Arts137

That is an awesome accomplishment!
You look amazing. I bet you feel amazing too?
Do you think you can take a moment and reply to this thread?
http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/78914-feeling-really-down/

Canadian Chick,
You ain't broken.
If you are losing inches, you will lose pounds. Could you give us a monthly weights, and maybe the smart ones can comment. I'm not smart, but I AM supportive. Keep on keeping on and it'll get better. As Winston Churchill said; "Never, Never, Never Give Up"

after losing 130#, you can't be tripped by a pop tart or a 'bite' of pizza. Get back on the program and your (obvious) successes will continue.

Canadian Chick,
You ain't broken.
If you are losing inches, you will lose pounds. Could you give us a monthly weights, and maybe the smart ones can comment. I'm not smart, but I AM supportive. Keep on keeping on and it'll get better. As Winston Churchill said; "Never, Never, Never Give Up"

Canadian Chick,
You ain't broken.
If you are losing inches, you will lose pounds. Could you give us a monthly weights, and maybe the smart ones can comment. I'm not smart, but I AM supportive. Keep on keeping on and it'll get better. As Winston Churchill said; "Never, Never, Never Give Up"

after losing 130#, you can't be tripped by a pop tart or a 'bite' of pizza. Get back on the program and your (obvious) successes will continue.

Like everyone else has said.. It doesn't matter what our weight differences are.. In one way or another we're all the same. And in being here together we always find someone who can support us in whatever we need it in. We're all inspiring to some one regardless of what we weigh.. And I mean EVERYONE!

Did I get your attention???
Ok, curiosity... when I answer posts here, I am always coming from a perspective of a "food addict"
But many times I have people write back...
"But I don't have an addiction to food"
Which I always think to myself YEAH RIGHT!
Don't beat me up I'm being honest!!
What can I say I'm pessimistic, I also laugh when people say they don't eat TO MUCH so they don't understand how the are fat.. I AM FAT BECAUSE I EAT LIKE A PIG (alone mostly)
Today I thought about, "what if I'm wrong?"
I mean...I am me and I am addicted, how do I know how the next person is???
I'm curious as an addicted fat person how is it for those of you who are not addicted?
Oh and on a side note if I am wrong, then I'm also jealous because I would give anything not to have this problem (addiction)

From what I've read here, everybody has a stall or two or three. Just follow your program, fight head hunger, and... don't weigh yourself for a couple weeks!

Well, the good news is the more you weigh, the faster you generally loose. Just keep moving forward. It may seem like an eternity now, but from "the other side", it'll seem to have only taken a minute!

Hi guys. I see a lot of you are struggling and worried pre-op about the pre-op diet. It is a HUGE challenge, but for me, it was an important one.
Exactly 1 year ago, I was in the middle of a 2 week liquid pre-op diet because my BMI was 55+ and I was self-pay in Mexico. Traveling from Canada meant that a reschedule would be A LOT of extra expense if my surgeon had to stop due to an enlarged liver mid-surgery. I had NO CHOICE but to follow the diet.
It also meant that cheating would increase the chance of complications and a longer recovery (or worse), all because I could not follow a 2 WEEK diet. Really? Here I was, about to take a seriously radical, life-changing step and get 85% of my stomach cut out permanently. But I can't follow a 2 week diet? That's crazy.
Post-op was going to be difficult for MONTHS, not days. So if I couldn't get my head in the game for the pre-op diet, then maybe I wasn't ready for what was going to follow post-op. I was terrified!
So I started the liquid diet. And I was STARVING. I was dreaming of all the foods I thought were leaving my life forever. Suddenly I didn't care that I had spent my life morbidly obese, I wanted my comfort back. I wanted to fill myself to bursting at every meal, like it was my last meal forever.
But I didn't break my diet.
Because for once, I wasn't going to cheat myself. It was time to grow up (I'm 43....) and take responsibility for my health, my future and my choices. A lifetime of justification, gluttony and excuses brought me to that operating room. Now it was time to face the music and get on with owning my future.
The first 3 days were HELL. That is when your body is detoxing from the carbs. You are using up the glycogen in your liver (to help "shrink" it) and it's screaming for replacement carbs to fill it back up. You can get through it. After 3 days it gets MUCH better. After a week you start to feel normal and more healthy than you have felt in years. You may be hungry, but you don't have the carb cravings anymore.
Most importantly, you feel IN CONTROL; and mentally and emotionally strong for battling your demons and winning. This is the first tangible proof in an unsure future that you CAN get through the post-op recovery and that you CAN succeed in losing the weight this time, FOR LIFE.
Whatever weight you lose during your pre-op diet is really inconsequential. What is important is what you gain:
- Confidence
- Emotional and physical self-control
- The desire to succeed and overcome "impossible" obstacles
- The knowledge that you are a WINNER as long as you do your best
Please don't look at the pre-op diet as a "condition" that your surgeon imposes on you (and some surgeons don't require it!). It is an OPPORTUNITY for you to test yourself, to help build your will, character and emotional toughness BEFORE you have the surgery.
It's like training for a marathon.....you put the blood sweat and tears in before the race to help you finish the race on game day. Without training and preparation, you will likely fail and you can get hurt really badly along the way!
Use your pre-op diet to work through your demons, build up your confidence and prove to yourself you can do it. If you "fall off the wagon" one day, the next day is a fresh start.
Aim for excellence. You owe it to yourself.

Oh boy, this is hard! Life and relationship stuff is HARD. I am not smart enough to have words of wisdom, but know that we care and want all things in your life to improve. Try to stay away from the comfort of food -- the devil in disguise!

Well, the good news is the more you weigh, the faster you generally loose. Just keep moving forward. It may seem like an eternity now, but from "the other side", it'll seem to have only taken a minute!

Well, the good news is the more you weigh, the faster you generally loose. Just keep moving forward. It may seem like an eternity now, but from "the other side", it'll seem to have only taken a minute!

Oh boy, this is hard! Life and relationship stuff is HARD. I am not smart enough to have words of wisdom, but know that we care and want all things in your life to improve. Try to stay away from the comfort of food -- the devil in disguise!

HI. I started my process on October 30, 2012. I was initially preparing for Lap Band. But after a LOT of research I chose to have the VSG done.
I did my prep for the insurance company and lost almost 20 pounds by watching food intake, and logging EVERYTHING I ate. The NUT was so excited by my little notes and comments, LOL.
Anyway I put the procedure off til March because my hubby and I were booked on a cruise for our anniversary in February. My surgery date was March 14, 2013. I have struggled with my weight my entire life. I don't remember ever not being overweight. My goal was to get back down to a size 18....lol. But the doctor says my goal is 158. I will work toward whatever I can achieve. I am slowing adding exercise. This is hard for me because of time. I work over and hour from home so I am traveling 2.5 hours a day. Essentially, I am gone from home 11.5 hours a day and I require sleep so I don't have a lot of "extra" time. I am walking two or three days a week and I am adding weights for my upper arms.
It is a process, but a process I am committed to finish....and maintain!
I wanted to join this forum so I could have some support available as things arise. To date, I have not had any problems. My surgery went smoothly, post op was not a problem and I am now 7+ weeks out from surgery and the Phases have not posed any issues yet with food.< /p>
Just really wanted to say Hi and start to get to know other "sleevers".

I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to put you guys down but as one who has bad zero self control I think I did pretty damn well. Ok I cheated one night and my doctor chose to be sympathetic. I applaud all if you that we're able to get through pre op on liquids only. I really do. You have more self control than I did. I'm 2 weeks post op today and never felt better in my whole life. I'm not saying every one has a free pass to cheat. My only point that I wanted to make (don't think I did a good job though). Was just because a person doesn't make it through the pre op diet with out cheating gives no one the right to tell them "maybe you aren't ready". It's totally different after surgery and your mind is in a different place. Motivation triples and because of the sleeve you are physically limited. Sorry if I came off snarky. I will root for all of our successes and forgive forgive all of our failures. On another note 2 week follow up tmrw. Can't wait to see my weight!!!!!!!

I am a flawed human being. Because I followed my pre op diet in no way makes me perfect.
I think we all go into this with different mind sets, different expectations and different goals.
I obviously have a weight problem and struggle just as much as the next guy with food.
When on the pre op diet I did not look at it as a diet in the normal sense. It was a pre op prep for a major surgery to me. That's how I approached it.
"Cheating" really didn't occur to me.
But I will say as a food addict if I were asking everyone if they cheated or read post after post about people cheating and it all turning out fine,would I have cheated? Who knows? Maybe...
As an addict you sometimes look for enablers.
I try to be as honest as I can about where I'm coming from. Again I am not perfect but I do care.

This is a SUPER HELPFUL thread... THANK YOU ALL!

I'm on day 7 of my 2 week liquid diet. What an emotional rollercoaster. I haven't cheated - well, on my 2nd day I did have 1 extra Protein Shake, but I don't really think you can call that cheating! It's crazy. I made my 20 month old a grilled ham & cheese sandwhich and while I was cutting it up for her, I started BAWLING. I've never wanted to shove something in my mouth so badly. It didn't help that the rest of my family was chowing down on pizza that night either. Last night they made steak & potatoes. I took a bath and read my Bible upstairs during that time!!! I totally get how people end up cheating. I've found myself standing in the kitchen countless times and then I think "WHAT am I doing in here!?!" Habit I guess!
I had a friend tell me that this preop diet is almost like a smoker trying to quit. We are so used do eating and chewing that it's addicting! So even though our bodies are pretty much getting whatever they need to survive, the head hunger (and a bit of a growling tummy) make us panic and think we are starving to death - so then we eat! I mean, most of us have been following this pattern of eating for what, at LEAST 30 years, so really, what do we expect! lol - my first instinct when I'm hungry and it's meal time isn't "let me nuke some chicken broth and have a Protein shake" yum yum.
I'm proud of everybody doing this diet, including myself. It's probably the roughest thing I've ever done. I think the thing that keeps me from cheating is that I've lost 12.2 lbs as of this morning, so from last Tuesday to today. So I'm pretty happy about that. Does anybody else's Dr let them drink the low-calorie G2 Gatorade? Mine has it on the approved list of liquids and man, it helps me make it through the day!

For many people the preop is the hardest part.. I didn't cheat on my preop BUT I was fortunate to have had a LOT of experience with liquid diets, juice fasting, etc so this kind of diet was nothing new to me.. for many people, this is a completely new experience and it takes PRACTICE.. nobody gets sleeved because they have perfect mastery over their diets. My favorite quote is by Samuel Beckett "ever tried. ever failed. try again. fail again. fail better. " I think this is really how most of us deal with this journey in reality. We WILL fail at some point.. either in the preop or at sometime later.. but we need to keep trying and keep planning how we will fail better next time.. as long as you do that, in the end you WILL succeed.

This is a SUPER HELPFUL thread... THANK YOU ALL!

Get back on the horse and ride on to a safe and successful surgery and weight loss!

Get back on the horse and ride on to a safe and successful surgery and weight loss!