TheAbsoluteJoy

You can change your calorie goal under edit profile and net calorie goal. :-)

I track ALL my calories and my Protein. I also weigh every morning and I weigh and/or measure my food.
MFP is just part of the big picture. My new normal. My husband said it best when he said "It's like a dashboard on the car, it helps you know what's going on "under the hood" and if there is a problem, you know it right away"
I thought it was a perfect analogy.

I can't believe it. Every day I'm sure I'm just going to stop losing. And then I lose 5 more pounds that week. This is the BEST decision I have ever made (with the exception of marrying my husband). I know that it will be a life long journey, and I couldn't be happier with it. My husband is now thinking of getting the surgery, after seeing my success. Which is so surprising, because he was against me having it in the beginning. But he came around, and has been my biggest fan and support.
highest weight was 314
Day of surgery I weighed 308
TODAY... 231!!
It seems surreal.

Sleeved 4/22 I have lost 41 lbs. Finally starting to feel like i am understanding my sleeve and how to eat with it.
Sw 287 cw 246

My NUT had us start working on this before surgery - it was easier than I thought.
Here's why you shouldn't drink while eating:

That's a tough one! I had to excuse myself for the first couple of weeks because I felt the same way. And it was to hard to be around food. Luckily my husband took over for a bit with cooking the meals at home. But in the first weeks I also was faced with having to go out to eat once or twice. I took the opportunity and ordered Soup and spent my time enjoying the conversation.. If you do things like take them to the movies bring a pre made shake and sip on that.. It really helps.

Nicotine stays in the system up to 3 months. I had a friend who works in a med lab that told me that. Most surgeons will do a pre op nicotine blood test and if it's positive, no surgery. Big risk with anesthesia and a red flag as far as self discipline goes. You can do it. I stopped no problem. And the risk of smoking after surgery is ulcers. There's not much to do with a 4oz stomach thy has a bleeding septic hole in it :/

I want a taco!

VSG is such a crazy world--we consider a 5-pound-a-week weight loss "slow," where pre-op, that would have been miraculous! We consider a morbidly obese BMI of 35 as being "a low BMI." We think 1 cup of food is a LOT. It's all relative--and it's the new normal!!!! :-)

This is why there are food phases you must follow:
Clear Liquids, full liquids, then the pureed stage is great; you puree your food so again early on no chewing, then the soft food stage the food is already softer so this week easy to eat, then on to more solid foods. You don't have to chew until mush. Follow your food eating stages to a "T" and you will be fine.

This is just a rant so please don't blast me out of the water...
I know that the sleeve is only a tool and I still have to make the choice to not eat "slider" foods or too many carbs, sugar, fats... If I had that kind of will power would I have even needed this surgery? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful for the restrictions the sleeve provides me, very much! However, as certain stresses have come up so has my desire for my comfort foods! How do I stop myself? What is there to replace the food? There is nothing physical to stop me from downing a bag of potato chips if they they can just "slide" through. I've done a lot of research and went into this as well informed as possible. I just didn't expect things to be so "normal" this early out. Again, this is just a rant to get it off my chest. Please don't roast me over an open fire about dealing with my food issues. I'm really trying!!

I know from reading posts that there are some who choose not to tell people that they had WLS, but instead answer any inquiries with some variation of, "eating less and exercising more". And, while I agree that this is true, the thought that occurred to me today is that in many ways this can serve to perpetuate the prevalent idea that "non-obese" society has which is that "if you just made good choices and ate less you'd lose all the weight you want"...and that is really a disservice to the community you've come from.
Imagine if someone had a cochlear implant and when asked why they seemed to be tracking conversations better answered that they'd just gotten good at reading lips!!
Now, I'm not saying I don't understand the inclination...or even that there aren't times when it can make sense to skirt the topic...but just acknowledge it for the tool that it is and tell the nay-sayers to step off!

Sleeved Monday 15th in Australia was 136kgs (299lbs) almost 4 days exactly and I'm 131.6 kgs (290) I feel like I can go play golf although I won't for a month :-( had a couple of walks and went to the supermarket straight from hospital to buy some supplies felt a little tired after.
Was only on pain medication for about 18 hours total nothing since. Apart from the runs everything seems pretty good taking Imodium and hoping that will slow things down. Hard to get excited about current diet with another 9 days of liquid only.
A bit worried with everything going so well, what's going to go wrong? But I know not to get ahead of myself and complacency will be my downfall.
I hope everyone is feeling as good, if not I hope you are soon.
Another thing first night at home slept like a log normally wake several times for pee breaks and have constant dreams. No pee breaks (which is hard to fathom with amount of Fluid intake) and no dreams my wife even said my snoring was very quiet compared to usual. Fingers crossed of better things to come with the weight loss.

Mickeymantle I'm not quite sure how you came to the conclusion from my minimal post that I am not ready for the sleeve. My band NEVER gave me restriction, had an Upper GI recently that validated the fact that there was no restriction even with a complete fill. There are health problems associated with my band, as I stated I have Lupus, which was diagnosed post-banding, Lupus is a contraindication for the band as there is a foreign substance in your body and Lupus is an auto-immune disease. So regardless of wether I'm sleeved or not, the band has to go.
I'm assuming that you have suggested therapy to everyone on this board, as everyone that requires bariatric surgery has some type of food issue, otherwise bariatric surgery would not be necessary and 35% of the population of the United States would not be considered obese.
I am ready for the revision, my husband is the one that has concerns. Not looking for judgement on my decision, looking for assistance in convincing a loved one.

I'm 7 months out and eat a completely normal diet. I have been at or below goal for about 2 months and lost 80lb plus. For Breakfast today I had a cup of tea, morning tea was a small spinach and feta wrap, approx 2inches, lunch was a cup of tea, 1/3 cup of greek yoghurt and a small Easter egg (too darn tempting) and dinner will likely be a cup of Soup and maybe some wholemeal toast.
Yesterday, however, I ate 3 apricots, 1/3 cup of yoghurt, 2 cups of tea, 1 cup of Soup for lunch, 3 small spinach and cheese pastries, soup for dinner with a slice of toast and a crumpet with apricot jam for sweets.
I was grazing all day yesterday and was just sitting at home doing nothing. Today I was out and about all day and just never felt hungry, so didn't eat. I find that I CAN eat a lot if I'm sitting at home, eating all day, that doesn't mean I should, or do. I wasn't hungry yesterday, just bored. It's something that I need to watch.
And all the soup isn't because I can't eat solids, its because its nearly winter here and its been raining non stop for the last week and I like soup on cold, wet days.

well Im not 6 months out.. Im 3.5 months out.. pretty much can eat anything.. reg diet.. but I stick to Protein protein protein.. thats the key.. and good protein too..not fast food kind. I still find a lot of foods bother me.. heavy foods especially breads.. still dont tolerate them even the thin stuff.. no oranges yet.. cant have that til im 6mo out.. I dont like sweet things.. they make my stomach hurt... cant believe I just said that LOL. I watch what I eat.. I get in my drinks.. and my Vitamins. to me now.. eating is more of a chore than something I enjoy doing.. but hey thats ok with me.. oh and Im post op dec 20th and as of today.. Im down 77lbs.. and Im so very happy about that... cant wait to get to onederland. good luck on your new journey.. best of luck too..

I would like to know the same. Looks like you are a few days after me. I'm having my surgery on the 16th! Would like to continue staying in touch since we both will be about at the "same" level of progress!

I'm approved!!!!! Omg I'm so excited!!!! Waiting for surgeon to call for a date and pre op testing!!!!

I have developed a new health problem every year since turning 50 and decided that I needed to reverse this trend or I was headed for disaster. I am almost 5 months out, 50 lbs lighter, have normal blood sugars now, just eliminated one of my two blood pressure medications, and weaned my asthma medication. I feel very optimistic and happy about having a healthy future.