LilMissDiva Irene

Thanks my dearly's!! I love this place, and if I can even help one person, then that is worth every moment I spend on here. I was helped and encouraged so much along my journey and paying that back is the least I can do. ROCK IT SLEEVER BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!!

FABULOUS FABULOUS FABULOUS!!! You're rockin your dang thang!!!! I'm very happy for you! Just a thought... good that you haven't seen Onederland just yet. That's another opportunity for a new thread! Every milestone deserves it's own.. hehe

Well hey, that's not a bad idea.

Thanks Cheri!!!! You're doing yours, I know that!

Good morning VST!! Today I am 15 Months Post Op revision from Lap Band to VSG. I am also over 3 months Post Op from my Breast Augmentation and I'm 5 weeks Post Op from my Lipo procedures. Time passes very quickly when you're having fun!! I always said I wanted a J-Woww or J-Hud body when I was complete. Well I think I got that!! LOL Anyway, I'm not about emulating others really, because I'm ME and that's who I really need to be happy with. And I am. I've finally given up on losing more weight. I realize due to my working out, eating habits and especially since I still have many months left yet in my healing from my Lipo's I'm still going to get smaller. That's ok, but as far as creating new goals and mentally working to get there, all that is over. Now I just settle in and live my life. I will watch the scale now every Friday and Monday just to keep a guage on if I'm allowing too many bad habits, I will continue to do workouts to maintain good physical health and I'll always do my best to eat and live healthy. Just knowing I have arrived is the best feeling I've ever felt! I have been here for many months, but it took some time for me to get through my brain. I think I'm coming to terms now, and I guess for me that has been my biggest challenge. I am in the process of creating a complete journal of my entire life leading up to the point of my VSG and reaching goal. Everything I can think of. It will take time, I don't want to leave out a thing. I will spell out everything that worked for me, but at the end of the day we all have choices to make. What worked for me does not at all mean it will work for someone else. It's just a starting point!! Learning yourself is the biggest outcome in YOUR journey. And now for a little photo op. LOL Yeahhh can't finish this without THAT!! I took the sweater dress photos last night. I'll let you guess which ones are my befores... HAHA!!

6800 seriously!!!! Wow!!! That's an incredible price... you're going to have to give me his/her info... LOL I think I can get away with just a TT in the next two years once my weight has stabilized long enough. Washington isn't far and I have lots of family up there.

Hi there! Oh yes, I make a goal and I make that goal. I wasn't going to go for it after all because I was just ready to stride full time into maintenance, but lo and behold I hit the goal anyway. LOL.. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/27817-i-must-retract-my-last-goal-thread-omg-you-wont-believe-this/page__fromsearch__1

Amazing. Congrats. And that out of the way, to answer your question - I really really wish I knew. I hated that.

Excellent! Thanks for sharing. I will suscribe to you all. My handle there is BizzyBee916 - so if you see me posting about you'll know who I am. I never did the Yt updates but I do appreciate those who do!!!

Mine was 5 days all clears, up to 10 days clears but with Protein shakes made with Water only was ok. Day 11-20 was full liquids Day 20-30 was Mushies / Purees 30+ Was allowing back in regular foods though I did take my time. I would start with one regular meal but the rest would be mushies or Protein Shakes. Dr. Aceves made me a very small stomach. LOL GL!!

I'll tell you, I really loved having my Atkins book around. Also, the South Beach Diet. I do like buying the Calorie King books too. It's nice to have around when you have to stop somewhere to eat. I didn't read much of anything else, these have guided me a lot. Though I wasn't a super low carb eater, it was good to know how to do it safely and with our health's best interest. South Beach Diet book has some really great recipes.

Not necessarily, speaking from experience. I have what I think is a lot of stretch marks, but still my skin did really well. Hope I made your day!

LOL

This is my opinion only, but I think the main factor in how well skin snaps back is mostly luck. A few other factors may play a part too. However, I'll tell you what I did. I'm 5'7, I've lost over 160 Lbs at this point, going on 170 and my skin has shaped up quite nicely considering how large I was. The largest size I've ever worn was a tight 28W and 3-4X tops. The smallest Sizes I can wear now is XS and 0. Vanity sizing plays a lot into that but I digress... I drink a whole lot of Water, I tone up when working out and I eat as healthy as I can. I also take Vitamin E 1,000 Mg 4x per week before bed (was every night). I do believe these have helped me a lot in my skin recovery. One last thing, it can take up to 2 years before you see full results of how well your skin will retract. So, patience plays its role in this too. It is also my belief that ethnicity, age and whether you're a smoker or not has some say too. Good luck to you! One last thing... Plastic Surgery and compression garments has helped!

Ohhh girl!! I've had to let the scale alone. It was making me insane too. Weighing daily especially in maintenance might seem obsessive, especially in the case that PdxMan just mentioned - freaking over a 0.3 Lb gain. Now, I myself have never done that. I'm just the type of person who can bounce all over the place so such a minute movement would not even register on my radar. However, for me I just don't think I trust myself enough to weight in monthly. Especially not in the Winter months - oh heck no!! So I've proposed to myself - not even a few days ago even - that I'll weigh on Fridays and Mondays. I tend to let loose a lot more on weekends, so I figured this would be a good way to keep an eye o how I'm doing. Also, if I gain a few I can more easily get that back off than if I'd waited longer and have a heart attack seeing 10 Lbs or more!!! I've been fighting agains just relaxing into maintenance for far too long now. It's time to finally "let go". Good luck to all of us going through this right now!!!

I'm hoping!

You're progressing well Alicia! Great job! Definitely slowing down will help a lot, but the first few months are all learning curve to your new sleeve. Cheers as you continue on your journey!

Well HAPPY BIRTHDAY to you my fellow Sag!!! NO doubt you will be here too - no doubt at all. It's a Sagittarius thing. LOL

Yes, I was started out with Nexium. I took those until I ran out and never felt it worked all that great, so I gave Prilosec a try. It worked much much better but felt I should still try out some others to see if I can get better results. I went on Prevacid and that was worse for me than Nexium. So I tried Zegerid which is just Prilosec with some type of powdery substance that is supposed to help with extra absorption. It works perfectly for me. I never have acid issues as long as I'm taking these as prescribed. Likely I will never be able to get off them because I've tried and my acid acts up. I got acid reflux from my lap band and has never gone away sadly. All I can do is try to do my best to prevent it. Good luck!

Its completely normal for some of us to go a bit irregular for awhile after wls. Our fat cells are holding a lot of hormones, and as you lose those hormones are released back into your blood stream. This may cause a little strange period for awhile. Mine was about 3 months post and then a few months here and there with some weirdness. I'm back to normal now, and I'm even super regular it seems since I've had the fat removed from my thighs. Very weird and never thought that would happen but it did. If you feel it's too heavy or of concern please see your Dr. Other than that, likely you will straighten out soon enough.

Well what about that!!! Great job! It's just so amazing to see the one year progress photos. Half the time you wouldn't even know they are of the same person. CONGRATULATIONS!! You look great and I'm sure you feel even better.

Let me know Elixabeth! I'm interested to find out. I know it worked for me, but it's interesting to know if it works for others. Hi SR! I'm always glad to tell others how I went about my weight loss. Thanks for the Happy Birthday! Really, I'll probably need to do this myself next week... too much birthday fun

LOL Thanks Kim and Lynda! I like to call it my Birthday Month... haha Elixabeth - I did in the early stages during weight loss. I would log all my food in https://www.livestrong.com/login/ It will keep track of all your calories, carbs, sodium, sugar - all that and it's free. There are many others you can use, but that just so happens to be one I chose. Not sure why, it was just easy to figure out I guess. I didn't really ever set a real limit to myself, I just figured if I'm eating right the calories can't go that high. They were always around 800-1,000 for the day and really I burned 1,500 for the day on workouts alone. So you can see it wasn't anything major for me to worry too much about that. I don't ever log my food anymore, since I'm not actively trying to lose. I do however plan to continue to use this as a way of life if I need to get off a few pounds here and there. Good luck!!!

I know right?? LOL I'm down to 2 weigh in per week. Fridays and Mondays to watch my weekend eating. I'm worried will that be enough now? I just don't want to be hog tied to my scale the rest of my life. I just want a normal accounting of it... but what's normal?

Hello bay, there are probably several reasons for this. First, you may be having an over production of acid in your stomach causing what feels like hunger. Are you on any kind of PPI (Prevacid, Prilosec) or Acid reducer? If not perhaps you can speak with your surgeon about it. Next, in the beginning when we are on liquids or mushies our food is going to pass through our sleeves much faster than solids. If you are on mushies try eating more pureed meats or Proteins. This will help with the hunger more than something that is almost all carbohydrate. If you are on solids already, you should be on your way to eating your proteins first, then any few bites of other side dishes you might have left. Good luck! The first 6 months are tough, getting to know our new stomach sleeves. It just takes some time and patience on our part to figure out what works and what doesn't.