allmyjoy

Champion brand from Target is awesome
I'm a large breasted gal and I "double bag" it. A sports bra and a tank top w/sports bra
I buy most of my work-out stuff from Target cause I'm going thru sizes fast. Target has a great selection of bras and other workout gear.

I wasn't aware that Soda was an option...

What's a zip fizz? I think soda and all carbonation is off limits for a long time or possibly forever. I do not miss soda at all, but I sure would love a beer in a frosty mug at some point in the future. However, if I can never have one again, it is a small price to pay to be at my goal weight some day!!

I have a charm Bracelet When I reach a goal, I get a new charm.
They're all weight loss related.... and they were cheap
but it's extra incentive.

WOW! Well said! We could all use these reminders from time to time! I think I may enlarge and print this so I can post it on my bathroom mirror.

I am so sorry you are struggling. Unfortunately, restrictive surgeries like the band and sleeve sometimes do not work as effectively with some people's metabolisms and they would do better with a bypass or DS, but since it sounds like you don't have the money to revise, let's try to make the sleeve work for you. First of all, you must log your calories, Protein, carbs, and Water. Seeing what you are eating and how it affects your weight is crucial. Second, you must make good food choices. You will never lose weight eating and drinking crap. Third, weigh yourself every day. If you are not losing an average of 2 lbs/week, you are eating too much. Fourth, measure your food, and eat no more than .75 cup at a time. You must stop vomiting and that means eating slowly--put down your fork and chew, chew, chew. Stop eating if you feel full, after 20 minutes, or when the food is gone, whatever comes first. Do not drink for an hour afterwards. You need to eat planned Snacks so that you don't stuff yourself at dinner. I would faint if all I had to go on was a Protein Shake until a Protein Bar at lunch. You also must walk and lift weights to try and build muscle mass to increase your metabolism.
You don't say how tall you are or how much you weigh now, but I promise if you go back to basics you can lose more. You can do this! Start now by empying your cupboards of all the slider food and sugar. We are here for you.

PDX, I think I'm going to up my Protein goal to 100g from 70g a day, with a corresponding jump in Water consumption simply because it's HOT this summer in South Florida. I will be losing my health insurance soon (pending divorce), so it's now or never for me on that plastics consult.

Thanks for posting and congrats on not only achieving your goal but maintaining it. I tell people that once your body hits it's "happy place" that maintenance is easy but most people don't believe me.
You've done great!
~Cheri

Absolutely fabulous testimony Suzanne! I am now 5 1/2 months out and every great once in a while I wonder if I will be able to maintain this over time. My thoughts always turn to "I don't have any idea what the future holds, but I do know I am going to keep doing what I am doing (walking everyday and eating right) and let life happen. I will not let food control me again."
Thanks for posting this.
I remember about one week out I read this part in your long post............"You know we never think twice about making car payments. If you have to borrow the money for this surgery just look at this as “body payment.”
This was such a light bulb moment for me and I was like "heck yeah, thanks Suzanne"! LOL -

I pray every day that I have the strength to be where you are. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and words as well as time - it is inspirational!

Hi,
Thanks so much. I just want people to know that they can be successful too!
Here is something I wrote and I am sending it to you. If you want more information after reading this, just send me an E-mail: Suzannesh@aol.com
Hi Everyone,
I decided that I would make a list of things for new people who are thinking about having WLS that might be helpful to them. This is long so please PRINT THIS OUT TO READ if you don’t want to read it all at one time.

First thing is to start asking people on the board you are on all kinds of questions—make of list of things you want to ask and keep coming back and ask more questions as time goes on. The more questions that ask the more you educate yourself about WLS and the process and what doctor they liked. Don’t rely on just one source of information. It is really normal to have all kind of feeling and emotions when trying to decide if you want to have Weight Loss Surgery. I must have talked myself in and out of doing this at least 50 times during my 6 months of research. My only regret is that I didn’t do it sooner. This is a big step. But if diet and exercise worked for us then we still wouldn’t be fat and would have lost the weight a long time ago and never regained it. It takes a lot of courage to have Weight Loss Surgery. I am very proud of you for looking into this. Don’t give any more days of your life being overweight, and your body hurting along with being unhealthy. WLS really is your answer.


How do you select your surgeon? First of all this is NOT a time to price shop for the cheapest doctor to do your WLS—that is just the wrong way to go at this. There are a lot of doctors who advertise on the Internet doing sleeve surgery for a lot less than some other doctors. I found one posting from a person who had the following concerns after having surgery in Tijuana, Mexico. (a) They put NO name band on her to be able to ID her when giving medications or anything else. ( NO one asked if she had any allergies to foods or medications—thank goodness this person didn’t have any. ( The lab did NOT label tubes of blood with the person’s name on it—very dangerous. © Day after surgery they gave this person ice chips, tea and apple juice. The next day (day 2) they gave this person NOTHING so this person asked why and the nurse said this person wasn’t allowed to eat anything. Well, this person then said I had Clear liquids the day before and they wanted to know WHO gave it to this person?? (d) This person was told that they would get a copy of the operative report on their discharge to take home with them—This person has not received it yet and that was about 2 weeks ago. So make sure have positive feedback about the Surgeon and Staff and Hospital that you choose. My choice after 6 months of research was Dr. Aceves in Mexicali, Mexico. What I can tell you in my opinion is that he is the very best you will ever find to do your surgery. I can only speak about my experience and my research that I did before I made him my choice for a surgeon.


Pack lightly for your WLS. So many of us have gone to Mexico, so you want a small suitcase with wheels, a laptop & a cell phone. The clothing that you wear to Mexico are the same ones you can wear home—slip on shoes work great too. Make sure that the clothing is loose fitting. Something just comfortable for your ride home. While in Mexico—that is if you go to Mexico for WLS make sure you take GAS-X. They have nothing in Mexico that they give your for gas, and the use gas in your abdominal area during surgery. It is painful after the surgery, so GAS-X STRIPS are easy to use by just placing them on your tongue. Take a couple of boxes with you—you will be glad you did. If you are going to use a credit card make sure you tell your credit card company and your Bank if you use your debit card or credit card. Sometimes if you DO NOT let these companies know you are outside of the US they block your charges. Use a credit card or debit card vs cash it is much easier to use. Take small amounts of cash for tips—I took $45.00 in 1’s for tip money for various things. If you go to any hospital anywhere leave ALL jewelry at home –just a watch and no rings or other jewelry. I never had any problems at all leaving my purse and computer& cell phone in my room while I was in surgery, but they recommend that you leave all jewelry at home. If you are a lady please remove all nail polish—they need it removed to see your nail beds during surgery.


The first month you do after surgery is the HARDEST month you will ever have to do. You do 10 days of nothing but Clear Liquids to start with—that means you have to be able to see through the liquid. Do not panic if you can not get the Protein they want you to have the 1st 10 days—I couldn’t find anything I liked that was clear during the 1st 10 days. They want you to try to drink 64 oz each day, and I don’t think I could ever get that much Water drank—just do the best you can. Your new stomach has just had major surgery and it is swollen and will only hold something about the size of your thumb. The next 10 days gets much better—you are now on creamy liquids for these 10 days. You can now have some creamy Soups, yogurt, and pudding—sugar free and find a Protein drink that you like. For me it is Premier Protein Drink and I get mine at costco. When looking for a protein drink, make sure they are low in calories, high in Protein—Premier has 30 grams of protein in each drink box and make sure you have low carbs too. I know there are a lot of other Protein drinks out there that people like. When it comes to carbs I tried to keep mine at no more than 20 carbs per day. Ask others what kind of Protein Drinks they liked and where they get them. The last 10 days are mushy foods. So this is a bit of a challenge. How many foods can I make mushy? I even considered using some baby foods. Start thinking about what will work as mushy foods for you.


Starting the 2nd month is quite an adventure. You can eat regular food. Here is where the relearning process takes place. You now will take tiny BABY BITES of food and chew each bit about 30 times or until it is like a liquid. From here on out you will need to take small bites of food and chew and chew and chew. I found out that chicken and fish were a lot easier to chew up. I don’t eat much red meat—your tastes will change and things you didn’t like a lot might taste good and something that you used to love don’t taste that great anymore. Keep track of what you are eating and keep your calories at about 800 calories per day and no more than 20 carbs per day—whole grain carbs are the best to have—NO white or refined carbs. I highly suggest that you keep track by writing them down or using some of the Internet sites that offers you this. I suggest this site it works great there are other sites to use this is just a suggestion. http://www.livestrong.com/thedailyplate/ It really is good to write down and track everything you put in your mouth to start with—that is how you know that you have not had more than 800 calories per day.


I want you to understand weight loss surgery is just a tool. The fat does not just melt off of you—they is NO miracle cure. Now you have to put a lot of effort into eating healthy and starting to exercise. Everyone has some kind of exercise that works for them. I love walking and try to walk about 5 days a week.


For many of us we started to lose some of our hair 3 or 4 months after having WLS. I would find a lot of hair in the shower after washing my hair. That is pretty normal for a lot of us—this does not happen to everyone. There is no magical cure for hair loss—some people use different shampoo’s or take Biotin. It happens and you live with it. YES, it will grow back. For me I had pencil straight hair and mine grew back natural curly and I love it now. I already had thin hair so for me, I got some cute wigs and wore them for about 9 months until my hair looked a lot better. It was worth the Hair loss to lose 105 pounds.


Because we eat a lot of protein we suffer from Constipation. You need to have at least 70 grams of protein EACH day. So I mix my protein drink each morning with Miralax. It is NOT habit forming and is tasteless and it is just a good way to start off the day. I put the protein and a cap full of Miralax in the blender with about 5 small ice cubes and that is my breakfast. 3 years later I still have this for breakfast and nothing else, it just works for me.


You may have periods where you have what we call STALLS. You may be doing everything right and eating and exercising and you have NO weight loss for a week or more. This is normal—mine lasted 9 days. Don’t panic the weight loss will start up again, just keep doing what you are doing.


Our heads play games with us sometimes it is ugly what our brain tried to convince us of—We call these “Head Games” and they really are tough times to work though, but you can do it. Your head is still thinking with your old brain and way of thinking that you have been doing for most of your life. You now are eating VERY small amount of food, but your head is used to you eating LARGE amounts of food and that is what your brain wants—so it tries to tell you the you should be eating more—NOT true at all. So you need to have a talk with yourself. Do I just WAN T to eat or do I really NEED to eat?


You are not on a diet, but you are making a LIFESTYLE change and that is good because you can do this for the rest of your life. You will NEVER be able to eat like you used to. That is good because that is how we got fat. You will morn the loss of food—you will look around and see others inhaling all this food and you think to yourself—I used to eat like that. You will notice how fast people eat and inhale their food and talk and hardly chew what they are eating. That is pretty normal feeling to have—because you are now eating such small amounts of food and chewing and chewing. You will never be able to guzzle a bottle of Water again—that is OK too. These are all good things. In time you will look at all the food people are eating and thinking to yourself oh my gosh I could never eat that much again—it is way too much food.


When you have issues or problems come back to the board and ask others who have already done this. We are here to help and support you.


Give or exchange all your fat clothes away. You will never need them again after they become too big for you. This weight loss is something you will be able to maintain for the rest of your life. You have earned the right to have new clothes.


Make sure you have the VERY best doctor that has had a lot of experience with sleeve surgery and check his success rates out. Check the doctor for HIGH patient reviews from the people who have gone to him or her. I can NOT STRESSS this enough. Make sure that your surgery is being done in a hospital NOT a Clinic. One clue that it is a clinic is if they send you to a hotel room to recover—that is why they cost less, this is also dangerous too. YOU are worth the extra money that it cost to have this WLS in a Hospital and by the best Doctor you can have. You want to have a happy and GREAT life and having the RIGHT Doctor and Hospital are the key to this.

Sorry if this is long, but it is intended to have as a reference and answer a lot of your questions that you might have. For some of you, you are very lucky because your health insurance is now starting to pay for Weight Loss Surgery. For many of this, we did not have your luck, so we are self pay patients. There are companies that loan money for this surgery—be aware that their interest rate is high. Once you pick your doctor ask them about these companies that give loans for surgery if you are a self pay patient.
You know we never think twice about making car payments. If you have to borrow the money for this surgery just look at this as “body payment.” It will be the best money you have ever borrowed. Please PRINT this out to read later. If you have any questions for me please feel free to contact me. I had surgery almost 4 years ago, so I do have quite a bit of experience. I really am here to help you along your journey. It took me 14 months to lose this weight and I was 63 when I had the surgery, so it is NEVER too late in life to do this.
Hugs, and I wish you great success
Suzanne

Hi Everyone,
If you are sitting out there with a lot of questions like I was 4 years ago, I want to tell you that I was 63 when I had my surgery in Mexicali, with Dr. Aceves—I believe he is the very best you can find to do your surgery. I lost 105 pounds and YES I have kept it off for 3 years now. It took me 14 months to lose 105 pounds.

My ONLY regret is that I didn’t have it done sooner. It is unquestionably the very greatest thing I have ever done for myself! I will be honest and tell you that the 1st month after surgery will be the hardest month you will ever have to do. During the 1st month you will be making lifestyle changes, letting your body heal, and start to retrain your “OLD” thinking brain to the new ways in life—this is a struggle because you “Old” thinking brain has been used to ALL the food you have been eating all your life. But, it is only 30 days and you can do this! It is NOT a miracle cure, it is a tool to allow you to lose the weight and maintain it for the rest of your life.

What is a typical day in my life like now? I want you first to know that I do not ever really feel hunger anymore—again your old brain will try to tell you that you are hungry—we call this “Head Hunger” because it really isn’t real. Now I just know that I need to eat small amounts of healthy food during the day. I have now changed how I cook and I now crave healthy things—I know it is hard to imagine that you will do this, but it is true. Yes, I do have desert –but I have learned how to bake in a healthy way. I have a great Low Carb Cookbook that allows me to eat a lot of things I loved in my past life and they are healthy now.

So this is what my day is like:
· I get up about 7:00 am put on my walking clothes and shoes and go for a nice brisk walk for 2 to 3 miles with my husband. Believe me I didn’t start out walking brisk or this far. Do the best you can, but do SOMETHING for exercise. Sometimes in the evening we will walk 2 more miles.

· I return home take a shower and for Breakfast I have a Premier Protein Drink. I still to this day have a Protein Drink for breakfast and that is all I need.

· I do all the normal things anyone else does during the day, like clean the house, grocery shop, laundry, and plan the meals, work in my yard. I am also own my own business where I am an Instructor in 1st Aid, CPR and AED to people in my community.

· lunch usually is some kind of a salad or I have some protein—usually chicken, with some fresh veggies, some fresh fruit.< /span>

· I have an afternoon snack, maybe something that I baked from my Low Carb Cookbook. There are some great products that are healthy to have too. There are all kinds of things you can snack on that are OK
· dinner is always about 2 oz of some kind of Protein. I eat, chicken, fish, or Pork. I eat very little red meat—and I always loved red meat in the past, but I found out that my tastes have changed a lot after I had surgery. I always have some kind of fresh veggie, maybe in a form of salad and then fresh fruit. I eat about 1,000 calories a day sometimes a little more depending on how much exercise I do. I NEVER feel deprived.

Part of keeping the weight off is finding ways to cook that make it taste good. You can learn to convert some of your old recipes to being healthy too. I do have desert, but not every day. Sometimes just the taste of something will satisfy your need for it. Food NO longer controls me I now control the food and the amount.
If you have any questions please feel free to ask me. I just want you to know that you can be this successful too. I have written a lot of things over the past 4 years, and I have information for those who are thinking about having surgery if you want any of it. You can be successful too.
I remember thinking what if I am the ONE person this will not work for, because I failed at everything else. So you are not alone, because many of us have thought all the same things that you have. I think the best things that you can do, is ask all kinds of questions. Check on who is doing your surgery. Like anything there are good and bad doctors out there, and I want you to be safe and have the very best you can have.

Hugs,
Suzanne
Sleeve 10/21/2008
Lost 105 pounds
Dr. Aceves- Suregon

Pre Surgery Weight: 375
Day of Surgery 4-24-12: 370
Today 8-16-12: 276
down 99 lbs!
These pictures are before surgery, and today.

On the first day of the challenge i was 195
today i weigh 184.5. I will be 14 weeks post op tomorrow.
I went three straight weeks did not lose a single ounce. So i am assuming it was the "three month stall" at least i hope!
My goal is to be under 180 by labor day! My bday will be the 5th.
Then i cruise on the 15th! I would love to be 175 by sept. 15!
nsv!!! I ACTUALLY jogged one half mile last night with out stopping, with a total of 2 miles on the treadmill and 20 minutes on the gazelle! Made me smile!!! I do allot of that lately!!!
Loving my new life!

most likely you are eating to fast. also could be the beef, I am not able to tolerate it. But when I eat fast is when i feel worse. also I eat less when i take my time.

Mine wasn't a # it was a picture! I didn't realize it was me!

I started my pre-op diet May 3 at 255, had surgery May 10 at 245, and am down to 203. I keep my carbs low, try to get my Water in (although probably more wouldn't hurt), and do cardio or strength training 6 days per week. MyFitnessPal is a big help!

First of all, I'm only 9 weeks and 2 days out so the perspective I'm offering here is what I call the "newbie stall or gain" and not the stalls and gains of those of you get who are much farther out than me and a lot of us I see post about stalls.
Since being released to eat soft foods, my diet has pretty much been the same. I usually eat 600 to 800 calories a day and for the most part, my intake is closer to the 800 calorie mark than it is to the 600 calorie mark. I weigh everyday, but only record my weight on my blog every Monday. When I weighed in on Monday July 30th, the scale showed a gain of two pounds from the prior Monday's weigh in. I had done nothing different that I could pinpoint as the cause of this gain. I wasn't happy about it, but knowing that it sometimes happens, I moved on from focusing on it. Throughout that week, I continued to weigh everyday as I normally do. The scale would show I was up one day and down one day but it wouldn't consistently go down. I was gaining and losing the same 3 pounds all week. When I weighed on Saturday my scale said 261.8. That is only .6 lower than my previous Monday's weigh in. I thought surely I was in for a little loss or a gain again in 2 days when I weighed in and recorded that weight. Sunday, though when I weighed the scale showed me losing 5.6 pounds overnight. It shoked me so much that I weighed 4 more times just to make sure it wasn't my scale going bonkers and yep, I'd "lost" 5.6 pounds overnight. I wasn't sure though that it would stick. I was hopeful, but doubtful. Then came Monday morning. I woke up, peed and hopped on the scale afraid of what I'd see. The scale showed exactly 1 pound heavier from Sunday's weigh in but it gave me a weight loss of 5.2 from the previous Monday's weigh in. It felt really good to put that in my blog considering the week before I had to put a 2 pound gain. Anyway, on to this week. So Monday, I weighed 257.2. On Tuesday, I weighed 255.6. I'd lost 1.6 pounds overnight and was down 49 pounds total. Yay! On Wednesday, I weighed 254.8. Another loss this time in the amount of .8 overnight. I was now only .2 pounds away from hitting the 50 pound mark. And all that brings me to this morning. I got on the scale and it said 253.2. Wow! I couldn't believe it. I'd lost again overnight. This time 1.2 bringing me to a total of 51.40 pounds gone forever.
So, my point to this is you have to look at the whole picture of weight loss and not just what happened today or over the past week or two or three. The week I gained 2 pounds was no different than this week where I've lost 4 pounds in only 3 days. I've been very consistent with my program and there just is no logical reason for what has occurred. Okay, yes there probably is but it is probably stuff a scientist would have to explain and we wouldn't understand anyway unless of course one of us here is a scientist. Anyway, I know that sometimes it is hard to look beyond what is going on at the present, but we really need to sometimes in order to keep our sanity. Stalls and gains will happen and we will hate every minute of them but when we step back and look at the overall picture, it will look a lot better than what is going on in the present.
I hope I've offered some insight to those of you struggling with a stall or gain right now and that it will give the ones of you who haven't expreienced this some comfort when you finally do.

powders?utm_source=BariatricPal&utm_medium=Affiliate&utm_campaign=CommentLink" target="_ad" data-id="1" >unjury.com has a chewable multi-Vitamin that is specially made for wls patients and you only have to take it once a day. I think it was $19.95 for a bottle of 90. I've been getting use to the Protein powders and they're really yummy. I haven't tried the Vitamins yet as I'm trying to get rid of my Centrum before my surgery.
Good luck!!

Always looking at the lighter side....
12 grams of Protein powder is 36-60 calories. Most likely around 38 calories for an unflavored powder. In order to burn 38 calories you would have to play cards for about 24 minutes (no the most strenuous activity) or write for 18 minutes... Bottom line is that although all calories matter. 40 calories of extremely nutritious calories are not going to be the problem. Besides you are so upset, I bet you have burned off more calories that he accidentely slipped you. Hence, you are probably even or maybe ahead. Stay really mad for about 1 more hour just to be sure.
THEN thank your lucky stars you have a husband that is willing to be a part of your journey. Who has loved you when you were big and is hand and hand (allbeit an incompetent one) with you on your difficulty road to a new slimmer you.
So call him a chucklehead - hit him with a pillow (above the waist please) and then hug him.
That's just my advice, I could be wrong.

Mine wasn't a # it was a picture! I didn't realize it was me!

No need to make someone who struggles feel even more ashamed than they already are. Its one think to give advice and another to judge. just because it was so easy for you to follow doesn't mean it is for everyone else. I was eating things I shouldn't on my liquid diet and I don't feel guilty. Your body will tell you what you need to know when you eat something you're not suppose to and you will go through the discomforts and learn what you can and cannot eat. I recommend staying with your diet and not cheat but I bet we are not the only ones who have cheated. Not many people will admit when they have cheated. But reading some of theses responses tick me off cuz it always turns in to omg I can't believe you would risk your life or omg you need counseling. Just cuz you had the sleeve does not make you an expert! Just sayin!

I told very few people about my new life! The nosey people @ work (so i didnt have to lift) i told them and a few nosey neighbors, I had hemorroid surgery!! LOL i Took my week off, no one asks now how my hemorroids are!!! LOL

It won't "go away", that is what the problem is - you will have to overcome this big ol beast - and that is what it can feel like.
Try and understand where it is coming from - somewhere in what you are doing you are cueing your trigger - and your habit to eat.
Change up what you are doing if at all possible...change rooms, watch a new show, somethign...