JamieLogical

Yeah, I may not have been having a dedicated exercise time, but I certainly did plenty of physical activity. I didn't gain any weight at all, even through the Holidays. So I must have at least been burning off all the calories I was eating!

I hadn't run in almost 5 months. My last 5k race was August 15, the same day that my husband and I first looked at a new house. We weren't actually in the market for a new house. We had purchased some land a couple years ago and ultimately planned to build on it in another couple of years. But somehow I stumbled upon a listing for a house that seemed to have almost everything we wanted in our "dream house" with the added bonus of already existing in this world. So we went to check it out in person. From that day forward, my life was a chaotic whirlwind. We decided we wanted the house. A couple of problems there. First of all, our current house was in no shape to list for sale. We hadn't intended to sell it for a few more years, so there were lots of little updates and repairs needed to get it ready to list and show. On top of that, my sister and her four children were currently living with us! Two of those children were todlers (2 & 3 years old) and it was summer break, so even the older ones (7 & 9 years old) were home all day. My husband and I worked like CRAZY to try to get the house in some semblance of order. We had professionals make repairs to the porch, seal the driveway, and carpet the living room. But we did tons of other projects ourselves... scraping and painting the wood on the exterior of the house, weeding, landscaping, power washing and sealing the deck, power washing and sealing the patio, electrical work, and SO MUCH cleaning and packing! One weekend we put TWENTY SEVEN 30-gallon trash bags out for the trash, plus tons of other big, loose items! We packed up everything we could live without for a couple of months and moved it into a storage unit. We also paid for an helped move all of my sister's stuff into storage (she had been storing it in our garage). We put in our offer for the new house before our house was even officially listed, but they still accepted it with a contingency for the sale of our house by Oct. 2. Luckily our house sold in exactly one week! Technically kind of less than that. We listed our house on a Monday. The people who ultimately bought our house submitted their first offer on a Wednesday. But we went through a couple of counter-offers with them, so their final offer wasn't accepted until the following Monday (Labor Day). We helped my sister and her kids move into THEIR new house on Sept. 19. Then it was tons of packing and preparing and fixing the things that had come up in the inspection up until we were set to close on Oct. 30. We didn't actually close on Oct. 30th though. It got delayed until Nov. 6. That first week of November we had already been scheduled to go on vacation to Virginia, so we were only down there a couple of days when we got the call that closing was set, so we had to rush back up here and hire movers, call all the utility companies, and scrable to do our final packing push. Once we were in the new house, it was non-stop projects to get the house exactly as we wanted it before we unpacked and settled in. Remember how I said this house was already close to being our dream house? Well that didn't mean there weren't a million projects. I worked us until 2:00 am most nights trying to get everything done as quickly as possible. We painted every room, replaced every light fixture, replaced every single piece of door hardware (so many doors!), replaced nearly all the faucets and drains, replaced all the towel rings, towel bars, and toilet paper holders in ALL FOUR bathrooms, put up a chair rail in the office, put up beadboard wainscoting in one of the bathrooms, hung up pegboard rails in the garage, replaced the garbage disposal and all the kitchen appliances, put together all the new furniture we bought.... the list goes on and on! Plus we had to decorate for Christmas! Anyway, by the time we were done with all of that madness, it was the Holidays. My parents came for Thanksgiving then again for Christmas. We had a housewarming party just after Christmas. And now things are FINALLY settled down. We finally got a workout area set up in our finished basement. And I ran for the first time in FIVE months on Tuesday. It went much better than I thought it would. I had visions of having to start back over in like Week 2 of Couch to 5k (maybe even Week 1!). But, I did a little self-assessment run on Tuesday after work. I managed to run for 10 minutes straight without stopping to walk. I then went on to walk for 3 minutes, run for 7, walk for 5, run for 5, walk for 4. So a total of 26 minutes of running. MUCH better than I had hoped. So tonight I'm actually going to pick up in Week 6 of C25k and I am really hoping it won't take long for me to be running a full 5k again without stopping. I want to be doing races again come spring.

Ugh, sorry to hear about what happened with your husband, but it sounds like you really are better off in every way. Congrats on your loss so far and good luck with your continued loss and your training for your full marathon!

Awesome to hear! Thank you for checking in and letting us know you're still going strong!

I am so happy for you. You have clearly come a LONG way and it sounds like every aspect of your life has changed for the better. Good for you!

Typically people stall out or even gain weight when they first begin exercising. But, ultimately, you will lose much more weight over time and, more importantly, more FAT and less muscle over time. Here's a great article that explains why you will initially see a stall or a gain when beginning a new exercise regimen: http://www.sparkpeople.com/blog/blog.asp?post=why_the_scale_goes_up_when_you_start_a_new_workout_plan

The science is still out on that one. The general medical consensus seems to be that, yes you CAN stretch your sleeve, but never back to anywhere near its original size. So it is still there, offering restriction. The trouble some people run into is eating "around" their sleeve by doing things like eating and drinking at the same time, drinking their calories, eating "slider" foods, or grazing throughout the day so their sleeve never has a chance to become completely full.

What food phase are you in? That might help us figure out some good suggestions for you. At 30 days I was on soft foods still.

Every surgeon has a different plan, so you won't know for sure what to expect until you find out more about your specific program. The purpose of the pre-op liquid diet is to shrink your liver, which sits on top of your stomach. Shrinking your liver makes it safer and easier to move out of the way to preform the surgery. My pre-op diet was 15 days and consisted of 3 protein shakes and one green salad with calorie-free dressing per day.

Welcome! Sorry your first post went over poorly. We usually are a great bunch of people overall. It sounds liek the others were right and that your first post just came across as "shady" because you were new to the forums. I hope you get settled in and find the support and advice you need. Also, since you are already sleeved, feel free to answer some of the questions from the newbies who are just beginning their journey. They have lots of questions and answers from people who have been through it go a long way to helping them out.

It depends on what it is. If it's something kind of liquidy, like chili, I could eat 6-7oz. probably. If it's something really dense, like chicken breast, I can do maybe 4oz.? I'm 16 months post-op.

Hey, I,m 36. Probably too old to be shopping from the juniors section, but I don't care!

Forgot to mention that's the belt my husband usually wears with his jeans. I totally stole it from him after he'd already left for work this morning.

I wore this outfit to work today! A junior size 11 dress, sweater tights, and calf-high boots. Really? I used to look like this!

The day I was sleeved there was another woman, her fiance, and her cousin all having surgery the same day. I stayed in touch with her a while post-op and it seemed to be going well. The really nice thing about doing it together is you won't have to worry about preparing separate meals!

I would say at least once per hour, more if the drink carts and traffic allow it. Another good tip for on the plane home is to order both apple juice and Water from the flight attendant and mix them together, since straight juice will likely be too much to handle that soon post-op. Oh! And definitely ask strangers for help with your bags. Strangers are way nicer than we give them credit for! I've been to Mexico for surgery twice and both times, strangers were more than willing to help me get my bags into the overhead compartment or off the baggage claim conveyor.

Kind of hard to embrace the stall when it's been about 3 weeks and I'm only 5 weeks post op. That's pretty normal. Almost everyone experiences a stall a few weeks post-op. I HIGHLY recommend just staying off the scale and only weighing about once a week. Focus on the things you CAN control, like your Protein and Water intake and your activity level. The scale is gonna do its own thing and it's best to just ignore it as much as possible. You aren't going to be the ONE scientific anomaly that does everything right and doesn't lose a pound after 2 weeks post-op.

But I bought 10 tickets on my lunch break, so I am pretty sure I am going to win....

I didn't hate my body nearly as much as Luana did on that show either. However, I didn't have nearly as much loose skin as her, so it's hard to say how I would have felt in her shoes. I do know that I am SUPER happy with the results of my plastics, though! It has been 4.5 years since I had plastics and I am still incredibly grateful and enjoying the results every single day!

I've tracked my food the past three days out of curiosity and I've come in at about 70 grams of NET carbs each day. But none of those days have I eaten chips or ice cream or cookies, which I do occasionally indulge in.

@@lauraellen80 Ultimately everyone is going to have to figure out what works for them long term. Guidelines from surgeons and nutritionists are all well and good, but only YOU have to live the rest of your life. I do think establishing a good foundation early on by sticking to the guidelines is critical for success, but over time we all have to find our own way. Sounds like what you are doing is working for YOU and that's all the matters!

Go back to the basics. Protein first. Get your water in. Move around as much as your knee will let you. Try to eat on a schedule rather than eating when you are "hungry". If you are prioritizing protein and eat 5-6 times a day on a schedule, there shouldn't be much opportunity for hunger.

First of all, you can't drink diet pop AT ALL with the sleeve, much less while eating, so what makes you think sleeve is the solution for you. You might have the exact same problem once you are sleeved if you are unable to change your habits. Secondly, have you considered surgery in Mexico? There are some much more affordable options there. You should check out the BariatricPal Mexico & Self-Pay forums: http://www.bariatricpal.com/forum/486-mexico-self-pay-gastric-sleeve-surgery/

Haha! You really ARE feeling lucky, aren't you?

Awesome! How long have you been maintaining? I am at 4 months maintaining and I have to say, being able to successfully maintain month after month is more exciting to me than actually losing the weight!