courtoomp

Bree he loves you! You need to love yourself before surgery! The sexy will come back after..
But the mere fact that you still "take care" of yourself means you are still a sexual being.
Girl go take a bubble bath tidy yourself up a bit down there (if you can get yourself off you can do a little) and have a nice evening with him. Have a glass of wine, and just love! Love yourself love him and love the future you are about to embark on!
Laura

Same thing! Good question. There are three parts to digestion: smell/thought, chewing, in the belly/real digestion. Your acids get going beginning at the smell and thought. But continuously trying food and spitting magnifies this process and add to thy chewing, further gettin your salivary and gastric juices going.
Just what I remember from GI in school. Haha

I've done it once or twice. I did it in the beginning after surgery when I was so starved physically and mentally. I took bites of sausage I knew I couldn't swallow...I chewed and spit it out NAND you know what, it settled my craving. I do not do this now nor do I advocate for ppl to do it, but if you happen to just forgive yourself and eat something yummy you can have! (For me that sausage I ate was a no go but I went and had some bacon flavored refried Beans after and was ok)

Thanks y'all. I will try the chia seeds. And just have the Protein Bars when I'm in a pinch. Try to get fiber veggies but hard bc can barely finish my protein!

Like everyone else, I don't know if this is a coincidence or not, but I lost 18 pounds the first 15 days after surgery (2/4) and then nothing until today. I was only taking in about 400 calories and about 60 grams Protein and less than 20 grams carbs. So I decided to do a little experiment yesterday. I ate all day long, every couple of hours from 8am until 6 pm and I got in 600 calories, 38 carbs and 74 protein. Got on the scale this morning and was down 2 pounds.

Now you're talking dirty to me!

I'm the same!! I will have like 400 cal and I look and its already 7pm. And my stomach is like Courtney don't do this to me again!
I swear trying to have 800 cals of just lean Protein is pretty damn hard. I think it's funny how restrictive this is when I look and just 2.5 mo ago I binged daily. I guess struggling to eat a couple extra hundred calories isn't so bad!

It scares me too! I haven't gotten past mid-800s but when I upped it to 650-800 I started dropping weight again! I kinda figure what is the risk? If you're not losing anyway worst that happens is gain a pound or two and realize that wasn't the answer. Haha easier said than done! :-)

It scares me too! I haven't gotten past mid-800s but when I upped it to 650-800 I started dropping weight again! I kinda figure what is the risk? If you're not losing anyway worst that happens is gain a pound or two and realize that wasn't the answer. Haha easier said than done! :-)

Have you dropped more weight recently?
And how light is light colored stool? White? Clay colored? Spots of white? Haha poop is fun to talk about even if what you're going through is def not fun.

You taking any pepto bismal or anything?
Light or clay colored stools can also be from a bile duct obstruction (gall stones..do you have your gallbladder?) The abdominal pain accompanying this stool color change concerns me. Is the pain constant or come and go? Is it sharp? Worse with meals...if so what kind of meals? Radiate or move anywhere like to your back or shoulder?
You need to go to the doctor and they can do some scans to visualize your stomach an gallbladder to see if there is an obstruction.

You taking any pepto bismal or anything?
Light or clay colored stools can also be from a bile duct obstruction (gall stones..do you have your gallbladder?) The abdominal pain accompanying this stool color change concerns me. Is the pain constant or come and go? Is it sharp? Worse with meals...if so what kind of meals? Radiate or move anywhere like to your back or shoulder?
You need to go to the doctor and they can do some scans to visualize your stomach an gallbladder to see if there is an obstruction.

Check out Emily Bites website. She has these lasagna cupcakes that use wonton wrappers. Soooooo good and my niece and nephew said they tasted like pizza. I used 99%fat free turkey instead.
The biscuits are a nice idea though and prob about the same calories as 2 wontons

Pretty much what you've been doing...with a few more calories! Oh...new jeans! Oh...a party! Oh...nude photos! Congrats!

My dermatologist gave me an antibiotic when they get really bad. I have also heard the Botox shots in the affected area can also help. They have left a lot of scaring from the acne like bump under the arms and groin. Tanning seems to help too, the sun and uv lights have a germicidal effect on the bumbs, and dries them out.Tunneling is also a sign of hidradenitis. I'm wondering if insurance will cover a breast lift and a Tummy Tuck due to the break outs where my skin rubs together.
Amanda

You look awesome! What a drastic change...and your hair looks fabulous too. Keep up the great work!

Pretty much what you've been doing...with a few more calories! Oh...new jeans! Oh...a party! Oh...nude photos! Congrats!

I'm in medical school and I can tell you basically what that means but of course your doctor will know much more.
Renin is made in your kidneys in response to low blood flow through your kidneys or to too little salt going through your kidneys. Renin in turn stimulates the production of aldosterone (through a semi complicated pathway)...and aldosterone has a big role in how much salt (and therefore water!) your body keeps vs excreted through the kidney and released as urine.
If you have hyporenin then your kidneys, for whatever reason, are not making renin, which means you cannot make aldosterone, which means you lose salt and can become very dehydrated (hypovolemic) with low blood pressure and such. Aldosterone is also important in regulating potassium, an electrolyte, in your body. Wonky levels of potassium can lead to heart problems.
You can see just how important renin and aldosterone are for your body. What kind of symptoms have you been having and how is your doctor proceeding with treatment?
Symptoms that occur commonly with too little aldosterone (which in your case is caused by too little renin being released from your kidneys) are: fatigue, dizzy with standing, racing heart, urinating a lot, craving salt, always hot.
I wish you so much luck. It's enough to go through this surgery without more health issues popping up!

Well y'all I have been kind of negative on this forum (at least in my mind!). I kept thinking I was losing so slowly. But today I went to my month follow up (surgery 1/23) and found out I have lost 20.7% of my excess body weight! I am 5'0.
Preop 202
Today 186
Pounds lost 16
Goal weight 125
Pounds originally need to lose 77
(16/77) x 100 = 20.78%!
So I encourage all y'all who are frustrated (like i was!) by the pounds on the scale to do a little math and see how much closer we are to goal.

To the original poster: no judgment from me. I am only 9 days out and haven't even been cleared to eat solid food and I have felt sorry for myself from time to time. Fear of harming my sleeve is keeping me in check at this point. And my dreams are small. As I have mentioned several times, I think I would be satisfied by a cracker or a bite of scrambled egg. When I am cut loose to eat food again, it will be much harder. We all have already surrendered and admitted we cannot sufficiently control ourselves. That is why we all got the surgery, to have control imposed on us to a certain degree. We each have to make our own way. Thank you for sharing your bump in the road. It helps the rest of us following behind you know where to look for danger.

Cheri,
Firstly, wow... you look so beautiful! I love your recent picture ,,, makes me want to give you a big baby cwtch (welsh fir hug)!
You always speak so much sense... and over the last 2 1/2 years you have been beside me every step of the way, Between you and a few other old timers on here, you really have made a difference to me... encouraged me, cheered me on and cheered me up!
You know my story... but I will share it again for the newbies.
My sleeve is now 2 1/2 years old... it has great restriction and does a lot of good work. My head is now in line with my sleeve, but this has taken longer. Not with respect to the food side of it... that is a physical thing that I was quickly acquainted with, but emotionally it took me longer to realise that I was doing well. I am, and have always been a slow loser... on any given 'diet' I would never lose more that 7lbs and that would take me 2 -3 months to do.
I have lost a total of 74 lbs and this happened in the first 16 mths. For over a year, I have not lost a single pound... regardless of what I do or don't eat and the way I move or don't move. It would appear that my body is happy here at this weight and doesn't want to lose any more - even though my mind wants to see smaller numbers and my doc would like to see me out of the obese range on the BMI chart. However, in that time I have gone down a whole dress size. I started off in a UK 22-24 and I am now a UK 14 and have been for a year - this was my original size goal.
I have had a few health worries over the last year that might have impacted my weight loss... but I can't use those as an excuse. (On set of early menopause and trying out HRT - didn't suit me; I don't take any thing now and I had a nasty back problem that made me stop my training/gym. I am finding it hard to get back to hard exercise now - something I need to work on.)
Not reaching goal does have an upside too... I have never gained! I have read some sleevers, who dipped to goal super quick and then had a dramatic regain... I have been sat at this weight comfortably for over a year and I am happy with my 2-4lb bounce range. If I go over that... I get focused and it goes away.
I am currently upping the anti again, in another effort to get to my surgeon's goal... I am just 10-12lbs away. My hubby is on board now too... he wants to lose about 24lbs ... it is easier to do it with someone else at this stage. There is a part of me that just doesn't want to give up... I would love to post a goal thread but I am also realistic that this might never be the case.
If it happens I will be happy... if it doesn't I will remain healthy.
So with that in mind I am looking into getting the skin from my middle removed - I am looking at a TT and possible uplift. Once this is done, I guess I will be done! I don't want to be perfect but I do want my body to look like my face...lol
I have started to realise that just because I am not at my weight goal that I am still successful. I think that the over emphasis on the numbers at the beginning of this process for me, took away each successful pound lost. That was not a good move! Looking back I should have also focused on how I FELT and how I looked.
Just today, someone asked me if I had lost more weight... the body is a wonderful thing!!
For all slower losers and newbies... remember, this is about YOU... not about someone else who farted and lost 14 lbs! Ok, that is a little over the top, but you know what I mean. The whole reason for the sleeve is to get fit and healthy... if that is how you feel, regardless of your weight... then, in my eyes, you are a winner.
The sleeve has no expiry date - it is with us for life.

I didn't have a ton of weight to lose to begin with but I was still way over weight and very unhealthy. My blood pressure could not be controlled with the max dosage of meds and I had to use cholesterol meds to control my LDL, had joint pain and I was at 320 pounds about a few years ago. During the 2-3 years pre-op, I fluctuated between 280 and 315.
I've lost slow, other than the first 2-3 months after surgery (see signature below). I may not get to my goal of 215, but I still haven't stopped losing and I'm almost 15 months post-op. The last several months I've probably only averaged a pound or two loss a month and I'm currently at 227 (not terribly bad for 6'-3"). But I'm also still losing inches, which lets me know the fat is dropping slowly and I'm actually adding muscle and getting stronger every month. I see this in my max lifts in the gym, so I'll take the pound or two of fat loss a month, especially if I can continue that during all of my second year post-op. If so, that would put me at my goal by the end of this second year. Also, when I put that 215 goal out there, it was just a number that I was told to give myself and to shoot for it. Sometimes goals can be measured by more than just what is on the scale. My body fat has gone from around 35% to about 16-17%, I'm off my blood pressure meds completely now with normal range BP, off my cholesterol meds, joint pain in my knees are gone and I feel MUCH better! So slow loss on the scales for me has not been indicative of my overall progress since surgery. My main goals always were to get healthier and off my meds and I have done that. Any other benefits are just gravy for me (pun intended) and I am very appreciative of this surgery even though I've not lost heaping amounts of weight.

I would say, by definition, I was a slow loser. I had a total of 80.5 lbs that I wanted to lose to my goal after I had my surgery.
In the first 6 months, I lost 55 lbs. Then, it slowed to a crawl.
In the next 6 months, I lost 21.5 lbs
I stalled at this point for 3 months and I actually thought I might be done losing, then I lost 3 more pounds, now at 15 months post op.
Once again I stalled for about 2 months and thought I was done losing, still about 5 or so pounds from goal, but I was really that worried about those 5lbs.
Then, 18 months post op, I hit my goal weight of 140lbs and 80.5 lbs lost. In the months following, I dropped a few more pounds!
Now I have a 3-4 pound weight fluctuation. My cycle is a major factor in how much I weigh, so I try not to let it bother me. I can go up as much as 2 or 3 lbs during ovulation and 3-4 lbs during TOM. My weight loss near the end only really occurred in the 2 weeks in between Tom and ovulation, so I highly encourage women to really pay attention to their bodies. I also get wicked cravings and have a very hard time not wanting to eat everything in my path. How do I cope with the cravings? I do not keep anything in my house that I know I will eat.
Now I am over 2 years post op and have not had many issues maintaining for the last 8 months. I am still learning as I go and I still make mistakes. But over all I would say I eat healthy 90% of the time, and 10% of the time I don't. If I am going to be truthful, I never counted anything (calories, carbs, protein), I never weighed anything, and I don't exercise by definition regularly. I did follow my post op guidelines. I rarely eat bread (but I will eat garlic bread when out for supper) and I eat very little other "white carbs" like rice, Pasta, flour, sugar (notice that I did not say never). I do not drink with my meals, I still occasionally drink Protein shakes, I eat a lot of greek yogurt sweetened with stevia, drink 2% milk, eat nuts, and enjoy veggies AND fruits. I will still have an ice cream cone once in a while, I will still eat chocolate and I will still have other treats as well. I just do not keep them in my house so they are not tempting because I do not have any more will power now than before surgery if food is sitting in front of me (hence a 4 lbs weight gain over Christmas that I am happy to report is all gone again).
I wanted to make changes that I know I could live with, maintain, and be happy with for the rest of my life. I am happy with the weight I lost, and even though it was slower in the "sleeve" world, it was still faster than any other time I had tried to lose weight in my life. My new habits are firmly entrenched, and even if I stumble now (like Christmas), it is not difficult to get my head back in the game. I would not change what I did and how I did it and I love this tool that I have been given!

Does it help that I'm 19+ months out and STILL losing? I DID lose 100 pounds in my first six months, but that was less than half of my excess weight.
Folks, it's not a race. Learn your stuff and get it done. Stalls are normal, frustrations are normal. We keep saying "it's not about the finish line, but about the journey" and it's annoying, but VERY true. At this point, I'm losing 1 pound per week, on average (it comes in big spurts... I'll lose 2 pounds in a week and then nothing for two weeks). BUT it's been that way all along, just the amounts have gone down as I get closer to goal.
I've lost over 200 pounds. Heck, I've lost more than some of the STARTING weights I've seen from the really short folks. If I can do this, you can do this. There's no time limit or expiration date on your sleeve. Treat it well and it will be good to you for many years to come.

Aussie, I get it. I didn't post for a berating. We berate ourselves enough. I posted admitting it was a mistake and then asking if anyone else had a similar experience or knew why I didn't even get full. That scared me. I think I felt the need so badly bc my calorie intake has been too low with the workouts I'm doing. I never should have had the cake. So any constructive feedback? The nerve one is interesting and I hadn't thought of that. I will talk to my psychologist too. Thanks for any support.