Forsythia

I didn't have any gas pain issues. I had a catheter the first night, so no peeing. Didn't have any issues once it was taken out either. I had no hiccups either. But I would have said something if I had those issues, swearsies!

Yesterday, at work, one of my coworkers came up to me and said "You're getting so skinny!" And not in a snarky way or anything. First time anyone who doesn't know I had surgery has said anything.

Wow! Look how loose that tank top is. Work it, girl.

I can't even with this.. what?

You can also do a plank in a modified push up pose - knees on the ground like you are doing a modified push up. You can work your way up to the standard plank.

I think the main reason you need to stick with the phases is for the proper healing of the sleeve than anything else. Certain foods can get caught in the stitches or irritate the surgery area, or could pull the seam where the stomach was cut. For instance, trying to eat apples with the skin, the skin can get caught. Since the digestive system was not changed due to the surgery, it may not affect your weight loss, but the portions and the types of food that you eat now very well could affect your progress. Let everything heal first, before trying to eat regularly again. Wise like Yoda, BryBro is. Listen to him you will. Yeah, I'm a total nerd with the Yodaspeak there. But really, you'll be on to soft solids soon enough. I know I was never so happy as when they said we could have soft solids like lunch meat.

I would love to lose more around my waist and bum. My ass is holding on for dear life. LOL! I seem to lose from the top down. Sorry boobs, apparently you got voted off the island. Congrats on your losses so far!

GNC has them buy two bars get one free right now. I like to have a half a bar before I go to the gym (since I go after work, I am hungry), then the second half after my workout so I get some Protein post lifting weights. They do have a lot of fiber, so if you aren't used to that, prepare to be gassy! LOL.

I will admit I got really bored the first couple of weeks I was home. Baby food is bland and gross. I don't want to puree anything! No, I cannot look at one more bowl of Soup. But I pulled up my big girl panties and did it. I was never so happy to go on soft solids because that really opens up your choices. You can do lunch meats! LOL. But I didn't want to get any seeds stuck in my staples or rip them out trying something not on the approved list.

Sometimes you gotta do things you don't like. Taxes. Cleaning up cat or tiny human puke. Cleaning the toilet. But we do these things anyhow because the alternative - being audited by the IRS, slipping in vomit and breaking an elbow or a disgusting malodorous toilet staring back up at you when you go pee are sub-optimal. So eating while not hungry is less than stellar. I get that. I wasn't hungry for two weeks but I did it anyhow because I didn't want to end up in the hospital.

I was able to sleep on my side my second night in the hospital. I just gingerly eased myself over and used my extra pillows to prop myself up. I sleep with a body pillow at home and had no issues once I got myself on my side. It was just the getting on the side that took some work. What was the hardest for me was banishing the cat from the room because she likes to jump on me and sit on my stomach. That was 12lbs of ow.

Oh, also, in the hospital, both dilauded and morphine made me nauseated. So they put me on IV tramadol. But I really didn't need the pain meds after the first couple hours.

I got nauseated twice and that was it - I've not hand any since. The first time was my second day home, I woke up in the middle of the night because of the nausea - like, I sat bolt upright in bed and hauled ass to the kitchen for food. I had baby food in the fridge and had a sip of the pouch of mango puree and was fine. The second time, on my first day back at work, I went out on my lunch hour and started to get queasy. I was in Mariano's (a grocery store here in Chicago) and they had someone giving away free samples of their in store brand of cheerio's. I took a sample, ate it and was fine. Since then, I've gone longer than the recommended 4 to 5 hours w/o food and not had any nausea. I think both times were because I was basically less than two weeks post op and the tummy was angry.

My hands even get sweaty while I am on the treadmill. I guess I am going to have to do the treadmill flat until the thing heals up a bit better - when I work at an incline I hold on for dear life. LOL! I can still use the bike though. It's recumbent and I don't keep my hands on the grips much at all!

I like using barbells for a lot of exercises. I can use dumbbells I suppose, but I don't want to be lopsided. LOL!

I have had zero issue with lettuce - I made a tiny steak taco and had romaine on it Saturday. Sometimes the stomach and the brain have differing opinions on what they want.

I like Greek yogurt now. Never liked it before. Most everything else is the same for me. The things I hated I still hate and the things I liked I still like. For a little bit I hated my body fortress shakes but that was immediately post surgery. Now they are fine.

So Saturday I had an appointment to get my hair done. I got fuchsia highlights. I'm super fancy, right? Anyhow, on my way home, I tripped, apparently on air, and fell in the middle of a super busy intersection. Landed hard on my left palm and right knee. Lost a significant amount of skin on my left palm. So now, I can't grip anything, which means I can't lift weights. $#!%!! Crap. That sucks. I had plans, body. Plans to use the 40 lb barbell for deadlifts and chest press. Plans to use 15 lb dumbells for my squats. So many plans derailed! The worst part was that everyone and their mama saw my ass hit the asphalt. I couldn't have fallen on my street.. a nice slow residential street. I had to fall in the middle of a busy intersection for all of the hood to see. Fab. Karma doesn't completely hate me though. I'm down below 260, into the 250s. So that is something. I'm just bummed because I am going to lose my weight training gains if I go to long due to my inability to properly grip things. I'm all about having a high percentage of muscle when I get down to size.

My husband is a human garbage can with a super fast metabolism. He has all kinds of crap in the house. Ice cream, buddy bars..Chocolate for days. He doesn't need to lose weight and is not interested in changing his food intake. I just ask that he put most of it in his special cabinet way high up above the oven because I can't reach into it. Short of moving out, you can't guarantee that anyone is going to change their lifestyle for you if they do not want to.

I had a steak taco last night. In fact if ever there is a chance to have steak I will eat it. Once I was back on the general diet there were no restrictions on beef.

Almost an hour of cardio (I like to mix it up between treadmill, bike and elliptical) four days a week and at least 45 minutes of weights four days a week.

I've always had issues with insomnia. Not falling asleep, but staying asleep. My sleep patterns have not changed post surgery. I still have the occasional bout of insomnia where I wake up at 2 am and cannot get back to sleep.

I was only not hungry for the first few weeks post surgery. I definitely still get hungry. And I didn't lose my sweet tooth either. That just means I am going to have to be dilligent in my logging and exercising to make sure I don't try to outfox my sleeve.

My husband is immune to this. He is literally eating ice cream right now, at 12am. He's pretty thin though, save for a bit of tummy. The cat, however, is on a diet. LOL!

The clearance rack is your friend. I found I was in need of new pants one size smaller quite quickly. I had some pants I bought and was never able to wear sitting around collecting dust. I'm to the point now where those pants that were collecting dust are getting to be too big. Lately I've been going to Ross/TJ Maxx/Marshalls. Obvs if you need to dress in suits or more conservatively for work you are going to have to be more creative. End of season clarance sales are your friend. Macy's always has a 50% off rack somewhere in the store.