NurseGrace

I might be alone in this, but I think that tracking my food in MyFitnessPal is JUST as vital in my weight loss as my surgery was, if not more. You can add me at HolyPeas if you feel like it. I do not fill out my diary quite as often as I used to because I tend to be an automated eater (eat the same things or very similar things most days of the week) but especially if I am doing something different, I LOG.

You WILL get through this, and I hope, for your sake you get the help you need getting off your meds. You didn't really specify if it was hell coming off them because you are still in pain or if it was bad because you have developed a physical dependence, but either way its not your fault, and if you need help please let your doctor know. The good news is that everything you are talking about sounds like it will get better with time. Leaks happen, and it can really set things back, but when you come out of that and into normal sleeved life I think you will feel differently.

I hear ya, girl. Unfortunately you will probably find that constipation is an ongoing issue but from here on out you will be able to deal with it before it gets so bad again. My recommendation: fiber supplement. Fiber supplement EVERY SINGLE DAMN DAY. It's my only issue I suffer with 8ish months post op, it sounds like nothing to other people but not being able to go like you should is its only little slice of hell.

If I can lose 25 more pounds by January 22 2014 I will be EXACTLY where I want to be in terms of pace of weight loss. On that day, this year I had my surgery. I have about 21 weeks (or 145 days) to make this happen. Completely doable but I have to really try, because the days of dropping pounds without effort are behind me. I never really had what I would call a honeymoon period, I always had to try, but around month 6 or 7 I really noticed a slow down and I really had to increase my efforts to maintain a weight loss of a pound or two per week. SO, as with anything, a game plan is helpful. Up until this point I have done very little in the way of exercise. Please don't crucify me for that, I just hate getting sweaty, I dunno what to say. HOWEVER, I have set my mind to getting over it and Monday I begin my couch to 5K program. In about an hour my husband and I are going to reactivate our 24hour fitness (supersport, because I'm a spoiled brat) membership. Couch to 5k is three days a week, and I am still looking for something to do for the other 4 days a week in the gym, because I don't do well if I show up without a plan. I do plan on utilizing the pool, but I'm not a good swimmer and sometimes I feel like I do more fiddling around in there than actually burning calories. Maybe I'll look into classes or something. I'm not very outgoing so sometimes the group type settings make me a touch uncomfortable but I can get over that. I don't know, I'm open to suggestions.

This part is hard but its important. I can honestly tell you that not a single one of my preop diet days was PERFECT and I am doing fine now but you gotta real it in a little with how you go about "cheating" if you are going to play that game. Carbs are not the way to go if you MUST have something. My go-to cheat was ONE tablespoon of Peanut Butter. It's heavy enough to stick around in the stomach for a bit so I wasn't starving but it wasn't an insane amount of carbs/calories. Also the fat content helped me sleep I think. I have a really hard time going to bed hungry so thats what I had sometime before bed every day.

Hypernatermia is usually found in people with psych issues or people who have underlying causes. 64 ounces of water would never cause that unless you drank 64 ounces all ay once multiple times a day

This post is short, sweet, and hilarious. Rock on.

THIS. yes. I do not weigh EVERY day because that just makes me crazy and drives me to do stupid things (past eating disorders effect this) but I do weigh in several times a week, LIIIKE maybe three, not set days or anything, just when I feel like it, and when I lose a pound, I claim it.

This is an odd post. How many calories are you eating? you give very little information to go on. Second, starvation mode as most people know it is a complete myth. Chances are you need to cycle your calories a bit, meaning one day you need to eat more of your calories from carbohydrates than usual and see where that gets you.

7 months and 70 pounds down. Not bad. Not spectacular but I count myself has pretty much smack in the middle average. It's been long enough now since my surgery that I have some thoughts on the thing as a whole. I did NOT go into this thinking it was going to be simple or fast, and that has played itself out pretty true to form. I DO believe that someone could lose weight as the same pace I have without surgery, but until I had surgery I was not successful so I DO NOT regret following through with this. Different strokes for different folks, but for me, I needed this. Hunger is not what it was before surgery although around the 6th month mark it has made a comeback. Until that point I never felt hungry physically. I am much more in control of myself though, having had a break from what I always experienced as INTENSE hunger pains. Now, I do get hungry, and if its been TOO long I get dizzy too, but I don't feel that deep burning in the pit of my stomach like I might dry heave if I don't eat something anymore. Now, for the aforementioned tips. Plan your food, especially if you know its going to be a difficult day. For me, my hardest days are when I go to work. That's why I'm up so early in the morning, coffee in hand, entering things into MyFitnessPal before my day starts. It's easier to stick to plan when you actually have a plan, have your calorie count and calculated results (myfitnesspal always gives you a projected weight) Don't get hung up on perfection. There are MANY a person on this forum who will chew you up one side and down the other because you ate a piece of pizza and here is what I have to say about that. If you are eating pizza and other assorted less than ideal foods with no reguard for calorie count please do not come here expecting hand holding. You know what you are doing. HOWEVER, even 'junk food' can be worked into a plan if you are willing to work around it. If you have GOT to have that donut, fine, but you are going to need to pass the fat/sugar/calories somewhere else in that day to make that work. Is it worth all that work just to eat something like pizza or a donuts? I don't know, only you can judge that. Fast food will blow your count out of the Water so damn fast your head will spin. Before anyone gets their panties in a twist, I'm not talking about side salads, I'm talking Mcdonalds Breakfast sandwiches, cheeseburgers, fries... Best to keep your ass as far away from the drive through as possible. SODA, the eternal question... Is it OK? Is it not OK? I say go with whatever your surgeon says on this one. Mine says its next to impossible to stretch a sleeve but still says soda is a bad call and I can understand why. First of all, we really shouldn't be drinking our calories, and I don't know about you guys but if I'm drinking soda I CAN'T EAT. I can manage maybe two bites but the carbonation just takes up too much space. I do have some blood orange san pellegrino in my fridge but it doesn't get touched very often. Frankly, I'd rather eat. My weight loss has certainly slowed, but that is to be expected, I'm not 300 pounds anymore, but I am having to kick it into gear a little more than I used too. The second I start neglecting myfitnesspal I start slipping in the weight loss department so I know what I need to do. I have to work a long shift today but if anyone has any general questions I WILL be coming back to this thread

tehehehe I love this reply! there is NOTHING wrong with the girly pink types, I like girly stuff too, but in a different way. it's just about being true to yourself. You know that feeling of how awkward and strange it would feel for someone like you to dress head to toe black, a little on the ruff side? That's how I've felt every day of my life for the past 3 years.

Happiness... Oh the elusive happiness. So here is the thing, I don't really believe that walking around freaking happy all the time is a true experience. I think that is a bill of goods sold to us to keep us discontent. Theres always one more thing we need to buy, or 10 more pound to lose and then we can be happy, right? I've lost 70 pounds, and I find myself changing the goal post quite a bit. At first my goals were to get to 170, then it was 140, then it was 115, and recently I have been wondering what I would look like at the 100 pound mark. I am not very tall, so that is not as crazy as it might seem to some of you. I don't know, I feel like I am really stepping into my own, and reclaiming myself. Something I have always struggled with is the fact that I AM a touch on the... eccentric side? President of the art club, wearing black from head to toe, thick glasses.... Somewhere along the time I lost touch with that girl, and I started living for other people. Went to nursing school even though it wasn't truly my calling, dressing for other people in your standard young adult getup, all the while getting fatter and not understanding why I felt so disingenuous. I gained nearly 40 pounds while I was away at nursing school, that tells you everything you need to know about how happy I was. Anyways, I can feel the real Grace coming back, and shes not some pink shirt wearing stiff. I needed new clothes and I went and got them, my old standard uniform of slightly offbeat mostly black, gray, and blue and I love myself again. I got a new hair-do to match also. I needed something a little different than before, to signify my fresh start so I went platinum. I've never been this light before but I love it, I love myself, and I give myself permission to be myself again, even if my mother hates my clothes. HA!

seems inconsiderate to change plans after people have already prepared food.

ohhhh gawd I am cracking up. <3 ya girl So when I needed to get back in the saddle what I did was worry about starting my day right. I made myself my usual coffee but for food I make myself a salad. Not some BS salad with fried bits of whatever in it, but a proper salad. Something about starting my day right helped me ease back into things. Some people like to start with more protein but for me, that sits like a rock in my stomach first thing. I do much better with a salad or something. after a few days of that the rest sort of slid back into place naturally.

No actually I do not know anyone peraonally. But I know of it happening because of this forum. If you search for yhat drug name you will come up with some information.

I have been trucking along really well since my surgery on jan 22 but this past week something has happened that has totally knocked me off center and I am experiencing extreme physical and emotional stress. I just felt like someone here might have some insight or guidance because right now its really hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel and I am deeply depressed in a way I haven't been in years. My husband and I have been sharing a home with my mother in law, paying rent in the form of paying some of their bills, etc. They have been having some financial issues and claimed bankruptcy about two years ago. The house was wrapped into the bankruptcy in an effort to save it. I guess my father in law could not afford the payments with the house and so he proceeded to remove it from the filing and quit paying anything on it, without really keeping anyone updated on the status of said action. Well, the inevitable happened and we were served papers to get out basically. Upset and blindsided doesn't even begin to explain it..... I haven't lost a pound in 4 weeks. I have never been able to have weight loss when I am in this state of stress. Usually I gain, so I am going to claim the fact that I have remained stable as a victory. I am hoping to complete the move this week or next week. To make things worse, we got this great place but they haven't finished painting it or doing any of the cleanup that it needed and we have paid our deposit for July and I can promise you it's not going to be ready on Monday (july 1). The landlord is a nice guy, but he was out of the state this past week and he told us he would be so it was no shock or anything but the man he had hired for the job is dragging major ass and we have been having to do a lot of the painting and cleaning ourselves, which I WILL be charging for. Rentals should be clean when you move in, not in the same state the previous tenants left it in. Don't get me wrong, its not trashed but they had horrible taste in paint (maroon dining room, blueish grey hallways, baby blue office.....) and just general grime from life that they didn't clean well. I don't know. I feel like this is all happening at the worst possible time, I was already struggling with a massive stall, and this is hitting me upside the head like a sack of bricks and I am terrified I won't bounce back.

You need to monitor your progress or lack of progress. I know its so hard (I get scared of the scale) but of you are not weighing you do not have an objective black and white measure of you you are doing. Going by how your clothes fit or whatever is all well and good except that you are not going to notice a 2 pound gain in your jeans, but you will see it on the scale. By the time you notice a gain in your pants, its probably more like 6-8 pounds.

It isn't, I'm not partial to doctors in the US in any way, I don't really believe they are better than anyone else. People seem to think that was an anti-mexico tirade, when what I really was trying to get at is that I believe you should choose a doctor with good qualifications as near to your physical location as you can allow for so that follow up (the most important thing) is possible.

Maybe I am the exception to the rule, but I 'interviewed' 5 surgeons (yes, it took forever because I booked appointments with all of them) and once I picked out who I wanted I saw them no less than 6-9 times for various things and "just because" to discuss things before I allowed myself to be written into the schedule. That is how I believe it should be done.

It's not about flying out of the country, its about the lack of history. Most people who have this surgery with someone outside of their country of origin have never seen this doctor before, and will likely never see them again. I have no doubt that most people who do it that way could have gone anywhere like yourself, and if its worked out for you that is fantastic, but I hate how people get crucified here for pointing out some obvious issues you may run into if you go that route.

800 is the magic number for me

If you are more comfortable going into a major operation ignorant of what could happen to you realistically you are just the sort of person who should not be having this type of surgery. It's also why I CONTINUE to question the idea of people flying out of country for this type of thing, you have no history with that doctor, he doesn't know what you know and hasn't spent any significant amount of time doing any patient education. Not good. Luckly, the majority of people that fly out for this type of thing do just fine because they have taken initiative to learn and read but then every once in a while you get someone who doesn't have a clue, and they are taking your money and slicing and dicing regardless.

Sometimes it feels like there is no rhyme or reason to why we gain or lose weight. I finally kicked my stall the other day when I weight myself after a day of eating fast food not once but twice. I do not recomend that, nor am I bragging about it, but due to life circumstances that's just what took place with me yesterday. Doesn't matter. I woke up this morning three pounds less than I had been.

I'm at the 6th month mark, and about two weeks ago had my first gain of about three pounds as well and then a long stall. Honestly, it has passed now and I feel like it was just bloating. I mentioned on myfitnesspal it felt like a bad case of PMS that lasted nearly a month. Just keep going.