sweetcurves3

Kelkel, that's great! I had a stall for 2 weeks but I've been back to losing for the last week and a half and its been steady.

I had surgery on feb 18th, so today makes 2 months. I'm down a total of 36 pounds and I'm happy with that. I don't get caught up comparing myself with others. I believe that if I didn't have surgery then today I would be somewhere around the same weight.
My goal for the next month would be to lose at least another 10 pounds. I hope everyone is doing well.

Ok guys, here are my stats....i hadsurgery on 3/25/13
Hw: 298
Sw: 280
Cw: 258
I can now fit clothes that i had when i first met my husband, mainly shorts and stuff, still alittle tight, but i can now get them all the way up????????????
Sent from my iPad using VST

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm almost 2 months out and have recently started losing again since a stall of about 2 weeks. I hit the 30 pounds loss mark when I came off my stall!
Congrats to everyone that will be having upcoming surgeries.

I had surgery on feb 18th, so today makes 2 months. I'm down a total of 36 pounds and I'm happy with that. I don't get caught up comparing myself with others. I believe that if I didn't have surgery then today I would be somewhere around the same weight.
My goal for the next month would be to lose at least another 10 pounds. I hope everyone is doing well.

With this particular surgery the grhelin is removed with the part of the stomach that is cut off. This helps us not to have hunger. I believe for the majority of us we still have cravings and head hunger but its up to us to make the right decision on what we eat. With that being said sometimes it is easier for us to make better decision because for some cravings change, taste buds change, if you try something you shouldn't have sometimes it doesn't sit well with you. Our stomachs are smaller so we cannot eat/drink as much as before.
For exercise that's depends on the individual. Some have exercised before having surgery but there are some that do not like to exercise. Some will start to exercise because they are losing weight permanently and they feel like its not the same old diet and exercise routine that didn't work before or that you lost some weight but eventually gained back and possibly more.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm almost 2 months out and have recently started losing again since a stall of about 2 weeks. I hit the 30 pounds loss mark when I came off my stall!
Congrats to everyone that will be having upcoming surgeries.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm almost 2 months out and have recently started losing again since a stall of about 2 weeks. I hit the 30 pounds loss mark when I came off my stall!
Congrats to everyone that will be having upcoming surgeries.

It is truly a shame that momto6ix believes she is the only one allowed to be "blunt and honest" while ALL of the rest of us are just "mean and defensive". I believe the purpose of this site is that it is to be used as an online support group for those of us who have had the courage to take such a drastic measure to heal ourselves. It should not be a place for someone who has never walked in our shoes to come ask for our advice and then disrespect what we have to say!

#ignored

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm almost 2 months out and have recently started losing again since a stall of about 2 weeks. I hit the 30 pounds loss mark when I came off my stall!
Congrats to everyone that will be having upcoming surgeries.

Momto6ix,
I just had my sleeve done on March 20th and believe me if there were any other way for me to successfully lose weight - I would have never put myself through this pain. (I am alergic to the majority of pain meds so pain management is not fun for me).
There have been a few items pointed out to you in some other posts that I will repeat, that I hope may help you understand a bit better.
This is a tool, and it is a tool only as good as it is used, and if used properly helps in these ways a conventional diet does not.
1.) The stomach size is reduced by aprox 85% depending on the surgeon and the size of stomach that is left. Leaving only 2 to 6 once of space for both food and drink. So overeating in the early stages in not an option - you can't choose to ignore this diet.
2.) The hormone ghrelin is what causes up to feel hunger - this surgery removes the part of the stomach that produces this hormone so hunger is elimanted. If you are not phyiscally hungry all the time - you don't feel like you need to eat all the time. Early on after this surgery there is still some actual hunger especially when you are still on the liquid phase of the diet, this is normal.
Combining both 1 and 2 causes you not to be able to quit. Since you can only eat a few onces at a time, you are forced to make better food choices. If you make the wrong choices your body lets you know. Either you are sick to your stomach or worse, you can become protien deficiant and very ill. All of us who go through this surgery know we must eat a certain amount of Protein each day to avoid this, so we are forced to chose our foods more carefully. On a regular diet you can cheat, binge eat, or just stop if you like with no consequences other than not losing weigth. If you cheat on the surgery (and we will all be tempted or think ahhh just one bite of this won't hurt) you will pay for it in a real way.
Because you are forced to comply you will lose weight, and will be more confident as you lose the weight that you will lose more. And as you lose weight you feel better, as you feel better you are more inclinded to exercise. It is that simple. Now as far as your husband being able to walk but not use an exercise bike - it is to soon for the bike, think of the motion your legs take as you bike how they press upon your stomach, this will cause pain for many this soon out. And my doctor personally told me not to use a bike for at least 6 weeks or until I was cleared for this type of exercise. To only walk as much as I can - not to overdoe, to much exercise to soon can cause injury to the insicions and the internal incisions and cause a tear or leak which will only send you packing back to the hospital. Slow but sure is best.
As far as his "stall" this too is normal at this stage
"A "stall" a few weeks out is inevitable, and here's why.
Our bodies use glycogen for short term energy storage. Glycogen is not very soluble, but it is stored in our muscles for quick energy -- one pound of glycogen requires 4 lbs of Water to keep it soluble, and the average glycogen storage capacity is about 2 lbs. So, when you are not getting in enough food, your body turns first to stored glycogen, which is easy to break down for energy. And when you use up 2 lbs of glycogen, you also lose 8 lbs of Water that was used to store it -- voila -- the "easy" 10 lbs that most people lose in the first week of a diet.
As you stay in caloric deficit, however, your body starts to realize that this is not a short term problem. You start mobilizing fat from your adipose tissue and burning fat for energy. But your body also realizes that fat can't be used for short bursts of energy -- like, to outrun a saber tooth tiger. So, it starts converting some of the fat into glycogen, and rebuilding the glycogen stores. And as it puts back the 2 lbs of glycogen into the muscle, 8 lbs of water has to be stored with it to keep it soluble. So, even though you might still be LOSING energy content to your body, your weight will not go down or you might even GAIN for a while as you retain water to dissolve the glycogen that is being reformed and stored." from www.dcfacts.com.
Also you may not get weight loss if you do not get enough Protein (60g-80g) every day. If you do not eat at regular intervals every day or if you do not drink enough fluids (64oz) daily.
And finally it takes time for your brain to catch up to your body. Those of us who have taken this extreem route of surgery know that it was our last choice and last chance, it is not taken lightly.
Since eat is a very social event for many of us it will take each of us a different amount of time to adjust to being around large groups, resteraunts, or events. And Alcohol is not really reccomended for at least 6 months to a year after surgery and even then only in very small amounts and not on a regular basis. So there will be adjustment to make.
Personally being very close to the same time out as your husband I can identify with his feelings. For me if you are not going to save positive things to me, then say nothing. This is an extreem strugle whether you believe it or understand it or not. And most of us here know 100% that without this tool we could never lose weight and keep it off.
So it is not just one thing that makes this tool effective, it is many. And the choice to quit- has been taken away from us all, so this is why this is so much different from any diet you do by choice.

I can now focus on donating my Kidney..

I remember once when Oprah had lost a lot of weight...she heard that people were saying things like "Well, she's rich, it's easy to lose weight when someone cooks all of your food and does everything for you." She was talking about it on her show and basically said...she was the one who had to make healthful dietary choices every day and refuse her beloved Ruffles potato chips. Her wealth didn't do that for her. And she is the one who had to get her butt on the track and walk every day. She couldn't pay someone to do that for her.
I think it is so similar when people say that VSG is "the easy way out." We are the ones who have make sure that every morsel we put in our mouths is good fuel for our bodies and resist head hunger. The surgery doesn't do that for us. We're the ones who make special holiday meals for our families and then don't partake in most of it. The surgery doesn't do that for us. We're the ones who go to the gym even when the weather isn't good or we feel like going to bed early instead. The surgery doesn't do that for us. We're the ones who keep drinking (and drinking and drinking) Water when part of us would rather hang out with our old friend Diet Coke or Frozen Margarita. The surgery doesn't do that for us.
And you know what? I wouldn't have it any other way. Yes, the surgery is a tool, but I still feel that we own and deserve every hard-earned victory we see on the scale and every NSV. If others don't understand that, it's okay. I know that I haven't taken the easy way out, but I also know that what I'm doing is an investment in something very important--me. And that's something that money definitely can't buy.

Thank you sooo much for the response. That was very helpful

Oh ok well I don't swallow gum so I'm good.

Yesss!! Let's dance away these pounds! Lol

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm now 4 1/2 weeks out and I'm down 26 pounds. I also started back working out this week.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm now 4 1/2 weeks out and I'm down 26 pounds. I also started back working out this week.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm now 4 1/2 weeks out and I'm down 26 pounds. I also started back working out this week.

I'm now 4.5 weeks out and I'm down 26 pounds. I also started back exercising at home. Hope everyone is doing well

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm now 4 1/2 weeks out and I'm down 26 pounds. I also started back working out this week.

Well I have heard back from Chesapeake General. Sooooo glad I did not settle for the insane information the other center was giving me. Chesapeake General says its a go to start the process. I told her what the staff at Riverside Weight Loss told me and she even told me that it was not true (that secondary insurance wouldn't pay if the primary insurance didn't cover it). She even went as far as to tell me exactly how the paperwork is submitted. She also said "Wow. Well that's good bc that means we will get more people." I agreed. Because AS SOON AS I have my procedure I am calling them and making sure I personally let the doctor know that his staff is turning away people (and doing so with nasty attitudes) bc they don't know how to work the insurance aspect of things!!! He needs to know who he has on his support staff don't u think!!! Thank u two for ur responses. It really kept me motivated to seek services else where. And I won't even get into how much more informative and helpful Chesapeake Regional has been in 3 or 4 days than riverside was in over a month's worth of back and forth phone calls!!