Disney

Interesting article.

I was surprised about #15 and the heart disease connection with processed meats. I knew nitrates weren't exactly great for you, but did not know about the heart disease risks. And I eat lots of deli meat and cured meats. Yikes.

Nutrition Myths

From what I have read and have been told by my surgeon and nut, sleeved paitents don't dump.

Don't really know what it could have been, but probably not dumping.

Glad you are feeling better!!

Kelly

It's really just semantics. Sleeved patients can have the exact same symptoms as dumping. So, really, who cares what the correct term for it is, when it happens, you sure don't care.

Sorry that happened to you Sarah. Hard lesson learned, that's for sure. Good thing about the sleeve is, once something like that happens to us, we DON'T repeat it, ever.

I had a similar thing happen with orange juice. I drank some after eating a bit of eggs. Not good. Let me tell you, I won't be doing that again.

I always go through Yahoo travel. They just have all the different airlines listed for your day of travel and all the different times of flights with all the different prices on one page. I know there are others, including priceline and expedia. I just have never used those.

I would just take a couple sets of clothes (really loose fitting) and some lounge pants for while lying in the hospital bed. Then of course all of your toiletries and that's about it. I would only take a carryon if you can manage it. You don't want anything heavier to deal with after surgery since you are going alone. Ernesto (the driver) helps with luggage, but once you get off the plane you might not have help.

I took a heating pad, but never needed it. I took wayyy too many clothes. The only thing you might need is some kind of broth or clear drinks for the plane ride home. Also, take some bath wipes to use till you can take a shower. They come in handy to wipe your face and hands, too. If you have a laptop, I would bring it. They have wifi and there are not many English speaking channels on TV and it gets old fast. Maybe bring a couple movies to watch.

Hope this helps. Good luck to you!

Edited to add...Sounds like Kerry and I had the same ideas about what to take.

Great job! Keep up the good work, it will only get better

Good luck to you. I wish you an easy surgery and recovery. Glad you are not nervous. It will all be over with before you know it.

Update us when you feel up to it!

Congrats on a job well done.

Such a drastic change. Good for you! You look great

I think those shakes are fine this early out. Any way to get the Protein in is what you need.

As far as the Vitamins, it won't hurt to wait till your dr clears you. And as for the Vitamins helping with the hair loss, that's an old wives tale. The Hair loss thing is going to happen no matter what you eat or take. Even Biotin won't stop the loss. It will help the hair grow back in, but won't stop it from falling out. Some very few people are lucky and don't get the hair loss, but very few. My mother had the lap band and lost really slowly. Like 70 pounds in 3 years, and she didn't loser her hair, but I hope and pray I don't lose that slowly! Good thing, though, it is only temporary.

To me, when I deprive myself of a certain thing, whether its carbs, sugar, fats or whatever, it puts me into the mode of wanting it all the more and then one day...BAM, I pig out on it. Thank goodness you didn't, although it wouldn't have been the end of the world if you did. You're just human

I read a study once that said when people go on strict diets, no matter which kind, when given the chance to eat something, like say at a party or wedding, or such, they ate twice as much of whatever it was they shouldn't have than someone who was not on a diet.

I have always been this way. If I was on a lowfat diet, I would get to craving it so bad that one day I would just go to a buffet or something and go crazy. Same with the Atkins diet. I would have a carb-fest after doing so well for months. I think the key is to let yourself have things in moderation, that way you will never feel deprived of any certain thing. Balance is the way to go.

So glad to hear you are recovering comfortably at your friend's home. I hope you have a quick recovery and I am with all the others, can't wait to see the pics. You are going to look like a million bucks!

Have a good rest!

hello everyone... so i'm greek. i thought i'd set up my credentials before i explain why.

the only greek yogurt exported from greece, that greeks actually eat and is made in greece by greeks (!) is fage/total. the originally fage total came at 10%. then it appeared on the market at 0%, 2% and ultimately 5%. it is not sour: it should be thick and creamy. if it isn't, it's just a poor imitation. sadly 5% total which is in my humble opinion the absolute top best, is unavailable outside greece. but should you be in this neck of the woods you should try it. the rest though is exported, and lucky for all of us who live abroad (i live in the uk) we can find it in our local market! yay!

danone, yoplait etc are all greek style yogurts. these in particular are french. the french like their yogurt thinner and a bit more sour. now it's a taste you might go for, no doubt, but it ain't greek, babes!

i definitely use it instead of sour cream (in this case we have the opposite phenomenon: good sour cream tricky to find in greece so you resolve to yogurt). if you cook with it you want to add it in the end, because it shouldn't be overheated: it might "separate" your other ingredients and pretty much destroy the dish.

the traditional way to have greek yogurt (as desert) is with a spoonful of honey mixed in. it gets tricky with locating the honey too: greek honey is made from very dry herbs (instead of flowers), so it has a strong and pretty strange flavour. the only one that approximates and i know is exported (decent quality but by no means the best) is called Attiki. (it comes from the region of athens).

apart from the sugar which you might not want, it is supposed to be a very good source of Vitamins, particularly as pertain to the skin, hair and nails. then again it might be a myth... this is the country after all...

but i'm getting carried away...

the greek pedant

ps. just don't start me on olive oil....

The kind of yogurt I get is Fage 2% and it is thick and creamy, but to me it is sour, which is why I love it as a sour cream substitute

Over here, Dannon and Yoplait (unless marked as greek) are all sweet. Too sweet, in fact.

That's fantastic and such a great idea about the watch! So, even when you lose more weight, you can just take a link or two out! Good going!

A lot of people eat as a substitute for sour cream and cream cheese on other food. You might try it that way, too.

Great going, Apple! You will cruise right to that goal, no problem!

Try to buff down the sharp edges before you take it. If you are not going to be able to get them down whole, then you have no choice but to break them. You can't afford not to with staph.

As for sipping Water, sometimes I do it, too. I don't think I did it much with Soups and purees, but now with solid food, sometimes is just feels too dry and I have to sip. Not much, though, or I feel sick. Just enough to 'wet my whistle' so to speak!

Hey, Kids05, I am WITH YOU. I have just finished the most horrible 30 days of my entire life, and why? Because I was too whatever to get off my own lazy as$ and eat and exercise like a grownup. No, I ate just what I wanted, when I wanted, and now I have to deal with the results of having had a surgery that went "exactly as it is supposed to," and STILL I can only eat around a tablespoon of food at a time (and then pray that it stays down!), have no energy, throw up EVERY DAY, and just feel like I have exchanged killing myself with food to killing myself with frustration and malnutrition (eating around 300 calories per day, not getting enough Protein, not getting enough Water, etc. etc. etc.).

In fact, I came to this site tonight to post a message, hoping that someone out there was feeling the same sense of RAGE and frustration that I was feeling--and I feel it toward myself!! I did this--I ate myself to the point where surgery was the only option, and then I signed the permissions and I did this to my body. Geez, what the &*% was I thinking????

My husband's sleeve procedure was almost effortless for him. He's being sweet and supportive and that makes me mad, too. I have tried the positive thinking approach--oh, look on the bright side, at least you can tolerate yogurt--oh, wow, how great that you're losing weight--oh, fabulous, I really like Gatorade--but no... no, I can't do it any more. I mean the being positive part. We both have to figure out how to make this tool work for us, and I frankly confess that I have no ideas left and am at my wits' end. Food that I can tolerate one day doesn't work the next. I smush stuff in the Bullet and it still comes back. Scrambled egg comes back, for pity's sake, and I'm talking here about 2 teaspoonfuls that were well-chewed and careful, no rushing, no Water with the meal, nothing against "the rules." I think my sleeve has stricter rules than almost everyone else's, and I'm feeling pitiful. LOL Now that made me laugh, but really--I do feel really, really angry that I have done this to myself, and I told my husband tonight in the car that if I could go back and not do it, I would go back in a second and not do it. Yes, I have lost weight. I feel horrible. I miss my brain functioning properly. I miss being able to not think about my bodily functions all flipping day.

So if you have thoughts on how to manage this, I would appreciate them--meanwhile, you have a sister in arms with the "OMG I hate this!" song. I'm singing it LOUD!!!

Meg

So sorry you both are going through this. I hope you can find some relief soon. I have read on here that time is about the only thing that is going to help as far as the restriction being less.

Meg,,, did you have your surgery in 2010 or this year? Your ticker says 2010, but your post reads like it was this year. Just wondering.

I was excited to read about everyone being 'cold' after surgery as I am the most hot-natured person on earth. For me, I went through the cold phase for the first couple weeks, but now I am almost back to normal. Or should I say back to being hot. It's not quite as bad as it was, thank goodness, but I was really hoping I would stay cool this summer for a change.

Great work

I have been drinking Coke since I was a toddler. I drank it all the way up until the first day of my pre-op low carb diet. I actually even had one the first day of the diet. But after that, none. Not a drop. Oh, wait. Dr. Aceves lets you eat your 'last meal' the night before surgery, so I did have one that night. Then, none. Not a drop.

Keep in mind, that is all I ever drank. No Water, no tea (and I'm from the South), no fruit juices. Just every once in a while I would have some orange juice for Breakfast. That was my sole source of liquids. Sad, right? My poor kidneys. And it wasn't even the diet kind. Anyway, surprisingly I never had a headache, or any other withdrawal symptoms. I feel lucky about that after reading some of these posts. I have been reading about people drinking soda again after several months, but I am so over it, I think it would be crazy to even try it again. I just don't care about it anymore. If you knew me, you wouldn't believe that was <i>me</i> saying that

My advice is to do it cold turkey. Seems like just easing off of it is kinda torture. Like teasing yourself with it. But, you might be one of those that would get a headache, so it might be best to taper off. I think what made it easy for me to do it quickly was that I waited till the very last minute to quit and I knew I had to do the low carb thing in order to shrink my liver for surgery, so there was no choice.

Good luck to you and good for you for preparing yourself earlier than you have to.

Hey! Remember in that movie ELF with Will Farrell, when he was drinking that 2 liter coke right outta the bottle? That reminds me of me! That's how much I loved Coke!

That is so great! One less thing, right?

Hi Everyone,

I wanted to provide an update on my progress. I've been 100% happy with my sleeve. I converted from the band back in October 2010. I was banded in Jan 2010 at 200 lbs and only lost 15 lbs from that time untill October when I revised. I hated the band!

Weightloss with the sleeve has been effortless. Yes, I struggled with dumping and other weird side effects. I even had to have my gallbadder removed 6 weeks ago and now have diarhea, but you know what? I'd do it all again in a heart beat.

I went to Mexico and saw Dr. Rodriguez through BeLightWeight (or however they spell it).

The first few months I really focused on Protein first, etc, etc. but the past few months, I really just eat (AND DRINK) whatever I want. My weight loss has slowed down the last 2 months, but I still lose. I also haven't exercised much at all either. Just eating small portions. VERY small portions.

I'm now down to 128 and am fine with that. I'll maybe lose 10 more, as I'm only 5'3", but I'm in the normal range now, wearing sizes 1 - 4 and feeling generally pretty great.

I did lose some hair and it seems to hav stopped now, but again. Totally worth it.

I"m inlcuding some pictures of a yearly bus trip that I take with friends each year at the end of April. The first one is from last year, and the second one is a side view of me at this year's trip. I still couldn't beleive that was me when I saw the picture.

I'd be happy to answer any questions. YOU CAN DO THIS!

WOW. You look FAN-TAS-TIC! I love the before and afters. So inspiring.

One question. Did the 'dumping' resolve itself or do you still get it? Or was it because of your gallbladder?

Thanks for any info!

Wow! What a change already!! Don't you just LOVE your sleeve? You look great

Hey, I am 13 pounds from Onederland! We will be there soon!

Congrats! Glad you are here!

I didn't have a 3 week stall, but I did have a stall at around 7 weeks. Then the weight just started dropping off again. That's why it is a good idea to not weigh every day. I know it seems impossible (it does to me) but if you could only weigh every 2 weeks, you would have a great big loss and you would never even notice that little stall in there. In other words, even if you don't lose for a while, it WILL come off in the end, so it all evens out eventually.

It's nice to see those numbers go down, but when they don't, it sucks. So, weighing less often can only give you GOOD news!

Thanks for being such an inspiration to all of us, as always. I hope you are feeling better after looking at those pics of yourself. You deserve to feel good about what you have already accomplished, that's for sure!