livvsmum

Yep. I agree with everything Bufflehead said. If I stick to "the plan", being Protein first, then maybe some veggies, I am always full and can eat probably 3-4 oz of lean protein and just a little veggies. However, with that being said, it becomes much easier to eat slider foods and not feel full at all, so you have to be really careful to be mindful in your food choices. Could I physically eat just about anything? Absolutely! Will I maintain my 140 pounds lost if I do? Absolutely not! The sleeve is a great "tool" as I'm sure you've heard a million times. But you have to work with it for it to work for you the way it is meant to.

I cannot recommend highly enough the book "When food Is Love" for binge eating issues. It changed my life. Get it. Read it. :-)

My insurance requires you to be no less than 18 months post-op, have medical documentation of at least 3 months worth of other treatments tried by your PCP, and photos of the area. My surgeon requires you to have lost 50% of your excess weight to submit to insurance. I should have everything complete and ready to go to insurance by March!

Also a fact i learned is that there is a size smaller than a tall; it is a short. I order a short skinny caramel latte when I go there. Low calories, low carbs, low sugar.

I'm sorry I'm late to check in, we were away! Weight this week is 141.4

Wonderful! Congrats! It's such an awesome feeling, isn't it! I just completed my first 1/2 marathon in October as well. I'm training now for a full! It is so crazy to me that this is even a possibility. And it's so weird when people will send me messages to ask questions or see me and say "oh you're a runner, so tell me how to get started" or whatever..... The "you're a runner" part is still weird to me. :-)

It was tough going out at first, but I would say that now (14 months post op) I can find something pretty much everywhere. I also carry a Protein shake and a pack of peanuts in my purse at all times in case I am somewhere and there is nothing that would fit with my nutritional needs. It makes it a lot easier to say no to temptation when you have a back up. But to answer your question, for my safe options I will order something like a 1/2 salad with chicken and eat just the chicken off of it, maybe a couple of bites of salad, but there's usually not room. Or pretty much everywhere has your standard grilled chicken sandwich or wrap. I will just order that and leave the bun or wrap and just eat the chicken. Hope that helps!

I started with the treadmill after my surgery and eventually the elliptical.

I think you'll probably get different answers to this question, much like is caffeine ok, is alcohol ok, etc. I think your responses will be varied. I can only speak from my experience. I do think that as my sleeve has "healed" and the internal swelling has gone down, etc there probably is a little less restriction than there was initially. With that being said, the kind of food you are eating matters. If you are eating foods that are high in carbs, they tend to slide pretty easily through, not fill you up, and give you the sensation that you your sleeve is "broken" or "stretched" and you can suddenly eat more. However, if you go back to dense Proteins you'll realize pretty quickly that your tool is still in tact and you still have the restriction that you expect to have. So, is it possible to stretch your sleeve? I'm not terribly sure. Is it possible to over-eat or binge eat with the sleeve and have the feeling that it is stretched? Absolutely. So that was kind of a long response to a short question. And my official answer, I don't know. Lol.

Goals are interesting things. They are pretty arbitrary to be honest. And once I met my initial goal, I've since revised it twice. But, with that being said, I'm a huge goal-oriented person, so they help me a great deal! I think the first 6 months or so, I was able to pretty easily shoot for 15 pounds/month, then it slowed a little. For an overall goal, I knew I wanted 50% of my initial weight lost.

It took me 10 months to get to my initial goal which was 150. That was 128.4 pounds lost. Then I decided I needed a new goal of 139, which would put me at over 50% of my original weight lost. So I hit my revised goal of 139 at 12 months post op. So that represented a loss of 139.2 pounds. Now, I have another revised goal of 135, which is another couple of pounds away. I'd like to definitely reach that by the end of the year, which would be 15 months post op. As far as maintaining (since I do essentially view myself as "at goal" since 10 months post op....the 2nd and 3rd goals are just bonuses) I haven't found it terribly difficulty. I give myself a couple pound range where I'm not going to freak out because Water weight fluctuation, time of the month, etc....but beyond that my body does a pretty good job of just kind of hanging out around the same couple of pounds. With that being said, I do still follow the rules as far as Protein, water, and carbs. And I run.....a ton......like, 30 miles a week.

Looking at all my before/after photos motivates me. Also going back through my blog and reading the posts motivates me as well because it reminds me how very unhappy I was before and how desperately I wanted this change. It also motivates me to think of the people who have told me that I've helped or encouraged them along the way. Thinking about that gives me a sense or feeling of accountability and not wanting to let them down.

I'm happy to say that all of my "I can't wait until....." -moments from a physical sense- have happened. Riding rides at the amusement park, fitting in airplane seats comfortably, having my kids wrap their arms all the way around me, being in the single digits (size 4!!!), running a 1/2 marathon, buying cute, sexy clothes, feeling good posing in pictures. What I still struggle with and "I can't wait until....." is when I start to "feel" thin. In a lot of ways, though my body is there, my head STILL is not and it's extremely frustrating!

Congrats! It's an amazing journey!

livvsmum

I didn't do so great on the Halloween challenge. Definitely ready for this one :-) Starting challenge weight: 142 Goal Weight: reach & maintain 135 Good luck everyone!!!

I'm in too! I didn't reach my Halloween challenge goal, and I was pretty terrible at weighing in. This will be a good back-to-the-basics challenge for me. I'll post on Nov. 7 with my goal. Thanks!

This weekend, after 12 weeks of training, I completed the Hershey Half Marathon and came in 30 seconds under my goal time!!! That means I ran -without stopping- 13.1 miles!! That is just crazy to me, seeing as before my sleeve I never ran even a city block. Around mile 12 I really wanted to walk, but I just kept thinking "the girl I was before couldn't have done this, I'll finish for her." I pushed through & did it and outside of the birth of my kids and my wedding, it was the best day of my life. As a side note, we went to Hershey park the day before the marathon with my teen daughters & I rode every single roller coaster. The last time I was at that park, I tried to ride one with my daughter, but couldn't fit. It was the most humiliating moment of my life, so it was pretty fitting that a year later I returned there to ride all the rides AND run a 1/2 marathon!!! This is just an example of how working with my sleeve to reach goals has helped me transform my life. ....and now I'm registered for my first full marathon in a few months!!

Very cute! I love it!

Thank you! :-)

I didn't find this until after surgery, but I wish I would have started it before.... I highly recommend the book, "When food is Love" by Geneen Roth.

That is great! Congrats on all your hard work!