger, I would have been even better. (I could've kept taking the pain meds! )