tomi71

Sorry you are having such difficulties. Hoping your new medical treatment will turn things around for you. Keep your chin up!

Sorry @@Kindle! I know that pain all to well. It's awful but I am glad to hear you were strong enough to stay away from the bottle. You and your friend are in my thoughts.

I am with you. It bugged me when I heard some of the folks in group support make unsupported claims to $h-t like that because I felt like my intelligence was being insulted and time was being wasted. If it's true then give me some evidence of how/why so I know which pitfalls may be looming in the future!My doc and NUT thankfully stick to evidence-based stories where people gained by eating poorly or due to inactivity or illness....thinking the sleeve will automatically fix things. If, like me, you are genetically predisposed to gain and you couple that with a bad environment then chances are weight management is going to be a problem. Hell, a skinny person can gain a ton of weight and become obese given the right circumstances. I've seen that in my own family. One thing I learned is to not obsess. Best tool I ever got out of this surgery...to not obsess. ????????????

Mind over matter. That was the hardest part for me pre-surgery. But oh boy, was it easier after....the first two weeks after I was miserable and started to regret the surgery but once I got adjusted to my sleeve and found out that pain was a great motivator things got simple for me. Good nutrition = no pain. Bad food = PAIN. 10 mos out and despite a slow in loss, so long as I stick to nutritious whole foods or barely processed nutritious foods, I am a-ok. Good luck to you! Good health to all!

I keep getting compliments about how "skinny" I look and some even say I look like a teenager (I'm 43.5 years old.) Not sure I agree but I'll take it! Lol

How would one liquid be more likely to stretch your sleeve than any other, say.... Water? That's preposterous. I heard the same thing in support but I never bought that jive. Alcohol and soda and crap will put weight on a person but actually stretching a sleeve is, from what I've read, nonsense. It's the swelling going down; rarely it's due to some sort of dilation. Anyway ultimately it's what goes into our mouths.

Try cloud bread. You can sub eggs with substitute liquid eggs and use low fat cream cheese in te recipe. I even add flavoring to make savory versions. http://www.food.com/recipe/carb-free-cloud-bread-411501

I am 10 mos out and still can't eat a sandwich. Just looking at one makes my stomach hurt! Lol! I do eat tortilla sandwiches...

Hi @@Inner Surfer GirlI can't seem to find the UPenn course anymore but here is a link for free online courses at Texas A&M. I've done a few of these also and found them to be very helpful. http://extensiononline.tamu.edu/courses/food_nutrition.php I did the "nutrition essentials" courses. ????

HAHAHAHAHA!!! ????????????????????????????

Yes, I agree completely, however if It was just that easy, why would anyone have had surgery to begin with ? We obviously needed a tool and I can only speak for myself but when mine stretched out I had NO tool to help me at all. I am sorry you are having these challenges. Yes the sleeve is a tool but the control center for that tool is the brain which is why at least for me, all the counseling I go through and mindfulness I practice helps my brain keep my sleeve in line (not that you didn't do everything right.) It does stink that there's an issue of the fundus dilating as there's no 100% guarantees on this thing. I had an acquaintance who had bypass and she is back at ground zero again. At the risk of sounding optimistic (I am so not an optimistic personality, lol) I'll say focus on your triumphs and keep it moving. Best of health to you and everyone!

Whether it stretches (dilates) or not at end of day what matters is what goes into our mouths.

I read a paper about re-sleeve procedures that explains more. It's a loooong but interesting paper. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/16469218/

Say you have in front of you a piece of grilled chicken breast and a donut. You eat the chicken breast first and then eat the donut. The donut will be burned first for fuel and the chicken breast will be stored, eventually as fat. You could reverse the order in which you eat the two however you'll get pretty much the same effect. By removing bad carbs from your diet and focusing on healthy Proteins, your body will burn fuel more efficiently because the Protein is slow burning, more satiating and helps to build muscle. Simple carbs don't do that. If you sat around all day and ate simple carbs it would be stored as fat. Eating protein will build muscle (provided you exercise) and muscle burns more calories and fat, thereby speeding up your metabolism. I, too, found it hard getting in all of my protein right after surgery but that was from having problems eating period. Now that I am 10 mos out, I concentrate on getting my protein from meats and Beans etc and rarely drink a Protein shake. I find it easier because I have a variety to choose from and the protein has definitely changed my appetite for the better. Hope this helps. I got this info from my NUT and an online nutrition course I took via UPenn. If I can find the link again for the course I'll post it in here. It was free and very informative. Cornell also has Opencourse Free courses online that cover nutrition. Best of luck and congrats!

Absolutely.

If you are allowed you can add yogurt. or kefir. Honestly the full liquid stage just isn't fun. Just remember it's only a few days. p3aCH3s, on 13 Apr 2015 - 12:57, said: Step away from the scale. Weighing yourself more than once a week will make you crazy. Yes!!! That's scale can derail! Focus on over all health.

Where did you have your procedures done (sorry for asking if you already mentioned...)?

I accept that challenge!

Feeder days....what a great name! That's what that is called??? Lol! I thought it was just me but now I see it isn't so unusual! I go through that also....some days I can feed more, some days a qtr cup of anything is too much. I do know if I ate all simple carbs day in and day out, one spoonful at a time Id gain my weight back in no time. This is why the sleeve is a tool to use. We must not relinquish control back to that monster in our brain that got us so heavy in the first place. @Band07: Good luck to you! Hope all works out! Best Health! ????

From my understanding our restriction decreases as time passes but it's not from stretching the sleeve, instead it's decreased swelling that naturally occurs from healing. I still eat fast (but not nearly as fast as beforehand) so I remind myself to savor. Old habits die hard but they can be broken. Plus, your tastes will probably change. Before I started this lifestyle I could eat an entire loaf of bread, a package of cookies, a pot of pasta....I was addicted to simple carbs. Now if I even look at a piece of baguette or anything like that my stomach screams in terror at me! Lol it also helps that I no longer crave those foods. Stick with nutrient-dense foods especially good proteins and hydration. Congrats and best wishes!

I had mine out at age 19 after having my son. Fast-forward 23 years later, WLS last July, no issues!

Sigh. Just sigh.

Get well soon! In my thoughts.

I have clinical depression and bat-crap crazy anxiety. The best thing I can tell you from experience is be supportive, don't make demands, and listen. Don't diagnose and don't suggest things too much. Share in activities even if it's just watching tv. Depression is like a cancer of the soul and even with meds and therapy it is a beast. Maybe he can talk to a therapist? If he doesn't want to that's fine unless you feel he is in eminent danger. But you could talk to a therapist. They can give you an objective point of view. Even though he had the surgery, you too are going through this with him. Best of luck. Keeping you guys in my thoughts. PS: my husband eats what I eat and I find that to be so very helpful. And we go to gym together. Also, sometimes just a long hug will kill the depression. ????

I do cardio and I lift. It is important to lift if you are able to because it helps the metabolism, keeps arthritis if any, at bay and makes you feel and look great. I do circuit and free weights as well as using my own body weight. I had a recent knee injury from a slip and fall at work so I am limited on legs. But I do hip abductor/adductor, back, abs, arms, etc. I lift heavy in short reps. So 3 sets of 10. But I normally can only get to 8 reps on the 3rd set. That's muscle building. I exercise 4-5 days week. Cardio, lift, rest, cardio, lift, rest.