joatsaint

I've always had low energy - even before surgery. Caffine is the only thing that keeps me functioning. I try to avoid it on the weekends, to lower my tolerance, but I ususally wind up taking 1 caffine pill on Sat nights so I can feel normal.

I've drank carbonadted drinks - soda and beer, but it was probably a year post-op that I did. I've always been real careful how much I drinking per sip. I also tend to pour it over ice to get rid of some carbonation. It does make me feel full very quickly. But I'm a Crystal Light kinda guy, so I rarely drink canned or bottled drinks.

I know exactly where you're coming from. I was sleeved 1 month before you and at 22 months, I've let myself slip into old habits - eating when I'm bored or stressed or in a hurry (eating something convenient). My weight loss has stopped because of that. I switched jobs 2 months ago and now I'm working 6 to 7 days a week. And I've used that as an excuse to slack off on sticking to my diet. I too am going to have to become more viligant over how many calories I'm taking in. Hang in there, it's only a setback, nothing that can't be undone.

I started off expecting to reach my Surgeon's goal. He said I could expect to reach 235. When I hit 235, it was still pretty easy to lose weight and I wasn't satisfied where I was. I wanted to get below my high school weight - 224. I hit 224 a few months later. I still wasn't satisfied and started shooting for 199. I"m at 209 and am pretty satisfied. So that's how I chose my weight loss goal. Started out with my doc's expectation, reevaluated my goals when I reached it, then set a new goal I thought I'd be happy reaching.

Welcome to the Loser Bench. :-) After my surgery, I never had another craving for any fast food. Not that I haven't eaten fast food since, but it no longer has the same satisfaction it used to provide. I used to have these overwhelming cravings for certain burgers, fries or Desserts. They all went away. When I realized that, I got the same feeling I did as a kid, when you're let out of school for the Summer. :-)

My 1st ten days, I ate virtually nothing. I felt tired and drained for weeks and weeks post-op. And I wasn't able to eat but the smallest bites of food for months. I was eating about 3/4 can of Soup per day. I focused on drinking as much as I could and THEN on getting in Protein. I'm sure I never got in 60 grams of protein per day for months. It took a long time before I could eat more than a 1/4 cup of food at one sitting. Hang in there and take it day by day. It will get better. Focus on staying hydrated. I was 150+ lbs over weight, so I knew I had enough "food" stored in my fat to keep me fed for months.

I've tried EAS carb control chocolate shakes. I'd rank them right behind Premier Protein chocolate in how good they taste. EAS is sold in 4 packs at Walmart, for about $5/per pack. I've never seen Premier Protein shakes sold individually or in 4 packs. If you like EAS, then I think you'll like Premier even better.

I'm right there with ya. For months post-op, every bite would cause Frankensleeve to start grinding. It felt like rocks in a garbage disposal. I stuck to soft foods like refried beans and ground turkey for a long time. Most fruits and vegetables were tough to get accustomed to again... and don't even get me started on whole wheat bread. :-) By 6 months most foods were going down okay, but fiberous stuff like pineapple and salad took a few more months before they went down easily. I thought it was kinda ironic that eating the healthy stuff was much harder on me than eating processed foods post-op. :-P

I was never much of a drinker, so it was about 6 months post-op before I tried a margarita. It didn't cause any problems with Frankensleeve. But I did get a buzz much quicker than normal. :-)

Sending positive energy your way. I know it doesn't help much to say this, but the EDG is a piece of cake. The 2 hour drive to the hospital was more stressful than the procedure. They put the IV in me, had me bite down on the mouth piece, I blinked my eyes closed - and when they opened, I was done. If I hadn't been told about it, I wouldn't have even noticed the slight scratchiness in my throat afterwards.

My secret to success was to live in denial - really! Each time I felt the butterflies in my stomach beginning to flutter, I'd tell myself that today was an ordinary day like any other and pretend that the surgery was not going to happen. If I had to, I'd take it hour by hour. I'd tell myself, "If I can make it through this hour and I still want to back out, I can." But I'd get through the hour or day and the stress went down as I got used to pretending it wasn't going to happen. Even as I lay on the gurney in the O.R. prep room, I was thinking, "I can just get up and walk out at anytime if I want to." Knowing I had the choice made all the difference.

My hair thinned out, around the 3rd month post-op. But, it all went back to normal by my 1 year surgerversy. I've read a lot of threads that say the key is to eat plenty of protein - hair is built on protein. And the post-op diet's primary requirement is eat protein. I stuck with my doctor's guidelines and my hair is just as full as it was pre-op.

Congrats on doing so well. I was hurting pretty bad right for the week after surgery.

Congrats on doing so well. I'm aiming to break into ONEderland myself.

It's really a matter of you're satisfaction and happiness. I'm still 30lbs above my "ideal" weight, according to the weight charts, but if I never lost another pound, I'd be satisfied and grateful. I'm still trying to reach that magic number of 199. But it's not a goal that's going to make or break my happiness if I don't get there. I don't have the same aches and pains anymore, and I'm more mobile and active than I've been in 5 years. I get a lot of satisfaction out of that.

I know where you're coming from. It's all too easy to get back into old habits, even if I can't hold as much as I used to. I catch myself wandering around the kitchen on my days off, looking to eat something just out of boredom. Then I think about it and ask myself if I'm really hungry or just bored. Most of the time, that's enough to get me out of the kitchen without eating. :-P

I like my lentils cooked in beef broth, garlic, and onion. They take on a great beefy flavor. But I always cook mine. I want them to soak in the flavors. It take about 45 minutes of boiling to cook the green lentils and about 20 minutes to cook red lentils.

AvaFern, How did the scars heal for you? I'm just curious if you feel it was worth having the scarring vs keeping the loose skin? I'm thinking about plastic surgery in the future and wonder if the scars will be noticible or if they will fade, like my VSG scars, over time? If the scar encircles my waist, I was thinking of covering it with a tattoo, like train trakcs or barbed wire or maybe a zipper.

I was unable to drink plain Water after surgery, it just made me sick and made Frankensleeve cramp up. Crystal Light lemonade was the only thing I drank and pretty much the only thing I still drink. I have loved the flavor ever since I found it in the early 2000's. I never worried about getting in the recommended amounts of liquids and Protein during those first weeks. Frankensleeve was so swollen and had bad reactions to almost everything. As long as I got some fluids in me all day long and I felt okay, I was satisfied that I was going to be allright. I really don't believe the Fluid intake and protein intake recommendations are realistic for the 1st month post-op. My new sleeve was just too swollen and sore for 64oz. of water and 60 - 80 grams of protein a day.

Congrats on breaking your stall.

It is going to really depend on a person's excess weight, age and how much they exercise. I have seen some amazing before and after pics of younger people (20's and 30's) that I could barely tell the had any excess skin on their stomachs - even after losing 100+ lbs. I on the other hand, didn't have surgery till age 46 and after losing 150+ lbs, I will have to have surgery if I want the excess skin removed from my stomach. But I can tell you without hesistation, I'd rather be thin and flappy than fat and tight!

The honeymoom phase ended for me around the 1 year mark. I did not stop losing weight, but I had to be more vigilant about the things I was eating and the amounts. The Sleeve does not have an on/off switch and you can continue to use it as a tool to lose weight as long as you would like. After a year, I found myslef slipping into old habits, like eating out of boredom or grazing throughout the day. Frankensleeve still works, it was me that had gotten off track. But take as much advantage of the Honeymood period as possible. This will be the time when it's the easiest to lose weight and get into good eating habits. Your new Sleeve will still have the most restriction (before it is completely healded and the swelling has gone down) and your metablism won't have had a chance to adjust to the new lower caloric intake.

After 1 month post-op, I was released to eat full foods. That's when I started taking NSAIDs again. I started off slowly by trying one 200mg tablet. I didn't have any problems other than a little heartburn. Since then I've taken any pain reliever I want - NSAIDs, Ibuprofen, Excedrine, Asprin and combinations of all of them. I've even taken some PMS stuff in my office medicine cabinet. What can I say? My knee was hurting and nothing was working. I was ready to try anything in the cabinet.

I don't know how many shots I got, at least 4. My blood sugar when above 250 and I've never even been close to being diabetic. The nurses tried to hide it, but they were freaking out and I overheard one of them say I was over 250. It only lasted for the day and I was released the next.

Ok, I admit it, I'm cheap. I thought about how my reduced grocery bills were going to reimburse me for my surgery expenses. So in my head I figured it would take 2 1/2 to 3 years for the savings on food to pay for the $5000.00 I spent out of pocket for surgery. But what I didn't think about was the reduced cost of clothes. I can now buy XL shirts on clearance racks for $3 to $5 dollars where before I'd have to spend an extra $2 or $3 above the regular price to get the 4XL. All of the articles I've found only cite the reduced medical costs as a way WLS "pays for itself" as an incentive to encourage insurance companies to offer coverage. I've never taken prescription drugs on a regular basis, so I didn't figure in savings for that. And I'm sure there are other areas where (as a single guy with no wife, no kids) you may have noticed some savings that I didn't. So to give others a financial incentive to add to the list of positive things when considering WLS, please post your financial windfalls below.