vincereautmori

I've had arthritis for a few years. This summer I realized it had gotten bad enough that I was spending many days just sitting on my couch because I hurt too much to go anywhere. My joints wouldn't hurt so much if they weren't having to carry twice the weight nature designed them for. So when I realized that my weight was making me hurt so much that I couldn't even do normal activity, that's when I made up my mind.

You won't be disappointed, same story here, I'm 3 months post op and feeling great, the ache is still there but it loosens up and any pain is controlled by OTC Tylenol. Stick to it and good luck.

I thought I'd throw in my two bits from a mans perspective. I hear ya on stalls, in the beginning they really bothered me, but after almost three months I'm learning that they are just a symptom of the surgery. I seem to lose for about two weeks then stall for two weeks, but the weight is coming off and as it does I'm feeling better and stronger. When everyone says your body is changing even in stalls, they're right! Personally, I don't take measurements, but since before surgery in August I was wearing a 46" waist in my jeans and 3XL shirts were snug, now three months later, I'm wearing 40" waist and I just tried on 38" and they are just a little snug and same for XL shirts, maybe another 5- 10 lbs. to be comfortable. So the moral of the story is, the scale only tells part of the story, and stalls are just part of the process, let the journey unfold, your journey is unique for you. Looks like you're doing OK, keep it up and have faith in your new lifestyle.

We just went to a Haloween party, I'm about 3 months post op and had a couple glasses of wine, felt about the same as pre surgery. However, found I couldn't over eat, a few appetizers and a small plate of food. Normally I'd be snacking all night.

Did anyone experience a dip in desire post op? I'm about 11 weeks post op, everything works, the sleeve and um.......everything else. Before surgery lets just say I was "up" first thing in the morning most of the time, but lately I'm just not feeling it. When we're in the occasional mood, not a problem, but now when the weeknd comes the first thing I think of in the morning is, another hour of sleep. Does the libido bounce back?

I don't think juice is necessarily a bad thing, especially if it is from whole fruits and veg (ie it still has all the pulp and fiber). There are a lot of recipes out there that aren't very caloric, but full of great nutrients. I think we forget that calories are calories, it doesn't matter where they come from. As long as you are reaching your Protein goal and still tightly control your calories, it really shouldn't matter. The only problem is that juice will not fill you up as much, and you may feel hungry sooner. But you can't tell me that fruit and veggies are bad for you and weight loss. My surgeon said specifically that this is not a "low carb" diet, and I'm sick of people pretending that it is.

I'd agree, there is nothing inherently wrong with drinking juices, for instance, you could eat an apple and with the sleeve, probably feel pretty full. But how much juice is in an apple? You might be more likely to drink 8 oz. of juice, to get that much from apples requires about a pound of apples, that's a lot more sugar and calories than you would get from getting one raw apple down. Just my opinion, but we are all different and we have to find what works best for us.

As long as you can meet your nutritional needs I guess it shouldn't matter although my nutritionist said to be sure to get enough Protein before anything else. But frrom my understanding of how the sleeve helps us lose weight is to be able to control appetite and eat in moderation and the sleeve aids us in controlling that, otherwise why have surgery. You could drink Protein Shakes forever, but there is a tendency to take in more calories and that's how you can negate the benefits of the sleeve. As far as problems with Constipation, the Fiber from fruits and vegetables should help, right? I recommend a conversation with your nutritionist, IMHO, the first year isn't a good time to start experimenting.

Ok, I'm about 9 weeks post op and I've been on these forums with the same concerns and I'm not supposed to tell you this little secret about stalls, but if you promise to keep it low key I guess I can tell you. So, if you are doing what your surgeon told you to do, and you're following your NUT's guidelines and you hit a stall then what you want to do is..........NOTHING!!! You're doing all the right things, its just your body making some serious adjustments to a serious change. Most people will tell you that your body is trying desperately to hang onto those calories, so your metabolism slows down and who knows what else. You're going to wake up one day and drop like 2-3 lbs., take my advice, don't be too concerned with the scale, I only weigh myself once a week. I've hit two stalls since surgery, one at 3 weeks, then about two weeks later I lost 5-6 lbs., then a week after that I stalled again, but when I look at it I'm averaging about 3 lbs./week. I know I'm not eating anywhere near what I ate before, so I know I have to be losing something no matter what that scale says. Relax, this is a journey, not a fad diet that's only going to last a few months, we have to learn to live with our new freind and the sleeve has to learn to live with us. Your doing great, 4lbs./week Rach and navymom 6lbs./wk? I'd say that's pretty good.

Not so much the calories, look at the fat vs. Protein ratio, we need some fat but I try to get the Protein per serving higher than fat. Unfortunately processed foods are the wrong way around. For instance, make your own meatballs from 93% lean ground beef, add some spices for flavor, maybe a tbsp breadcrumbs and it begins to look like this:

2 oz. meatball

calories= ~110

fat=~4 g

carbs=~5g

protein=~13g

Besides, it looks like your doing pretty well, down 39 lbs. in about 2 months, great job! I know what you mean about changing it up, but I just look on websites and try to think of ways to make some of our old comfort foods fit my new rules. Ever make spaghetti squash? Use lean meats, and gets rid of the simple carbs.

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Well poo - the table from My Fitness Pal didn't translate well.

Be very careful with laxatives. They can cause dehydration, which is another really big problem for Bariatric patients. My dr. said to use a stool softener and NOT laxatives. Benefiber is my stool softener of choice and has worked well for me. One dose each morning in my Chrystal Lite keeps me on top of things! I suffered right out of the gate with Constipation and did not take heed quick enough. Serious constipation issues lead me to taking laxatives and having an ennema, which resulted in severe dehydration, and a fearful trip to the ER. I was dangerously dehydrated. Laxatives cause elimination of Water in our body faster then we can replenish it.

Excellent advice, didn't even think of the dehydration problem. Hope you're doing better.

Miralax I have to find that, I just need some instant relief. Thanks

I just got over a rather bad bout with it and was looking for fast relief, try fleet enemas. It still took about a day, I don't want to go through that again so I'll make sure to get more Fiber and mild laxative. Anyone who says this is the easy way out has no idea of the changes we have to adjust to.

Do you get the same reaction when you eat soft foods or purees? Maybe you just need a little more time. Can't tell how many weeks since surgery, but my NUT said to wait 2-3 months before eating raw vegetables because they are a little harder to digest. It's different for everyone.

When I'm in the mood for crunchy and salty.........pickles! Get a couple of varieties, and real low on calories, no fat, and you get some Fiber.

~7 weeks post op

On today's menu:

Breakfast- 3/4 C Special K Protein and 3/4 C 1% milk

Lunch- 1/2 C turkey chilli with Beans

Afetrnoon Snack- 12 oz. Pure Protein shake

Dinner- 4 oz. ground beef with ff gravy, ~1/3 C fresh tomatoes w/ff basalmic dressing (I have to eat slowly, this takes about 30- 40 minutes)

late snack- Jello FF pudding

I was sleeved 8/19, since surgery I'm down about 29 lbs., I had the stall at 3 weeks out, I am eating a little more but my new friend let's me know when that's enough. The only problem I'm having is getting in regular exercise, sometimes I don't get home until 7:30- 8:00pm, and I don't really feel like doing anything. But I know if I want to make this work the way it should, I have to get into a regular habit of mooooooving!

So I'm 5 days out. I ate a yogurt within an hour and I had a Popsicle. I'm starting to think I shouldn't have. I've been feeling a nagging pain every since. However that was around noon, now along with the pain my stomach is growling. I'm not sure what to do. Sip or just let it be thinking it may be still full or irritated. Any thoughts?

At five days out your sleeve is still pretty swollen, I was on a two week liquid diet and I couldn't push it too soon. Have you had normal bowel movements yet? Maybe you're constipated? Pretty normal in the beginning. Do you take an antacid? Maybe talk to your doctor soon.

I am not a doctor, but if I understand correctly, your appetite should be less with the sleeve, but if you are not careful, you can stretch the stomach and eat more than you should.

I suppose you could stretch it, but man, that's got to be painful. If I take one bite more than the sleeve allows, wow, do I pay for it.

I think everyone has given you great advice, to sum it up, it's up to you, the sleeve will help you with portions but you have to feed it the right foods.

Everyone I know who has conquered this frustration has the very same solution:

Stop weighing yourselves daily!

Instead, focus on your activity stats: grams of Protein eaten, grams of good carbs eaten, 64+ ounces of Water (not other liquids) drunk, exercise minutes or calories expended or daily steps.

Use MFP, Fitbits, etc. that keep you accountable for your activities. Pour your obsessive attentions into what you are DOING, not what the scale says every morning.

P.S. I know some people who are weighing 4 times a day. (WTF?)

I agree, I don't weigh myself daily, once a week is enough for me and I don't panic at a pound or two. I use the Sparkpeople site to track my Protein, carbs, fats, calories, it produces a graph to show the % of each makes up my daily diet. It just bothered me that the stall seemed to end and now I've stalled again only a week later.

Thank u very much. I will try. I guess I'm so afraid of gaining the weight back I'm scared to eat lol

As much as I am also a beginner, I can say that food is the solution, not the problem any longer. We just need to learn to eat for quality and not quantity. It's tough, but we can do it.

You never forget these episodes @@playlikeworldchamps It is hard to get past them and move on to a new life. their faces are always there saying the hurtful words.

But you are doing it. Your almost to your goal. Kicking Ass is a good feeling and it helps when you can tell them in your head to stick it where the sun don't shine! Good for you kid!

I hope you can take a step back and look at how you counsel others, be a little kinder to yourself. So the plastic surgeon was a pompous ass, his problem, he can't insult you any longer unless you let him. Even though I'm a man, I had an incident years ago with a dentist, what has bothered me to this day is that I let him get away with it instead of either telling him off or punching him in the nose. I don't know you but you seem to have lived through some personal challenges, you have tackled your health and your weight (you lost over 200 lbs.!), and you're still here standing. So I think you can handle some snot nosed punk with a MD after his name. Time to put the tissues away and tackle this like you have every other challenge in your life, I'm confident we'll be reading about your sucessful solution soon.

After reading everyone's post i feel so much better....lol i thought i was doing something wrong also. I stalled after my first month but see the scale is moving again. But i still don't have much of an appetite. I believe i'm only taking in about 400 cals daily. Should i be taking in more?

First, be sure you're getting enough Water and Protein, but depending on what you can handle, you should be able to get more and more calories in. I try to get most of my calories from food rather than shakes, (maybe why I'm having a problem?). But as I understand it, your body thinks it's being starved when you're too low, it changes your metabolism so actually getting more food will help lose weight. Maybe get that straight from the horses mouth and talk to your NUT. Good Luck!

HOLD MY HAND!

I am there too. Actually, since my 6th week out I have only lost around 3 lbs. That is about a lb a week when I was losing about 5 a week. I am indignant if not pissed that this scale won't move below 300 lbs. Supposedly it is normal for us to undergo this kind of stuff as our bodies adjust. First I tried increasing my calories so my body would stop thinking it was starving, now I am trying to scale them back a bit. My doctor said I should be eating 800-1000 calories a day so that my body doesn't go into starvation mode. Maybe that is something you could talk to yours about. I get on here and as supportive of others as I want to be, sometimes I just want to bang my head on the keyboard for my body failing me, then I remember, I failed it for the first 30 years of our relationship. <3 I guess we just need to give it time, but every day after you have had WLS seems like 10 years.

Hang in there GT, we'll figure this out, maybe it really is just our bodies making adjustments and we have to be patient. You and I are only a couple months out from surgery, as my NUT told me, the first year is when most of the magic happens, and I suppose that means the good and the bad. I get your frustration, as I told my wife, I'd hate to think I went thru surgery and this is it, maybe our expectations are influenced by watching fat shows on TV where months are turned into a 60 minute show. I got your hand, we've only just begun this part of our journey and we will not let the failures of the past defeat us again, we have a new weapon against obesity and we just need to learn to use it. Good Luck.

Has anyone experienced this before? So, at week three post op I get the classic stall, I didn't panic as I knew from all of my forum friends this is quite normal, and it lasted about 15-16 days and abou week 6 I lost seven pounds so I assumed it's over. This week (~week 7), I lose nothing. I haven't heard of that happening, could I be doing something wrong? I'll admit that I don't get a lot of exercise, I leave for work ~7:30am and get home~7:30pm, although I try to get a 30 min. walk in 3-4 days a week. I have been watching what I eat, about 700- 800 calories a day and less than 25% fat. Can anyone help?

My wife stayed with me during visiting hours, I would agree with Babbs, it took me more than a day to shake off the anethesia, just wanted to sleep, when awake I felt nauseous but I was given meds to relieve it. I had a bad night the first night, couldn't pee, so I they had to put in a catheter (worse than the surgery), so nothing my wife could have done anyway. By day three I was feeling fine.

If you pare the caveman diet (Paleo) with all the hunter gatherer exercise required to collect the food none of us would need the sleeve.

LOL. Right, if you have to chase your food down, you're not going to have a weight problem.