minaleigh

My roommate brought home chocolate donut holes and I've been having one (just one, promise!) everyday since Monday. I blame it on my TOM.

I've never really thought about it, to be honest! Sure, I browsed through stores online and gazed upon their wondrous wares dreamily, but I never thought about what would be my ultimate dream outfit. Hmm... I'd have to say it's a tie between an awesome a-line style dress, preferably knee-length or a bit shorter, and a pair of high-end, superlative skinny jeans with a cute tank-top or halter.

IU, I believe, stands for International Units. It's a different way of measuring drugs and Vitamins than using mg. An example is that two different capsules, say Iron and B12, would weigh the same amount if they had the same mg. But if they were measured in IU, they'd have different weights even if they both were, say, 5,000 IU. Hope I didn't confuse you, lol. I'm taking a 50,000 IU Vitamin D pill weekly, not mg. Mg deals with the weight, IU deals with the biological aspects of it.

Ha, you're so lucky! When I went through ketosis, my mouth tasted like I hadn't brushed my teeth in a year. Wish I got the sweet taste.

Hey all. Not a very happy post, I'm afraid to say. Well, so far I've lost about 50 pounds since surgery in November. This is a good amount, but I still weigh 223, still in the "obese" range. I am down a size, maybe a size and a half, in shirts and 3 sizes in pants. I feel better than I have in a long time. It's just I've been a bit down lately. One incident occurred last night. A local bar was having a comedy night, so I went with three of my friends. We sat at a table near the front and listened to the first four comedians. The last one is the one who got to me. He was talking about how it would be to have sex with a large woman, and how it would be detrimental to his health if she ever wanted to get on top. I don't know if I was just being self-conscious but it felt like he was looking at me the whole time while he was talking about that subject. I basically just averted my eyes and could see my most supportive friend looking at me with concern. It was just a very awkward situation. Then today, another friend of mine and I went shopping. She was looking for dresses and I was sitting outside her fitting room while she tried them on. Next to me was an empty fitting room with its door open. I could see myself in its mirror and GAH. I started picking myself apart! My arms looked horrible. I lifted them up and could see how much they JIGGLE. I could see a roll going over my jeans. My thighs looked HUGE. I don't know what came over me. I'm not sure if it's because its almost my TOM, but I've just been overly critical of myself lately. People are telling me I look better and that I'm just being self-conscious when I'm complaining about a certain part of my body. I just still look and feel FAT. I'm still OBESE. I'm still considered PLUS-SIZED. Even though I'm smaller than what I used to be, strangers still see me as LARGE. Like I said, it's kind of a downer post. Just needed to air my thoughts.

Thanks for the kind words, guys! It's good to know that I'm not alone when it comes to these sort of feelings. I know I still have a ways to go, but I also know that one way or another, I will get there! Only a matter of time.

I don't want to be a downer, but I'm 22 and already noticing some excess skin. To be honest though, I think my case is because I've been overweight/obese over half my life since I was 9 and because of genetics. I have faith that once I'm closer to goal, my skin will start bouncing back. Just need to exercise more!

There are some teenagers on this board. I'm 22 myself, but I've seen people as young as 15 and 16 on here.

I knew what my Vitamin D levels were before surgery. We had to have a full blood work panel done. My surgeon was the one who prescribed the supplement to me pre-op. After that, he didn't check my levels again, and we went ahead with the surgery. I'm guessing if it's not too much of an issue, (such as maybe having extreme osteoporosis and severely low vitamin D levels?) it doesn't really affect surgery. Can't say for sure though, I just know it didn't affect whether or not I got the surgery.

My vitamin D level was 12. TWELVE. I live in a fairly sunny area, too. Mine is mainly genetics though, both my mom and uncle (her brother) have low vitamin D levels. I'm not sure how mine is doing now as I haven't had blood work done in a while. I take a weekly supplement that has something like 50,000 units of vitamin D.

Voted for you. I'll bookmark the page so I can remember to vote everyday! Good luck! You used such an awesome picture, too. Congrats on the weight loss.

Good to know your time management and people skills are being put to the test. If you didn't want to "bother" reading, why bother replying? I hope you aren't this caustic when you finish "medical school" and become a doctor. I feel sorry for your future patients.

It seems that this is a person that just doesn't want to listen to reason. They claim to be a medical student, but yet it seems they knew absolutely nothing about this surgery before committing to it. I had complications dealing with surgery. I was in the hospital three times, including an ER visit, within the first two weeks post-op. So I know this surgery isn't a magical, stress-free solution. Heck, at 3.5 months out, I still have trouble following a suitable diet plan. I overeat sometimes, and usually that makes me sick. Slowly, I'm learning. I know I have food issues, and this is a great forum to come and deal with it, whether you want to vent, inquire, or just learn from other people. Whining about the surgery because you refuse to follow the plan isn't going to solve anything. Is your surgeon frustrated with you? Or do you just act this way on the internet, and all sweet towards her and don't tell her all the problems you're having? I have a feeling karma is going to bite you in the butt once you become a doctor and you have patients who refuse to listen to you. Should this forum be all unicorns and rainbows? No, not really. People need to see the ups and downs, the pros and cons, the good and the bad of this surgery. It's a lifelong commitment. This surgery may help you with the physical aspect, but it doesn't help the emotional or mental one. You didn't get fat overnight. You didn't develop food related issues (because, really, pretty much all overweight/obese people have them) overnight. So this surgery isn't going to fix it overnight. I hope your journey goes better for you.

I hate throwing up too. I even cry as I'm doing it. Most of the time, I just sit and breathe to let it pass. Sometimes, it just gets to be too much though. I don't even have to run to the bathroom. I calmly tell my roommate I'll be right back and walk slowly to the bathroom and let it out. Feels so much better afterwards!

I hope they get better on the other side of Onederland! I have two pairs of pants waiting for me to fit in them when the time comes, one a size 16 and the other a size 18w. The 16 fits better than the 18w! I can at least get them over my hips! I wish they would just make women's clothing like they make men's, by having the size be how many inches around your waist. It might create a stigma with some women, but let's be honest, it'd be a whole lot easier to shop! Also, we already create negative views on our own with the way pants are now. Btw, the the 16's are from Old Navy, and the 18w's are from Faded Glory. I think that's Walmart's brand? Would make sense to me if they were!

Hey all. First off, let me say the past few days I haven't been the most faithful to sticking to the plan, food wise. Now that that is out of the way... Well, I'm almost 8 weeks out and going through, or might be finally pulling out of, a two-three week stall. The first week I contribute to my lovely TOM, but the second week left me baffled. I exercised, got my Protein, drank my Water and the scale wouldn't budge! Well, my family celebrated Christmas on Sunday (yeah, three weeks late!) as well as my aunt's birthday. We had it at my mom's and they decided to order pizza instead of cooking. I took a piece and ate the cheese and a few bites of the bread. They also brought a birthday cake, so I had a small bite from my mom's piece. Go to the scale the next day and you know what happens? The scale moves down two pounds below my lowest so far after fluctuating between the same three pounds for what seems like forever! I thought, "well okay... maybe it's just because I finally broke the stall." Well, Monday and Tuesday, I went back to my routine of protein, water, exercise, etc. Get back on the scale Tuesday... I gain the two pounds I had lost. Wednesday, I went up another pound and a half. My roommate decides to make the cheesy garlic breadsticks that have been in our freezer for forever and a day. Now, I have a hard time resisting carbs and always loved carbs more than anything else. My snack as a kid was a piece of bread with butter on it, folded in half like a sandwich. I have home movies of me as a toddler, walking around and eating just a plain piece of bread. I've been adamant to keeping as many carbs out of the house as possible because of this problem. Anyways, the breadsticks are small, so I eat one and then a half of one later, careful to chew thoroughly until it's almost pureed consistency. Get back on the scale today... and the weight I had regained and then some are gone again! Sheesh. I don't know what my body wants sometimes! I try to keep the healthy habits up, and when I slip is when my body decides to lose the weight? This doesn't mean I'm going to revert back to my old ways, because to be honest, my body wouldn't be able to handle it. I just don't understand that I stall for over two weeks eating as much protein, drinking as much water as possible, and when I cheat, that's when the pounds come off? I hope it's just a coincidence because while I do want to lose the weight, I don't want my insides to be unhealthy because of what I put in my mouth, even if it does make me lose the weight. Has anyone else have something similar to this happen to them? P.S. I normally don't weigh myself this obsessively. I usually weigh every third day, but I wanted to see what was happening weight-wise based on what I was eating. Sort of like an experiment.

First pic is from June 2011. Don't mind the creepy wizard statue. This is when I was around my highest weight of 289. Such a bad pic. >.< Second pic I just took. I'm at about 226 pounds.

I take Centrum Silver chewable tablets as my multivitamin. My nutritionist recommended them for me (even if the bottle does say for ages 50+ ) right before I had the surgery since I wouldn't have been able to take pills without crushing them. I still use the chewable kind (citrus berry flavored ) because I just hate swallowing pills! I also take a B12 supplement that my surgeon prescribed after I told him about getting insanely dizzy easily (like, grabbing my head in pain and almost falling over dizzy), as well as having no energy. I'm not sure what the brand is, but I do know they smell and taste absolutely horrible! I also take weekly Vitamin D supplement, but that's unrelated to the surgery. I started taking it months pre-op because my blood work showed that my vitamin D level was 12... and you're supposed to be in between 30 and 100. Oops.

I'm over 3 months out and I still can't stop overfilling my sleeve. Some stuff just tastes so good that I want more of it and I end up having to throw it up. I also can't stop eating too fast, especially when I'm eating with other people. I also eat too many carbs! I've always been a carbhound. I even have a home movie of me as a toddler walking around eating on a plain piece of bread!

Our surgery date is the same! You're doing so much better than me though. I've also been fluctuating between the same three pounds for two weeks. I've been exercising more, getting my Water intake in, and being more vigilant about taking my Vitamins. Not really sure what the deal is.

My surgeon never set a goal for me. At first, I had a goal of 170 because I felt it was realistic and I've always been told I'd be "sickly skinny" if I went too much lower. After some thought, I changed my goal to 150. Go big (or in this case, small ) or go home, am I right? It's a nice, even number and I'd be in the "normal" weight range instead of overweight at 170. I can't imagine myself at either weight, though. I've been overweight/obese since I was 9, so whenever I picture myself thin, I see my fat head on a stick figure! I believe I will look and feel my best at 150. It'll give me about 10 pounds of wiggle room. I can't see myself being any lighter than that. I would also love to have my pants size be a single digit!