amytug

That's cool. Stop sucking down half of pizzas tho.

Three Years Later - What I've Learned
Here's my experiences from the sleeve process years ago. I wish I had this information before getting the sleeve, so I wanted to share it with all of you:
GAINING WEIGHT
Gaining weight is easy: you simply eat when you're emotional, lonely, or not hungry. Even though my stomach would barely fit a slice of pizza, I could still suck down an entire large meat Lover's Supreme by eating a single slice, waiting until my stomach could fit some more and then eating another. Until the pizza was all gone. You can also do this with ice cream, burgers, fries, and all the other miscellaneous crap food widely available via drive thrus.
This is why you're required to see a counselor and nutritionist - to handle your eating issues. If these aren't handled, then DON'T BOTHER WITH THE SURGERY. You will simply get fat again by eating smaller portions more frequently. If however you only eat when you're hungry - and stick to good foods then you're golden. Now OBVIOUSLY if you did that in the first place you wouldn't be fat. So surgery is a booster shot to your weight loss, and new way of life.
Think of it as waging a war, and surgery is a tank. Now a tank is a formidable weapon. Can run over enemies, shoot some big artillery but eventually if all you have is that one tank, you'll probably lose a prolonged battle. So you gather some strategy and military air support (diet changes), some recruits and soldiers (lifestyle changes) and NOW you have a master battle plan for your war. And ultimately a better thought out path to success.
You invested a lot of money and pain into this - don't screw it up.
FIRST FEW MONTHS
The first six months your weight will drop amazingly fast, because you're out of surgery and can only eat Soup broth for a week. And then slowly mushy foods come in, followed by a few solids. You don't really need a blender, there are ample canned goods you can eat. Baby food, blending a steak and other shocking posts you read about aren't required: just shop for other things that qualify. Going out with friends during this period is depressing, since your diet is so restrictive, you're staring blankly at the menu for a long time and finally decide on Water.< /p>
Get everything you need together before coming home. You'll be on some pretty loopy meds when arriving home, and won't be in any shape to hit the local Walmart. Nor will your family want to bother with it - so plan ahead.
FOOD AND STRETCHING
You can only eat maybe a half cup of food during the first couple months. Then a cup after about five months, then two cups after longer. You can hurry this process along by stuffing your face until your stomach hurts so bad you need to go lay down, or vomit. But if your eating problem is that severe then see my multi-faceted approach to surgery from above.
Each person is obviously different, but stretching your stomach (to me at least) seems difficult and a venture of pain and suffering. I can feel my stomach naturally taking in more food over time, however I've cycled that back down by going a few days drinking only delicious fruit smoothies. This makes my tummy literally shrink back to where it was after surgery, or pretty close, dependent upon how many days I go. You can also accomplish this via more extreme methods like water or veggie juice fasting, however banana/stawberry/pineapple with some coconut water and ice in the blender tastes much better in my humble opinion.
If you do continue to gorge like a tick on bad foods, then yes your stomach will stretch. I've met a few people who's stomach has returned to normal size. Again - everybody is different, I'm just telling you MY story.
How much food you can eat varies by food type:
RICE - I can eat maybe five spoonfuls of this before I feel sick. Stuffing in another three before my body registers that I'm full and it's a vomit party. You need to eat slowly - there's a point in which eating more means bending over the toilet. And once you've experienced that joy, you quickly learn where the limit resides. Rice expands so you gotta be careful. An average meal of fried rice and an egg roll is a full day's worth of food, that requires splitting up.
SODAS - Equivalent to drinking battery acid. I've met some people who've acclimated back to it, but why bother?
MEAT - Steak is bad, try like five or six bites before calling it quits. chicken is similar. Fish goes down a little easier, and you can eat more, maybe because it's flaky.
SALADS and FRUIT - I can eat one banana. Two is painful. Ditto with grapes, strawberries, etc. These foods process through your stomach quicker, so you can eat a little more often compared to stuffing down a sirlion.
PIZZA - Takes me about 12 hours to suck down a large thin crust. Regular or deep crust, I end up tossing half of it into the trash.
Desserts - They hurt. Bad. And then make me sleepy, ticked off and depressed. I mostly stick with natural sugars now like fruits and veggies.
RESTAURANT EATING
Eating out with friends has a lot of rules tagging along. You must wait 30 minutes after drinking water before eating (which works out great, since that's how long food takes to arrive). I order an appetizer or split a full meal with a friend, so this is not a big deal. I see and hear lots of drama about this mingling around, but it's not THAT bad, and you can easily make it look perfectly normal without telling people you had surgery. You don't need a little happy note from your doctor saying you had surgery, just get a doggie bag or go halfsies with a buddy.
CONCLUSION
These are just my two cents, and I hope they help someone.
I lost about 100lbs, then gained back 50.
I'm in the process of losing again thanks to a diet change (I went 100% raw food) and exercise.

5K Sat morning. Picking up packets tomorrow. Color Run (I'll be walking fast). Will see if my husband suggests any more 5K's in the future. He is not happy about the color. Ha !Ha!

Almost 2pm and I just had my first meal. A little late because I was out. It's so easy to lose time when your out, so it made the morning bearable
Had a Greek yogurt with blackberries fresh picked from my friends house, yum

Well hopefully we all sync up again.
Wow I'm having a hard time tonight! My mouth is actually watering because I want to eat so bad!
0_o
Sometimes I hate putting that kind of stuff out there for all to see.
Think I need to just go to bed.
Edit, I blew it and ate a Fiber One Bar.< /p>
food 1 Laura 0

Good job at the calories! I love my spoons of Peanut Butter too
I bounced up a pound today not a big surprise! I tell you when that happens it doesn't make me like exercise anymore (honestly I kinda hate it)
This is the beginning of my 5th week also
My loss is fluctuating between 6 and 7 pounds!!
I'm pretty damn happy about that!

I definitely won't be popular with this response..but why the hell would you cut 85% of your stomach out to be healthy only to die of Lung Cancer because you can't quit smoking..
And yes I am a reformed smoker so I can say that. I quit smoking on December 3rd, 2012 at 6pm and have NEVER looked back. I wish you luck in not continuing to smoking but if you are looking for validation to continue from this gal..you aren't gonna get it. I am sure there will be others who will say they continued to smoke etc., but to me it just makes no sense.

Nah....not crazy. Whatever works for you is what you should do. I've been made to feel crazy because I'm still tracking....like I'm on a diet. I'm not on a diet but I also cannot self regulate very well without having the data right in front of me. That's my shortcoming but luckily I don't mind tracking and I have a great group of friends on MFP.

Sorry they're not working out for you - that's a bummer. I haven't had that experience with them, but I have noticed after a few wears and washes they already seem like they're stretching out and I need to go to a smaller size. Or I just need to bit the bullet and buy better quality ones!

I'm so proof of all of us! Who'd a thunk it, us, running!?
I did it! I can't believe I went from 8+8 to 20 in 2 days. This app is crazy awesome! I forgot to stretch tho. I wonder how much damage is done. "/ I've never forgotten that again. I wanted to see how fast (er, slow?) my mile was, and I dknt think its too shabby.
I cried when I finished- couldn't believe it!!

I'm so proof of all of us! Who'd a thunk it, us, running!?
I did it! I can't believe I went from 8+8 to 20 in 2 days. This app is crazy awesome! I forgot to stretch tho. I wonder how much damage is done. "/ I've never forgotten that again. I wanted to see how fast (er, slow?) my mile was, and I dknt think its too shabby.
I cried when I finished- couldn't believe it!!

Week 7 Day 1 done. I ran the whole 25 min so I'm happy. Finally feeling like I might actually become a full fledged runner!

Surgery was 4/17/13. I am doing c2 5 k with a friend. We have been doing it about 10 weeks. We've repeated days and weeks to make it through. I am now able to do 25 minutes if straight jogging without a break. Not up to 5 k yet, I'm slow! Lol. But my friend is having trouble getting past 5 minutes straight. Still way better than week one when we couldn't run 30 seconds straight!
As of today...down 61#

I start day 1 of week 2 tomorrow

I got running shoes (in India of all things -- i am here for two weeks on business) so I am all set to get started! I may even get started while I'm here. I was surprised to find so e really comfortable Reeboks for around 40 USD. The same shoes would cost 100+ in Australia, where everything is at least 75% more expensive than the US price. I am sure they are last year's model but I couldn't care less.

Yes I'm still here:p
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004TDQW3I/ref=mp_s_a_1_12?qid=1373385653&sr=8-12π=AC_SX112_SY192

Sounds to me like he's insecure. He probably felt safe being married to the fat lady. He sees your confidence rising and wants to knock you down a bit. Maybe he should be going to the shrink with you.

Glad your run went better today Amy. In theory, I think you might be able to use a rolling pin to roll out your tight muscles. However you may find it very uncomfortable rolling on the hard wood surface. Perhaps if you wrap a towel around it that might work.
A recovery Protein Shake I have been using for 6 months is called Amplified Wheybolic 60 from GNC, but there are many different brands out there for you to choose from. Just ask a clerk in one of the natural stores (GNC, Vitamin Shoppe, Vitamin world, etc) for a good recovery Protein shake powder with BCAA. The clerk will help you find a good one or perhaps someone who is reading this post has a good one to suggest specifically for recovery. Open up any fitness magazine and you will see many different protein shake ads, one claiming to be superior over the other. Honestly, I cannot buy a shake that way. There is too much marketing bling to wade through before doing a proper comparative analysis between the products. I usually find it best to try something that has been recommended by someone I know.
I know stronger, healthier, faster also makes a good recovery shake, but I have not tried it yet. My cross fit box started selling it 2 weeks ago so I may be trying it sometime in the future. They claim it is really good as a recovery shake, but flavors are just chocolate and vanilla so did not appeal to me as much. I am more of a Cookies and cream shake guy.
I am about to try synth-6 this week when it comes now that my amplified Wheybolic 60 tub supply has run out. I will let you know how that one is. I ordered it because it is endorsed by 2012 Cross fit champ and cross fit is one of the activities I need it for.

Here's what Happens each night I do this thing - about 3-5 minutes into the first run I want to quit. I really have to keep talking myself into keeping on. The second run is similar, maybe a little better. The third run, I wanna keep going and going and sometimes I do! What's that all about!? It's like it takes my head an extra long time to transition to beast mode. Is this common?
How can I get into beast mode quicker?