TheGamer

I've only tried stevia once, but I remember it being touted as an "all natural" sweetener. To me, it had the worst kind of aftertaste and I haven't tried it again. Sucralose is born and raised in the lab, as far as I know. I figure, though, out of all the chemicals I've ever ingested, one more doesn't hurt

When I lost weight my feet got smaller, too. Not in terms of length, but overall, yes! I wear birks and used to have them on the last hole and they'd still dent my feet (water retention). Now, I've taken them in 2-3 notches and they feel just fine.

Sucralose (the stuff in splenda that makes it taste like sugar) is good. However, Splenda does have carbs in it. Each tiny packet is 1g of carb. So a packet here or there is not so bad, but if you're like me and you're using it to sweeten just about *everything* you drink in a day (I love tea!) that can add up to an extra 15-20 carbs a day. Of course, that goes for any artificial sweetener that is powdered (equal, sweet n low). What I do is I use liquid sucralose, which has no carbs at all. You can get it through Amazon under the brand EZSweetz, or elsewhere on the internet. Just do a search for liquid sucralose and you'll find tons of it. I buy the EZSweetz in the 3 pack that runs about $20 (yeah, it's pricy >.>) but each drop is equal to 2 teaspoons of sugar in terms of sweetness and It takes me a month or more to go through even one bottle.

If it makes you feel any better, I'm going "Gawd, I wish I was that skinny..." and lamenting that for me, that's another 70 pounds away

Nearly a pound a day is very good I lose about 4 pounds a week, now that I'm a few months out. Remember, it's not about how much you can lose how fast. Make sure that you're being good to yourself and doing the healthy thing and the weight will come off, regardless

I worried a lot about that initially. Every time the scale didn't budge I got frustrated. Then, I started tracking my weight daily (or almost daily - I only record the days I lose weight ). What I found is that my body, for whatever reason, likes to lose in fits and starts. I'll lose for a few days, then I won't lose a day or two, then lose some more, then not lose. By learning what my body does, it took away that "I'm not losing anything!" fear so that if, like yesterday, I didn't lose anything, I knew either today or tomorrow, I'd drop some weight.

You'll need to work closely with your doctor, obstetrician, and surgeon's office (bariatric coordinator/nutritionist). Of primary importance will be getting your (and the baby's) nutritional needs met, even though you've been sleeved. I would get in touch with them right away.

One thing you'll hear a lot during your journey is that this is a tool, not a fix. It's entirely true. It will be what you make of it. You can use it to lose weight and get to your goals, or you can sabotage yourself. The sleeve doesn't fix food issues, it only restricts the amount (not type!) of food you can consume, so we still have to make good choices. I don't have the stats off the top of my head, but VSG does have a decent success rate, even with limited data. VSG is a relatively new procedure, surgically speaking, and so there's less information on the long term effects for this particular type of surgery than others. There are a lot of good, honest (sometimes brutally) posts about the day to day struggles we have dealing with our new lives and how our old ones are sometimes difficult to lay to rest.

I know this sounds silly, but some of the items I own that are elastic banded have been great. I seem to get a lot more use out of them than the others because they're usually designed to be flowing in the first place, so that extra loss isn't quite so noticeable. I can pull in the elastic a bit and then they're fitting again (for a little while!). Other than that, I'm trying to limit myself to one pair of fitted pants per size. I haven't had to worry about shirts... yet... but there are a lot of things I wore immediately before surgery that I just can't any more because they've become indecent

There's no harm in going out and trying things on, unless you hate that sort of thing (personally I don't like trying on clothes ). I think your family is just excited and want to go have a girl's day, perhaps? You'll get an idea for the styles you like. Then, just hold off until much closer to your date to actually get a dress because we all know if you get something now there's absolutely no way it's going to fit in 4 months!

My favorite RTD is GNC's Total Lean meal replacement. It's got 25g of protein and only 6 carbs (2g sugar). I'm not a breakfast person, so I always drink my breakfast. I literally have an entire cabinet full of protein powders and drinks that I couldn't stomach after surgery. So much wasted money

Bring a firm pillow or other support for your stomach. Comfy comfy clothes, too. I took a sun dress with me (not so bad in October) just so I wouldn't have anything around my midsection at all. Stock up on GasX strips, too!

Tons. It really made it easier to move. I had especially bad inflammation in my shoulders and would have severe pain because of prior injury. Without it, I wouldn't have been able to function if it came to lifting things over my head.

I was taking indomethacin twice a day, 50mg.

I was sleeved on 10/22 and have had just a great time. My only real post-surgery complication was esophageal spasms due to stricture between the stomach and esophagus that hindered me being able to get off liquids and on to eating solids consistently. Once they stretched out the opening I've been eating real food and loving it. I'm sticking close to my dietary requirements, eating mostly white meat and fish, with a good supply of dairy and I've started including at least a serving of vegetables once a day. I am down from a 32 pant to a loose 26 and am fitting in 2x shirts down from 5x. While I'm still on my blood pressure medication, it's down from about 140/100 to 100/60 at my last doctor visit, so I expect I'll be off it soon. I'm off my joint inflammation medication, too. I'm losing steady at about 4-5 pounds a week, and will probably be down almost 100 from my starting point of 383 by the end of January. I'm very close to being under 300 for the first time in almost 8 years. This was the best thing I ever did.

Make sure that it's not: head hunger, acid, or gas. I learned the hard way that esophageal spasms feel just like OMG STARVING hunger. My surgeon actually recommended Zegerid over Prilosec because Zegerid has sodium bicarbonate that helps with absorption.

I find that most of my differences in weighing in at various places (doctor, surgeon, home) has to do with one of a few things - how much clothing I'm wearing, what type of clothing I'm wearing, and how much I've had to eat or drink in a given day. I use my home one for personal tracking and don't really worry one way or the other about what I'm being weighed at in different places.

Try hot chocolate, if you're a chocolate person. This is what I would do. I would get two packets of sugar free cocoa and two scoops unflavored powder (Nectar). I would put a little water in a blender (enough to cover the tines, maybe 1/4c?) and dump the powders in and make kind of a syrup base that I would then add hot water to, about 10 oz or so (I like strong chocolate ). For my first month or so, it was my major protein source and my go-to Breakfast drink.

I actually stood up to my PCP at one point. Every time I'd go in, he'd remark about the weight, suggest diet, exercise, Weight Watchers, you name it. I told him that I'd tried it all and if that had worked, I wouldn't be fat. I told him that until *I* brought it up, my weight wasn't there for discussion. I started my WLS work without ever involving him, only getting him involved when the paperwork required it. I made an appointment, took it in, and made it perfectly clear that this was my chosen route and I expected him to sign off on it. Now, several months later, he's actually learning about the procedure and I sense that, at least in my case, he's understanding that his advice isn't right for everyone. Last time I went in I was only down 40 (it's almost 80 now!) and he actually hugged me and said he was proud. If you don't have a PCP that's understanding or at least willing to get in line with what you want, find a new one.

Just remember if you're going to add protein (unflavored or not) to anything hot, that the temperature isn't above 120-140 because otherwise the protein gets *NASTY*.

As soon as I was off pain meds, I was cleared to drive. A suggestion, get a small pillow to put between the seatbelt and your stomach. It really irritated me the first few driving days.

To help with the kitchen issue at work, keep a supply of sleeve-friendly treats around. I keep cocoa roasted almonds in 100 calorie packs in my desk and when I just want something to munch on, I eat 5-10 of them. It gets me away from the temptation and gives me something to eat that's relatively healthy.

I took two weeks, mostly to allow myself time to heal and to adjust to the new way of doing things. Week two was where I really started to feel more like myself and was able to plan out how I wanted to tackle going back to work, which I don't think I could have done my first week.

I still enjoy the food porn, personally. While I'm not eating it, I can still enjoy it mentally. I have a lifetime of knowing what all those things taste like, and surgery didn't make me hate food. I find that I now get a lot of enjoyment out of how something smells, even if I have no plan to eat it (*cough* CHOCOLATE). If it's a trigger, then yeah, it's good to steer away. But post op, I find that because my diet is so relatively bland (turkey, chicken, fish, veggie, dairy) I enjoy the idea of these things that I won't eat. I still enjoy a well constructed and presented meal.

I don't think 4-5 sips of a drink are enough to cause that, but that's just my guess. It hasn't had the time to move through your digestive system, if that makes any sense. Perhaps your body is taking it as a signal that you're finally eating more so that it better make some room? I'm not really a digestive system expert, though.