MoreganK

Why, thank you very much. I'll tell you what, I hate to sound vain, but I never get tired of hearing that.
Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.

You have to remember High School biology. I know, a long way back for some of us.
the stomach is the mechanical part of digestion. The acids are thrown in there and the stomach churns the food around. There is, for the most part, no absorption going on her. Pure mechanics.
Now, you just had 85% of that stomach removed. The stomach's ability to churn the food and do its mechanical thing has been greatly reduced, as you can imagine. Chewing it more is going to replace that 85% a bit. Chew more and it is going to replace that functionality even more.
I know when I don't chew enough, I can feel that clump in my intestines and it is not good.

You need to chew alot to break the food down since if you swallow too large of a piece, it may get stuck since your tummy is so small, may not be able to have larger pieces just go into our tummy like before. If you get something stuck, you will know it and get the slimes for a few minutes until you chuck it up. Chewing also helps you slow down on your eating. I ate so fast before, I probably never chewed my food. Since you can't eat that much at one time now, you should take as long as you can to eat, especially if ou don't want anything to get stuck.

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Good perspective!
It is hard at times and will be hard at times all the way I think. The good part is that the massive positives belittle the hard times.
I look at my deflated lower belly which has the texture of a rotted orange and realize that it is likely that I will never be asked to pose for that huge picture of a guy with his shirt off that greets you at the entrance of every Abercrombie and Fitch.
But then I think, "These guys sell clothes, why are they promoting shirtlessness?"
Hey, I look pretty good in a shirt. I am getting strong as well. I am starting to like my belly. It reminds me of my victories.

I have done well so far with the following progress from surgery on 7-2:
Dropped 110 lb (335 to 235)
Dropped 10 pant sizes (46+ to 36)
Dropped 3 shirt sizes (3x to large)
Dropped all meds related to comorbidities
I look in the mirror and don't recognize the person looking back sometimes. Really leaning out and getting a swimmers physique.
However, it is still hard. I miss having some foods and enjoying drinks. It is not a cakewalk, but I am always reminded of how close I was to having a short life before and how much food owned every aspect of my life, even my mental health.
I would not go back despite the hard journey it has been. For the first time in a long time, I am happy about myself and the future.

If you use Mootopia it is a fortified lactose free 1/2 sugars milk...cuts calories but ups the protien - a cup is 12g protien.

I had to make a post because I'm so stinkin' excited! I'm just a little past my half way mark! I have 54 pounds to go to reach my goal weight! A weight I've never seen as an adult! I am beyond happy at this point with my decision to have this surgery. I have moments of frustration, but... it's been so worth it. I've now lost 58 pounds, I'm off all medication, except acid reducer at 20 mg once a day. My PCOS is still showing up in my bloodwork, but my results came back with vast improvements! Next time it won't be there! My blood pressure and cholesterol are perfect.
I bought some size 18 pants thinking they'd fit better than the baggy 20's I started with, and the 18's are too big too!
AND... what did I do the weekend that I hit half way!? Started the process of buying my first house. Thats a hella halfway gift... I'm not sure what I'll do for reward when I make goal. LOL
SO SO SO HAPPY!

I'm almost 7 weeks out from surgery now. I'm just now getting to a place mentally where I'm ok with the decision I made. Its not the easy way out for sure, but I think that at least for me personally, the benefits, in the end, will far away the things that frustrate me.
I've lost almost 50 pounds. I'm already off my blood pressure medication, and I have PCOS (and it seems that my symptoms are lessening). I feel more energetic and can move better now that I'm exercising. When I wake up, I don't feel achey or hurt when I walk my dog in the AM.
The things that frustrate me, really are the or were the mental challenges for the 6-7 weeks you don't really eat food. It gets old, and I was a little slow at healing because I pulled an internal stictch.
I think in another month, I'm going to sound like all the rest of the people on this forum who say its the best thing they ever did. Only, I want to also be one of the people, who say its not magic, and you will have hard times, and you might struggle with things, but sometimes, when we face our fears and fight through the hard parts, good things await us.
I didn't think I would mourn food, but I sorta did. I mourned the ease of going into the kitchen to cook dinner for me and my bf, instead he would have dinner (trying to hide it from for guilt of eating around me) and I'd have a Protein shake. After weeks of this, I did feel frustrated. Once I was on mushies, and now back on real food... this feeling is deminishing and I'm the happiest I've been in a long time.
Its a big decison, and I encourage you to take all the time in the world to make your decision. If you have any questions about anything that I can answer, totally willing to give you an honest none glittery answer.

First, only you can allow anyone to make you feel bad about these issues. Second, why the secrecy? Most intelligent people can put two and two together to figure it out. Someone disappears for a couple of weeks and upon return instantly starts losing weight very quickly. These days it's not rocket science, especially to anyone that witnesses us eating a meal. While not screaming it from the rooftops, if anyone asks how the weight loss is happening, I tell them. I am not ashamed of my decision and could care less what anyone thinks about it. To date everyone has been supportive but if even one wasn't - so be it. This is my body and life, no one else had to live it but me.

WOW!! I'm not a "private" person per say but I can relate to this post... There are indeed a lot of folks that think that WLS is the "easy way out".... I would say that 95% of these folks have never battled with their weight.. I have been very successful with my sleeve surgery dropping almost 100 lbs in 6 short months.. I had absolutely no pain, no gas, no nausea and other than walking have done no major exercise.. Has this been easy for me??? YES!! and I thank GOD for that but I am far from the norm. We differ in the fact that I feel that I have been given a platform to some extent and want to shout to the world how this surgery has changed my life!! Those closest to me know my battle and those that don't?? I could care less what they think. I was an athlete in school yet have been overweight my entire life and have tried diet after diet, boot camp at the gym, hiring personal trainers, etc... to lose at the most..... 30lbs???? The easy way out is exactly what you said... Settling for another failed diet or straining my back at the gym... for what??? I just turned 38 and feel that my best years are ahead of me!!! I finally have control over my weight and easy or not... It's the BEST feeling in the world!!!
Congratulations on your accomplishments thus far!! I wish you nothing but continued success!!!

some ppl are so ignorant! I am not bothered by telling ppl I am about to be sleeved. I am not ashamed that I need help, ask for it then use it to my benefit! If you have mental health problems is it taking the easy way out by seeking a psyc? NOoooooooo. Its natural for ppl to judge one another and some ppl just need to talk about others to take the focus off their own miserable life.....
Hold your head up high and be proud! You're in a size 8 for pete's sake women!!!!!!
Go Get'em Tiger, set them straight!

Some people are insensitive to what comes out of their mouth. You cannot control it and all you can really do is state you feel that it is an inappropriate statement. Usually makes them feel awkward and takes the issue off you and focuses back on them.
Surgery is NOT the easy way out. By far, it is very hard and has so many risks attached too it. Your absolutely right the easy way out is to not do anything and continue to gain weight.
Don't let her rude comments bring you down at all...your looking GREAT!!! Keep up the hard work :-)

I am 2 months out today, and when I weighed this morning I was so elated because I'm down 40 lbs from my pre-surgery weight. Unfortunately my elation didn't last for long. ;(
I am a private person, so I haven't told anyone at work that I had WLS. When people say something about my weight loss I cringe and stumble through the whole, "I'm working really hard, under a DRs & NUTs care, no carb, low fat, no sugar, blah, blah, blah" schpiel. I hate addressing people's curiosity, and because 2 other ladies in my office had WLS in the last few years, I'm sure that some people are digging for info. I usually manage to brush these encounters off, but today was different.
So this morning as I'm rocking a brand new size 8 pair of jeans...down from a 16-TYVM...I go to the break room to cook my egg whites that I'm getting so damn sick of having for Breakfast, and a friendly colleague of mine says, "Girl, you are wasting away right before my eyes". I say, "I'm getting there." She then proceeds to tell me that she is so glad I didn't take the easy way out like the other two did!!!! I am dumbfounded, and trying to gracefully and tactfully get myself out of this conversation, but I honestly wanted to cry. I told her that I didn't think there was an easy way out with weight loss. She said, "yeah, I know, but taking the easy way out is sad and it really shows that you have no self control."
I was devastated, and I've been in a funk ever since. I know without a shadow of a doubt that she would have never said that if she knew...that makes me so sad. It also makes me sad to think that someone I admire in my professional life would be so condemning of an issue she obviously has never struggled with. I felt dirty and cheap and like a coward for not coming clean and telling her, "My dear, I had WLS and it is not the easy way out." Instead I just let her walk away thinking I'm this goddess of self control and that I have done this all by myself. Ughhh, I'm so mad at myself.
I have worked my ass off to get to this point and I've invested a TON of money in making sure my future is as healthy and happy as it can possibly be, because there are people in my life that I adore and I want to see 30,000 more sunsets with them. I have never fought for something so hard in my whole entire life.
I didn't take the easy way out. The easy way out would have been to do nothing. The easy way out would have me giving into every craving and eating grotesque amounts of food just because I can. The easy way out would have been to continue to get fatter and fatter, and sicker and sicker and to die way before my time.
Sorry, I just had to come here where y'all would understand. Today hurt, and it discouraged me and it sucked. Thankfully, tomorrow is a new day...and I'm going to be one step closer to my goal.

Ahhh... you may run in circles I used to run in. LOL I used to play in Larps in Houston.

I am 14 days out today and started a few days ago first on cottage cheese, Jello, applesauce then a poached egg. Tonight will try tuna mixed with low fat mayo. I don't have any appetite so I use Protein Drinks to help in-between.

So what now that I have reached one whole size goal, went into maintenance and decided to lose some more?
I have become a nerd.
It is true. I have entered the ranks of geekdom - but I am a proud spaz! I embrace it wholly.
With that said, I wanted to take a moment and urge everyone to get out there and start doing the things you left behind - it was, to me, a most important thing. It reminded me of why this was all so important in the first place.
Every Sunday, I dress up like a mideval warrior of some vague "Mordor"ish kind, and get out in a park in the middle of Houston and fight with foam-padded swords...and I do it for hours. I fight, I am good actually - I am getting faster and I am accurate and a "well earned kill" (or so I have been told). People frequently seem very suprised to get up close and realize I am a middle aged woman. If I tell them about the weight loss, they just seem stunned.
I run and fall and jump and waive these swords around. I get bruised and out of breath and I love it, and it gets dark before we realize the day is done. I had not been able to do that in 15 years.
I am a LARP geek, and I am proud!
What is your most missed? Please, share!
Get out there! if not now when?

My first blended food was actually applesauce, followed by egg salad (which became my favorite), and fat free refried Beans. After the first week, I got braver, and started adding things like mild salsa and a sprinkle of low fat cheese to my Beans, and did tuna and chicken salad blended.
Just take baby steps. I went as far as getting small bowls and baby spoons to use those weeks, to help me take small bites and remind me to eat slow. I also tried to do other things while eating like read a magazine, so I would take a bite, chew, and swallow all while reading and it made me eat slower.

Genie bras are the way to go, I have found them at Walgreen's as well. Mine does rest on my incision, but actually helps because it kind of holds pressure on it & feels good!

You are welcome, funkeechiggen. I don't know that song, but I am sure it's about boobs.
Thank you, MoreganK. I have to try another Wal-Mart. Mine doesn't have Genie bras.

Hey! Pale and proud here! LOL I know I'm an odd ball in our society, but I think pale skin is beautiful. That and with my Irish genes I burn pretty bad, so I'm a moon flower and sun dodger. Don't let pale skin stop you from posting pictures if thats what you really want to do.

I was lucky in that I was allowed a 3 week LOA from work, so I went without that entire time... getting used to wearing them again was actually sorta challenging. LOL I started using Genie Bras and I love them! They're comfy, work pretty well and as you shrink they sorta fit better than your standard bra or sports bra.
I didn't really have pain lifting my arms up, but I did have discomfort if I stretched to deeply, or twisted to much. Just be slow and careful. Its silly, but my doctor said, if it hurts don't do it. If it doesn't slowly proceed.

Huh. I've not heard that... pretty interesting... I'm super curious now! I must research! :ph34r:

mactal.bmp
Unfortunately this is all I have in my phone pre-op.


4 months later.

I was told about 3 months. You have to be careful because of the husks in the kernals. Eating it too early and they can get stuck in your sutures. I love popcorn and have continued eating it after surgery. You just have to enjoy in small quantities. It is a slider food, which means you can eat a lot of it (think of a wet piece of popcorn, how small and mushy it gets!). And like the above person mention, if you can pop your own, that is the best. Then you can control what is going on it.