liteNsun

Walking and Biking built up my stamina, now I can do more physically demanding workouts 7 weeks out.

I am still early with this but my stall has messed with my head, so I quit the scale and took to the stairs. I am slowly increasing the number of stairs daily to distract myself and make myself feel better. I am having regular body changes and my fiance complimented me yesterday on how nice my legs look. Never heard that, and I needed some validation. I also went on Amazon last night and bought a spinning bike to be active in watching tv and kids routines. I bike already but whether can impact that. My point is, find some new ways to find inspirations, an exercise class, a healthy cooking class, shop at a new health food store, walks or even music can inspire. Breaking the rut might be helpful, it has for me.

Yes, I do look smaller but numbers don't correlate. Clothes sizes are going down too. I don't understand how muscles build but no reduction in weight.

I eat all Protein, 50 to 60 g a day, 20 grams carbs approximately.

At 3 weeks post op I was 25lbs. down, 3 weeks later not a pound lost. I am so angry I could bite nails....but I would have to count those as calories...ugggh! STALLED. I am at 400 to 600 calories a day. No complications. I am at 178lbs. I stayed on liquid for 4 weeks of the six weeks post op. I have been in keytosis till last week it seems. I do not want to have paid all this money to stop here. I have slowly been increasing my activites, but mostly 2 times a week I bike for 4 hrs each day. I have less energy then pre surgery but it is slowly building. I need really GREAT advice. I am getting really bummed out. My fiance says "TO COMPARE IS TO DESPAIR". That was comforting for a while, now it just sounds hollow and rhetoric. So, those who have a tool box of tricks, help me fix this PLEASE.

I couldn't take shakes anymore, but moved on to "muscletech" Protein Bars at 20 grams a bar. They are soft and go down easy. I can get them at Sam's or costco. 18 bars for about 17 dollars. I keep them for on the go and it helps so much. I am finding that the markets are coming out with many new products to get fit, so I find it interesting now to study products at the store and see what I can now have and make it fun to try new things.

Go for the hard body instead of the hard party, you'll feel great the next morning after! Happy Birthday :-)

I am not a coffee drinker but missed my diet soda caffeine habit, so I was on the hunt for caffeine products and found crystal light puts out a caffeine energy releasing B Vitamins. I have it in one flavor only so far, Peach Mango. I add it to other flavor drinks and ice tea. It is strong caffeine to me, so I have to limit it. I am 5 weeks post op and just started drinking it. I am dehydrated from it as well and have to drink a lot of Water as well. Just a thought for those who like caffeine, like me and need that "get up and go" back. I needed to get out of my sleepy/ weak all the time phase and this helped.

To get your kids excited about change in food choices, Kids love the books "eat this, not that". ....I believe it is the title. There are restaurant and fast food ones. Snacks and foods at home. The author also now does a food show on TV if you want to look it up on the internet, if it is available in your area. REALLY great ideas and even young ones will like to look at it. I just watched some of it yesterday and it inspired and taught me even more new ways to eat/ prepare better foods post op.

My identical twin sis always did everything before me, even having WLS. She knew all the times of opportunity and the pitfalls of poor expectations. She was a wealth of information for me when I needed it. This is God's plan. I am so grateful for her taking the first ride and making it sooooo much less bumpy for me. THIS IS A GOOD THING. My best to both of you.

Are you near Redondo Bch. or near San Francisco. I am in Redondo, maybe we're neighbors. I wish you the best. I am one month post op and all is great.

I got the Okay from my doc to hit the gym and biking as I wanted. I am 3 weeks post op. Yesterday, I had gotten enough nutrition in and could go easy on working out in gym on machines for one hour. Today I did not get enough nutrition in and got weak quick, quit at 45 mins of a lite work out and then got sick with diarrhea. I will make some adjustments tomorrow and try again.

My point to all this is to do some limit testing of your abilities before a boot camp. I had high endurance and could go a few hours no problems pre surgery. Now I feel like I have a "new used car". I don't know how all of this motor/stomach works now post op. It is all so different. I will take small steps to figure out how fast or slow to go with my changes going forward. Lastly, I am trying to be patient with myself as I want to do more, but my body just can't. I am sad that I am not really strong as I have always know myself to be. I can't wait to get that back mostly at this point in my recovery.

Good Luck to you on finding your way to better exercise.

They all have different aftertastes and after surgery may not appeal to you even if they did before. The types I know are sweet n low, equal, splenda and stevia. I find I can not enjoy the taste post op in most things now, mostly the drink powders. I know if products listed as Sugar Alcohols, it is a diet substitute...ex. is xyletol. I was told all of these products are fine to use by nutritionist. So, if you find one that is agreeable to you that will be an advantage.

I worry about this long term. My plan is to portion, portion, portion. I do not want to move out of the req'd oz. and let it slide away from me. So, I will measure, eyeball the amount and not make allowances. I am hoping that this is a strategy that I will find long term success over my wants and just suffice my needs. But will look to long term sleevers to see what they do also.

So, I had my 3 week update. My doc was happy with my progress, 15 lbs. lost in 3 weeks. I was initially bummed due to expecting more loss since I have stayed on this program 100%. But it did confirm that even with major calorie restriction, it is very hard for me to lose weight and validated that I needed help with the sleeve for sure. My doc said that WLS can't advertise more than 1/2 lbs. a day loss and that I had lost 3/4 lbs. a day and that was good. I will stay on shakes another two weeks. Don't love 'em, but will stay on them for as long as it takes to get the weight off. I have had weakness for some weeks and terrible breath due to keytosis. He said to push through the weakness daily and work out still. This was described to me as Hibernation Syndrome (your body reacts to a smaller amount of food in which you feel tired, lethargic and often depressed and occurs 2 to 4 weeks after surgery). He was happy to hear about the keytosis, which means that my fat cell are being eaten up and that could last a while, around 4 mos. I was also told to take specific Vitamins which are 2 mutivitamins, calcium citrate 1000-1600mg per day, Iron, and B12. I think I was even more fatiqued also since I quit my diet soda addiction of over 30 years before surgery. I missed the caffeine. But 2 days ago I started drinking Ice tea. This gave me the caffeine I miss and need to get my grove on again and work out more. This visit definitely made me set realistic goals to be successful throughout this long road ahead. I have adjusted my brain to this information and will be patient with my self and program my life for success. I hope this info. is helpful to others who need to straighten out some of the confusion they may have in any of these areas. Much success to you as well.

I think most people don't like change. I think we are progressive thinkers when we consider the WLS with the sleeve. We are tryers of any and all diets and we are willing to go even further than most to find a way out of a never ending cycle of defeat, fighting with our own bodies...if that is exhausting enough, then fighting with others who want a vote on our personel liberty, our body. Be the change for your own life and find freedom I believe.

Maybe check out your local public library and see if they have some DVD's on this. I have seen them there in the past. Or go online and buy a cheap (used even) DVD to find one that will guide you through it correctly.

Wal mart carries a big assortment of this as well. Such a good choice.

Alcohol has lots of sugar in it and when drinking it, this could decrease your ability to lose weight but also, it loosens you up enough to make poor eating choices. Open ended choices will not give you the best results. Maybe have some parameters if you won't give it up. I do understand your conflict. I had a diet soda addiction for over 35 years. No caffeine now and no carbonation for me. The trade off is worth the weight loss for me. I hope you can reconcile the drinking and the weight loss. Good luck.

A simple start is to get two four oz bowls and portion that much (8oz) total each meal. Get rid of snacking and get rid of carbs. Eat three meals a day. Stay with a 40 g carbs daily, stop drinking carbonated drinks. These will get you through if you set your self up with a plan to start with. Try it a day at a time. Don't think about 6 mos. time line. This is all about You don't worry about others, they'll get along no matter. Good luck!

Remember "One bite is too many, a thousand is not enough". Find serenity somewhere in your life and release the anxiety that makes you eat. Even if it is looking at a peaceful scene and breathing in and out to release the anxiety. You can't control everything, so just do the next indicated thing and let it go and take care of your self by putting only the allowable foods in your house and work. Good luck, YOU CAN DO THIS!

I don't agree. The warnings and experiences of others have helped me shape my behavior for success. I am sure I avoided an ER visit of dehydration, since I did not want to intake anything after surgery. But others gave warnings to drink a lot of fluids and keep Protein going. I also saw question pre op that I went in to my doc and asked but did not think to ask them otherwise. The info of what to eat and portions is great for me. I also don't have a nutritionist that spends "quality" time on me. She drops some info. and I find there is a lot of gaps I have to fill in myself. I find that we all need help in so many ways, if only to validate ourselves and though it may be repetitive to some after long exposure on this site, it is new to many daily that are trying to make a huge informed decision.

Same boring message, Are you getting enough Protein and fluids in? I weaken a lot when I sleep for a lot of hours and haven't had anything for 8 or more hours. It takes me some hours of getting fluids back in me to stabilize again daily. It is a sort of chore each morning to get some energy again. I am almost 3 weeks post op and have til the 19th of July til I go to puree stage. I am losing a lot daily so the trade off is worth the difficulty. Maybe getting more protein and fluids could help?

Have a lot of prepared meals, frozen. To pop in the oven, microwave. It is not fun to prepare food when you are not eating after surgery. Do a lot of grocery shopping right before and have all YOUR supplies at home so you are not doing store runs and no carrying of heavy groceries for some weeks after. The two things I wish I had were ear plugs cuz it was way too noisy in the hospital, and I wish I had my own slippers. I am almost 3 weeks out post op and I am doing slow and study. Some days I am tired and weak and need to just take care of me. Be sure to do no heavy lifting of children or laundry for some weeks also.

Best of luck to you.

My doc said insurance companies protocol is "denial of care". That is their approach to patients. It does seem to be the standard instead of patient need or preventative care.