roundisashape

Thanks, everyone! The support from this site and everyone on it has been incredible, and I know I'll be counting on it for years to come

Yes, ma'am. I was right after, and still am now. Not just because we've lost an old coping mechanism and everything has changed - not that it isn't enough - but be aware that weight loss can result in some hormone fluctuations too. It's not ALL in your head, some of it is purely physical .

Just be kind to yourself!

For me it's one day to the next. Some days I'm hungry and can eat more, faster. Other days it'll take me an hour to finish a toddler portion!

Good luck! I'll be rooting for you!

Gay cowboy? Yeah, that caught my eye, too, lol!!!

I've gotten an astonishing number of cross dressers.

These are incredible!

So far I've had the guy who showed up to dinner with no teeth and one who still lived with his mom (he was almost 40) who were the BETTER dates. Another took me on a hike but spent the whole time talking about his ex, then left me standing in the parking lot looking for my keys. One lived in his ex-wife's basement, smelled like cheese, and drove around the neighborhood screaming profanity at people (I lied and said I lived close by then walked almost 3 miles home late at night).

The last one takes the cake, though. He said he thought he might be facing impending homelessness, and my mouth engaged before my brain and said, "well, if you can't find something fast enough, you can spend a few days on my couch until you find something else" (because who on earth could say, "gee, sorry" and watch someone sleep in a tent, y'know?). 6 days later he showed up with all his stuff, and now he won't leave...it's been almost a month. When I figure out what to do with him, I'm going to stop dating for a while, lol.

So I'm not saying it's GOOD, but for me, sometimes that physical reminder helps. I feel so normal now that sometimes I forget myself until something like that happens and it shocks me back to remembering I had 80% of my stomach removed and I really need to be careful! As a couple of people have mentioned, not everyone gets sick from too much and/or the wrong food, but if you do it might be something you can spin into a positive for yourself. You'll probably remember that feeling and not do it again for quite a while!

I was taking them the morning after surgery in the hospital - some of the pain meds were tablets

Greek yogurt, lunchmeat, string cheese, hard boiled eggs (though sometimes I still have trouble with them at 9 months out)...sometimes I like to get the frozen grilled chicken chunks and by the time I'm ready for them, they're thawed. Those are okay to just eat if you can't heat them up.

Premier isn't terrible warm, though

It is like an out of body experience! That's what everyone with BED says. So far I've been quite lucky in I'm very careful to not stretch the sleeve, so after I'm slightly full I stop. I'm really happy to hear that you have only dealt with it a few times in the past 9 months! That's very encouraging! Could I ask, when you mention that you were binging a few times a week, was that prior to surgery or after?

When it was happening that often, it was pre-op. I didn't have my first post-op binge until about 3 months out - it shocked me, honestly, because I guess I just thought it would never happen again!

@@AngelaWilliamsMD, no, not really - I just wasn't confident I could do it! I think I could've tried it much earlier except that there was still too much of me and I got in my own way .

Ah, I've got friends in the UP and I don't know how you guys live there in the winter!

If you've got a gym to go to, I'd stick with the treadmill early on and when things stop hurting, try a trainer who will work with you and stop if something doesn't feel right. I tried Zumba a couple of times in the back of the room where I could go slower.

At home, youtube videos of those walk away the pounds videos were awesome! I still use them once in a while.

Congrats on getting your date!!

I've had a couple of sleeve-style binges - where you can't hold what you used to, but the lack of control is there. Yes, I'm losing and have continued to lose weight. It seems that the instant fullness, pain, and the quickness that overeating so much causes vomiting brings me back to my senses where I never had that off switch before. It happens a LOT less often now - maybe 3 times in the last 9 months, where I was doing it several times a week before - and I think mostly because I'm more aware of my body.

I can understand where you're coming from, though. The first time I did it post-op it was like an out of body experience. I got out of the car to put gas in it, and it was like I was watching a movie until I was a few blocks down with donut crumbs on my shirt and an urgent need to hurl.

I'm sorry you're dealing with it - it sucks.

The weight loss definitely helps! Just don't ever let yourself run out of Vitamins. I went without for a week between paydays and thought I was dying by day 4. Maybe it was psychological, but BOY did I feel like a wet dishrag!

I think I would've still hurt too much the first couple of months - I didn't try it until about 6 months in, but it was totally new to me. Went much better than expected!

Oh yeah. As soon as my weight loss became noticeable all of a sudden everyone seemed to have an opinion about what I should do. I'm...doing...something...that works. I have a family member I haven't spoken to since 1996 who said she wanted to catch up. We got on the phone, and there was a 3rd person on there and they hit me with a sales pitch for a weight loss program since, "well, you're losing weight and this will help you do it faster!"

smoothie King's can be dangerous - they slip a lot of sugar in stuff if you don't tell them not to, and their calorie counter doesn't do a great job dealing with different sizes and certain customizations.

That said, I do drink them sometimes when that's all I'm planning to have for the first half of the day. I'm about 9 months out, and I usually go for the small chocolate gladiator with strawberries (or medium if I'm super hungry). Half of it goes down for Breakfast and half for lunch.

They have a few reasonable choices in there, but I was surprised to find a lot of them didn't have enough Protein in there to be worth the calories .

I was terrified, but it wound up not being an issue. Mentally I kept obsessing over the idea that I'd end up with hypoglycemia and not be able to do anything about it, but it never happened (at least until I got back to the gym, and by then I COULD grab something).

It seems like such an insurmountable change to make when you're pre-op and still have a bigger capacity, but afterwards it's not such a huge issue .

Good luck, and I hope you get your date soon!

"Fits and spurts" weight loss - where you go 3 weeks without losing a pound, then drop 6. By the 3rd week, my motivation is sorely lacking.

And the buffet people in the family! If it's a cheap one, fine, but $16 and I can't take leftovers? Bullsnot.

I don't really miss anything - if I want something so badly I can't get it out of my head, I have it. What I miss is quantity, but that's only in spurts (like if I'm feeling down and my brain wants to eat ALL of something instead of a few bites of it). I also miss having a taste for certain old favorites. One example is my mom's spaghetti sauce - I'm the only one in the family that knows how to make it like she did. It was always my absolute favorite, and there's not a thing in it that's bad for a sleever (especially when I go heavy on the meat). I eat it without noodles now. It just doesn't taste the same to me anymore, and for some reason that makes me sad.

Which, btw, is working for you - you look great, Elode!

Yogurt, frozen yogurt (don't beat me, lol), milk, frozen grilled chicken chunks, laughing cow cheese wedges, some sort of finger friendly veggie (like zucchini chunks, carrot sticks, whatever it is), some sort of fruit, and Peanut Butter. Definitely a creature of habit!

Roasted chicken while I was on vacation, it was at a dinner theater. I felt the weirdest mix of sad and proud when I watched the rest of the plate go back to the kitchen!

CONGRATULATIONS! I really admire how brave you are, and you TOTALLY deserve to look the way you want to look, and feel the way you want to feel!