gmanbat

I believe it is a reasonable thought. If you can get control of yourself, lose the weight, and keep it off you don't need the sleeve. I could not. I had to have the tool. Getting the sleeve did not get rid of my fat, eating less and eating good food did. I do have more to offer my family now. Was it a crutch for me? Yes, indeed, I was broken and needed a crutch. Am I ashamed? For what, being human? No, I am proud of myself for taking decisive action and getting my health back. Now I have a firm hold on myself, I am exercising and actually enjoying it! The positives granted by having this slim body have neutralized the emotional need that I had before that caused me to cram. I no longer eat to escape life, I eat to empower life.

Egg drop soup came in pretty early in my recovery. My local Chinese buffet gave me a quart for a few bucks. I used them later for a take home buffet trip which we munched on for days. I love that place! The staff was very kind.

For all of you guys just recovering. Record your ordeals in livid detail in a diary. When someone gives you the "you took the easy way out" nonsense make them read it....then eat it.

Fantastic, Iggychic! Overweight is a suburb of healthy weight, you'll be there soon!

My daughter is not nearly as overweight as we were. She only needs to lose about 30 pounds. She has made progress lately exercising with me on walks with kettle bells. She is on a "not eat too much" diet now which is working. She has lost and gained the same weight over and over like most of us. It has been many years since she was at her ideal weight. Diet pills, expanding stomach fillers, maximum fiber, etc. there are a lot of ways to try and conquer the fat ogre. I wouldn't expect anything to be as effective as WLS but getting reasonably close would be great. Anyone get anywhere with the ones I mentioned?

My beloved daughter, who lives with me, is proud of her mother's and my weight loss. Her mother had Roux N Y and is 2 pounds from goal and so am I. My daughter has had weight struggles for years. I told her the operations were just tools, the reduction in eating is what took the weight off. If she just eats the same thing her mother and I eat she would get the same results. She sees that as a road to insanity. The elephant in the room is named hunger. It resides in the brain emotionally and in the stomach physically. I am a stubborn and strong-willed man. I could not conquer it before the sleeve. I can think of no other system that constantly monitors your intake like the restrictive sleeve. What a welcome, life-saving nag! Can anyone think of a method or combination of methods that could come near to the powerful ally we have in the sleeve without an operation?

I brought up that tactic when I first got here. I think it is an eating disorder only if it is taken to extreme. Bolimia is cronic throwing up after gourging, a big problem. Your idea is just to get a bit of flavor but not suffer the calorie consequences? I did a bit of it but eventually got grossed out by the spitting. Could be a childhood aversion to spitting brought on by watching my uncle spit his tobaccy juice into a jar.

Yup!

When I hear comments like your skinny co-worker made I feel pity for them for the lack of dimension they experience in that shallow world they live in. To make herself look cruel and possibly injure someone over butt size shows both immaturity and insecurity at a desperate level.

Ahh, yes, the quick eye-avert. Standard male duck blind for lower brain behavior. I have to fight taking the second look all the time, can't help taking the first look and don't feel guilty (as long as it isn't too long. ) At least he didn't stare on regardless, disrespectful pig style.

It is normal. I was a huge chugger before the surgery, afterward the little pill cups of Water they required me to drink seemed like a lake. When I started to post I was the first one. A number of folks jumped into help ahead of me and said what I was going to. That's the nature of the coolness of the sleevers here. Gas can hurt like thunder. I can't tell you when it will go away but it will. Somehow walking helps it work it's way out like IMAbear said. Try the GasX, couldn't hurt.

I'd take a nice, comfy couch any day over a little pillow that's attached to a Roseanne Barr mouth.

Ya, I got to feeling guilty about taking "the easy way out". So I decided to make up for it in the other things I do. Now, instead of taking the interstate exit, I drive through the ditch, through the fence, over the field, and up on the state road. If it weren't for the dead cow, the lawsuit, and the arrest I would feel a lot better about myself.

Your DeLorean is fueled up, back you go! Can you hear Alanis Morissette yet?

Sometime more fiber and water clears out the clog. If you're a goer the scale goes lower.

In what other human endeavor is taking "the hard way out" better just because it is harder? Do you program your Garmin to take the hardest route, the one more likely to result in you not getting to your destination, because it is "more noble"? Thinking is hard for those that hate to do it. Even if the sleeve was the easy way out, which it is not, calling it the easy way out without any logic, argument, or justification and out of pure prejudice is the easy way out!

I learned the hard way about Water. Before I was sleeved I went to the emergency room on 2 separate occasions and spent good money only to find out I was dehydrated. Dizziness and weakness were pretty intense and I thought it was something more, my normally high blood pressure dropped dangerously low. The best thing to do is set out your water for the day, at least in your mind, and drink it. You need water to get rid of fat, too. You may have to carry a bottle around with you all day and trickle it in, drinking it all at once is not optimal. It's a small price to pay for the strength and weight loss afforded by staying wet and wild.

Lack of sufficient Water is the main culprit, insufficient Vitamins and not enough food also plays in. I had many bouts of fatigue during my rapid unloading period. I decided that if I am tired anyway I might as well make it for a purpose. So I started hitting the exercise with a passion. I still had bouts of fatigue but less often and mostly because of the exercise. The muscle mass and strength gained makes the rest of my life more enjoyable.

You are pretty close to being just out of surgery it seems. That swollen stomach doesn't want anything down there but you have to be the boss. It will get better. You are doing the right thing but you must not be distracted while you drink. Just wet your mouth over and over with tiny sips, the Water will get down there. It is against a lifetime of conditioning to eat and drink small. Concentrate. It is somewhat like going to one of those goofy countries that have cars with the wheel on the wrong side and folks drive on the wrong side of the road. I spent 6 months in South Africa and when I came back I nearly had a head-on collision because I got accustomed to bizzaro world. :ph34r:

Ya, I bragged to my wife about my cow analogy and she reminded me about the 4 stomachs and all the regurgitation they do. Not one of my more brilliant literary moments it seems My wife is the queen of headshrinkers.

Chewing is a big deal with this sleeve thingy. Long chewing makes for better tolerance for the food you eat and also makes for more time between bites and gives your little bananer belly a chance to deal with the previous bite. We must change from anacondas into cows.

How nice of you to get sleeved on my birthday! I think folks are saying it's the day the world will end, too. If the Mayans were so smart why are they extict? Anyway, the best advice I would give is give yourself time to heal. Don't panic if you can't even drink a thimble full of Water at first. That kind of freaked me out. I was a guy that could easily down 2 large pitchers of beer and then go out for late night junk. You are not going to starve or die of dehydration. Especially not with those IV's in you. Hit the button a lot, let the morphine do it's job, no shame.

Well done, Bawse52! Same here on the weight gain. Got down to 2 pounds from goal and now I'm 5 pounds up from that. The only change is that I stepped up the exercise. Has to be muscle gain. My clothes continue to get too big, I have to replace several pair of recently purchased, not cheap pants, ....what was I thinking?

I have yet to post in the chat room but I have been there a number of times. It reminds me of the party line* my family had when I was a kid and lived on the farm in Iowa,(except more interesting). When I had absolutely nothing to do I lightly picked up the phone and listened to what the farmers were saying. Never anything worth hearing unless you're into talk about the best feces to use for fertilizer. * party line: more than one customer shared the same line. You had different rings so you could tell when someone was calling you.

Ya, I like telling folks about it if the situation is right. I am not at all ashamed of getting sleeved and I am glad to share if the hearers aren't jerks. Trolls exist not only on forums and I hate to feed em. You know, when you are blessed by something or someone you get an itch to tell folks. I guess it's a missionary complex. Way to go, Lissa.