sueBhoney

Ok- I have mentioned in some posts about bad behaviors that crept back in which prevented me from reaching goal, and added a little more to my struggles. A few people indicated they were in a similar spot, and would love to have an accountability partner. So here goes:
After the surgery, it was too easy to lose weight. i was never hungry, and so I ate what I could whenever. I started eating later. I began to tolerate carbs, and they slowly drifted back into my diet. I started sipping at meals, with a straw. I renewed my love affair with Dr. Pepper. The weight fell off easily. Until it stopped. Now it's time for a serious changes as I noticed, I put on a few pounds this past winter.
I officially state that I AM TAKING BACK MY SLEEVE!
I am starting fresh as it were. I am doing Protein Shakes. I am taking Vitamins. I am counting calories. I am eating as "clean" as possible. I am drinking Water. I am getting in more physical activity. Basically, I am now doing everything I should have been doing all along, but sadly admit I never did.
Three weeks into it and I am down 9 pounds and lost over 15 inches. I feel great and hope to keep doing better as I embrace the lifestyle changes I should have made two years ago.
Who's with me???

I'm now 3+ months post-op. I had a break down about 2 weeks out due to my loathing of Protein. (It was ridiculous: crying and a tantrum.) My advice, and I mean this respectfully: Man up. Protein is essential to your health post-op. If it takes you 2 hours, so be it. It'll get easier. There are hundreds of different products. Try lots of them and keep switching it up. Best of luck. I know where you are right now!

sorry for the late posting...I stayed the same..211

Clients often tell me one of their biggest challenges after weight loss surgery is eating slowly.


Clients often tell me one of their biggest challenges after weight loss surgery is eating slowly. Eating too quickly means that you are unlikely to chew foods properly. This can cause discomfort, pain and in some cases, regurgitation.
To be able to eat a variety of foods comfortably after weight loss surgery, you really need to concentrate while you are eating. The following tips may help you do this:
Set aside time for meals and avoid doing other things whilst you are eating.
Sit up straight and avoid slouching. Sit at the table rather than the couch. Avoid eating whilst preparing food.< br> Move away from the television or computer. You cannot focus on what you are eating if you are immersed in something else.
Avoid playing with your mobile phone or other electronic devices.
Avoid getting really hungry. The hungrier you are when you start a meal, the more likely you are to eat quickly, take big bites and not chew properly.
Avoid eating with your hands as you will tend to take bigger bites. Use cutlery to cut food into small pieces. The more pieces you need to cut the longer it will take to eat.
Avoid eating on the run, or in the car.
Put your cutlery down between mouthfuls. Wait until you have swallowed your food before cutting the next piece. Avoid having that next mouthful loaded on your fork ready to go.
If you really struggle to slow down, use your cutlery in the opposite hand until the pace of eating feels more natural.
Choose a relaxing environment to eat. If the staff room at work is too distracting, head outside to a nearby park. Opt for a quiet café rather than a noisy food court, where you may be tempted to rush.
Be especially careful when eating socially, as during conversation it is very easy to become distracted. Eat during a break in conversation.
Avoid the tendency to want to keep pace when eating with others.

Take notice when you do slow down your eating. Do you feel more satisfied? Do you enjoy your food more? Many people report they enjoy food more after surgery as they eat more slowly, allowing them to really taste the food and savour the flavours.
Get in the habit of eating slowly. It could take up to 20 minutes to eat a small meal – between 10 and 20 minutes is a good goal. If there is food left on your plate after this time, discard it. There is a risk of eating too slowly which can turn a meal into grazing, which defeats the purpose of weight loss surgery.
Time how long it takes you to eat your next meal. It may just surprise you!

Spent the last half hour checking out the profiles of some of the challenge folks, you know, just for the fun of it. It was VERY encouraging! We've got members with a whole lot to lose, members with not so much to lose, members just getting started, members near the end of this part of the journey, and some VERY beautiful people! Who knew!?! LOL!

weighing in at 211...down down..

Had to wait and weigh in today. Starting weight 214..Working to get down to 200 for Easter..

Looks like a really GREAT start on this challenge with a good mix of veteran challengers and first-time folks. This should be FUN.
Here's just a few more reminders about how this works:
Although the weigh-ins are scheduled to occur on Sundays, as the challenge ends on Sunday, you are welcome to adjust this to whatever works for you. We're definitely flexible here. You'll know that I've updated the spreadsheet with your data when you see a "Like" from me on your weigh-in post. Everyone who is working toward a goal is welcome to join us in this. We've had some very successful pre-surgery participants before, participants that are at goal, in "maintenance" mode, and simply wanting to maintain their weight, and a whole bunch of us that fall somewhere in the middle. All are welcome here! When a question is asked or a comment made that seems to be directed at me, FEEL FREE TO RESPOND. I'm merely the volunteer that keeps the stats for the group...it's really the group itself that keeps the group going, and individual participation in cheering on, consoling, providing input, etc. is really what makes the challenges work for us all. So yes, please, be an active participant when you can! The spreadsheet may look a little funny now, with a lot of people showing a start weight of 200 and goal weight of 199. :-) These figures are merely placeholders until the challenge gets rolling. I'll change the text color from gray to black when "real" data gets entered. I try to post a kind of wrap-up from the previous week just before a new round of weigh-ins are recorded. In this post I try to list everyone who has crossed a "border" of some kind. For example, I was THRILLED to list my own name in crossing over from the 200s to the 190s (ONEDERLAND) during the last challenge. I'm currently chasing another move from the 190s into the 180s for this challenge and will proudly list my name along with all the others who make a "border crossing". Hope this helps explain things just a bit, but honestly, you should be able to figure out the challenge "norms" as we move along together. Here's hoping for a great deal of SUCCESS for all in the Easter Challenge!
Bea

You just did, Sue! :-) Post your weight, and Easter goal weight, on Sunday when we all kick off this challenge together. Welcome!

how do I sign up? might just be the motivation I need to get back on track

It's not hard to avoid them because they live 90 minutes away (the closest of them) and we only see them when we go to see them. They hardly ever come to our house and only if we invite/guilt them into it.
My parents have been great about it. They've helped with my kids every time I've had an appointment and during my hospitalization.

tough decision..DH's family has shown they are judgmental. Most of my immediate family does know I had wls.I have not told my mother .. given her age and she tends to worry about me..If the people I haven't told do find out about my wls..I will just say it doesn't concern them if they make comments around them. It will get harder on you avoiding them..Just go and relax..no bodies business but yours..nice that your DH is concerned about your feelings

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Endocrinology/Obesity/40490
"Obese patients who have laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy keep the weight off in the long run, researchers found.
In a single-center study, patients who underwent the procedure lost an average 57.4% of excessive body mass index (BMI) over 5 years, Ralph Peterli, MD, of Claraspital in Basel in Switzerland, and colleagues reported online in the journal Surgery for Obesity and Related Diseases.
Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy, first developed about a decade ago, "was initially intended to be a primary intervention in high-risk patients before laparoscopic Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or as the first step of biliopancreatic diversion duodenal switch," the authors noted in their introduction. But evidence has been mounting that sleeve gastrectomy itself is an effective surgery for weight loss."

I know this is going to make me sound shallow, superficial, and selfish, but I have to say that for at least the first few months of dating, I don't want to hear anyone's sad back stories, whether that is health issues, having been fired, bad relationships with parents, overcoming a childhood trauma, etc. I want to know who you are now and where you are going. Too much talk about negative things in the past makes me think a person is stuck in the past and will spend all their time dwelling on the bad things that happened then, and is possibly a bit on the self-pitying side. Also, too much overly intimate disclosure at the outset makes me think this person is looking to shack up right away and just wanting to glom on to any available person because they are desperate for companionship. I realize all of those things are unfair in lots of situations*, but that is just my reaction. If I am dating someone, I don't want to hear about her past surgeries until she takes me home to meet her parents, and even then, only if it's relevant to me now.
*for example, I've read a lot of your posts and don't imagine any of them would be applicable to you!

There's no cryin' in the Guy's Room.........

I'm 6 months out and 80 pounds down. My struggle is not with motivation or self discipline. It is with self love. I'm too lazy to put effort into my tiny meals says I'm not worth the effort. I'm too lazy to exercise says I don't love myself enough to do it. Every time you decide not to exercise or put love and creativity into the fuel you consume you are saying "I am not worth that effort". Do not negotiate your self love! The children in your life are watching. If you, the center of their universe, are not worth self love, how can they be? food isn't meant to be exciting. (It can be with effort) Its meant to fuel you to do exciting things with your life. Now get up, and love yourself. If you think exercise and eating right are tough, try chemotherapy, dialysis or congestive heart failure. That's where lack of self love really ends. And every time you put off self loving behavior you are wasting valuable time. You are never going to feel like doing the work. You have to believe you are worthy of the work. And do it. Its now or never. -thats all I got. If that doesn't help watch Mohammed Ali documentaries.

Thank you guys so much. I am going to try the tracking apps and am joining the YMCA to try a group class. I know doing it by myself isn't helping. Also, going shopping, I was not aware that we could eat brown rice. I guess all in moderation and in the calorie and carb ranges. By the way does anyone know a good range for carbs. I was just told to stay under 600 for calories per day.

the sleeve surgery is a slower weightloss. Just by its nature. I am 15months out. I have "only" lost 86 poiunds. I have been fighting 5 pounds I gained the last couple of months. I know it is eating wrong and not being more active. By the time we all got to this point we have tried so much and have been told or read everyting there was about losing weight. It all comes down to finding it within ourselves. I am a cookieaholic,,,love crunchy buttery Cookies but I know I can have a few and that is it.Even with the surgey there is no magic bullet. We all know people who have had this surgey and the bi-pass and have gained the weight back. I wish you both lots of motivation and get out there and move. I know how hard it is I have terrible knees and am working out some exercises/routines that do not involve pressure on the knees..
As for making it interesting I say add the spices but find something other than food as first and foremost in our minds.

Hey, I'm in the "three strikes" group, too! Just had this discussion with my therapist and endocrinology APRN. Most of the nutritional research is on young men, and the guidelines are handed to us even though our bodies are different...
Despite your three strikes, you have done phenomenally well. If you compare yourself to others based on a single number, you are looking for reasons to consider yourself a failure...please don't get caught in that trap!
One of my favorite menopause experts, Dr. Mary Jane Minkin, advocates weight training for us 'three strikers". Not Arnold Shwarzenegger weights, but something you can learn from a trainer and do at home. She says "I pick it up, I put it down. I pick it up, I put it down. I pick it up...." And she looks better and better!
BTW, I think I have a fourth strike...I am a band to sleever...

yup this is me as well but I will not be discouraged. I have still lost more than I ever had and have kept it off. approx 90 since my surgery a year ago. I know I need to watch more closely what I eat and move more.. I like a challenge. You are doing great and will have some plateaus but it is still up to you. We knew even with the surgery it would still be work. no magic bullet..

yup this is me as well but I will not be discouraged. I have still lost more than I ever had and have kept it off. approx 90 since my surgery a year ago. I know I need to watch more closely what I eat and move more.. I like a challenge. You are doing great and will have some plateaus but it is still up to you. We knew even with the surgery it would still be work. no magic bullet..

there is no substitute for soda because of the carbonation. I just quit,,it wasn't easy but I had to replace it with flavored water. Crystal light or a store brand. Sometimes you just have to buck up..

great job...a true inspiration

In a good mood today :-)

I also have knee issues but I also get bored on the bike.weight lifting..the people at your gym should be able to help you. mine has lots of charts and magazines around. don't be afraid to ask some of the other members who are using the hand weights for some help..I know some women are nervous or intimadated. But I have always figured we are all there for the same reason..to get healthy. There are also isometric exercises you can do for your mid section..worth checking out. if you an afford it your gym might have some of the instructors who do personal training. Might help to buy a few sessions.