LumpySpacePrincess

What do you eat in a typical day? Sometimes its just a matter of lowering your calories by 100-200 per day that can make a big difference.

I take ibuprofen, but only three tabs once a month during my period. For joint pain, it sounds like you'd need to take it more often, and you'd run a higher risk of developing an ulcer. You might ask your surgeon what else you can take, because there are other alternatives out there. Tylenol never did anything for me, so I totally understand how you'd want to take ibuprofen!

Fat is not an emotion, so one cannot "feel fat." You need to look deeper and find out what is really going on emotionally that is making you feel that way. Maybe as you near your goal, the sensation of being in a smaller body is unsettling after years of being overweight? If you are having a physical sensation, try pinpointing what it really is. Are you sensing that you're bloated? If so, is something new in your diet that could be causing it? If you have loose skin and it is affecting the way your clothes look, does that evoke emotions or other physical sensations? A little time for self reflection will probably help you start to work this out.

Try Avenue's solid seamless briefs. They are spandex so they stay on really well. Even the ones I have that are a few sizes too big stay put when I need them to.

Awesome!!! Love your avatar, btw.

I would have this surgery every year for the rest of my life if I needed to. I still enjoy great food, just my concept of what great food is has changed. Sure I can't eat as much as others, so I go slowly and really take in the taste, texture, and aroma of my food instead of just cramming it down. I am actually much more satisfied after a meal now than I was when I could eat ten times as much. Your relationship with food will change, and for some that is a hard thing to cope with. This is why I whole heartedly recommend therapy before and after your surgery. You are going to mourn the loss of food to some extent, and its so vital you learn to put new coping strategies in place so when the food cannot be your comfort, you have other things to turn to.

I don't know about anyone else, but if I try drinking when I'm eating a meal post-op, it HURTS!

Protein shots are not great for you, and they taste disgusting. My two favorites were the EAS AdvantEDGE Carb Control shakes (I got mine at Target) or Chocolite from netrition.com. Neither of them are too sweet, at least not to me. The other option is to buy an unflavored Protein powder, like Isopure, that you can mix with pretty much anything like tea, Soup, put it in jell-o or puddings, etc. I do not recommend the flavor of a lot of the 'protein waters' floating around. They're also pretty sweet. If you don't want something too sweet, try mixing the unflavored protein powder with diet cranberry juice or some other low sugar juice, milk, or pretty much anything else.

I was told the opposite. Meals should not take longer than 20 minutes, because your sleeve will empty in about 24 minutes. If you're taking an hour to eat, you could reasonably eat three times as much as you should because you are waiting for your food to pass through your sleeve. You'll almost certainly overeat this way.

One of the only issues I've had since surgery is the inability to have a bm on my own. I usually take a single stimulant laxative once a week and that has done the trick. However, I'd like to start being able to go naturally. I know when I do eat bread, I have a bm usually the next day, so I think the problem isn't that my bowels are sluggish, there's just not enough volume to what I need to pass for it to signal my body that its "time." I do not like eating bread or grains on a regular basis because they are trigger foods for me, and when I eat them its much harder to get my Protein in for the day. I also do not like Fiber supplements because they give me some major bloating that gets really uncomfortable. So I'm looking for ideas that will give my bm's bulk so I can have more regular bathroom habits and go without the stimulant laxative. I've tried Beans, but they don't seem to work unless I eat a lot of them on a daily basis. Lettuce sometimes helps but gives more of a diarrhoea effect. Any advice is appreciated!

It took months for my therapist to drill intuitive eating into my head. Then when I had surgery, I had to forget all about it. It seems like we're eating so much because we're so much more aware of what we're eating than we were before. I remember going to my therapist so frustrated in the second month because I felt like I was bingeing, even though I wasn't. We're told to eat all these mini meals even if we're not hungry, but that just doesn't work for some of us. I'm 8 months out, and I usually have the same thing every day: scrambled egg whites with veggies and feta cheese for breakfast, rarely do I have lunch and if I do its a non-fat plain Greek yogurt, and then for dinner I'll make up a batch of something on Sunday and eat it every dinner for a week. If I'm low in Protein for the day, I'll add in a yogurt at night. So it does get better over time. Here's the beauty of it: if you feel you're eating too much, just don't snack as much. When I stopped snacking, I was able to get back to my intuitive eating and listening to my body. I think this is doubly important now that our bodies are sending us vastly different signals about what it needs, and in order for it to send those signals for you to recognize and analyze, you need to let it get to those points.

I've seen the judgement in other places, people saying they can't understand why someone would get this surgery if they are under 200. The thing is, people who are under 200 or close it it can struggle just as much with weight loss as those of us who started out super morbidly obese. The mechanism of losing weight doesn't get easier just because you're smaller! You know what's best for your body, others probably don't. You know yourself better than anyone on the planet, and I'm sure you made the right decision for you. We don't let other medical issues like cancer or diabetes spiral out of control before we take care of them, so why should you do that with your weight? I say good on you for taking control of your life before you end up like me: super morbidly obese and miserable. I wish I had done this surgery in my 20's when I was still close to 200!!

Thank you for the kind words, everyone! It really means a lot!

Thank you so much!! Your comment really made me smile!!

First picture was me at my highest weight last summer of 315 pounds. Second is me two weeks before surgery at 288 pounds. Last is me today at 184!! Best decision of my life. I'm starting to look like a normal person!! The pants are size 16 which I bought two weeks ago and suddenly they're just falling off me so I had to hold them up in the back. (Ignore the messy livingroom...my son had a sleepover).

If you are looking for a therapist, try Psychology Today's therapist listings. You can select what specialty you want (for food issues, I highly suggest finding someone with a PhD who specializes in eating disorders) and can put in your insurance and find someone in your area. That's how I found my therapist, and I could not have been in any way successful with my surgery without her guidance. Peaceful thoughts sent to you. I hope you find someone who can help.

Your emotions and worries on this are completely valid and totally normal, so don't think you're being unreasonable. One of the biggest complaints I hear from people who have had surgery about their significant others is that they don't feel supported if their spouse eats "junk" in front of them, or gets snippy about wanting to eat healthier. I don't think this is an issue for you; it sounds like you are more than willing to eat the way he does, which is good. My biggest pieces of advice: do the diet with him, even if its just during the meals you eat together. Go to the gym with him if he'll let you. Ask him to go on walks with you. In short, get involved in his process so he doesn't feel isolated. Second: ignore the emotional outbursts and don't take them personally. Our hormones and emotions get so out of whack the first few months after surgery and sometimes when we hurt others its really unintentional and we know its not right. It is totally OK to take a few moments for yourself when he gets emotional like that so you can gather your thoughts together. Know that he probably doesn't mean any of it to hurt you. Last: take care of yourself in non-food ways during the days you are taking care of him. Take a hot bath, go for a walk, indulge in a manicure if you're into that. Make sure you get enough rest so you can be there for him when he needs. If all else fails, see a counselor together if he's willing. I'm hoping your relationship will be like mine and actually get stronger after the surgery.

Double your Prilosec and it should calm down.

My mom (who hasn't had WLS and is super skinny) has the exact same reaction to KFC. I don't think you damaged anything, it just sounds like all the grease in the chicken did not make your stomach happy and it needs a day or two to recuperate.

Thanks for this! I often forget to drink during the day, and this is the kind of reminder I need to drink more often. Kidney stones definitely do not sound fun!

I have been on this medication twice in my life, and for a good year I was on the over-the-counter Ephedrine. They all work. However, the drawback is you become tolerant of them very, very quickly; sometimes to the point that a dose that will keep you from getting hungry may be beyond what is safe. That being said, I do still take it occasionally. It has great anti-anxiety properties and kills my appetite when I need it to. This last time I was prescribed Phentermine by my OB/GYN who also does weight management for women. I have ED-NOS (eating disorder-not otherwise specified) with bingeing components and the Phentermine is sometimes the only thing that prevents me from going into binge mode. I use it just as that: a preventative tool when I feel my brain is working against me and I need help taking a step backward. To be clear, however, I also go to therapy for my eating issues several times per month; the Phentermine is just a backup when I feel really out of control. Currently, I only take half of a dose and that usually does what I need it to do: temporarily puts my cravings on hold and my hunger at bay so I can work through whatever issue is driving me to eat. If you are looking for something that will create massive, permanent weight loss, however, Phentermine is not your drug. At most you'll lose about 40-50 pounds, and then when you become tolerant you'll have to either go through detox and most likely gain all the weight back, or keep upping your dose to the drug's safety ceiling, at which point you'll have to detox and probably gain the weight back. Phentermine is not permanent, it is temporary. I do think for some of us, using Phentermine and other drugs like it to occasionally (and always under doctor and therapist supervision!!) have relief from psychological eating patterns in conjunction with weight loss surgery is not a problem. What is a problem is when you start expecting to see results from Phentermine alone. In that case, you will most likely be highly disappointed and possibly even addicted to a controlled substance.

3 weeks out seems to be a very common time to worry about if we will lose or not. Almost everyone is afraid of that. I was, too, but at 8 months out I'm down 130ish pounds. It goes by really fast, so don't worry, you will lose! Because you have less to lose than others, your losses may not be as dramatic, but as long as you follow your surgeon's eating plan, the losses will come!

Ice pack reduces swelling better than heat. I used one of those cooler inserts that looks like blue gel inside bubble wrap. It was big enough to lay over my belly and it was the best feeling in the world!

It should ease your mind to know that after I got home from the hospital (24 hour stay) I didn't need the Lortab. The visiting nurse told me children's liquid Tylenol is better for us anyway as it doesn't slow down the gut and it really did just fine. You might look into group therapies for people with addictions and eating disorders. While its not bariatric specific, that demographic of people will also be looking to stay sober while conquering food issues. It might be helpful to contact one of the Renfrew centers here in New Jersey and ask if they know of any of those groups; they may even hold them at their centers. Hope this helps.

I remember having terrible itching around my incisions, too. I didn't scratch, but I just kind of ran my fingernail in a circle around the incisions (maybe about 1/4" away from the actual cut) and that seemed to help. Not too much pressure. The itching goes away after about a week or so.