AmberDawn

Hmm well guess i'll try to get in at least 100oz a day, i dont think i could do anymore, doesnt seem there would be enough hours in the day with waiting 30 mins before eating and an hour after eating to drink.

Hm how much more Water a day do you think i should do beyond the 64 i'm getting? I've been doing the cardio for 2 weeks now and mostly elliptical but i do try and get in a day of just treadmill and another day i do elliptical for ten minutes, treadmill jogging for 4 minutes until i'm out of breath and heart rate is up to 175-180 then another 36 mins on the elliptical hauling butt. Though i wouldnt have thought my body would already be used to the elliptical after just 2 weeks. I thought it would take longer than that.

I was getting about 58-70 carbs a day. Today i'm at 39 damn near impossible to do 20. I'm thinking(hoping) this might be Water weight. My scale reads total body water and its gone 38-40% a couple weeks ago to 41-43% this week and i havent changed my water intake. Oh well i'm not giving up on exercising thats for sure. I'm off to do so right now actually. Figure the scale has got to start moving if i'm burning that many calories 5 days a week if i just stick with it. right?!? lol

I dont know if I could get any more protein, i'm getting 75+ a day and at least 64oz of water. I'm trying under 20grams of carbs a day this week to see if that makes any difference. keeping my fingers crossed this stall/gain pattern breaks soon.

So i'm 6 months out from surgery and finally getting off my butt and exercising. My weight loss for the last 2 or 3 months has been super slow. This last month i've completely stalled, i've even gained 2lbs in the last 8 days. 2 weeks ago i started cardio, mainly on the elliptical doing 45-55 minutes at a time 5 days a week. I'm super depressed that I actually start doing good and working out and then see the scale move in the opposite direction! Has anyone else had this happen right after they start exercising?

6 months after surgery and i'm just now getting really serious about exercise . I've started using my elliptical at home 45-55 minutes, 5 days a week. I guess i'm lucky, it's so much easier to me than jogging on the treadmill. I dont set the resistance too high (between 4-10), i do the interval training setting on it. Make sure you're pushing and pulling with your arms as well(but dont grip too tight). Don't lean forward, keep your back straight and head up. Every few minutes let your arms swing freely. I think every person just has strenghts in different areas. I can't do 4 minutes of jogging on the treadmill without my legs starting to burn and having to slow down to a walk. I read an article about elliptical vs treadmill. They said the best one is the one you actually do.

I would say if you only weigh 230 you shouldnt need an extender. At least not on most AA flights. I was 284(and have very large hips) when i last flew and was able to buckle on one flight and only just barely needed the extender on the other flight. I wouldnt sweat it

Trust me I know that feeling of "but what if there's complications" I had it bad. And my husband was NOT supportive at first when I told him I decided on the sleeve over the band. All he saw was the odds of complications being higher with the sleeve and he freaked out. Luckily I finally got him on board (I think he realized he had no choice other than to support me lol) Worst of all since my insurance doesn't cover it I had the guilt of "I'm spending 14k on myself just because I won't/can't lose weight on my own" That was hard to overcome. But then I realized I NEEDED this tool. I've been fat my entire life, I've tried and tried to do it on my own, I NEEDED the extra help, the extra boost. Once I let that guilt go and decided I needed this to LIVE, I went for it. It was very odd and surreal how it all happened for me. For years I had considered the bypass, only the year before last did I learn about VSG, I played the "wouldn't it be great if i could have that done" game in my mind for over a year. I did the "poor me my life sucks i'll be fat forever" pity party. Then one day in August of last year I said "enough is enough i'm going to a seminar for weight loss sugery" well I went and learned about the band and the sleeve even more and at that point decided I wanted the sleeve. As you can see it took me from August 20th to the middle of October to get my husband on board and for me to finally say "I'm doing it NOW". After that it was 2 very short months of appointments and then bam, it was done. Once I said i was going for it, i kinda went on autopilot and was just going through the motions, it never really registered that I was actually going through with it. Still to this day I cant believe it finally happened. I guess that was my way of coping with such a huge life change. I knew things would change after the surgery as far as eating/drinking etc for the rest of my life but I never allowed myself to fully acknowledge that. I put it in the back of my brain as to not talk myself out of it. After the surgery I just delt with it, i was like "ok this is how it is now". I still morn food and being able to eat large quantities sometimes but everytime i do that it makes me realize just how much i needed this surgery.

I've been debating posting this for a while. Screw it, just do it right? Well I made a list of very personal reasons I needed/wanted to have VSG back when I was considering having surgery last year. I figure I'm not alone when it comes to some of these and figured I would share to perhaps help someone else who is struggling with their decision. Some of these are shallow, some are not. My top reasons: 1. Overall Health 2. PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome, have it due to weight) 3. Difficulty conceiving (due to weight) 4. Confidence (non existent) 5. Discrimination (at work, etc etc.) Other reasons in no particular order: Clothes! ( I hate LB and other +size stores and how they force you to buy multiple pieces and the sky high prices) Limited clothing options Theme parks (I once had to get off of a ride because i didn’t fit) Air planes (asking for an seat belt extender, close to having to buy 2 seats) Chairs (you know the ones, where you sit in it and almost get stuck) sleep (could tell my sleep quality was declining, the only comfortable position was on my stomach, possible sleep apnea) Messed up cycles Skin (having bad acne in adulthood due to hormones being out of whack because of weight) hair (in unwanted places) Asthma (developed late in life probably due to weight) Job positions (not going for them because i didn’t want to be in the spotlight) Joints (started creaking and hurting more and more, stairs hurt) Public places (just being uncomfortable in my own skin in public) Booths at restaurants (sometimes i just couldn’t fit) Intimate times with hubby (positions were limited due to my weight) Cramped bathrooms (forget about trying to use an airplane bathroom) Boats (no romantic boat rides with hubby, my side would be in the Water, while his is in the air) Zip lining (not possible) Horseback riding ( i used to love riding but no longer could due to weight) Swimming ( i loved this too but too embarrassed to do so anymore) Beaches (this would require me to wear a swim suit..again too embarrassed) Dancing (hard to be graceful at that weight) Traveling (that would require more uncomfortable airplane rides, forget about long flights cause i wouldn’t be able to use the cramped bathrooms) Tanning (Too embarrassed to do it) Jewelry (those cute ankle bracelets? yea they don’t fit. cute rings don’t fit either) Laser tag/paint ball (made a huge slow moving target) Go karts (don’t fit, and over weight limit) Tubing (yea that would be a sight to see..) Excursions (those fun cruise excursions? yea can’t do those cause they have weight limits i exceed) Travel trailers ( want to go on a cross country trip in one? yea cramped bathroom again) Back seats ( cant climb into back seats when carpooling, feel the resentment of others who have to get back there) Job (its been proven overweight people make less, and I get this too) Uncomfortable jokes (you know the ones told without thinking that poke fun of weight? or the ones on TV and you're the only fat one in the room) Water parks ( what’s the point, i wouldn’t be caught dead in a swim suit around that many people) Bowling (yea i look like an idiot trying to do this without falling over) Crossing my legs ( ha I wish) Team outings (limiited to what we can do because of me) Being happy (lets face it, not being able to do so many things at my age when i'm supposed to be having the time of my life was depressing) Feeling hopeless/helpless (watching the biggest loser knowing that I would never be able to do that and was doomed to be overweight forever) So there it is. Of course this isn't all reasons, but the ones I could think of at the time. I can say without a doubt, though its been hard, I couldn't be happier now that I've had the surgery and am almost half way to my goal. Some of the reasons I posted above are no longer an issue (ie. no more airplane seat belt extender!) I know that without the surgery I would never have gotten to where I am now. This has given me a new lease on life and I plan to take full advantage of it. Good luck to all on their journey, no matter what stage you may be at!

My hair loss started at 2 months out and is still going on at almost 4 months out. It comes out EVERYWHERE. Shower, brush, brushing my fingers through my hair. Its awful. I would say my hair volume has been cut in half since the loss started. I just hope it stops soon before i'm bald lol.

Hm, I dont know if i buy that, I dont see any studies that would suggest that. However I would say its better to have more than enough than too little. Also Casein is a slow digesting Protein where isopure is more like a quick shot. So even though i'm getting 50g in one setting 25g of it is slow digesting and keeps me full for 2 to 3 hours. Basically I get 50g for breakfast, probably 10g for lunch, 20g protein bar snack and 20g for dinner. So really i get 100g spread throughout the day. Even if my body only absorbs 30-40 or my morning 50g i'm still getting 80g per day. Though i can say without a doubt, you shouldnt drink a 50g Protein shake for breakfast, have a 20g protein bar for lunch, eat junk food for dinner and think "hey i got in my 70g of protein!" That much i know is true lol

Thanks. Yea I realized my slower loss during the last 2 months has had 1 thing in common. I was only getting 5-7hours of sleep every night. The last few days this month i've been getting at least 8 and the weight has started coming off again. I'm going to put every effort into getting at least 8 this whole month and see what kind of results i get. (keeping my fingers crossed!)

I replied to another post with this but thought others might find this useful also. I'm almost 4 months post op. I hate drinking Water but i force myself to drink 1, 16.9oz bottle every day. Then i drink the rest in Protein shake, decaff tea or crystal light. Protein is so important so you dont lose muscle. I drink for Breakfast every morning 1 scoop of chocolate Supreme 100% casein, 1 scoop of lIsopure mixed with 10oz of cold water using a Blender Bottle. That right there is 50grams of protein. On days that i exercise i also eat a Quest Protein Bar which is 20grams of protein, thats 70 out of the 80 my Dr recommends. So 10oz of water in my breakfast shake @ 8am 16.9oz of plain water before 11:30am when i eat lunch 16.9oz of decaff tea at 2:30-3pm finished by 4:30pm. Protein bar snack on the way home from work at 5pm. Exercise about 6pm for 30mins drinking about 8oz of water mixed with dinner about 7pm Finish drinking last 12oz of water/decaff tea/crystal light between 8pm & 10:30pm Now on days that I dont exercise I make up for the lack of the protein bar by eating more meats for lunch and dinner. Hope this helps give you an idea of how to keep up with your protein and water. Oh yea and at least 8 hours of sleep. I think i've finally had a light bulb go off and figured out when i get less than that my weight loss slows and stalls.

I hate drinking water also but i force myself to drink 1, 16.9oz bottle every day. Then i drink the rest in protein shake, decaff tea or crystal light. Protein is so important so you dont lose muscle. I drink for breakfast every morning 1 scoop of Chocolate Supreme 100% casein, 1 scoop of low carb dutch chocolate isopure mixed with 10oz of cold water using a blender bottle. That right there is 50grams of protein. On days that i exercise i also eat a quest protein bar which is 20grams of protein, thats 70 out of the 80 my Dr recommends. So 10oz of water in my breakfast shake @ 8am 16.9oz of plain water before 11:30am when i eat lunch 16.9oz of decaff tea at 2:30-3pm finished by 4:45pm. Protein bar snack on the way home from work at 5pm. Exercise about 6pm for 30mins drinking about 8oz of water mixed with Xtend during exercise Eat dinner about 7pm Finish drinking last 12oz of water/tea/crystal light between 8pm & 10:30pm Hope this helps give you an idea of how to keep up with your protein and water. Oh yea and at least 8 hours of sleep. I think i've figured out when i get less than that my weight loss slows and stalls.