VSGAnn2014

Those are VERY different caloric instructions than the ones I received. VERY different. A LOT lower. Here's what my medical team recommended: Month 1 500 calories (I'd have eaten more, but who could during Month One?!) Months 2 - 4 800 calories/day Months 5-6 1,000 calories/day Months 7-8 1,200 calories/day (Reached goal at 8-1/2 months post-op; lost at total of 90 pounds) Months 9-10 1,400 - 1,600 calories (Have lost another 5 pounds since reaching goal) And although I'm exercising and have been all along, my workouts aren't anything CLOSE to the intensity that yours are. Just sayin'.

Bandista, our power poses don't match at all. That open-legged pose by WW says: Get ready -- I'm about to devour YOU! (BTW, the "pancreas" comment I don't get at all. Where is the damned pancreas? LOL!)

Yeah, Arbonne products are pretty much a scam. My personal opinion.

@@Kindle ... we usually go to bed with the chickens. I slept 7 hours last night, but was awake just before at 4:00 am this morning. I do wish I could find my wand, too. I'd fedex it to you so you could whack yourself whenever you needed it. I think it's amazing that you're dealing with this latest lost without self-medicating with alcohol or food. That's an awesome change. If you ever want to talk, please PM me and I'll send you my phone number. I'm no kind of expert about suicide. But I'm a good listener. And I won't give you lots of advice. Promise.

VSG surgery gives you a smaller stomach, which eliminates (for a long time) a lot of ghrelin (the hunger hormone) and reduces the amount you can comfortably eat for a long time. But if you have eating disorders and aren't willing to make the lifelong lifestyle changes you need to make to remain healthy -- choosing more nutritious food, eating more slowly and chewing your food very well, avoiding high-sugar and other highly processed foods, eating only at mealtimes and 1-2 healthy Snacks, eliminating drinks with calories, e.g., sweet tea, juices, sodas from your daily menus, etc., you will not be successful with the sleeve. Your life post-op needs to be designed to practice and implement these new habits so they become your new lifestyle. As they say, your new sleeve is only one tool you need to be successful long-term.

Here's an interesting research report done by Kaiser Permanente following their WLS patients three years post-op. http://asmbs.org/wp/uploads/2014/05/Coleman-Three-Year-Outcomes-May-June-2014-SOARD-1.pdf The table on page 400 is where the interesting data is.

I didn't feel like this. i was so grateful to have (finally!) a solution to my lifelong problem that's all I could focus on. I sure hope you guys feel better soon. Try to focus on why you had this surgery.

I'm not long into this yet -- almost 10 months, and have already hit goal and lost 5 pounds below that now. Maintenance is new to me -- about 1-1/2 months now. For me, the difference seems to be: 1. Less hunger -- the "lot less ghrelin" factor has been a big deal for me. 2. Restriction -- that's still a big deal for me, too. As we all know, the restriction is less than it used to be. But it's quite functional at this point. 3. New habits -- boy, do I have a lot of good, new habits: eating slower, chewing longer, planning my daily menus, recording my food intake, weighing daily. I'm even grooming myself better -- brushing teeth 2X daily, doing better skin care, getting dressed every day, wearing makeup, getting my hair done on schedule, etc. 4. I can move more now -- and, boy, do I move more! Weighing 90 pounds less has made me MUCH more energetic. I simply could not move much at all a year ago. And all that moving is burning calories. I'm cleaning house, walking, exercising, gardening, shopping more, and everything else you can imagine. 5. Elevated mood. I'm not nearly as depressed as I was a year ago when I weighed 90 pounds more, I was in physical pain, I was a functional agoraphobic (I could fly cross-country, but refused to go to the local Wal-Mart). And now I'm simply not pissed, embarrassed, afraid, etc. I am so much happier. Skinnier Me = Happier Me = Skinnier Me. 6. Seeing a shrink has helped. I've never seen a shrink before, but at my PCP's urging started doing so when I started my WLS journey. He's helped me stay quite focused on the right stuff. No big trauma in my past has been uncovered. But I've explored the factors associated with my past failures in caring for myself in the past and ways I can change those patterns. That's all been very helpful. So far, for me, this has all been a dynamic dealio in that everything above seems to feed everything else. Put another way, when everything is working well, everything works well. When everything sucks, everything sucks. And according to my shrink, people who've reached goal risk regaining when they don't keep changing their goals, e.g., we lost weight -- now what? Get fitter? Leverage our new health to start our dreamed-for career? Human beings don't "stand still" very comfortably. ... anyway, those are some thoughts from my point of view. Kindle, I hope you can find some peace in all this chaos thrust upon you. I'd love to "poof" you better, but I can't find my wand right now. ;(

I think if you already have anxiety pre-op (even pre-pre-op) you'll surely have anxiety post-op. So the question is: Will you be MORE anxious post-op than you already are. And if so, what will your anxiety-provoking triggers be? You're going to go through tons of change on this journey. The first month will be a bit challenging, although one's perception of the magnitude of challenge really varies person to person. Mine wasn't bad; others felt more challenged. And then you'll be challenged by stalls, temptations, even weight loss will be challenging. Then maintenance will be challenging. And then, of course, regular life is full of challenges. Do you suffer from eating disorders like binge-eating? Do you have sufficient support in your life (a helpful spouse, supportive siblings, a good friend who cheers you on?) Are you already in therapy and being treated for an anxiety disorder and have support on that front? I've found that the way to be most successful after WLS is to really pack on the resources -- a supportive husband, a good therapist, a smart surgeon with a great medical / nutritional / exercise advisory team, useful online WLS forums, etc. The tools I've found very helpful include www.myfitnesspal.com, a Fitbit, analyzing all my stats re eating patterns, weight loss patterns. (I like to collect and play with data; not everyone loves it that much.) So find those resources and tools that will support YOUR WLS success, and use the heck out of them. And if considering all this just freaks you out -- it's OK to hit "pause" and wait until you feel more confident that WLS will be a good move for you. Remember - no one is making you do this. And no one is going to make you successful. YOU have to want to do it. And you are the only one who can make yourself successful.

It's tough being 21 and making lifelong choices like those associated with WLS. Surgery yea or nay is going to have to be YOUR decision. Nobody else's. But eventually you'll have to deal with weighing 250 pounds (or most likely 300 pounds in a few years). Have you ever been successful losing the weight through diet and exercise? Ultimately, that's what is involved post-op. The sleeve itself doesn't magically make you skinny. And it sure won't keep you skinny if you don't educate yourself about eating differently than you have up to now and become much more active than you are at the moment. Becoming healthy requires you to care for yourself well. Self-care, it's called. And almost all obese people do a terrible job at caring for themselves. Why we don't excel at this varies from person to person. Do you know why you don't care for yourself very well? If not, I urge you to try and learn more about that as part of your path to healthy living. Very, very best to you.

My body's automatic changes in how I move -- and my own conscious efforts to change how I move and how I hold my body (standing straighter, shoulders back, tits out, moving forward not side to side, holding my legs in closer, not out, not leaning on walls, head straight up, eyes forward, not down, etc.) has made a big difference in how I feel and how I present myself to others. When I weighed so much more it was hard enough just to move to get somewhere and then to slouch or collapse as soon as I got there -- whether it was across the room or across a parking lot. There's so much to this journey. So much!

What a sweet thread! You guys are doing great.

You'll have to be accountable to yourself. That's the best kind of accountability anyway. The tool that has helped me the most (in addition to my sleeve) along this journey is My Fitness Pal. I use it for two things: (1) planning my daily menus and (2) tracking what I ate. The first function (planning my daily menus) has been very important to my success. YOU decide what you're going to eat. Don't let random food sitting around decide for you. Best wishes!

My Fitness Pal. LOVE IT!

@Rogofulm Drop the mic and walk off the stage! That is the BEST write-up I've EVER read about how to use the sleeve to lose weight. You and I are at the same spot -- a bit below goal, starting to navigate maintenance. Our approaches to weight loss were much the same -- follow the boring, simple instructions from our medical team. I'm going to come back and read your post above multiple times. Thank you so much for taking the time to write this. Truly. Thanks, Roger.

I read about that research. Fascinating!

Acid reflux doesn't make your stomach upset. It mimics the feeling of hunger. Stomach acid, hunger, eat, relief. Get it? Oh, and you're losing a helluva lotta weight early on. There's nothing wrong with you on that front.

Fascinating!

I went to Victoria's Secret about a month ago and bought two bras -- a nude one and a black one. One is 34DD and the other 34DDD. They give great shape to what is no longer shaped the way it used to be shaped. I call them Thuh Bra and Thee Bra.

I think experimentation with macronutrient proportions (Protein, carbs, fats) is very helpful. But not everyone is willing or capable of doing those kinds of one-subject science experiments on themselves. But if you are ... there's a real opportunity to learn what works best for YOU, rather than the unwashed masses.

I wouldn't worry about it if I were you, given how you describe your relationship and commitment to family. My husband is just super supportive of everything I've ever wanted to do. Bless his sweet heart. I adore him. And he adores me. He's just so happy for me. And so proud of me. <3

@@Bufflehead ... that's great that you're losing weight again after two years post-op. I have read many posts / threads in which people that far out are struggling to get the scale moving down again. Congrats.

If you *know* something is true, it's hard to unlearn it. Why not be open to learning new things? Why not approach hot topics as though you don't already actually know *the* answer?

Here's how my monthly post-op weight losses went (I also lost 20 pounds pre-op): Month 1 10.4 lbs Month 2 11.8 lbs Month 3 9.2 lbs Month 4 10.4 lbs Month 5 6.8 lbs Month 6 5.0 lbs Month 7 6.2 lbs Month 8 4.4 lbs (reached goal this month of 150) Month 9 3.8 lbs Based on where I am now and my current weight loss rate, my guess is that in Month 10 I’ll show a net loss of 2.0 pounds and then stop losing. That would put me at a total weight loss of 90 pounds. I would be quite comfy at a "bounce range" of 145-150 pounds. I could maintain comfortably (at 1,600 - 1,700 calories/day) at that weight.