pebbles99

Music to my ears. Pebbles I am much like you, at one month out, i can eat about 1/3 c. food at a time (i'm on mushys) but i don't really feel satisfied. I find i'm eating super fast (doesn't affect me physically) and i'm constantly reaching for food, so technically i'm kinda grazing while at work and feeling bored and used to my old habits. I've seen the diets of people with tremendous weight loss and find they are sticking between 600 and 800 cals a day. I drink a lot of protien as we're supposed to get it in, so that's already 300 cals for the day, the small meals/snacks i have easily add up to that 500, and often closer to 700. I think part of it is mental. I don't know what to do with myself outside of eating when i'm bored. That's been my go to. That and figuring out how to get protien in without so many calories, and the confusion of "do i eat 3x a day or 5x a day". I think i'm going to stick with 3x a day because if i ate 5x a day, each meal is only 100 cals at most, and honestly, i enjoy food and a few bites of string cheese don't feel like "dinner" to me. I still do get hungry, so that is kind of a bummer, but i'm hoping that now that i realize there is some head work to do, and that people are truly exercising a lot and eating really low cals on purpose (not just based on the inability to do so) I can reign it in and get on track. There is more adjustment here than i realized. Silly i know, especially as i was a conversion from a lapband, i know a lot of the rules already! But i think there is something inside me that still struggles with the thought that this should be magic and not a lot of hard work. Feel like if i was good at hard work, i would have lost on my own lol...was never a great dieter.
I do use myfitnesspal as well and LOVE IT (UnderCoverShyGirl if anyone wants to add me!). It has changed my life in a lot of ways over the last few years! I highly suggest tracking your food/nutrition. So eye opening!
To lollyfidy, i'm amazed that you can get 80g of protien in with just 550 to 650 calories. I definately need your secret!! I'd love to see your food diary! Though sounds like you gave it up in the thread LOL. I think there is something to be said for eating the same thing most days, takes the guesswork and cravings out of the equation!

"The Institute of Medicine recommends that adults get a minimum of 0.8 grams of Protein for every kilogram of body weight per day to keep from slowly breaking down their own tissues [39]. That's about 8 grams of Protein for every 20 pounds of body weight."http://www.dsfacts.com/protein.html
Very interesting, this put me at a need for 120 grams
I was checking out a fellow members post about weight stall, http://www.dsfacts.com/weight-loss-stall-or-plateau.html, incredibly informative and found this protien information.
They also talk about carbs, http://www.dsfacts.com/carbohydrates.html, if your curious

Hey Everyone!!!!!
I made it through. Surgery was a success. I am 2 days post-op and feeling really good. Tired from the anesthesia and still swollen of course. Only having the panniculectomy procedure, I am so surprised of how much flatter I am. Its exciting though.
I was incisioned hip to hip and bottom of naval to the pubic hairline. I had no pain, but soreness I can feel with every movement.
If you decide to have this surgery be sure to have someone with you. You will need it.
Ohhh!!! And there was 13lbs of fat and skin taken. So along with the excitement I am also 13lbs lighter.
Krys

I think it's a coping mechanism for allowing ourselves to fail in reaching our goals so that we can go back to the familiar rather than face the (scary) unknown. I laugh at myself... while losing weight I'm like "why are my boobs here? Why is my stomach there?, etc." mean while I'm ignoring my body while gaining weight - I'm NOT like, "Why is my stomach sticking out further than my chest?" "wow-this pants/skirt/dress/top feels a little snug today I better reduce my calories and move more!" (Sounds so simple, tho doesn't it?) as soon as I become conscious of what I put inside my body- I start to care about the outside. It does make sence when you look at it that way! As far as sagging skin- I've posted before stuffing extra tummy into Spanx to wear a 10-12 is better than looking 7 months pregnant in a size 22/24! Try to think positive thoughts about yourself to push out the negative. For every bad or negative thought you have about yourself- catch yourself doing it- correct yourself by saying 2 positive things about yourself. If we can't love ourselves- we really cannot love others.

Amy-girl- I know what you are talking about - the cursed stomach "apron". Excess weight ruined my stomach (I had at 27" waist when I got married!), 2 c-section deliveries (big babies: 8lbs6oz. And my baby, 11lbs.8oz.) totally trashed it! When my girls were babies I lost weight on WW and step class. The more I lost the lower the apron hung. I saw a plastic surgeon- no insurance at the time- one income, it would cost $11,000(including a bust lift). Of course I couldn't afford it and I allowed the extra skin to cloud my judgement about how far I had gone and became depressed over it. Naturally, 15 years later and I am 100 pounds heavier than I was then. I am older and wiser now-and realize I'll never have my Pre-baby stomach, but I rather have excess skin stuffed into Spanx wearing a size 10 or 12 jeans, than wear a size 22 and look pregnant! Smoke a mirrors work fir a reason. The illusion sometimes is satisfying enough! (But I stll tell my hubby I would love a "mommy make-over"--tummy tuck and breast lift. Once I make goal. He just "yes'" me to death. He's tired of hearing about it!

I loved reading this. You are very encouraging to me. Thanks!!

**Thank You**

Its always the bowel movement (or lack thereof)!! ;-P

I was sleeved on aug 6th also. I have hit the dreaded 3 week stall too. I have read sol many stories here I just decided to roll with it. It is frustrating, but I know it will eventually end. Good luck to you!

My first stall was at 5 weeks, but it only lasted about 5 days. It was excruciating not seeing the scale move. But this is a marathon, not a sprint.
What's worse is that I'm now in my 6th week and when I stepped on the scale this morning I gained a pound from yesterday! I wanted to scream. I've decided to blame the fact that I was up until 5am last night after being out all night at a bar drinking several bottles of Water (and I hadn't had a bowel movement yesterday).

I think the first big loss after the surgery is mostly Water weight like with any diet. But instead of gaining the water weight back you will keep losing real weight. It is normal to go through this but just know you will be losing again soon.

I "stall" about every 7-10 days, and it typically lasts 5-7 days, then I start losing again, and will lose 5-7 pounds in the next week. I've run through this cycle several times now, and have come to accept it as "normal" (so it doesn't cause me stress when I get stuck for a few days). This week is a "losing" week, and I am losing...even though I'm grounded from going to the gym, because of a nasty hip injury. Best of luck!

Haven't had mine yet but my doc said my weight loss was to be over an 18 mo period. I'm later so it will come off faster say someone that only needs to loose 60 lbs unlike me 100+. Therefore if I loose like I'm supposed to that's 9 lbs a month!

Yes, your stall is normal. Many of us (Myself included) stall in the first few weeks. If you use the search function and look up week 3 stall you will find a number of posts on this. So far my stall has lasted a bit over 2 weeks, but I've heard of some lasting up to six weeks. Just make sure you're getting in your fluids and Protein and walking and eventually the weight will come off. Your body is still just adjusting. Measure today and then in a week or two measure again - you will see that even though you're stalled you're still losing inches. If you can, try and put the scale away. I have a hard time ignoring the scale, but I have been able to keep it put away for a few days now, and I feel less stressed about it. Hang in there!

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

Ok, so I'm a hairdresser. I work with the public and some of my clients have been with me for 10 years. Yet I have only told a select few. My coworkers know. At first I told a few people I was having "Lady surgery" but since I had a Hiatal Hernia, that worked even better. I just tell people that was why I was on a liquid only diet. But from there I tell people and my friends who don't know that the liquid diet jump started my weight loss and I wasn't going to let it go to waste. You just tell people that you are working hard to lose. One nice thing about the sleeve is that the weight loss is a little slower, you can totally pull it off as you are doing it with diet and exercise alone. Oh by the way, you are working hard and doing it with diet and exercise! This surgery doesn't do it for you. It's just a tool to help. Bypass surgery kinda does it for you at first, That's why people lose it so fast. But average weight loss with the sleeve is about 2 pounds a week. Uh, about the same as weight watchers. Again, this is a tool.
Feel free to use my story. It all makes so much sense. Even the scars can make sense. Hey thats just how your surgeon does things.

If you say "Female Surgery", most people won't ask any more questions.

Are you still on Clear Liquids? I got a real bump in energy when I started drinking shakes.< /p>

Give it a week, you'll feel about 30% better. At the end of two weeks, you'll be another 30%. That last bit will take the next 2-4 weeks. What you're feeling is normal. Keep sipping fluids, walk when you can, sleep when you need it, and you'll get there. I agree with SunnyCox, Protein Shakes may feel like a struggle to get down right now, but they will give you more energy, help you heal faster, and get you over this hump sooner. Good luck!

Every day will be better than the last. Listen to your body and rest when you need to. Drint lots and walk lots. It WILL get better!! Hang in there !!

I had the same feelings around day 3 post op... By the end of week 2 they were almost completely gone. Every day WILL get much better.

Me too! Approved today, surgery Monday...good luck!

WOO HOO! Approved, surgery is Monday!
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