LumpySpacePrincess

Very interesting article. I should add, though, that some of these points (never "cheating" or getting on the scale every day) would not really be helpful to those of us with diagnosed eating disorders. I know when I get on the scale every day, it becomes an instrument of punishment for myself. Many of us are like this, and I have found (as have others) that getting on the scale only twice per month is much more rewarding and less stressful. I don't like the idea of there being "cheat" food. Sure some food is considered healthier than other foods, but to say it is "cheating" is implying we are somehow bad or wrong for wanting/eating these foods. Taking away the negative attributes attached to food actually allows us to look at it as just another piece of food, not a forbidden fruit, and we actually will want less of it. I know for those of us with Binge Eating Disorder, telling us we can't have one thing will just lead to a sense of deprivation so we end up panicking and eating five times a normal amount of something else, and eventually getting around to eating the item we were told not to on top of it. Some of us also take notions like "don't eat a cheeseburger" and apply it to every aspect of the food. "Ok, I can't have the cheeseburger so I can't have beef, cheese, or bread in anything else." This leads to over-restriction which cycles back to bingeing. Exercise is another hard one for many of us with BED or exercise bulimia. You tell me to walk the equivalent of four miles per day (easily done if you're not sitting around all day), and my brain says "Ok, four miles? I'll RUN five PLUS do weights and cycling." A few summers ago I was exercising six hours per day for eight months straight until I burnt out. When I stopped I went right back to bingeing because I felt like I'd failed. So with the daily scale attendance, plus the restrictive eating and prohibitive exercise regime, it was just a recipe for disaster. So I do think this list is good for many people, but those of us with eating disorders might want to look at how each point will affect us in the long-run.

I was wondering if I could get some advice on ways I can motivate myself to eat. Nothing hurts physically, but I've been under a tremendous amount of stress lately. My special needs son is having a really, really rough time in school to the point that we are considering homeschooling him (he has Aspergers), we lost our only income when my boyfriend had to leave his position because they stopped paying him for his services (he's a music therapist), and I have my GRE's coming up soon and applications to apply for PhD programs. With all that happening, I've been really depressed and can't seem to make myself eat. I'll stare at the fridge for a few minutes, decide its not worth the effort, and then just go do something else. Last night it was about 7pm before I ate or drank anything. My water consumption is also very low. There are a few days a week where I might indulge in a cappuccino, but that's about it. I know this isn't good, but I just can't seem to get myself to eat.

If you lift weights the bruises might be a result of microscopic tears in the blood vessels of the muscle closest to the top of the skin. Its totally normal and nothing to worry about.

I'm 3 months post-op and since surgery I have had this weird thing about not being able to find the right temperature for my bedroom at night. I usually like to have a fan going, but lately I am switching between fan and heat every few minutes. It drives me crazy! I just can't seem to get comfortable at any temperature anymore. I am usually pretty OK with sleeping in a cold room, but I seem to be hypersensitive to both cold and heat now. Anyone else have this experience?

I have neuropathy in in my upper left leg (outside, not thigh area...just one weird strip of muscle) as a result of an epidural and spinal during the birth of my son 8 years ago. The muscle feels numb and achey at the same time and is very sensitive to the touch. The one thing I have found that helps more than anything is cycling. Its low-impact on the joints but seems to work the muscle groups in a way that kicks everything back to life. I have had sciatica in that leg before as well, and the cycling helped then as well. When the sciatica flares up and I can't climb up on a normal bike, I use a cheap little set of pedals you put on the floor and sit on your couch or a dining chair to use. You don't even have to cycle fast, but the more tension the better for this.

I am on the beta blocker Zebeta (bisoprolol) and it is one of the few beta blockers that don't seem to have an effect on metabolism. I was on metoprolol for a long time and my metabolism slowed way down. As soon as I switched to Zebeta my weight loss kicked up again. I haven't had any issues post-op with slow losing, either. Just a heads up in case you want to stay on beta blockers but might want to try something else.

My friend Meredith and I have created a Facebook group for those in NJ and NY states so we can keep in contact with those we are geographically closest to! We plan on doing periodic meetups for those who are interested. Please come join our group! I promise we're fun! https://www.facebook.com/groups/nynjsleevers/?ref=notif&notif_t=group_admin

Did anyone else have a weird noise in their ears like tiny thuds or popcorn popping after surgery? My right ear feels really full and I hear this popping all the time. My doctor says its not an ear infection and said it must be from the anaesthesia, but that was nearly three months ago so I don't know why it would be popping up now. I was told to try a large dose of sudafed to try to dry out the Fluid in the inner ear but that hasn't worked. I'm really desperate to get this taken care of, because its starting to effect the way I hear and the sensation of the popping keeps me from sleeping at night.

How long after surgery did you notice that it didn't hang so low? I'm very eager to get rid of mine (please no patience lectures. I know it will take time!) so I just want to get an average of when people started noticing a difference. Mine rests on my upper thighs when I sit down and I get bad rashes, not to mention it makes doing certain exercises near impossible. Really, really hard to do jumping jacks when you're getting beat up by your own fat! But seriously, how long before you noticed? I'm almost 3 months out and it seems exactly the same to me. I do worry that the fat will never melt off that part of my stomach. I remember a few years ago I got down to 175 with the help of a little red pill (I miss you, ephedrine! lol), but it still seemed the same size to me despite tons and tons and tons of cardio, weights and ab workouts. Not sure if it was my body dysmorphia or if it really did stay the same size.

To be honest, though, you're not lying. You *are* losing weight by eating less and exercising. The surgery doesn't cause some kind of trauma that makes the body go into this insane fat burning mode for no reason. Like we always say, the sleeve is a tool we use. Some people run to lose weight, some people use body tracking devices, we use our smaller stomachs. No shame in that.

Go to the gym and then come back and tell me how amazing you feel and what you did! Maybe that will motivate both of us to get off our rumps!

The 30 Day Shred is awesome! That's what I've been doing when I can get myself to exercise. You might also like Burn Fat Boost Metabolism. I know how it feels with the kids and school. I have a special needs 8-year-old son who takes up a lot of my time when he's home, and even when he's not here I'm preparing for him to come home from school, taking care of the house, looking for work. I graduated from undergrad last May and am planning on going into a PhD program fall of next year, so lots of things to prep there, too. So far exercising only sporadically hasn't impacted my weight loss any, but I'd also like to be somewhat less flabby when I get under 200.

I will get ready to workout in the mornings and then it takes every ounce of mental strength I have just to start. Once I'm in a good rhythm, I feel good and even better when I'm done. I just can't seem to get going. I feel sluggish and lethargic. I'm not quite 3 months out, so I know this is the magic time when I should be exercising, but I seem to have a million reasons not to, even though I know they're all bs. Someone help motivate me!

With all the conflicting information around on fitness, I just wanted to hear other Sleever's opinions on the topic of exercise frequency. I have been exercising a fair amount on a daily basis since mid January, and have seen little to no difference in my level of fitness and my size. The weight is actually coming off slower now, and although I'm sure that's not directly related to the exercise it does have me wondering: Should we really do some sort of formal exercise every day, or is every other day when kept consistent OK? I am not one that believes in the starvation mode myth, but I do wonder if I'm taking in enough calories to sustain daily vigorous exercise. I just recently started bumping my calories up from 550 to 650 per day, and even that is pushing it in terms of how much my sleeve will take when I concentrate on eating Protein first. So should we follow the "everyday is better" in terms of an exercise plan, or go with the more primal approach of "move more, lift heavy things" and not worry about more formal means of exercise as a daily occurrence? Thoughts?!

Thank you, everyone. This has made me feel much better about my losses! I know I should just appreciate what is going on, its just so hard when you've been dieting for 25 of your 33 years on earth. I'm just so exhausted from being this heavy for so long. I'm tired of being tired, sick of feeling sick. I want to be able to work again so we can get a better place to live but my knees and back are just too strained still. I sunk everything I have into this and the thought of it not working is terrifying.

We have the same surgery date!

I am only losing 3 pounds per week at this point; not overeating or eating anything restricted (such as sugars and starches). Not sure why I'm not losing more. I see people saying they've lost 30 more pounds than I have even though we've had our surgeries at the same time. Baffled and frustrated.

For health reasons, you should not get pregnant for a minimum of two years after the surgery. I actually had to sign an agreement to that effect before they would do my surgery. You just can't get in all the nutrients you need to support a baby at this stage.

I was told to stay under 650 at one month and not increase it until month 3 when I can go up to 800 per day.

Thank you for the reply. I do track, and my nutritionist has access to what I log and she says everything looks perfect. She's very confused as to why I'm not losing. I am hesitant to increase my calories, because when I increase them I start to gain weight like crazy. They increased me to 800 calories for about a week and I gained 12 pounds so they quickly lowered me back down to 500-600. I'm just angry because my family sacrificed so much for this. My son doesn't have a proper winter coat because I had to use all our savings for this and I can't find work again until I can stand on my feet for 8 hours, which I can't now. He doesn't have winter boots, didn't have a Christmas this last year. Everyone convinced me that he would be ok because next year mommy would be able to do so much more with him. I'm not forseeing that kind of future for either of us anymore. He already gets teased in school because he has "the fat mom".

I am two months out, four months since the start of pre-op, down 65 pounds but still exactly the same size...a 3x in tops and a 24 in jeans. Thought it was just me so I went clothes shopping last night to see and anything below those sizes is just too tight still.

The last few weeks, I have absolutely regretted having this surgery. So far, it hasn't done much for me. I actually lost more on my pre-op diet than I have since surgery. All my clothes still fit exactly the same as they did before. Measurements taken and only lost a quarter inch...in one wrist. Just the one. I am following my nutritionist's guidelines about intake and exercise to the letter. I double measure (measure then weigh) everything that goes in. I do not snack, I do not eat high fat or high carb things. I get in all my Water and then some. I move more, I force myself to do more throughout the day, not just when I'm exercising. Before my surgery I heard all sorts of wonderful things about how the sizes just fell off in the first few months. I am two months out and I am still exactly the same size. My insulin resistance is not resolved at all like they said it would, my blood pressure is still high, I am still morbidly obese. I know its not going to go away overnight, but I put a lot of money I didn't have into this to try to lose weight and its just not happening. I am not a whiner, not a flake. I work hard for everything I do and I am working hard for this. 65 pounds gone including pre-op and I'm still exactly the same. I wish I had never done this.

One thing that's good to remember is that your surgeon wants to get paid! They want you to have the surgery because it is a paycheck for them, so they will do everything they can to make sure you get approved. The office staff at surgeon's offices are experts on getting these procedures approved. Even if you are denied, it usually comes back with an explanation that you can then remedy and re-submit. Most of the time they will not submit your paperwork unless they are fairly certain you will be approved. Good luck!

Instead of serving what you think you can eat, measure or weigh out what you feel you should eat and stop there. I know I can currently eat more than 1/2 cup of certain things, but I only ever serve myself that 1/2 cup. It helps a lot, especially with softer things. I've also noticed that if I go a few days where I limit solid food and drink more Protein shakes my restriction comes back. Just a thought. I also think the gain might be because of increased weight training. As your muscles create tiny tears in the fibers, more Water will be retained to help repair them. The combination of muscle gain and water retention will lead to a gain. Plus, my surgeon has always told me that 5 pounds either way is not significant; the body will just do this from time to tome.

My weight loss has slowed down considerably since surgery. I am a little over two months out, and the weight is just barely creeping off. I actually lost weight faster and more consistently on my pre-op diet than I do now. There are days when I feel like this wasn't worth it. Does anyone else feel like this? (I know there are those who will ask, so yes I am eating within my NUT's guidelines, eating only 11% carbs from low-glycemic veg, getting in about 80g of protein per day from solid foods, and about 20g of fat. I exercise hard 7 days per week.)