VSG AJH

Replying to this thread again because this was a topic I was very interested in pre-op. Just wanted to update that I'm two weeks post-op, and I'm still successfully nursing my six-month-old baby. I cleared my plans in advance with his pediatrician, and I was told that I should have no problem continuing to nurse since my Protein and Fluid levels would be that of (or better than) other nursing moms. I nursed in the hospital parking lot pre-op, then waited 24 hours post-op to let anesthesia totally clear my system. I did take pain meds forabout 4 days when I came home, but I took liquid hydrocodone, the same pain med they sent me home with after my c-section. My PPI (Protonix) is also fine for nursing moms. I noticed about a two-day dip in my supply, but I was constipated at the same time, so maybe a little low on Water. Since, I've been extremely careful to get all of my water in, even if I'm still sipping at bedtime. I take both Multivitamins each day, and I take in 75-100g of protein daily.

LV, while I love to see your before/afters, I'm honestly SO glad you never post anything like that, because even pre-op (surgery tomorrow!), I know I'll never be "cured" from this obesity. The physical ailments stemming from my obesity might go away, but the demons that drove me to overindulge will be over huffing and puffing in a corner. I'm buttoning down for a year or so of what I anticipate will be a significant amount of upheaval and internal chaos, and if/when I reach the point that my spare 120 dissipates, I honestly doubt I'll be all, "yay, I'm thin," but rather, "yay, I have the upper hand -- for now."

Replying to this thread again because this was a topic I was very interested in pre-op. Just wanted to update that I'm two weeks post-op, and I'm still successfully nursing my six-month-old baby. I cleared my plans in advance with his pediatrician, and I was told that I should have no problem continuing to nurse since my Protein and Fluid levels would be that of (or better than) other nursing moms. I nursed in the hospital parking lot pre-op, then waited 24 hours post-op to let anesthesia totally clear my system. I did take pain meds forabout 4 days when I came home, but I took liquid hydrocodone, the same pain med they sent me home with after my c-section. My PPI (Protonix) is also fine for nursing moms. I noticed about a two-day dip in my supply, but I was constipated at the same time, so maybe a little low on Water. Since, I've been extremely careful to get all of my water in, even if I'm still sipping at bedtime. I take both Multivitamins each day, and I take in 75-100g of protein daily.

I've been trying to reply from my phone for days, but keep getting booted off the app. :/ 186.1 this week. Up and down in the same weight range. Boo. Not ready for maintenance!

I switched from creamer to adding part of a Premier Protein shake- the entire carton is 160 cals and I use about a third to half in a day to sweeten my beverages and get Protein to boot.

Perspective ladies... yes, it is hard and frustrating but I fought hard to try (and fail) to stay under 300#. Okay, I can't seem to get down below my goal weight of 158 and down to the 140s where I want to be...boohoo. My butt doesn't fit my size 2/4s pants but my 6/8s are fine. I am being very gentle with myself, treating myself like my friends do - which is - I am perfectly fine the way I am.
If you can't fast readily, don't torture yourself. I have had a hard time having 500 cal days, but i have plenty of 600-700 cal days and I focus on making them low carb too. I am not losing weight fast... but slowly inching down. That is the reality ... and it seems to get more real the further out from surgery!

I've been reading this thread and lurking in the background. I am trying to do this fasting but find that I feel ravenously hungry and end up snacking myself into oblivion. Sigh. Also trying to stay very low carb. I find the low carb thing difficult at times but not as hard for me as the fasting. For some reason it makes me feel very fatigued. Does anyone else experience this? Maybe it's just not for me. I am very frustrated with myself and my inability to lose the holiday weight gain. Just seems like I never had the surgery sometimes except I'm fighting from a much lower weight than before. Other than that it's just as frustrating.

Why can't the rest of the world just go on a diet with us so that we aren't constantly being forced to watch people eat cake, Cookies, candy, chips, french fries, and my personal worse downfall, ice cream.

FYE, I feel your pain. One that occurs to me when I'm eating so little and bouncing/maintaining is that if I didn't have those fast days, I'd be gaining! I also think that sometimes our bodies do not behave predictably.

No change for me this week. Boo.

Still up and down the same few pounds. 187.4 today. I'm sure great at maintaining! Would just like to get to goal weight first. :/

I came in at 584 calories, 24 carbs, and 61g Protein, and I've lost nothing. In fact, I've gained a pound this week. Sigh. My husband ate similarly to me this week (except more in quantity on non-fast days), and he lost 8 pounds. I'm really trying not to be discouraged, but I swear, it feels like I've not even had weight loss surgery. I'm not throwing in the towel or anything, and I intend to remain conscious about my eating even here on these non-fast days. I'm just feeling very frustrated that I can't be one of those bariatric patients that "eats everything in moderation" and posts pictures of themselves on Instagram eating chicken and waffles at goal weight only 7 months post-op while I still pick at my Protein laden salad and track all the details of everything I ingest, and still have 50 pounds to go at almost 14 months post-op.
I also feel very frustrated that my surgeon's office isn't much help in this area. They promoted themselves as the weight loss experts as I went through all the training and education pre-op, and now that I can't seem to lose here post-op, they have no real advice. I've been told to drop calories, raise calories, do intermittent fasting, never do intermittent fasting, eat more carbs, cut carbs, etc. So much conflicting information from my personal set of experts, and I feel like if I knew the answers or knew what to do, I would have been able to lose the weight without weight loss surgery. So frustrating.
That said, I really do wonder if the calories are too much for me. I was hitting 1000 calories a day very soon after surgery, and was bumped up to 1200 calories a day before 6 months. My weight loss slowed significantly at about 4.5 months post-op when that calorie count increased, and when I asked the NUT about it, I was advised I would go into "starvation mode," etc. The only other real weight I've lost since then was another 10 pounds in June when I developed sepsis after getting an infection in my foot after stepping on a piece of glass. I spent almost a week not eating anything, being sustained entirely by IV fluids and large doses of antibiotics. I lost then, and I've not really lost since. A handful of pounds in tiny little increments, but not ten more. Not in all these months.
I know I've read of others who have to eat fewer than 1000 calories a day to lose weight, usually around the 800 daily calorie range. I'm wondering if I might be one of those people, and I'm absolutely overwhelmed at the thought. I know I can find plenty of things that keep me in that 800 calorie range, but the thought of calculating so carefully for however long it takes to lose these last 50 -- I swear, I could cry. Anyway, thank you for letting me vent. If you have some opinions, or some words of advice from your teams of experts, I'd love to hear them.

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I netted 571 calories on my Thursday fast day yesterday. I found it to be much more difficult than the Monday fast day. I think that's because on Mondays, my three littlest kids spend the day with a sitter, so I'm not dealing with their meals and Snacks all day. I find I'm far less tempted to snack when I'm not doling out Snacks constantly. I also manually cut and hauled tree branches for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon, so my carbs were a bit higher than they were on Monday, where I spent the entire day running errands. I did 900 calories the day before per @@MichiganChic suggestion, and I'm down almost 2 pounds for my first full 5:2 week. I wish it were more since I'm still up about three pounds from my pre-Christmas weight, but a loss is a loss, and I'm happy for it. Thankful for it. Fingers crossed this week my body decides it LOVES this program and drops 6 or 7 pounds. Haha!

I just weighed this morning and after two fast days and pretty good non-fast days I'm down 4 pounds over the last two weeks. I'll take it! I'm being honest- not nearly as easy this time as last but I'm thinking it's because I allowed myself to eat so much junk and really "graze" all day.
On a good note, though, I am enjoying the taste of REAL food so much. Veggies, a few fruits I allow myself now and again are delightful. ????. I'm especially on a cabbage craving kick right now. Ha!
Although, I had a piece of birthday cake for my Grand's 10th BD last night I had included in calories so came in about 650. High for a fast day for me but so much better than previous weeks! It's all good.
Hope everyone has a lovely weekend. I am going on a wknd jaunt with my YAYA girls. There are five of us long time/lifetime friends and we've done MLK wknd for several years now.
Hopefully, it will be decent food wise since most of us are trying to be health conscious. Just a "pj", veg out weekend but I hope to get some walking in.

@@Queen of Crop great job! I agree it is such a good feeling to be able to do and succeed at it! Funny how people survive just fine without all the junk food and packaged/prepared food we have at our disposal here. I try to avoid a lot of it, but it does work its way in here.
I've had a stellar week. Came in right around 500 calories both fast days, and right around 1000 on the feast days. I GAINED 1.5 since last Friday. Sigh. I was surprised because my clothes are looser and I look like my abdomen is about 6 inches thick from a side view. My arms feel tight though, and I know my legs are still swollen, but I really did expect to drop a little. Now I'm remembering why I weigh this much.....because it won't come off! I think the 1000 calories must be the culprit. I have said over and over that I have to go below 900 to lose. I guess I thought the 500 calorie days and intermittent fasting would help, but maybe not. I can't exercise yet either, so that doesn't help either. Maybe I need a 4:3 plan lol!
I'm hoping you are all doing well and have better results than me!

fasting.... caved for popcorn and a small piece of panatone.... but think I should be able to come in around 600... Ill take it!

@@VSG AJH I know what you mean - my reality wasn't what I wanted to hear either. It really brings the words "it's a tool" (in reference to our sleeves) into crystal clear focus. No magic going on here, just hard work. But so worth it to me! However, at least the work pays off, now. This is WAY easier that with no sleeve. Also, as @@CowgirlJane mentioned, no shaking from hunger. I had that my whole life and I LOVE that it's gone. I pray it never comes back.
So my weight is sort hanging where it's been since last summer. I got lots of the bloat off, but still have lots of Fluid in my legs and a little in my back. Low calorie and low carb is really helping to keep Fluid retention down. I look thinner through the torso than I ever have, so I guess I'm losing some of the swelling from my August surgery. That didn't take long at all, lol. Who knows, maybe I'm actually 15 pounds lighter without the Water weight??? JK, but it does kind of drive me crazy.
So I came in under 1000 calories yesterday, and it was more difficult than usual. It's been very stressful at work, and I'm a stress eater! I can't believe that after all this time, it's my first response to think to eat. While I didn't give in, I was a little shocked about how much that felt like real, physical hunger. Today is a fast day. Wish me luck - I have a stressful job and there is no reason to think today will be any easier. I'll let you know how it goes.
Keep up the good work, ladies. I love to come to this thread and see how you are all doing! You help keep me motivated.

Wow everyone has been so GREAT about checking in! I had my second 5:2 day yesterday and I am here to tell you it was PERFECT!!!!!! (And I am rarely perfect at anything!). I feel very proud of myself and if I am honest, I can say it really wasn't that hard; the key for me is to stay busy and do things outside of my house as my office is right by the kitchen. I was due for a new blog entry so I wrote MY PERFECT 5:2 FAST DAY as my entry....complete with photos of what I ate. So if you want to see what a perfect day looks like just go to my blog and it's the latest entry. And I did lose another lb so I am on my way back to 133....it's so close.
http://www.queenofcrop.com/weeklyupdates/my-perfect-52-fast-day/
Thanks to everyone here who has kept me encouraged...I would not have done this without you. And I do write in there that many of us don't process calories or carbs or food like other people and we need to stop beating ourselves up. We are all here because we are navigating this road the best we can. FAST ON LADIES!!!

Boo. That's not what I *wanted* to hear, but probably what I needed to hear. Thank you for your honesty. I couldn't lose much weight pre-op on a 1200-1500 calorie diet, but I thought there were other metabolic things wrong with me that surgery corrected. Clearly, I've been fooling myself. I've adjusted MFP to allow 900 calories here on my "feast" days, and I guess I'll spend some time reviewing very low calorie recipe options for the long term. I'd really like to be very close to my overall goal weight by my 18 month post-op appointment in mid-June, maybe giving myself a bit of grace for a few pre-plastics pounds. Maybe dropping down to that 900 calorie daily range while doing 5:2 will be the thing to get me there.

Here are some things I've been eating:
3 Egg whites with picante sauce: 105 calories (3 carbs for picante sauce)
2oz. Roasted Turkey Breast topped with 1/4c. 2% Daisy Cottage cheese, and 1T. Smokey Chipotle Salsa: 114 calories (3 total carbs for cottage cheese and salsa)
3oz. Baked chicken Breast with 1t. Hot Mustard: 100 calories (1 carb for the mustard)
tuna salad made with 1 pouch Low Sodium Tuna, 1/2T. sweet relish, 1 egg white (+ sea salt, cracked pepper, and celery flakes): 95 calories (2 carbs for relish)
chicken salad made with 2oz. canned chicken breast, 1/4c. Daisy 2% Cottage Cheese, and 1T. dry Ranch Dressing powder (+ cracked pepper): 108 calories (3 carbs for cottage cheese and ranch powder)
As for accommodating my family: I do my own thing through the day. We have six kids, so most weekday mornings, everyone picks their own Breakfast, and I don't necessarily eat with them. I always have boiled eggs on hand, so I may have one of those, some leftover Protein from a prior meal, or a Protein shake with my coffee after everyone heads out the door. At lunchtime, I'm home with the three youngest, so I make their lunch, then make something different (protein-heavy) for me. They don't necessarily notice that I'm eating that something different unless they want to eat it off my plate (a real problem). I always keep things on hand to make my days easy -- pouches or cans of tuna, cans of chicken breast, pouches of lump crab meat, vacuum packs of smoked salmon, frozen Morningstar burgers, Mahi Mahi burgers from Trader Joes, etc. One day a week (often Sundays), I'll also have my husband throw some extra Protein on the grill for me. So, we may grill chicken legs for the whole family, so we'll grill extra chicken legs, but also a few chicken breasts and some lean pork chops to keep in the fridge for weekday lunches. It takes just a few extra minutes to prepare, but saves so much time and so many calories throughout the week.
For dinners, I rarely make casseroles and pasta-based dishes anymore. I can't really eat them, and I don't really want my kids to be in the habit of eating them (working on developing their long-term tastes and habits). I will make Pasta for them every once in a while, but it is honestly not more than once a month or so. They haven't really missed it. I make Soups, stews, curries, chicken adobo, roasts, grain-free meatloafs, etc. in the crockpot. Other than that, I bake, roast, or grill many different types of Proteins. I often serve the protein with a variety of roasted, steamed, or raw veggies, and sometimes fresh or roasted sliced/diced fruit. I rarely make Pasta, but I maybe once a week, I'll throw some organic Jasmine rice into our rice cooker, and the kids will eat that either mixed with their meal (if it's an ethnic dish that calls for rice) or they'll mix it with butter and salt and have it as a side dish.
I've found allrecipes.com to be an excellent resource. It allows me to hunt for recipes searching by the ingredients I have on hand. I'm regularly adding new dishes to the menu, and keeping things interesting has kept the kids from missing carby things at home. I'm also not very accommodating at dinner time. I've said more than once that I'm not a short-order cook. They have options at Breakfast and in their packed lunches, but at dinnertime, we eat one meal together. They can eat that or not, but they can't eat other things. Their school caters pizza on Mondays and another restaurant meal on Fridays, and we eat out on Saturday nights after church. They have total control during those times, but when we sit down together, they get to try new things and practice graciousness and gratefulness for the way they've been served.

I never get "shaky" anymore - that was a presleeve issue. I get "wanting to eat" which is a whole different deal.
Well, I am continuing to do well!
I went out to dinner last night and still showed a loss...woo hoo.
I am "relosing" weight so it is hard to get excited, there is that feeling that I should have to lose the weight twice...lol. Anyway, this really does work and for me the key is to eat less OVERALL and the fast days seem to help me do that.

I think I'm gonna try this... I'm worried that I won't last or it won't work, or that I'll feel ill (light headed or shaky) at work and punk out and eat... But I'm gonna try.

@@VSG AJH I am one who has to eat 900 calories to lose. It's pretty absurd, but it's true. It was quite a revelation when I discovered that. I did eat too much to get so obese, but that sure explains why diets never worked. It also explains how I was able manage my weight in high school and college - I hardly ate!
I don't buy into the starvation mode theory. I ate 800-900 calories the first year and lost most of my weight during that time. I started maintaining at 1000-1100. So, I am hoping to get off a few more pounds quickly with 5:2, utilizing around 900 calories on "feast" days. Not much of a feast, lol. I think you already know you are not losing on 1200. Many programs keep their patients on 800 calories, so maybe you want to try? I quickly realized Im not one those people who can listen to their body,either. My body is useless in telling me to stop eating. I've made peace with it. For now, I like being thin better than I dislike calorie counting. Once in a while I get tired and take a break. It's my new way of life.

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