MrsSugarbabe

My apnea seems to have resolved (I still need a sleep study to confirm, but I'm not snoring and my symptoms have subsided), my blood pressure is normal without medication, and my auto-immune arthritis is slightly better with my inflammatory factors slightly down. My rheumatologist suggested the VSG because the stomach tissue that is removed is responsible for large amounts of inflammatory hormones, as are the fat stores that are lost as we lose weight.
You'll probably already know this, but high Protein diets are the norm post WLS with people pushing VERY high Protein goals at you. With pre-existing kidney damage, you're going to be a special case, and will need to work with your medical team to determine what the right protein goal for you is, and don't listen to anyone other than your team.
But my health is definitely better after surgery, and it's continuing to improve. There's a really good chance yours will too Best of luck!!

It's been ages since I've been on the forums! I wanted to check in and let you all know that I am still alive. Life got CRAZY since October or so. Finally sold my house... bought a new condo... meandering my way through the divorce process with my husband.... I am really hoping things settle down after the Holidays. I have been working non-stop on making my condo livable since I moved in. It was filthy and disgusting. I've been cleaning, painting every room, replacing all the fixtures, and repairing/replacing everything that was broken. Haven't been able to keep up with my running since October-ish. Really hoping to get back into that after the first of the year as I begin training for my April half marathon.
Hope all of you are well!!!
PS: Thank God for my sleeve! With my schedule being so busy and erratic, plus all of the stress, I know I would have gained like 20 pounds in the past 3 months without my sleeve! It's definitely helping keep things in check until I can get back into a normal routine again!

My daughter is in a kinesiology program, and just finished her sports nutrition class. The formulas she was taught say that I need to be trying to get 90-120 g of Protein in a day in order to gain any muscle mass. 60-80 would be just to maintain without any weight lifting program. As a male with larger muscle mass, you may actually need to be getting significantly more in, say on the order of 150g.

Don't forget you are 80 lbs lighter...lol. You don't have the extra weight as leverage.
I wouldn't worry too much.
Just get in as much Protein and you can and keep working out.
Maybe change it up a bit.
Do some legs... that is where we get most of our power.

My plan recommends 100 grams of Protein just as a general rule, as a woman, not a guy working out. I'd definitely up the amount you get in.
Are you getting in good rest? Have you had your CPAP machine (if you use one,) adjusted? I'm really tracking EVERYTHING and am finding sleep is a huge factor in how well I eat and how much I lose. I'd think it would affect your muscle recuperation, too. My newest fitness goal is 7 hours of sleep. Anything else above it is gravy.

I agree with djmohr, add more Protein, I take in at least 100g especially on strength training days. I've noticed the more weight I add the stronger I get too, I push myself to the limit till I just can't do one more rep. You'll get there too, it takes time to get your strength back.
Sent from my iPhone using the BariatricPal App

@
You may have to add more Protein because of your activity.

I totally get what you are saying as I have done the one bite too many a couple of times and it feels very uncomfortable. It is a learning process and I have learned if I think "should I have one more?" Or worse, "this tastes so good I want one more bite", then I don't take another bite. I stop and put the food away. If needed, I can always have a light snack of something in a couple of hours.

You answered your question in the first sentence: When you think, "That is enough." If you change from "That is enough" to "I'm satisfied," the moment may be more easily recognizable. It's a moment, not a line.

It still says pre-op on your profile, how far out are you? You didn't specify your starting weight, but it sounds like you are on the lighter end of the spectrum? The reason why it's so important to clarify things is because there are a lot of people who just read posts and those "eat what you want" posts might be the only info they want to hear.
You know, like "she eats cupcakes and pizza, so I can too". Some only choose and pick the posts they like, like an addict. They choose to ignore the fact that you barfed on certain foods when most of us would have still been on soft foods. They want permission to make bad choices, because you did also, not taking into account their personal food plan.
I'm happy if it works for you forever, but keep in mind that what works for you, might be very destructive to someone else. I wouldn't want to risk my post being read like a permission to go for whatever you like, whenever you feel like it. That's why all of us have our own guidelines from our surgeons, in addition to support to making good choices. That support should be according to general food plans, just to be on the safe side.
Nilla

Wait, whuuuuuuut?

There is a BIG difference between creating your own path by eating what you choose to eat on/off plan both pre and post op and eating something that could potentially cause serious health risks 3 or 5 days post op.
I really don't give a rat's patoot if you choose to eat a cupcake, a pizza, a taco or an entire pan of brownies if you so desire once you are cleared for all foods. That said, I am certainly not going to help you justify that behavior, especially if you know it's a poor choice and you are looking for permission to make said choices.

If you are on liquids or mushies and eating pork chops and swedish fish and come here looking for validation or a stamp of approval? It's probably not going to happen.
If it's working for you, AWESOME! I can make poor choices, too, at 3.5 years out because I learned good habits along the way by sticking to my doc's PRESCRIBED diet.
But that's just me. It says so in my signature.

Because of the way the pyloric valve works. The pyloric valve sits at the bottom of your stomach and it is what regulates passage of food into the intestines. If you put food that is tough to digest in your stomach, it will close up so that your stomach can get in extra digestion time with it before it goes to the intestines. Food that is hard to digest is the kind of thing that is chewy, fibrous, tough, or high Protein. So, things like lean meat and green veggies cause the pyloric valve to close up and food to stay inside your stomach for longer, leading to a feeling of fullness or satiety. Food that is easy to digest -- high carb food with little Fiber, like highly processed grain-based foods and sweets, do not cause the pyloric valve to close up. They "slide" right through the open valve leading you to feel like you are still hungry and can just eat more and more.

Me, too!!!!! Add in some saggy boobs.....

I too gained some and am now back on track. I just went back to basics: admit the regain without judgement, logged food, and got serious again about exercise. After speaking with some of my friends who have always been at healthy weights I realized this is a process many individuals go through whether they had surgery or not :-)

People need to take self accountability and not ask enablers to validate their poor behaviors.
I need to lose some more weight and have fallen back into some old bad behaviors, but I take full responsibility for my actions, regardless of what the stresses may be; recently they have been quite significant.
I like to paraphrase and modify what Harry Truman said: "The fork stops here". As in, I ultimately control what food I eat.
Bottom line, everyone should have been briefed on the basics of pre/post bariatric surgery lifestyle changes. If someone is not sure, they can easily research the information from reputable.sources on theinternet or ask their doctors and nurses.
Unfortunately enablers and people validating their bad or dangerous behaviors can appear to some of the readers as acceptable.
We can't save the world, but we can help people who want to be helped.

I'm really liking this for some odd reason. Magic indeed! That old Protein, Water and exercise magic.... Repeat for years.... Magic![emoji326][emoji326][emoji436][emoji436]

@@B-52 - I think the only difference between us is I by God's grace made the changes you did earlier just a few years younger than you. But I still struggle. I realized a few months ago that I was drinking too much, and had to really work to stop it. I'm now noticing I'm not exercising like I should and making the changes and decided to push myself to do a 10K instead of the 5K race I was planning in a couple of months. Often it's the chuckleheads that pop up on this list that actually make me go, "ick, I think I need to make sure I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing."
But yeah, most of the time I shake my head and want to yell "damn kids, get off my lawn."

I haven't been back to this site for a while and of course I am because I'm struggling...I know what I have to do...I just can't seem to keep motivated. I'm up about 23 pounds from my goal that I did hit...for about 3 hours!!! LOL I'm in a support Facebook page and it seems like a lot of us are really struggling and even talking about getting re-sleeved...I don't think I would do that but am quite curious...I mean I thought I had 75% of my stomach removed...would it even be safe?

All I can tell you is that at for me at 7 years, it has never gotten easier. It depends on what your trigger food is. For me it's sweets. I try my best to stay away from them but they are everywhere. Other people have a really hard time giving up bread. Whatever it is, it's something you'll be working on for the rest of your life.
Some people are really lucky, and their tastes for certain foods change. Usually though, they find some replacement food they now have to stay away from . Plus I can eat quite a big more than I could at 2 years.
We don't have regular bodies with regular metabolisms.

Speaking only for myself -- my desire for a veterans forum doesn't come from an "elitist" position. My needs are literally different than they were over 2 years ago when I was still pre-op or 6 months later when I was still in the "honeymoon" period of losing weight. They're even different than when I first hit my weight goal of 150 pounds.
I certainly don't think that I cannot learn things from those who are younger-tenured re WLS than I am.
Nor do I imagine I'll muzzle myself and never post on a thread about alcohol or Protein levels or the honeymoon period or sip-sip-sipping or vitamins/minerals or slider foods or the need to move into exercise carefully or the hundreds of other topics that newbies need and want advice about.
What I'm hoping to gain from the veterans forum is a more vibrant veteran community and participation and advice from veterans who (if you read this whole thread, you've already learned) are indicating they would spend more time at BP if there were a place where more WLS veterans were hanging out.
Surely everyone of any WLS tenure will benefit more from a message board where more veterans stick around, right?
For the record, "newbie" isn't a slur -- it's a description of someone who's new to a particular activity. Someone who hasn't had WLS yet (but is planning to have WLS) is clearly a WLS newbie. People who are new to maintenance are maintenance newbies. And people who are newly "veterans" are, I suppose, veteran newbies.

I'm 3 years post op but I don't post much. I need the veteran's forum. It's the only support I have. When I read that others are having similar issues I don't feel so alone and defeated.

I miss the old style forum for veterans. I read every topic pre-op including the vets forum but couldn't actively comment until I actually was a vet. That made complete sense to me. Just like not posting in the Men's Forum. I also still don't post in lap band or bypass forums. The change from Sleeve Talk to Bariatric Pal was jarring and the vets forum was the most jarring, it lost all intimacy and its community as a result. I think 18 months post op is a good demarcation.
Mini rant: Frankly, I'm surprised I can still see straight from all my eye rolling at the times someone 5 or 6 months out posts their experience when veterans are called upon to answer questions from pre ops or newbies. Similarly I cannot handle the all bad advice when regain happens to vets from people still in the honeymoon phase ("do the 5 day pouch test" - omg, make it stop). We need a shelter.

I love this idea so hard. I mostly lurk these days, but the idea of a Vet's Forum is very appealing. I'm 2 years out next month and my needs/questions/concerns are much different now from when I was a newbie.

I completely agree and think 18 months post-op makes sense - even though I am only 12 1/2 months post-op. I like what @@VSGAnn2014 said that others could read the forum to glean info but not be able to post until they are satisfying the restriction.
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What I recall about the "old vets forum" was that all members could see threads and posts in that forum, but only those who qualified as vets (per the then-rules -- although I don't recall exactly what those rules were) could post there.
When I was pre-op and newly post-op I lurked my ass off there. It was so helpful. And trust me, even as a newbie I tired early on of the "How soon can I drink alcohol?" threads.
Some topics I would love to get into with other veterans (but not with newbies who simply haven't "been there" yet, although they'll get there) are:
* Advanced nutrition
* Regain and re-loss
* Recovering from exercise injuries
* Dealing in healthy ways with life's ongoing stresses and changes
* Late-stage complications
* Dealing with WLS fatigue
* Finding new life goals after conquering obesity
* Dealing with transfer addictions
* supplements three, four, five years down the road
* Transitioning from food tracking to mindful eating
* New career options for healthy, slim people
* Long-term relationship changes after conquering obesity
* Long-term challenges for WLS patients
* Joint replacement surgery for long-time WLS patients
* Discovering and living your Big Dreams when weight is no longer an issue
* Dealing with death
And that's after just a few minutes of thought.