Rogofulm

Hey @@Olarance75 – Congrats on muscling the weight back down! I figure that's going to be the story for the rest of our lives. But you caught it and did something about it before it got completely out of control, and that's really admirable! Do you feel that your restriction has returned to help you for a while?

I hated Phentermine. It made me feel jittery and nervous, like I had come to work "high" on something. Also, it worked for most of the day, but the appetite suppressant effect would wear off by evening, and then I would eat like a crazy person.

Update: The restriction from the 5-day pouch test appears to still be working. I can't hold as much food as I could before and I stop eating sooner. I'm not munching as much or as frequently, and I broke the habit of eating fistfuls of peanuts every 20 minutes. The hunger is starting to return, though, but it's easier to keep the beast at bay longer – at least for now. I'm not really losing weight, but I'm also not gaining. Remember on our previous diets how "the last few pounds are the hardest"? Well that's where I live now. And since my honeymoon period is apparently over, my body doesn't ignore calories like it used to. So I still need to figure out where I can cut them without being hungry all the time. Statistically, a 10% bounce is expected from our initial weight loss total. In my case that would be around 12 pounds. But I'm fighting like hell to try and keep that at 3% or less, and then eventually muscle it back down to where I want to remain.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Make good choices!!!

In October, roughly 16 months after my surgery, I had been maintaining within 1 pound either way of my goal weight of 145 for nearly 6 months. At a kid's party, I avoided all the sweets, but ate a bunch of breaded chicken nuggets over two days - and nothing else out of the ordinary. My weight went up by 3 pounds, and I decided to get a handle on it immediately. BUT..... It wasn't so easy this time. For three weeks I tried to knock it back down, doing just what I had been doing before, but my weight wouldn't budge, except to bounce in the 148-149 range. No need to panic, right? Yeah, but 3 can lead to 5, which can lead to 10, and THEN you might have a problem because now it's not coming off as easily as before. that's when I figured out that my "honeymoon" was over, and I'd have to work harder than I did before. So I decided to give the 5-day Pouch Test a try.
I followed all the rules of the 5DPT to a tee, and at the end of 5 days my weight was only down about a pound. But I found that my sleeve was getting full sooner and I was staying satisfied longer. Which is exactly what the website promises! And it helped me break some bad habits (tons of peanuts and pistachios) that had crept in. It also reinforced the "no drinking for 30 minutes before or after meals" rule. It's been a little over a week now, and the restriction is still working. My weight is still bouncing around, but it's starting to work it's way back down. This morning I saw 145.9 for the first time in about 6 weeks. One more pound and I'll be happy! I'll keep you posted.....
By the way, "Sleeve Reset" and "Bariatric Reset" are much better names than "Pouch Test".

Update: The restriction from the 5-day pouch test appears to still be working. I can't hold as much food as I could before and I stop eating sooner. I'm not munching as much or as frequently, and I broke the habit of eating fistfuls of peanuts every 20 minutes. The hunger is starting to return, though, but it's easier to keep the beast at bay longer – at least for now. I'm not really losing weight, but I'm also not gaining. Remember on our previous diets how "the last few pounds are the hardest"? Well that's where I live now. And since my honeymoon period is apparently over, my body doesn't ignore calories like it used to. So I still need to figure out where I can cut them without being hungry all the time. Statistically, a 10% bounce is expected from our initial weight loss total. In my case that would be around 12 pounds. But I'm fighting like hell to try and keep that at 3% or less, and then eventually muscle it back down to where I want to remain.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Make good choices!!!

In October, roughly 16 months after my surgery, I had been maintaining within 1 pound either way of my goal weight of 145 for nearly 6 months. At a kid's party, I avoided all the sweets, but ate a bunch of breaded chicken nuggets over two days - and nothing else out of the ordinary. My weight went up by 3 pounds, and I decided to get a handle on it immediately. BUT..... It wasn't so easy this time. For three weeks I tried to knock it back down, doing just what I had been doing before, but my weight wouldn't budge, except to bounce in the 148-149 range. No need to panic, right? Yeah, but 3 can lead to 5, which can lead to 10, and THEN you might have a problem because now it's not coming off as easily as before. that's when I figured out that my "honeymoon" was over, and I'd have to work harder than I did before. So I decided to give the 5-day Pouch Test a try.
I followed all the rules of the 5DPT to a tee, and at the end of 5 days my weight was only down about a pound. But I found that my sleeve was getting full sooner and I was staying satisfied longer. Which is exactly what the website promises! And it helped me break some bad habits (tons of peanuts and pistachios) that had crept in. It also reinforced the "no drinking for 30 minutes before or after meals" rule. It's been a little over a week now, and the restriction is still working. My weight is still bouncing around, but it's starting to work it's way back down. This morning I saw 145.9 for the first time in about 6 weeks. One more pound and I'll be happy! I'll keep you posted.....
By the way, "Sleeve Reset" and "Bariatric Reset" are much better names than "Pouch Test".

Update: The restriction from the 5-day pouch test appears to still be working. I can't hold as much food as I could before and I stop eating sooner. I'm not munching as much or as frequently, and I broke the habit of eating fistfuls of peanuts every 20 minutes. The hunger is starting to return, though, but it's easier to keep the beast at bay longer – at least for now. I'm not really losing weight, but I'm also not gaining. Remember on our previous diets how "the last few pounds are the hardest"? Well that's where I live now. And since my honeymoon period is apparently over, my body doesn't ignore calories like it used to. So I still need to figure out where I can cut them without being hungry all the time. Statistically, a 10% bounce is expected from our initial weight loss total. In my case that would be around 12 pounds. But I'm fighting like hell to try and keep that at 3% or less, and then eventually muscle it back down to where I want to remain.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Make good choices!!!

In October, roughly 16 months after my surgery, I had been maintaining within 1 pound either way of my goal weight of 145 for nearly 6 months. At a kid's party, I avoided all the sweets, but ate a bunch of breaded chicken nuggets over two days - and nothing else out of the ordinary. My weight went up by 3 pounds, and I decided to get a handle on it immediately. BUT..... It wasn't so easy this time. For three weeks I tried to knock it back down, doing just what I had been doing before, but my weight wouldn't budge, except to bounce in the 148-149 range. No need to panic, right? Yeah, but 3 can lead to 5, which can lead to 10, and THEN you might have a problem because now it's not coming off as easily as before. that's when I figured out that my "honeymoon" was over, and I'd have to work harder than I did before. So I decided to give the 5-day Pouch Test a try.
I followed all the rules of the 5DPT to a tee, and at the end of 5 days my weight was only down about a pound. But I found that my sleeve was getting full sooner and I was staying satisfied longer. Which is exactly what the website promises! And it helped me break some bad habits (tons of peanuts and pistachios) that had crept in. It also reinforced the "no drinking for 30 minutes before or after meals" rule. It's been a little over a week now, and the restriction is still working. My weight is still bouncing around, but it's starting to work it's way back down. This morning I saw 145.9 for the first time in about 6 weeks. One more pound and I'll be happy! I'll keep you posted.....
By the way, "Sleeve Reset" and "Bariatric Reset" are much better names than "Pouch Test".

Update: The restriction from the 5-day pouch test appears to still be working. I can't hold as much food as I could before and I stop eating sooner. I'm not munching as much or as frequently, and I broke the habit of eating fistfuls of peanuts every 20 minutes. The hunger is starting to return, though, but it's easier to keep the beast at bay longer – at least for now. I'm not really losing weight, but I'm also not gaining. Remember on our previous diets how "the last few pounds are the hardest"? Well that's where I live now. And since my honeymoon period is apparently over, my body doesn't ignore calories like it used to. So I still need to figure out where I can cut them without being hungry all the time. Statistically, a 10% bounce is expected from our initial weight loss total. In my case that would be around 12 pounds. But I'm fighting like hell to try and keep that at 3% or less, and then eventually muscle it back down to where I want to remain.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Make good choices!!!

Update: The restriction from the 5-day pouch test appears to still be working. I can't hold as much food as I could before and I stop eating sooner. I'm not munching as much or as frequently, and I broke the habit of eating fistfuls of peanuts every 20 minutes. The hunger is starting to return, though, but it's easier to keep the beast at bay longer – at least for now. I'm not really losing weight, but I'm also not gaining. Remember on our previous diets how "the last few pounds are the hardest"? Well that's where I live now. And since my honeymoon period is apparently over, my body doesn't ignore calories like it used to. So I still need to figure out where I can cut them without being hungry all the time. Statistically, a 10% bounce is expected from our initial weight loss total. In my case that would be around 12 pounds. But I'm fighting like hell to try and keep that at 3% or less, and then eventually muscle it back down to where I want to remain.
Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! Make good choices!!!

Don't look back over your shoulder at the heavier person you used to be. Identify with the new, slimmer you in the mirror – that's who you are now. So look forward, towards a healthier future.

Hey @@Olarance75, In reading your posts, it strikes me that you may not be getting enough sustenance for your program to remain viable for very long. Looks like you're not getting enough Protein or calories to continue to resist temptation. If necessary, drink another shake (or two). Keep the Water going, try to get your protein above 70 grams, and your calories above 800. And stay away from all starches/sugars. And, as you said in a post, after 3 days you'll be able to resist them more easily. Good luck, we wish you great success!!!!!

Hey @@Olarance75, In reading your posts, it strikes me that you may not be getting enough sustenance for your program to remain viable for very long. Looks like you're not getting enough Protein or calories to continue to resist temptation. If necessary, drink another shake (or two). Keep the Water going, try to get your protein above 70 grams, and your calories above 800. And stay away from all starches/sugars. And, as you said in a post, after 3 days you'll be able to resist them more easily. Good luck, we wish you great success!!!!!

Hey @@Olarance75, In reading your posts, it strikes me that you may not be getting enough sustenance for your program to remain viable for very long. Looks like you're not getting enough Protein or calories to continue to resist temptation. If necessary, drink another shake (or two). Keep the Water going, try to get your protein above 70 grams, and your calories above 800. And stay away from all starches/sugars. And, as you said in a post, after 3 days you'll be able to resist them more easily. Good luck, we wish you great success!!!!!

Don't look back over your shoulder at the heavier person you used to be. Identify with the new, slimmer you in the mirror – that's who you are now. So look forward, towards a healthier future.

Excellent letter, Alex! Thanks for representing us so well!!!

Mom taught me the greatest lesson I’ve ever learned:
Self-acceptance and the desire to change are not mutually exclusive propositions


I hit 300 pounds by the age of 18. Dating back to early childhood, all my efforts to diet had failed, and always left me heavier than I’d been when I started.
In my 20s, I decided to accept my body - fat and all. No more diets. No more wasting time feeling bad about my size. From now on, I was gonna work on loving the body I had. If I remember correctly, about 10 minutes later, my mother broke the news:
“Sweetheart, I’m having weight loss surgery.”
A chorus of ‘No!’ started singing in my head. Every reason why surgery was a bad idea tried to elbow its way to the stage.
“It’s dangerous!”
“It’s expensive!”
“It’s a cop out!”
“It’s society that needs to change, not you!”
“You’re beautiful just as you are!”
“It’s their problem, not yours!”
“NO!”
My mom had gone through periods of consistently eating nourishing foods in nourishing ways, exercising every day, and sleeping well. And as a result, she knew what it felt like to be more comfortable in her own skin, and to move through the world without the burden of 150+-pounds of excess fat.
I, on the other hand, was young, and had always been overweight and out of shape, but I wasn’t gonna let that stop me from believing I knew what was best for my mother. I was an idealistic feminist college student who’d just stumbled upon the solution to suffering: loving myself just exactly as I was.
To my mind, by choosing to have surgery, my mom was being a narrow-minded, self-hating fool.
“Mom, you need to love yourself! Don’t let society tell you how your body should look!”
“I do love myself," she said. "That’s why I’m doing this. I want to be comfortable. I want to be able to do things I’m not comfortable doing at this weight. And I want to be alive and healthy for when you have babies.”
I could hardly believe the depth of her ignorance.
“There’s a support group for post-ops that’s open to the public. Please come with me,” she said.
Fine, I thought. There was bound to be some post-op there who’d almost died, or someone that couldn’t swallow...All I needed was one flesh and blood person to base my argument on, and then my mother would have no choice but to come to her senses.
“I’ll come on one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“I want you to listen to everything that gets said in that meeting. I’m not going if you’re gonna ignore the truth.”
“It’s a deal.”
My mom drove us to the meeting in Englewood, NJ. There was a facilitator, and just under 50 people in the room, mostly women in their 40s and 50s. Some had had surgery already, some were scheduled to have it, and some were just thinking about it.
I sat against the wall in silent protest. While waiting for the meeting to start, I invented a life and a personality for the facilitator, compared her to me, and decided I was superior. She started with some house-keepy details and then launched right in.
“Welcome, everyone,” she said. “First we’ll hear check-ins from the post-ops, and then, if there’s still time, we’ll take some questions.”
The post-ops shared personal stories ranging from the straightforward: ‘I had surgery, I lost a lot of weight, I feel better, and here I am,’ to the gripping: ‘I had surgery, had a bunch of post-surgical complications, and here’s what life has looked like since.’
Everyone’s story was a little different, but one thing was universal: these people hadn’t gone under the knife to get hot; they’d undergone surgery because they wanted to live as fully as they could in the time that remained, and for them, that meant being a healthier weight. Dieting had failed them, like it fails most of us, but surgery felt like it might be the answer.
The facilitator called a break. I watched as my mother got up and introduced herself to a post-op who’d shared that losing weight meant getting her blood pressure, cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes under control. The woman was older, she was not meeting any popular standards of beauty, and appeared positively vibrant. I hadn’t realized how down my mom looked until she started to brighten up talking to this woman.
The moderator called us back. People were smiling and whispering, quietly exchanging cards and phone numbers. She thanked everyone for their shares, and opened up the floor, as promised.
“Does anyone have any questions for the post-ops?”
Now was my chance. I raised my hand.
“How many of you wish you hadn’t had surgery?”
Not a single hand went up. Maybe they’re embarrassed, I thought. Surely the ones who’d had complications felt foolish for having had surgery, but maybe peer pressure was keeping them quiet.
I needed to ask a better question, get them to talk about the danger.
“Uh...can I ask one more?” the facilitator nodded.
“What’s the biggest, scariest risk to having surgery?”
There was a tiny pause. My brain fired off all kinds of answers: Vitamin deficiencies! Pain! Death!
“Judgement.”
What?
“Being criticized.”
Wait, what?
“When people think surgery’s the easy way out, or a sign of weakness, or just a stupid idea, and they never stop letting you know." Huh.
According to a roomful of WLS post-ops, having to deal with my criticism might be the biggest, scariest risk my mom would face if she had surgery. Compared to daily, holier-than-thou judgement, even post-surgical complications might seem trite and manageable.
My mom do go ahead with her surgery. In under a year, I watched her regain much of the health and livelihood she’d lost. A little over a year later, I went to the same surgeon.
Ever since I opted to have gastric bypass surgery myself in 2003, I can tell you that the folks at that meeting were right.
I’ve worked my tail off to get well, to get an honest handle on my relationship to food, and to create a body I love. I became a personal trainer, coach, and educator to help others do the same. As a wellness professional, I’ve been judged for having had surgery in much the same way I was judged for being the fattest kid on the playground, except now, it’s often by other fitness “professionals.”
I’ve since apologized to my mother for the grief I tried to give her when she first started exploring surgery as an option. And I’ve thanked her for sparking the greatest lesson I’ve ever learned - the lesson that I’ve dedicated my career to teaching to others:
Self-acceptance and the desire to change are not mutually exclusive propositions - they can co-exist. In my experience, and that of countless clients and students, the only way to make lasting, sustainable, positive change is to begin from a place of love.

Great job, everybody! Keep it up!!! I'm down 70 pounds in 3 months. Feels great!

Congrats on making goal! Good luck on the run!

Great job, everybody! Keep it up!!! I'm down 70 pounds in 3 months. Feels great!

Great job, everybody! Keep it up!!! I'm down 70 pounds in 3 months. Feels great!

Great job, everybody! Keep it up!!! I'm down 70 pounds in 3 months. Feels great!

Great job, everybody! Keep it up!!! I'm down 70 pounds in 3 months. Feels great!

Great job, everybody! Keep it up!!! I'm down 70 pounds in 3 months. Feels great!

Great job, everybody! Keep it up!!! I'm down 70 pounds in 3 months. Feels great!