prettysleeved1

This past Monday was my 10 week mark. Between that point and the last time I blogged, I lost 15 pounds. I realize that is abnormal for such a short period of time but I contribute it (at least in part) to finally curing myself of the constant constipation I've been dealing with since I had the surgery. This now puts my BMI in the high 20's (29.2). Now, I plan to get more serious about my sculpting goals although I still want to shed about 25 more pounds of fat. This week, the internet was flooded with a video of an anchorwoman who had received an e-mail from a man who said he rarely watched addressing her appearance (weight). Based on the letter, the man's approach was coming from one of concern with a mix of overstepping but it obviously bothered the anchorwoman enough to address it on the show. The video has now gone viral. The anchorwoman said a lot but she drew it back to bullying and letting children know that they should not let the opinions of other affect their self-worth. Most people say she ethered the anonymous man and I do think that it was clever to use her platform to address him....since she cared. In general, I thought the speech was ok. Do I think he bullied her? Not at all. An e-mail telling you that you should lose weight is not enough for me to say that the person is being bullied; especially amongst adults. I feel she did herself a disservice by acting as if she was bullied by this stranger. The facts are, had she just deleted his e-mail, we would never know about it. Now, we all know this guy's name and he has made further statements in the media since this video went viral. He's an attorney who has now gotten free advertising. His picture is up everywhere and he has "offered" to "help" her with her weight (sounds like a personal training business plug). Now, she's reading and hearing the comments from the general public that are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay worse than what the man said to her through e-mail. The anchorwoman and her husband went on GMA and her husband noted she has a thyroid problem. The anchorwoman stated that, "It's not about him anymore." The problem is that she was the one who made it about him. Anyone who has experience with a real bully knows that the worst thing you can give them is attention because they live off of it. Yet, this man never shared what he said to her in the media at all. It was her. I can only hope that as an adult, she is past the point of internalizing the unwanted comments of strangers (although doing a segment about it may mean she's not). If it weren't for her, this man would be a non-factor that very few of us even know exists. As wrong as it may be, it is a fact of life that everyone will not like you, be nice to you, find you attractive, think you are smart, or any other subjective measure. I feel that her activism would have been more productive by doing speeches in her local community at schools about bullying. Someone in her position could do a world of good by mentoring girls or young women who wish to go into the media arts and may be unsure about themselves. The way this played out seems like she was someone else resigning themselves to victimhood and it invited people to either pity her or lambaste her further; neither of those is preferable. Now, she's ready to move on and the rest of the people are still talking about her, him and it. Deepak Chopra said something that equates to this: what other people think of you is none of your business and when you try to make it your business, you'll perpetually be miserable (paraphrase). I think that applies to this situation.

You need to break a sweat at least 4 times each week for at least 30 minutes...more like 45 considering what you are trying to accomplish.

Last Wednesday, I had a 7 week check up. At that time, I was down nearly 60 pounds. Since last Wednesday, I have lost another 6 pounds. I am 8 weeks out and have lost about 75% of what I wanted to lose. For those who are wondering, I did not start out an ultra heavyweight. I started out with two goals: a weight goal and a sculpting goal. I am certain that the sculpting goal will take more time. My restriction hasn't really changed but there are times that I can eat more than I would expect I could. Sometimes, my stomach is fickle. My new obsession is the chicken tortilla soup I wrote about last time. I must have been in Whole Food's three times this week just to get that soup and those parmesan crisps. I'm addicted. I found the nutrition info online and it's not too bad at all. In a more technical vein, I have heard people on these various boards talk about how much protein one can absorb in a single setting. It usually comes up when people are drinking a protein shake that has 40+ grams of protein per serving. I think the magic number at which your body supposedly stops using ingested protein is 30g. This doesn't make any sense to me and here's why: First, our intestines are nearly 30 feet long. The process of digestion takes hours. While it's feasible to assume that we only digest so much per hour, it makes no sense to think that after our bodies have digested a certain amount of what we've eaten, no matter how much of it we've eaten, it just stops and won't process any more. Secondly, let's say one eats all of the 0.8g/kg of body weight that the RDA recommends for protein intake in 1 meal and another person ate the same amount of protein as the first person but spread theirs out so that they didn't go over the magical 30g. This means that when it's all said and done, the first person, who is eating the exact same amount of protein every day as the second person, would end up being protein deficient while the second person would be perfectly okay (from a protein perspective). The only difference I can see here is that the first person's body will take longer to digest and process the nutrients and the second person will have shorter digestion sessions. I'm sure that body weight, genetics and all of that other good stuff has a lot to do with it as well; not to mention goals (ie. muscle building vs. fat loss). It seems to me that the "limit" that a body can process and use in a single meal would be pretty much equivalent to what it can use in a whole day (more than 30g, I'm sure). There's an empirical study that actually appears to state that the older the individual, the better it is to do a large serving of protein for muscle retention than several small servings. There's also another that says that there was no difference in eating the bulk of the day's protein in one meal or spreading them out. The studies I'm referring to are both by Arnal et. al. : Journal of Nutrition- 2000- Vol.130(7) "Protein feeding pattern does not affect protein retention in young women." American Journal of Clinical Nutrition-1999-Vol 69(6) "Protein pulse feeding improves protein retention in elderly women." They're good studies and they are short reads. Do your own research but whatever happens, always stay vigilant.

Well, the day of surgery I was at the tail end of my period. Then, the next period was extremely heavy the first two days and then mellowed for the next two but that cycle was only 26 days.Normally mine are 30 days. I did notice that my ovulatory pain is worse now. I've only had one since surgery (scheduled to start tomorrow). I haven't noticed any PMS symptoms but the water weight gain is still as bad as it was. Nothing emotional though.

Today marks 7 weeks since I had my surgery. I did not weigh today because I have an appointment on Wednesday and will wait until then. I am still feeling great and have no complications to report. The first thing I want to make note of is post-exercise restriction. I have noticed that after exercise, it seems as if the sleeve constricts, as it is hard to even get a decent amount a water down within the 45 minutes (or so) following exercise. My concern is that water is so important before, during and after exercise and this issue temporarily hinders my ability to get in fluids when I need it most. I've noticed this over the past two weeks so I decided to wait until Wednesday to speak with my surgeon about it. In the meantime, the workaround that I use is to consume a sugar free Popsicle after working out simply for the sake of getting in some form of hydration until I can really drink water like I need to. I do not know why this happens to me but I can only guess that the muscle contractions that take place during and after exercise contribute to it. I do not do concentrated abdominal work but I do do work that use core muscles. I'll use that to segue into my next topic. I do not have a gym membership. I'm a very busy person and I hate traffic so at the end of the work day, I know that I will not go. I also refuse to wake up before the sun shines through my windows to work out so the gym is not an option for me. What has helped me more than anything is body weight exercises (squats, lunges, push-ups, etc), running and HIIT training. I also like using DVD's. For those of you who are like me (gym-avoidant), I thought I'd give a list of the DVD's I am currently using and that I like. They are: Lean Hot Body (Patrick Goudeau)- about an hour long and combines cardio and strength Peak 10 Cardio Strength (Michelle Dozois)- similar to Lean Hot Body but has levels that build into higher intensities Peak 10 Cardio Interval Burn (Michelle Dozois)- pure cardio Cross Fire (Cathe Friedrich)- HIIT that also uses weights Chiseled (Toby Massenburg)- strength training combined with high intensity cardio that involves a step bench I don't do these everyday. I like to mix it up, lest I get bored. However, I would highly recommend these videos because they are straightforward and non-cheesy. The next development is my use of almond milk. Let me just say that the transition to skim milk was very hard for me. I just don't believe in see-through milk. Further, the carb count of skim milk is not something that I am willing to acquiesce to at this point. This weekend, I started to miss my cappuccino so I had to try to come up with something that would do. At Whole Foods, I found some espresso and as I perused the diary section and could not find the low-carb milk I was used to so I took a chance and picked up some almond milk. I purchased the unsweetened vanilla variety that only has 40 calories for 8oz. and 2 grams of carbohydrates. Both of these figures have skim milk beat. I made a cappuccino with this milk and I must say, it was quite satisfactory. Almond milk smells wonderful and it's not see-through either. If you are lactose intolerant, this may be a viable option for you. I also used this milk when I made myself a hot chocolate using Ghirardelli's unsweetened cocoa powder (15 calories and 3 grams of carbs per serving). I know we are always told not to drink calories but the 55 calories in that cup of hot chocolate was so worth it. For the potato chip lovers, I also discovered that Whole Foods sells "chips" made only out of parmesan cheese. They come in 1 serving containers in the hot soup area. They are crispy like chips but only made out of parmesan cheese (I guess they bake them because they aren't oily). They are delicious and I ate them with my soup. Although they are only 1oz. servings, it took me a couple of days to eat them all. Anyway, that's all for now. Happy losing!

Depends. I read on another message board where the person's doctor took their liver size as an indication that they cheated on the pre-op diet and woke them up basically as a way to scold them for not adhering to the diet. She swore she didn't but the doctor felt like she did so he woke her back up. I'm thinking as the medical professional you would first try to find out how fatty their liver is to begin with so that you can determine a difference when you get them on the table or at least be able to estimate how much they'd need to lose to get the liver down to a size you can deal with but whatever...I can't get behind assumptive healthcare when you can see my insides with a scan before surgery and know what you need to know. Like the OP said, the doctor knew her weight so I feel he/she should have been more proactive about estimating how much she'd need to lose beforehand. In my personal opinion, surgeons should have a provision in the consent that they'll do an open procedure if the liver is too big to access the area laproscopically. That makes more sense than putting someone under, being disappointed by their liver size and waking them up when they can just do an open procedure. I don't believe that the liver issue is always a matter of safety when there is the open option. If your surgeon is skilled to do it either way, why postpone it when you already have the camera in their gut? I find it highly questionable and "unkind." I want to know what will happen if he/she goes back in and the liver is still not something they can manage? At that point, I'd find another surgeon. Unless, the OP cheated, in which case the doctor proved his/her point.

Because not everyone who is overweight/obese has the same problems as others normally do. Apparently, your doctor just has a different set of standards. He may also been trying to prove a point.

There are ways to check for a fatty liver. Low-carb diets also help shrink livers and from my understanding, the process starts fairly soon after undertaking (around 48 hours). I've never had fatty liver so I don't know all the particulars but during my pre-op, they checked my liver levels (through blood tests) and I also got a body scan. Maybe the OP's, doctor did not do that.

You may just have a longer stomach. Seriously. People have anatomical differences that matter. Also, what exactly did you eat? I had more real restriction when I started eating more dense foods like poultry and beef.

Did you have to do a pre-op diet?

Physiological adaptation perhaps?

That's too bad that they want to replace it. Are they saying that's the only way?

To answer your question, yes. There's a lady on YT that is at goal and in maintenance for almost 2 years that admits to not exercising. It's known physiologically that 75-80% of your weight is based on diet anyway. Hence the people on TLC who are 800lbs, can't move, and manage to lose 60 pounds in a month just from being on a 1200 calorie hospital diet. I had the ACL and Meniscus tear, and Femur break all in one event and I had surgery in 2003 and have resumed full activity. The surgeon described my knee as "debris" before the surgery. I was able to return to full activity after 8 weeks of rehab. Unless you have something else going on with your knee, I don't see why an ACL/Meniscus problem would disqualify you from activity. The other stuff, I have no experience with.

Do whatever you need to do to find out what's up and get treatment.

Depends. I have UHC and had my approval letter less than a week after the office submitted my paperwork. I didn't have to call the insurance company. Some people have insurance companies that take forever +1. In that case, I'd wait a week because calling a day after they send it off is pointless, quite frankly; especially if they sent it by a method that is slow (ie. US mail, courier/messenger service). After 7 business days, they should have at least received it and then you can go from there.