Parker's Dad

I like it!! I can probably get those printed up for ya! LOL

Well you may as well go ahead and prepare yourself for it because it's gonna happen. Unfortunately, it's just the way of the world. It is what it is, you can't change it or the way others act. You basically have to put yourself in a good place mentally to be able to let things go in one ear and out the other, otherwise it will affect you more than it should. You will think about it for a bit but when your mind is right it really doesn't matter to you anymore. People are a holes. People are superficial. People are judgemental. People are just people. The way I have it figured is if I wasn't good enough for you before, I am not good enough for you now that there is just less of me. I have heard people talk about dating afterwards, being asked by people that would never give them the time of day previously. To that I would have a very polite "no thank you." I don't wanna be involved with anyone that is that shallow and superficial. I am not a very trusting person anyway until you are able to earn that trust and respect. It's not just something that is given, it is earned. Long story short, I guess you just need to get your mind right and not worry about it too much because it's gonna happen. Give it it's second of thought recognition, bank it, and let it go.

I had wandered about lactose issues as well. I have heard some do and some say it goes away. It is a concern...

I honestly could not have said that any better about what I want, seriously. If we were all "perfect" by the charts, there would be nothing but a bunch skin and bone people running around. Normal, curvy, thick and healthy! Not sure about my curviness but I like the rest of it!! A buddy of mine had this done a little over a year ago. We were comparable number wise and similar build except he didn't have the shoulders I have and he is down to like 235. Looks good (not in a gay way) but not too skinny or big either so it works for him and that makes me wander even more. Still thinking...

That is just so wrong!

Hey guys/girls, Just sittin here on a rainy day researching and still pondering on doing this sleeve. A couple questions that I have kinda thought of and I know it varies from person to person based on height and body build etc... I am 31 years old. I am 5'10" and currently sittin at 315 as of Wednesday morning. I am big framed, seriously not just saying that, my family are all broad shouldered and thick chested, big feet and long trunked. I was thinking that if I lose too much weight I will not look right. Sounds stupid but true. I wear a size 40 right now and there is no padding left. It's like bone to bone on the hips and I suffer from no ass at all syndrome. I just kinda wander what you guys see as normal and how that compares to how the DRs see it as well. I could prob handle a cut 250 and be in awesome shape in my own eyes but according to BMI etc, that is still like huge. Odd rambling thoughts but just on the brain this morning... Carry on.

Thanks, that is just something that I wander about with the surgery. I am just kind of a picky eater anyway. Not big on salads or a big variety of veggies. Guess it's really a keep the fingers crossed and roll the dice kinda deal.

Hilarious!! That is a very good problem for him to have! I haven't even had the sleeve yet and from what I hear from most guys is that their drive increases a lot afterwards so.... I may be in trouble! It is funny how people are so different about certain things

Can't believe I am posting here in the ladies room but here is a guys experience with it... sorry! Everyone knows the birth control can have an affect on your drive. My girlfriend had one of the arm implants. That thing was aweful for the drive. She was gaining weight with it and that didn't help her mentality about it. She had it taken out and started taking a pill (can't remember which one). Her drive got better and she started losing a little bit of weight. It's still up and down at times but I think that is normal anyway. It could be four times a day or 1-2 times a week so it varies. So I guess she had to find something that didn't kill the drive with the hormones. I could also tell a huge difference with her overall mood and mentality with that implant. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hide kinda deal. Exercise is definitely gonna help. It helps with the stress and all kinds of blood flow and hormones so I try to get her to walk a couple miles with me lol! Its kind of a win win hahaha!! Hope things get straightened out for you girls...

Try the steel cut oats. You have to cook them a little longer but I think it's worth it. I think they have a better texture (not as goopy) and seem to stick with me longer. The Fiber effects seem to be better in my opinion if that makes sense. I can't recall off the top of my head about the carb content of them but seems like it is lower. Add some chocolate Protein powder and little bit of natural pb Add some real honey and your favorite nuts Add vanilla Protein Powder and favorite berries

LOL! Love the grill. I have been known to grill with snow flying so lots of time there. I don't care for fried food too much anyway with the exception of the occasional fried chicken or fried potatoes (very very rare). Love the grilling taste, don't have to heat up the house, less mess, and it's better for you so it's really a win win....

That is scary... From what you listed, I would be living on beef and beans forever. I basically do a high protein low carb diet anyway, so to eliminate cheese and yogurt or milk and I would literally starve to death. With my luck, this would be my picky a$$ sleeve that I would pull out of the bag.

Couple easy ones. I grill pretty much everything so most of my methods are based around that... Famous Dave's Steak and Burger seasoning. Grill it. cheese it. Eat it! Weber Gourmet Burger seasoning. Grill, cheese, eat. Salt, pepper, italian seasoning, crushed red pepper. Top as you like. Provolone works very very well for this. Taco seasoning, jalepenos, mexican cheese. Mix, patty out, and grill. Bed of refried Beans and more cheese! Soy sauce, as much hot stuff as you can stand, garlic, onion, smidge of brown sugar (think chinese type). Great alone or a little brown rice. Hot mustard, crushed red pepper, garlic powder, onion powder.... Like a hot bratwurst type of taste. Salt, pepper, onions, small bit of bread crumbs, jalapenos, few ozs beer. Mix til you can patty as you may have to play with the crumbs and beer. Not sure how I came up with that one but it came out pretty good lol! I have more haha!

I have been doing them for a bit now and have played with a few things... I have the vanilla Body Fortress stuff from wal mart. I really prefer the blender over a shaker. I put ice in the fruity ones but not the chocolate/pb ones. My fruit ones look kinda like this. Ice, a little bit of orange juice, a little milk, a small container of strawberry greek yogurt, a scoop of the vanilla protein powder. You can adjust the ingredient amounts to your liking. I hope that didn't over qualify as actual recipe lol! I will do the same thing with different fruits and yogurt combos. I really like them and they start the day well and held me over much better than I thought they would. For what it's worth, I can't honestly even taste the greek yogurt in them either at all. Try it with peach, blueberry, strawberry, apple (adds Fiber too), love raspberry.... endless combos. Hope than helped.

Reaaallllly hoping that does not happen. I could not imagine the buyers remorse that would be involved with that....

I think that would be a great think honestly as I am sort of a picky eater anyway and the thought of becoming lactose intolerant kinda scares me. Even now as I have pretty much eliminated a lot of stuff I can tell. Sweet stuff especially is different. I had drank so much Water and Powerade zero, which I love by the way that I had a regular orange Gatorade and it was SO sweet tasting! I know that may sound stupid but I can already tell that much difference. Even a lot of greasy fast food stinks!! I drove past a couple restaurants the other day with the windows down and I almost wanted to hurl!! The thought of Long Johns is instant convulsions...

Hey guys/girls, I have posted a couple things here and there on VST asking some questions. I am not sleeved as of now and am still doing some serious research into it at this time. I have talked to a couple people about things that they can and can not have after their sleeve. I find it interesting in the differences that I get from talking to people and comparing it to some of the things that I see here that some of you say is now on the can't eat list. I am not concerned about fast foods or junk foods at all as I basically have eliminated them completely from my intake anyway. I have been on high protein/low carb for a bit and I don't have a bit of a problem with that. I do however find that my body already HATES any kind of fried food. Some of the things that I have noticed that I hear different opinions on are.... Red meat, salad, nuts, certain veggies, and sugar. I hear the sugar related to dumping and I know that sugar is frowned upon anyway but does it become a disagreeing thing for you?? How about your dairy products??? Did you develop any lactose issues? Still searching..... Thanks for your time guys. Dave.

I'll throw my two cents in for you on this one. These kind of things are never as cut and dry as we would like them to be or as it seems they should be. My now ex wife cheater on me a few years ago. There is a long story to it and some things that factor in but nothing that changes the fact that she cheated on me. I tried to wrap my head around it and make it make sense. We tried to work it out. We got back together for a year maybe a little more. The emotional distress and constant feelings of is it gonna happen again and that still nagging question as to "why?" never went away. I managed to find myself in some dark places with some very bad feelings and thoughts so I decided enough is enough and left. Luckily there were no kids involved so that was not a factor. I have a couple friends that went thru this with kids and they are fine. The kids watch, listen, and learn. They are mental sponges and soak up everything. They know when mommy and daddy aren't happy or when things aren't right and it affects them. It's not fair to them and they can adapt to change in environment and people should you decide to leave. Your feelings of abandonment will never leave you. Your feelings of resentment will never leave you. Your questions of why? will never truly be answered and you will always wander "will it happen again??." Ask yourself if you can live with that.... Only you know the answer to that. You will come out a little bit harder and a little jaded either way but you do what is best for you in your situation. Peace of Mind is Golden...

Thanks for the insight there. I am looking at this from evey possible aspect I can. I never ever make an uninformed or rash decision. Still looking over everything I can find!! Thank you, Dave.

Hey Guys, I wanted to put this in here since I know that the guys and girls are different and hoping to get some "guy" related answers concerning these questions. Gals you are welcomed to chime is as well, didn't mean that to sound sexist. I promise!! Anyway. With guys having different metabolisms, hormones, and what not, how much weight loss have you seen with your sleeve and have you experienced as many stalls as a lot of the women talk about?? If so, how long??? Now I know that everyone is different with factors of exercise, tolerances of carbs, etc so I am not looking to say this won't work or anything. I just want to hear REAL experience and REAL numbers. Are you carb sensitive?? Lactose intolerant?? Can you do spicy foods still?? Do certain smells turn your stomach that didn't before?? Do any normal foods you ate previously not agree with you now?? Any other things you can't tolerate after the sleeve?? I may sound like I am rambling at this point but I am considering the sleeve still. Some of you may have seen me post questions already in the past few weeks so I am still researching and asking questions. I ask simply because of a few concerns with my diet and work etc. I am not lactose intolerant now and really don't wanna be ask dairy is a staple for me. I do well with the cheese, yogurt, and milk on a high Protein low carb diet now. I would hate to see that change as I am not a huge veggie fan. I would be slightly sensitive to carbs, meaning I can eat a sensible amount of good carbs and maintain or be at a slow loss. I don't do junk carbs at all as I start a slow gain. I am not a big junk food eater anyway so I don't really find that to be that difficult. I just like real food, a meat and potato kinda person. Don't really do that many "junk" sweets, I prefer the occasional good homemade stuff lol !!! Anyway. I wanna hear what you guys that have a sleeve have to say. Still pondering on this sleeve thing guys.....

Hey guys/girls, I am still doing a lot of research and soul searching before making a decision on this as I know that once it's done, there is no turning back. I have read and read and read more on this forum in the last few weeks than I have on anything in my life. I have read a lot of great information and got some great responses. I see a lot of women posting about their stalls and some of their slow losses. I understand that women have different programming and typically lose slower than men. With that said, I would like to know how much the guys are typically losing and over how long it is taking. I know a lot of it has to do with diet and exercise but lets do an average here. To any of you guys that have had your sleeves for a while, long enough to hit maintenence weights, how has that went??? Much regain and was it pretty easy to maintain??? Just looking for more info. Thanks a bunch guys!

UMMM yeah. Definitely more hair. I have not even been sleeved but have been losing some weight. I can tell an increase in both the testosterone and hair levels. LOL but not kidding. At this rate I may be mistaken for a Sasquatch if I go thru with the sleeve! Seriously though it's not like long and gross or anything just more of it. TMI??

Hey guys/girls, I have been contemplating getting the sleeve for a bit and have really been doing a lot research both here and other places online. I found a lot of good info but I still have one thing that I can not seem to find. I have a pretty bad history of kidney stones. It took a couple rounds of different medicines and testing before we found something that helped. I have to take potassium citrate and HCTZ daily or I get to live kidney stone hell. Now here is the thing. The HCTZ is a diuretic. Problem number one. I understand you have to drink so slowly and get in your 60 oz of Water a day. That may be even more difficult to maintain a good hydration. Secondly, without getting into too much detail, the potassium citrate pills are decent size and don't disolve. Anyone here have a history with stones and/or take these medications?? How did you deal with it with the sleeve?? Need to know information for me for sure. I absolutely hate with the fire of 10,000 suns dealing with kidney stones!!! Thanks.

A couple concerns that come into play as well.... Working in a hospital I don't get any regular breaks for meals and have days that I rarely sit down so... 1. How do you stay hydrated?? 2. Do you find that you absolutely "must" keep a regular eating schedule?? 3. How do you guys handle having pain control post op?? 4. With the different NUT and MD diet restrictions, how do you go about that?? I have seen a bunch of different ones noted here with different guidelines. 5. How long did you have to take before you could go back to work and have the energy?? 6. How long was it before you actually felt "normal" again??

Rootman, My thoughts go out to you man. It is very hard to lose your little four legged buddies. I have lost a couple over the years and it is very very difficult for sure. They love you, they listen when noone else will, and they never ever judge you. They just love you. When you have a bad day they can be the only thing that you can sit down and make you feel better. You loved them and you wanted the best for them man. You would not want to see them suffer beyond anything that you could reasonably do for them. You had to love them and respect them as much in death as you did in life. It takes a lot of pain of heart to be able to let them go respectfully and with dignity instead of us using our selfish human heads to let their pain linger. As hard as it was, it was probably the best decision you could have made for THEM. I am sorry for your loss bud. I am sure the wife was hurting just as badly and that trip that she made was one of the longest drives she has ever made man. You have her to talk to and to love. Forgive her, talk about the good times, and know in your hearts that you guys did what was right for your loved ones. Don't dwell on the negative the way we sometimes do and let that negativity live in you and eat at you.... it's not worth it. It's like a cancer that can make you very ill. Very sorry about the situation. And this too shall pass.