Miriam

Oh my gosh! We must be twins! I also have piles of clothes albeit with a slightly larger range of sizes (around 12-24, but only very few 12s). I'm already down to 20, and starting to move towards an 18. Almost as much fun as rediscovering old favorites is emptying out my closet of the clothes that are too big for me so I can GIVE THEM AWAY - not stuff them in storage for when I regain the weight. No matter how well my diet's gone in the past, I've always kept some bigger clothes somewhere on the side, because I somehow knew that the weight would eventually come back. At the same time, I was optimistic enough to save all those smaller size clothes. Now I'm really happy I did that!

Congrats! Keep up the great weight loss!

One more food suggestion: Very smoothly chopped liver salad - was on my doc's list of mashed foods and one of the first I ate - I figured that between the Protein and Iron, that was a good food choice. (Not to mention that I happen to love liver!)

You poor thing! I really feel for you - no wonder you feel terrible. Good luck with the correction - hope you are on to solids real soon 'cause they'll make you feel SO much better.

Thanks for posting this. Although overall I'm doing well (8th week post-op), I have had some slip-ups, relatively small 'cause how much can I eat already, but they do worry me because I see them as a regression to my old behavior. So I can definitely identify with what you're going through. As another poster wrote, recognizing the problem is the first step toward fixing it. So good luck and please continue to post any enlightenment you have along your weight loss journey!

I second that! Beautifully written and expresses the feelings that I believe that everyone on this forum shares.

You're right - I don't like your answer :-) But the truth is that I know that I would NEVER reach the weight you've reached through regular dieting, so reaching goal after 17 months is still a lot better than never. I do hope that I'll get to size 14 without TOO much difficulty - it's what happens after that that I have real difficulty imagining. (The last time I was below that size was when I was in my teens...) So I will remember your story and use it to stay optimistic that even if the weight doesn't come off as fast as I would like, it will come off eventually.

Yes, I'd also love to know how long that took you. Thanks so much for posting, because even with a great initial weight loss, I can't help but having this niggling feeling that my weight loss will suddenly stop or slow down to a trickle. So every success story I read really spurs me on!

Yes, we can! Best of luck to you!

I'm 5'2" - started at 225 and am currently around 185 seven weeks post-op. The difference is already amazing, and I still have a while to go (I've set myself a pretty ambitious weight goal). I have no doubt that you'll love your sleeve - it's the best thing I've ever done, period.

Funny, because when I came in for my first doctor's / NUT's appointment pre-op, I was told to write down my goal weight (which is higher than my current goal weight - let's see if I can make it there) and was told by the NUT that that was unrealistic because statistically, VSG patients only lose around 75% of their overweight. Well - who cares about statistics??? I care about my body and will do whatever I can to reach MY personal goal - at the goal my NUT mentioned based on statistics (!), I would be around a size 12, and I'd like to hope that I can do better than that (obviously not right away but eventually). Of course, if I do end up a size 12 I won't be too upset - it's still way better than a 24, but the bottom line is that it's my body and I have to feel comfortable with it, not my NUT. So same goes for you in the opposite direction - you do what feels right for you, not what your NUT or surgeon thinks...

As others have said, if we could have lost all that weight and kept it off just by dieting, we would have done so previously... I, for one, had basically given up on dieting before making the decision to undergo surgery. I had already come to the conclusion that it was hopeless because even at my most motivated, when I lost 40 lbs. over half a year with a really intense low-carb diet and major exercising, I not only couldn't get beyond that, but couldn't even keep that weight off for long - eventually I gained it all back and then some, as I'm sure just about everyone on this forum experienced time and again pre-op. I had no doubts at all that surgery was my last hope. The only time that doubts emerged was actually AFTER the surgery, when I was trying to deal with all the pain and thinking to myself that I should have just dieted - that would have been much easier. But even then I knew that that was stupid, because there's no way I could have done it. Now, around 7 weeks post-op, I can say with even greater certainty that this sleeve has changed and saved my life.

Like cookie, I was allowed soft foods (fish, chicken, Pasta, etc.) in weeks 3-4 and full solids from week 5 and on. That worked fine for me. In addition, my doctor also told me at the 2 week visit that I could lift anything under 20 lbs. or so. But you know what? I couldn't and told him so! Even a tiny bit of lifting caused me terrible pain, and that lasted till about week 6 (even now, week 7, some lifting is beyond me). So doctors are not always right ... As for soda, is he serious??? Everything I've read suggests that soda will stretch the sleeve - why would anyone want to risk that?

My NUT also told me it was okay to have drinks with sugar (without going overboard, of course) during the liquid phase, and I saw that that a few cups of tea with a teaspoon or two of sugar, or a few cups of hot cocoa a day really made a difference in my energy levels. I was getting in so few calories that I figured that the sugar wouldn't make a difference in the weight loss, and I was right - both my doctor and NUT said that the amount I lost was well above average for someone my size. So I would give that some serious consideration, and yes, also the mushies as others have recommended (I was already eating mushies in my second week, as per my NUT's recommendation, with soft foods in my third week). Here's hoping that you feel MUCH better soon!

Hey, I was sleeved exactly a month before you (Feb 29) and went through the EXACT same thing. I was actually surprised by how hard it hit me because I thought that I'd prepared really well (read books on the subject, gone to forums such as this one, etc.). But I think that for all of us, food has been such a major part of our life for so long that it would be strange not to mourn. At this point, this issue doesn't bother me at all - on the contrary, my appetite is actually smaller than it was a few weeks ago, I think. So don't worry - this is absolutely normal and will pass.

Glad to hear that there's been an improvement - I think that while most of us are taking baby steps in our recovery, you're taking extra-extra-extra-small baby steps. But I have no doubt that you WILL eventually catch up to the rest of us - it may just be a longer journey than most...

Ouch. Sorry to hear that. But from what I've read, some sleeves do take more time to heal than others. So it may be that in a couple of weeks or a month from now, you will be able to hold down meat. Don't give up!

Yeah, four weeks out and still weak - some days better and some days worse. But if you've lost 25kg in 3 weeks - that's an awful lot and probably one of the reasons for your weakness. But the longer I am after surgery, the better I feel overall, so don't worry - there is hope!

Hey, I had my surgery on the same day as you! (but no hernia repair) I think my sleeve is pretty restrictive, too (I can still only eat about 1 tablespoon of food a meal, 4 times a day (my nut wants 5), but nothing like yours. I did throw up a lot in the beginning, but once my nut taught me how to eat (not sure why they couldn't do that before I left the hospital - had to wait till my 2 1/2 week appointment for that), I've mostly managed to eat without problems. The funny thing is that although I was never much into fish (at some point I wouldn't touch most types of fish), that's about all I eat nowadays! For some reason, meatballs are just not sitting well with me, and chicken tastes too bland. (I used to eat 2 chicken / turkey / meat meals a day before my sleeve!) But other than that, doing fine. So I'm glad to hear they found the problem and doing better. Good luck with your weight loss!

Yeah, I feel the same way, especially after reading posts by people who are barely losing or who are stalled forever. I know it can happen at any point, but as long at the scale keeps moving downwards and I'm feeling good, I'm not going to run to change anything. Well, I wish you a continued and continual terrific weight loss!

Close to four weeks. And you?

Wow! Your story is really inspirational - congratulations!

I'm pretty much the same. I do get head hunger, but actual hunger, not at all. And yeah, the tiny amounts of food I eat are ridiculous. I generally have to remind myself that it's time to eat - something that's NEVER happened to me in the past! My NUT wanted me to eat 5 times a day, but I just can't get in more than 4 of those small meals a day. But so long as I'm feeling OK and losing, I'm not going to complain. I must admit that being a food lover, sometimes I do miss the experience of eating. But no regrets whatsoever.

I have to admit that I don't have this issue at all. I know that as a high-volume eater, I used to eat a lot more than any of my other family members (and sometimes more than all of them combined!), so there's no reason their eating should bother me. I just make jokes about how many leftovers there are nowadays with me pretty much out of the picture (quite true, it's ridiculous how much food I used to consume).

Thanks so much for this inspirational update! As a new sleever, this really strengthened my belief that I'll be experiencing at least some of the same soon...