JamieLogical

I had a really rough time getting over my food addiction. I had turned to food for comfort for so long and I found it very frustrating that was no longer an option for me post-op. I had to eventually find other ways of coping with my emotions, but it was a real struggle. Even now, 11 months post-op, I still get a little sad/frustrated sometimes that I can't binge on a pizza to deal with a problem, but those instances are VERY few and far between now. I will honestly tell you, though, that I probably struggled with this until I was a good 4 months post-op, so you have a bit of a slog ahead of you. Just take it one day/week at a time.

I wanted to mention that the BBC show, Fat Doctors, has shown the gastric balloon as a safer option for people with very high BMI or high risk factors for surgery. They use the balloon as a temporary treatment to help get a patient's weight down to a safer level, then remove the balloon and perform actual weight loss surgery on them (usually RNY) once their risk factors for undergoing anesthesia have been reduced.

My nutritionist asked me about 80 questions before my surgery and set my goal at 165. My personal goal was 155, because that would put me right in the upper end of the "healthy" BMI range. I've been stuck at 171 for going on a month now and I was stuck at 175 for going on a month before that. So 165 is seeming pretty optimistic at this point. I now have NO desire to get to my original goal of 155, because I would be a freakin' toothpick! As it is, I already have bones sticking out all over the place and I'm wearing smaller clothes than I ever have in my adult life. Just losing the 6 more pounds to get to 165 has me worried I'll be too skinny. NO WAY do I want to be 16 pounds thinner than I am right now!

You need to fuel your body. Make sure you are getting good carbs before a workout and protein after a workout. If you increase the intensity of your exercise, you need to increase your food intake as well. When I really upped my exercise intensity a couple months post-op, I added a morning snack (between breakfast and lunch) because I found I was STARVING by lunch time. So, I added a reduced fat cheese stick as a morning snack and that really helped. I also added some granola or kashi cereal to my afternoon yogurt for some carbs before my workout (I work out as soon as I get home from work, before dinner).

I definitely have new respect for parents of young children who are trying to lose weight/exercise or really just do anything to better themselves. How you find the time and energy is beyond me!

Everyone keeps saying this to me, but the REAL saint in all of this has been my husband. I mean, she's MY sister and I obviously wasn't going to let her and her kids be homeless, but Dan has less obligation than I do. Our whole life is pretty much turned upside down by all of this. No privacy, no space, no time, all of our expensive items and furniture being subjected to two and three-year-olds! It's been a real challenge. You never realize all the little things about your life that you take for granted... like being able to just sit in peace and watch a TV show with adult content! My DVR is overflowing, because hardly any of the shows we watch are child-appropriate, plus even if they were, good luck getting to sit and watch an entire TV show with four kids demanding constant attention! I've cut back to about three workouts a week, because it's almost impossible to work out with the kids in the house. They want to "work out" with me, which means either nearly killing themselves or climbing on my treadmill and exercise bike as if they are jungle gyms. It's pretty nuts. I'm just trying to hang in there, squeeze in workouts when the kids aren't around, and keep my sanity. My house was not intended for small children, so there's also been a lot of child-proofing, figuring out where to put/hide things so they don't get damaged but we still have access to them.... it's complete craziness. I loved my $3600 couches when I bought them, but now they are just a constant source of stress and anxiety every time one of the little ones is climbing on them with a gogurt tube hanging out of their mouth with one of the older kid's big cup of grape koolaid sitting nearby. Between all the stress of my deadline at work and all the stress of every waking (and some sleeping) moment at home, it's definitely taken a toll on my weight loss efforts. I'm not gaining, but I'm not losing either. At this point I'm hoping I can just hang in there and then redouble my weight loss efforts once they've moved out.

For anyone who has missed me on these forums the past month or so, I just wanted to let you know that I am alive and well. Real life has been very hectic for me, thus my not being around as much. I had a major deadline at work that had me working feverishly for several weeks, with no real time to keep up with forums and email. Plus, my sister and her four children moved in with us. The room that used to be my home office is now a bedroom for three boys, so I don't have much opportunity to get on my computer at home anymore either. However, things are getting settled down at work now, so I should have a little more time to check in at least once a day and see how everyone is doing. Plus, my sister is in the process of buying a house, so she and the kids will be moving out in mid-September. Hope all are well!

I haven't lost my boobs post-WLS, because they are now fake! However, I lost 90 pounds "on my own" back in 2010/2011 and at the end of that, my boobs were sad, droopy, little sacks. That's when I had my breast implants done. I then went on to regain 80 pounds, thus ultimately getting sleeved, but the cool thing this time around is my boobs have stayed the same size, while the rest of me got smaller, so if anything, they are actually BIGGER looking now than they were before my WLS.

hair loss is definitely one of those things that's very individual as well. It seems like some people do everything "right" and still experience a great deal of ongoing hair loss, while others don't do anything special and have minimal loss. My personal experience is that I lost hair pretty heavily for about two months from months 3 through 5. It's been steadily growing back since (almost 11 months post-op), but I would still say it's a lot thinner than it was before. Right now all my baby hairs are about 2 inches long and they stick up all over the place and drive me crazy (especially since it's been a very wet/humid summer here). I should be happy they are coming back at all, but I wish they didn't looks like split ends and fly-aways. Hard to keep my hair under control without excessive amounts of hair product. Anyway, I get all of my Protein and have done so since I was back on solid foods at 40 days post-op. I also have Biotin in my Multivitamin. I try not to brush my hair at all and only use a wide-toothed comb a couple of times a day. I do wash it daily, which some people say to try to avoid, but I can't imagine not washing it when I work out and sweat so much! I don't work-out excessively. At the most I was working out for about an hour 6 days a week. Now I am down to 3-4 days a week as I consider myself to be more in "maintenance" mode with just a few pounds left to lose and no real rush to lose them.

I had wheelchair assistance from the airport/airlines when I came home after my plastics, but it was unnecessary for me after my sleeve. I really felt physically okay after my sleeve, just tired. However, I was wiser about the way I packed when I went for my sleeve as well (having learned from my plastics experience). I packed everything in a wheeled laptop bag that was small enough to fit under my seat, so I didn't have to deal with overhead bins or carrying luggage at all.

Happy for you that you finally have a date you can stick to! You will be joining us on the losers' bench in no time!

The flights themselves were no problem. My issue was that one of my flights was cancelled and I had to run all the way across O'hare airport (0.8 miles) in under 15 minutes to catch the last flight of the day to my hometown! That was rough!

I was told nothing more intense than "brisk walking" for 6 weeks.

Wow really?!?! That makes me sad. I am three weeks out tomorrow (did my first marathon two weeks before surgery) and am missing it so much! Was hoping I could try at four weeks (paperwork says I can "ease back in to exercise plan" then) but when I asked at my appointment last week if I could try gentle/restorative yoga the nurse laughed at me and said NO. I was hoping to be back for a half marathon in October. Maybe not I literally had dreams about running in the months after my plastics. I thought I hated running, but then it turned out I really missed it while I was recovering!

Reassure that THOUSANDS of Americans go to Mexico for surgery every year. Ask her to recall ONE story in the news about an American going to Mexico for surgery and being killed, kidnapped, or having their organs stolen. These are all urban legends and the plots of movies. If she can name ONE instance in the real news, out of the THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of people who go to Mexico for surgery, I'd be impressed.

You shouldn't be that general in your statement. Many Mexico surgeons have nutritionists on staff that will continue to monitor your progress and answer your questions post-op. I am 10 months post-op yesterday and I just emailed my nutritionist with a question about 2 weeks ago and she got back to me within an hour or two and this was on a Sunday night! Not all Mexican surgical teams are created equal. I don't wan't someone to read your post and think they can't get adequate follow-up care if they use a Mexican surgeon. As for weighing food, I did a lot in the first couple of months post-op because I had a hard time "eyeballing" the correct amounts. I was told (by my exellent nutritionist) to start off with no more than 2 ounces once I was on soft/pureed foods. So I weighed out my cottage cheese and such into little 2 ounce plastic containers (meant for baby food I think?). As I progressed and moved onto solid foods, I worked my way up to being able to eat 3-4 ounces of meat. I still weighed my food for a while at that point just to get a really good sense of what 4 oz. looked like. Once I had the hang of it, I didn't weigh my food anymore except when I wanted to "spot-check" and make sure I wasn't misjudging.

You are drinking beer at 2 months post-op?!?!? I'm just going to back away slowly before I say something that will get me flamed.....

Does it keep you full?

Today I am 10 months post-op. Starting Weight: 260 Surgery Weight: 236 Current Weight: 171.6 Goal Weight: 165 I am only 6.6 pounds from my nutritionist's goal weight. Still 16.6 pounds from a "normal" BMI, but I am thinking of that of more of a stretch goal for my second year post-op. The pounds have definitely been coming off more slowly in these past 3 months, but I am still losing. It might be tough to make 165 by September 1. I would need to lose 3.3 pounds each of the next two months and while I managed to lose over four pounds this past month, the two previous months I lost less than three pounds each. I've decided to just keep doing what I am doing and not taking any special/desperate steps to try to make my goal weight by the one year mark. It's really a meaningless deadline in the grand scheme of things. Even if I don't quite make it, I know I'll be close and it will be just a matter of another month or so to get there. I have, however, already met my nutritionist's most important goal for me. She was always much more concerned with body fat percentage than weight or BMI. On my surgery date, my body fat percentage was 48.2%. My nutritionist wanted me to get below 25%. As of this morning, I was at 24.8%!

At four weeks I wasn't even back on solid foods yet (that was 40 days post-op), so I was DEFINITELY questioning my choice to have WLS at that point. I was back at work, fatigued feeling, still uncomfortable and healing. Ugh. Not a great time! That is for sure! I would honestly say that I didn't start feeling "normal" again most of the time until about 2 months out. I still didn't really feel "normal" when it came time to eat, but I felt physically in pretty good shape the rest of the time by then. Eating-wise I was still struggling with figuring out how much to eat, how fast to eat, how often to eat. I was also really coming to terms with not being able to emotionally eat around that time. Once I was allowed solid foods, one of the first things I did was try to eat pizza, of course! I could barely eat one small piece and felt terrible after, so it was tough getting my head around not being able to turn to my favorite foods for comfort and not being able to binge. That was a real struggle for me for a couple of months. By month 4, I really did just feel "normal" 99% of the time. Even around eating.

Girl. Soup fills me up. broth soups are perfect for me, cream based soups often make me dump. If I eat either, I can't eat "real food" after. Interesting.... soups go straight through my sleeve like any other liquid, so I could eat a whole bowl in one sitting with no problem. Even with chunkier soups, the liquid makes the chunks pass through more quickly, same as drinking while eating.

I didn't have a binder for my sleeve. Since it was laproscopic and they only pushed muscle fibers out of the way, not cutting through them, my muscle soreness was minimal. After my tummy tuck though.... that's a whole other story! I couldn't even breath without pain in my abs.

So like Phase 1 Atkins?

Oh, sorry for the confusion. This is what I get for having too many threads open at once while I'm at work!

You should NOT be worrying about carbs 2 days post-op. You should be grateful for any calories you can get and keep down. I was allowed broth days 1 and 2 and then strained cream soups after that. My NUT wasn't concerned at all about calories, carbs, fat, sugar, or anything else at that point. Just that I was eating SOMETHING. Though I was told to stop eating soup once I'd moved onto solid foods, because soup doesn't actually fill you up once your sleeve is healed.