JamieLogical

I try to avoid straws stills, but I have mindless drunk through a straw several times at restaurants where they bring your water with a straw already in it and have had no ill effects.

Have you tried experimenting with different water temperatures? I had a hard time getting my water in too, until I realized that the easiest thing for me to drink is ICE COLD water. I bought a double-walled thermos style bottle that keeps my ice frozen all day long at work. I fill it first thing in the morning with ice and water from my fridge at home. Then again partway through the morning with water from a drinking fountain (ice is still there from the morning) and then partway through the afternoon from the drinking fountain again. I do MUCH better with the ice water than I was doing with just my plastic water bottle before. Even though the plastic bottle started with cold water in the morning, it quickly got to room temperature and I slowed down a LOT on my drinking.

NSAIDS are very tough on your stomach. They can cause ulcers and stomach bleeds even in a normal stomach. Post WLS, your stomach is much more delicate than it was pre-op and the risks of long-term NSAID use become too high. Here's a snippet from WebMD about the stomach-damaging effects of NSAIDS. Remember, these comments are for people with NORMAL stomachs. So imagine how much worse it could be post-WLS.

Yeah, I regained 80 pounds after my tummy tuck and my stomach stayed flat through it all. It looks amazing now that I'm down to 12 pounds less than when I had the tummy tuck in the first place. If you look at the before pics in my gallery, you can see how flat my stomach was even when I was back up to 240+ pounds. You and I have very similar height, starting weight and goals - also the tummy tuck! You have done great - hope I will do similar. I'll be posting new progress pics after my 1 year surgiversary on Sept. 1st. Hoping to be at goal by then, but these last 4 pounds are being very stubborn!

Yeah, I regained 80 pounds after my tummy tuck and my stomach stayed flat through it all. It looks amazing now that I'm down to 12 pounds less than when I had the tummy tuck in the first place. If you look at the before pics in my gallery, you can see how flat my stomach was even when I was back up to 240+ pounds.

Well, my sleeve was actually my second surgery in Mexico, so convincing my loved ones this time around was a lot easier. Four years ago, I had plastics in Mexico and that was a little tougher sell. The good news is that my family all know how analytical and logical I am and once I explained that I had done my research and due diligence in choosing a surgeon and spoken to MANY other people who have successful surgeries in Mexico, the trusted my judgement and that I had made a sound decision. It's definitely the sort of thing that when you just mention it to someone, their first reaction is shock and horror. But if you explain it to them rationally and that you were thorough in your research, hopefully they can get past their gut reaction.

I had my sleeve after a tummy tuck and I was worried about damage to mu muscle repair. It was one of my first questions to the surgeon. But he explained how with laproscopic surgery they don't actually cut through the muscle, just go in between the fibers and I had no issues. Was able to get back to core strength training very quickly. And the pain from VSG was NOTHING compared to the pain from my tummy tuck with muscle repair!

It really is a travesty that some people get so little information from their surgical teams about post-op diet and activity. I personally would take it upon myself to research that stuff if I hadn't been given it, but I know a lot of people won't do that.

The answer is, you may not know when you are full, which is why you should weigh and measure your food for this first little while here. Otherwise you risk eating too much or not enough. For me, I felt VERY full very quickly when I moved onto solids, but some people have temporary damage to their nerves post-op and don't experience that feeling.

I don't know that you need to worry more than you already should be. Just keep an eye out for any sign of infection around your incisions, which you should be doing anyway. Redness.... warm to the touch.....

My nutritionist wanted me to have one that measures body fat percentage. Even though it's probably not *that* accurate, I'm only comparing it to itself, so I can at least see that i'm lowering my body fat over time, even if the actual reading isn't correct. Every time she asks me to report my weight in a follow-up, she asks for my body fat percentage from the scale as well. This is the one I have: http://smile.amazon.com/EatSmart-Precision-Capacity-Recognition-Technology/dp/B004L6NTHU/ref=sr_1_1?s=hpc&ie=UTF8&qid=1439580514&sr=1-1&keywords=body+fat+scale

I think you have saved yourself a lot of undue stress and frustration! Good for you!

The mistake you made was using the word "expect". Rate of loss is both completely individual and almost entirely out of your control. Your body is gonna do what is going to do. All *you* can do is stick to the plan and the scale will trend downward. I made the mistake early on of comparing myself to others and it caused me nothing but frustration and misery. I can't even count the number of times I complained about being a slow loser. But you know what? I'm coming up on 12 months out, I'm less than 4 pounds from goal, and I wouldn't change a thing. I realize now that the rate of loss doesn't matter one bit as long as you are losing. If you follow your plan, get in your Water and Protein, and get in some exercise, you WILL lose the weight. And as I often say on these forums, 10 years from now when you are living your happy, healthy life, what will it matter if it took you 6 months or 16 months to get to your goal?

My protein target is a minimum of 100 grams. I don't think I could manage it without my protein bars.

You can't target weight loss. You could do 1000 crunches a day and all you'll end up with is a nice six pack UNDER a layer of fat. The weight's going to come off where it wants to come off. The body is very stubborn that way. Toning through strength training only visibly helps when you have a very low body fat percentage. Trust me. I know a LOT about this. I have ridiculous amounts of weight on my hips and thighs. I run or bike 4-6 days a week and do lower body strength training 3 times a week. All my fat is still coming off places like my face, ribs, arms, back.....

Yay! Congrats!

I'd steer clear of the "protein shots". The type of protein in them is not high quality and is not well absorbed.

My nutritionist definitely wanted me to work toward getting most of my protein from my food every day as soon as possible, but said 1-2 shakes/bars a day is still pretty normal. I do protein bars, because I was SOOOOOO over shakes by the time I was allowed solid foods. Plus I feel like they keep me full longer than shakes do.

Hmm, I don't think it's very common to be feeling worse a few weeks out than in the early days. What food stage are you on? When did you advance from the last stage? Is there anything you are eating now that you weren't eating before that could be making things harder for you?

I learned long before my WLS that weight loss is not a simple equation of calories in versus calories out, like they would lead us to believe. I wore a BodyBugg every day for almost two years and tracked literally every single bite of food I ate (not guestimates, actually WEIGHING it out). There were times when I was driving myself completely insane because my calorie deficit said I should have lost three pounds but I only lost half a pound. Or I should have only lost one pound, but I lost three. I kept elaborate spreadsheets to see if things would at least even out over time and they didn't even come close! It was incredibly frustrating! Post-WLS, I am much more zen about it. As long as the scale is trending downward and I am getting healthier, I am happy. I have the whole rest of my life to reach my goal weight if I needed to. And I'm really not even that invested in a target goal weight. I'm getting healthy and strong. I can run 3.1 miles without stopping! I am working on improving my speed. I feel good and comfortable in my own skin. I am enjoying life. For me, finishing a 5k race is WAY more gratifying than seeing some arbitrary number on a scale. I will probably get to my goal weight. I'm only 3.4 pounds away as of this morning. But at this point, that goal seems so insignificant compared to the true impact WLS has had on my life and health.

@@ExplosiveAmnesia I get what you are saying about the psychological aspect of weight loss/maintenance. Here are the differences for me. In the past, I have successfully lost weight through diet and exercise many times. My most successful "diet", I lost 90 pounds in one year (more than I lost in my first year post-WLS). The way I lost those 90 pounds was to literally track every single bite of food that I ever ate and every minute of exercise I ever did. I had a BodyBugg to help with tracking my calorie burn every day. I had to be perfect and meticulous and it worked! However, that's not a realistic way for someone to live their entire life. No one can be prefect every day forever, especially not me! One of the main things that sustained me mentally through that period was the belief that one day I would be "done" and that I wouldn't have to keep tracking every single thing I ate and did every single day for the rest of my life... just until I reached goal. With my sleeve, I still have to eat right 95% of the time. I still have to exercise regularly. But I don't track my food every day. If I miss a day of exercise here and there, I don't beat myself up about it. I don't have the same "all or nothing" mentality that I did in the past, because I know my sleeve is forever. I'm not going to be "done". There is no end in sight. This is my new life and I will just live like this every day. So if I miss a day of exercise or I eat something "bad" one day, it's only one day in the grand scheme of my whole life. It has allowed me to have a much more realistic outlook and not be so OCD. So it has definitely helped me with the psychological component as well. Also, I've really had to find other ways of processing and dealing with my emotions. When I was on diets in the past, I could technically still eat my emotions when things got really bad, I just tracked it all and tried to make up for the extra calories with exercise. So the opportunity to eat my emotions was still there. With my sleeve, I couldn't eat my emotions if I wanted to, so I really did have to find other ways of coping.

Listen to your body. If you aren't getting enough calories, you will feel it. You will fatigue more easily and you will be physically hungry more often. Also, the scale will likely stop moving. If you are getting enough calories, you will have more energy to make it through your day and workouts, you won't get hungry between snacks/meals, and the scale should be moving steadily.

It depends on how far out from surgery your are. Usually it has to be Clear liquids the last 1-2 days pre-op and nothing at all 12 hours pre-op. Then it's usually clear liquids the first few days post-op.

The trick is finding the balance. If you aren't eating enough calories to sustain your exercise intensity, then you WILL stall out, because your body will try to preserve itself. I didn't start intense cardio until I was about 4 months post-op and was able to eat enough calories to make it work. Everyone is different, so you have to experiment to find what works for you. If I was only consuming 800 calories a day, there is no way I could sustain the level of exercise I'm doing. However, I eat 1200-1500 calories a day and continue to lose doing intense cardio 4-6 times per week. For me, "intense cardio" is running a 5k with a 5 minute warm-up walk and a 10 minute cool-down walk. Or biking an interval program on my recumbent exercise bike for 45 minutes, followed by a slower cool-down, which usually totals out to about 14 miles.

Sounds like you've really thought about it and made the right choice for yourself. Hope everything goes well and you can get to enjoying your new life very soon!