Forsythia

7 months and still cold. Office buildings are the worst. But in my own house I'm fine. I mean it's December and I'm wearing a short sleeve t-shirt. But I'm at home. If I were in an office building, I'd be sitting in a cubicle freezing.

I was given an rx for senna on my discharge. I'm surprised they didn't give you an rx for something to speed the process along. You might also try prune juice.

I was super happy to go on solid foods. Hated purees. But it is an adjustment to only eat a couple bites. 7 months out it is way easy to eat and not think about it anymore (which is not necessarily a good thing). So just be mindful of it, and go slow. Eat less than you think is a good portion.

How many calories are you getting a day? By 2 months out I was eating between 800 and 1200 calories per day. Are you logging on my fitness pal or some other tracker? You might need to tweak things (add in weights, try interval training, eat more?) if you feel you are not where you want to be. But honestly if you are losing inches you are not doing anything wrong. I lose inches when I stall out. I'm 7 months out and have lost 100 lbs and it gets to be more work. Don't stress out about it at 3 months. You are doing things correctly.

Red wine does not agree with me, but moscato and rieslings are fine in my system. I do occasionally have a mixed drink. I also find I do not get drunk any faster than before surgery.

I never liked yoga. My stomach always got in the way. And it still gets in the way. Stupid stomach. I'm good with Warrior 1 though!!

I have sketchers cross trainers with the memory foam inserts. They are fab. I really like a cushy, well padded shoe though. I've attached a picture of my shoes since since they really reflect my personality. LOL. Shoes are so individual, you really need to try them on, and buy the ones that feel the best on you. Price be damned.

Women, as the child bearing half of the species, are genetically programmed to hold onto weight and fat so as to bear kids whereas men are not. *shakes FISTS AT SKY*

My personal stance on running is that it is useful in regard to the impending zombie apocalypse. I think yes, it gets physically easier to do as you lose weight and there is less stress on your body, but mentally you either enjoy it, or you don't. You've got to get to the point where you enjoy doing it if you want to do it consistently. As for me, as the zombie apocalypse has yet to happen so I've yet to really do any running. I dabble in jogging here and there but will never really be a serious runner.

It's been seven months and over 100 lbs but I still see a size 28 in the mirror. Yet I look at my clothes and think they look so small now. But I've been fat for 31 of my 37 years. I figure it's going to take time for the mind to adjust.

As soon as I was allowed general diet. So about a month out. Never had any issues with it. Of course, I like my steak pretty rare. So it's not going to be tough. If you do try it, try a high end cut as the meat is more tender.

My lunch bag is almost always a frozen meal, a Greek yogurt and some kind of fruit like an apple and beef Jerky or a Protein bar if I'm going to the gym. Seriously, it's the same thing every day. It's sad. But going out to lunch is an expensive waste. $10 on something from the corner bakery or potbelly that will just be thrown out because the portion is ginormous. Also, have a square of chocolate. Or get chocolate yogurt.

I try not to notice. My husband eats like it's the last meal before his execution. Lol. My cat also eats like it's her last meal. Hubby has good genetics on his side but the cat, not so much. She gets a controlled amount of weight control food because of her gluttonous ways. But you were referring to people. I do my best to focus on my plate. I'm not going to judge other people. Maybe they only had black coffee and a cigarette all day to save room for a big dinner? Maybe they are like my husband. I had to adjust my mind to worry about me.

Immediately post sleeve I could only handle my water lukewarm. Before it had to be ice cold. I tolerate cold water just fine now. With or without flavoring. But generally I add flavoring to it. My dollar store sells boxes of sugar free Hawaiian Punch to go packets. I'm all about that.

I'm still losing weight. At a slower pace. About 9 or 10 lbs a month. I'm down 100 lbs from surgery weight and 120 plus from all time high. No real food intolerance. Just red wine. Sometimes if I eat to fast I'll vomit. So I need to work on that. I don't notice any more hunger than I had when hunger initially came back. I can eat more, but I'm not more hungry than I was at one month out. Food schedule wise, I eat every couple hours. I'm not sure if that makes a difference. But I'm eating tiny Snacks frequently to abate any hunger I may have rather than going 5 or 6 hours between meals whenever possible.

I'm one of the rare people whose plan put me on purees the day I got home from the hospital and was on soft solids a week post op. Having said that, this was my plan and I tried my best to follow it. I'm not saying I was a perfect angel. Purees made me very sad. But I did my best to follow the plan given to me. Do your best to follow the instructions given to you. Don't beat yourself up. Just move onward and take every day one day at a time.

Northwestern with Dr. Hungness. Northwestern keeps everyone in the hospital for two days. You get a private room though. Mostly I took laps around the hospital wing and watched reruns of Bones and Castle.

You know, you can get protein pudding from GNC. Kill two birds with one stone. Don't worry about getting in all your protein in the first couple weeks. It's just difficult. It took all my mental energy to just eat anything because I had zero hunger those first few weeks.

Venti skinny caramel iced coffee with half and half. With caffeine. None of this decaf stuff.

Three weeks after my surgery, i went home for memorial day. I was on soft solids at the time. I was in the train station and the only thing that seemed kind of healthy was tacos. So, one of my first meals was a taco. Once you remove the tortilla, there really isn't a whole lot in there. I had no issue with it at all.

Dating is right up there with interviewing for jobs and going to the dentist on my list of things I don't like doing. Thank god I'm married. I had the worst date once. This guy and I went out. Only he tells me that he ate before we went to dinner. So he didn't eat anything. He only got a beer. Then he took two phone calls during the date. And then was all, "Hey can you pick up the tab" (mind you I'm okay with picking up the tab but at least offer to pick up the damn tab). Then he walked me to my apartment and had the unmitigated gall to ask if he could come up. As in for sex. NO. NO. NO.

@@happymama2014 It's not as intuitive as one would think. But from the main site (not the phone app), up in the top right hand corner by your name is a little gear. Click on the gear. Then click on my surgery. Scroll down to where it says your current weight and put it in and save it, and it will update your stats.

Are you factoring in the time spent pre-op waiting around as part of the time? I don't know how long the actual surgery was (and I went in by myself, so no one was around to tell me how long they waited), but I spent about 45 minutes in the staging area before they put the IV in me and wheeled me into the actual OR. I think the actual surgery was a couple hours. Then post surgery, I had to wait another hour in recovery until a room was free for me.

I think approval depends on how well run your surgeon's office is RE: paperwork and your individual insurance company. Some companies will get the documentation and take their sweet time and fine tooth comb the application regardless of how busy the season is. Some will pump out your approval easy peasy. After my endoscopy, in February, I was approved in what seems like a couple of days by BCBS IL. I got a call from the surgeon's office calling to schedule my sleeve before I got the actual letter from BCBS. You might call your insurance and find out their policy on approvals.

@@swimbikerun Considering that I was at one point a size 28, yes, a size 6 is tiny. Hell, I look at my size XL clothes and they seem small to me. Tiny is a matter of perspective.