lauraellen80

I order mine from charliebean.com I was getting them on Amazon, but they are waaaayyyyy cheaper thru Charlie Bean

I'm only 8 months out, but I'm at about 1300 calories per day, and I'm not nearly as active as you are. I'd say that you could easily add in another 100-200 calories, maybe more. I'm currently trying to figure out how many calories I need to maintain.

I waited about a month... maybe two? I drink 2-3 cups a day (plus sometimes a cup of decaf in the evening). I use Torani sugar-free syrups and 2% Fairlife milk. Or if I'm out, I put in Splenda and vanilla soymilk. Or Splenda and half and half, if I'm at a diner or something.

Ooh, I'll take it! I do have the raised-eyebrow, "resting b***h face" down pat. The 21" waist... not so much...

I used to have a pair of "goal" pants that fit me for a brief moment at the beginning of my sophomore year of college. Nothing special, just ones that I really liked from Old Navy. I almost made it in them after doing Weight Watchers about 8 years ago, but then I gained the weight back, and then a lot more. I held onto them until about a year and a half ago, when I had kinda given up and figured that it was pointless to hold onto them, that there was no way I'd ever fit into them again. I'm still kicking myself that I got rid of them! Of course, they'd be too big on me now. Now my clothing motivation for maintenance is--of all things--a British Army women's Auxiliary Territorial Service uniform from 1942. My husband and I recently started doing WWII reenacting (yes, we're nerds!), and I'm able to fit into an original issue uniform for my portrayal. Obviously it's not something you can just pick up in any size at your local Target, so I have to stay small enough to wear it!

Cut in half or quarters and sautéed with caramelized onions, garlic, and balsamic vinegar.

Oh, yeah... I still have those days. And it's still sometimes hard to tell whether it's real hunger or head hunger. The best way I've found to tell is that if I am craving something specific, it's probably just head hunger. But if I feel more "empty" and am open to refueling with whatever healthy option is available, it's the real deal. In that case, some cheese or nuts are often my go-to choices, since the fat in them helps to satiate me. I also find that I still get hungrier when it's around time for my period. Some things don't change, I guess.

I'm 8 months out and currently get about 1200 calories a day (over 90 grams of protein, below 90 grams of carbs). I exercise a light to moderate amount (some water aerobics, walking, and yoga) but no hardcore strength or cardio training. I'm below goal and still losing, so when I see my dietitian in a few weeks, I think I'll be upping my calorie goal.

I feel you! No surgery for me, but I've been battling a nasty stomach flu this week, and the only thing I could manage was toast. I tried to sip Protein shakes, but they just would not go down (or stay down!), so I decided that if it was between having the carbs or getting in no calories at all, the carbs would have to do. I'm right at the edge of the weight that my dietitian doesn't want me going below, so I can't afford to drop too much at this point. And man, that toast was good! And my mother-in-law very kindly made a pot of chicken noodle Soup for us. I'm not completely back on my feed, and eating dense protein is still a little iffy on my tummy, but I need to get back to my normal eating habits, or I'm going to get too used to having the carb-heavy stuff again!

Thank you for this, So are you saying that us newbies "only a month or two out or less" who are early post op are going to have more acid reflux in the early healing stages? I have been experiencing what feels like the hunger sensation. And I am sipping whenever I am awake for sure, way over 67 ounces of water w/ nothing added. TY. For a lot of people, the acid reflux mimics the physical sensation of hunger... and yes, folks in the early months out from surgery tend to have more acid reflux. It can settle down, for others it can stay the same, it gets worse for others. I'm eight months out and still take a prescription version of Pepcid twice a day. I can feel it when I don't take it.

Oh, I will also say that throughout the week, my breakfasts, lunches, and snacks stay pretty much the same every day. It's dinner where I tend to mix it up a bit more. I think this helps me stay on track, too.

I'm 8 months post op and almost 20 pounds below goal, and I've been going out to restaurants since the soft foods phase and still very much enjoy the experience. I think my first meal out was Indian paneer tikka masala without the rice or naan--at this point I'd probably eat part of a piece of naan bread with it but skip the rice still. BUT... I go about eating out much differently now. I would suggest focusing on places with fresh, flavorful, high-quality ingredients rather than the typical "diner, drive-in, and dive" deep-fried foods. I will occasionally have a few french fries when we eat out, but only if they are really good, fresh, hand cut fries. I've found that I've become much more choosy about what I'm eating, and if I decide to have an item that's higher in carbs, I keep other carby foods off my plate. So if I do choose to have a few fries, I won't be eating any bun or bread with the meal. We were at a Super Bowl party last weekend, and I chose to have a slider without the bun because I wanted to have a cookie for dessert. I go out for Mexican, and I have 3 or 4 chips with salsa but order fajitas with no tortillas. One of my biggest lessons from this surgery is that I can't have it all, all the time. I can't treat every meal like a holiday feast. I can occasionally choose a treat, but I have to make sacrifices elsewhere in the meal (or elsewhere in my days food plan--on Thanksgiving I had a Protein shake for Breakfast instead of my usual oatmeal) to balance it out. There are some people who insist that we, as people with obesity, can never be trusted to eat "in moderation" and ought never allow anything fried or carb-heavy to pass our lips again, lest we fall right back into our old ways and balloon up to where we started... but I don't believe that is true for everyone across the board. Since surgery, I've been working really hard to instill good habits that I can live with for the long haul. And those habits for me include making allowances for some "special" meals here and there. For me, having whole classes of absolutely forbidden foods is the easiest road to going off the rails and bingeing on them, unfortunately. I don't keep much in the way of processed carbs--Cereal, Pasta, bread, crackers, etc.--in the house, but I also don't demonize them and swear all of them off entirely. Except cereal... I just can't trust myself with cereal. :/ Maybe I'll be proven wrong once I'm out of the "honeymoon phase," but we'll see...

You look amazing! I won't ever be seen in a 2-piece, as my tummy is where all my loose skin is, and I won't be able to afford plastics. I'm also ridiculously short-waisted and probably would look silly in a bikini even with a flat stomach. I'm just hoping to get my upper thighs toned up to a point where I feel comfortable wearing a suit without a skirt to it.

Almost everyone comes home from the hospital weighing more than when they went in--it's all the IV fluids they pump into you. It is absolutely not an indication of your future success with the sleeve! For that very reason, I didn't get near a scale until my first follow-up appointment with my surgeon.

I don't have an issue with any veggies, raw or cooked, at this point. I'm 8 months out. The only thing I haven't tried is raw celery, but I was never a huge fan of it anyway. Canned green Beans (reduced sodium) were the first veggies I had post-op. They went down with no problem and were an easy go-to veggie early on.

And this is why people saying "but Marilyn Monroe wore a size 12-14!" is so dumb... yes, she did, but that is in 1950s sizing, not 2010s. Ugh, drives me nuts. She had like a 23" waist. ANYWAY... I don't consider myself a veteran yet, but I'm below goal. I started out pre-op as a size 20W, and I'm now wearing a size 2 or 4. I never, ever, ever thought I'd fit into a size 2! And yes, vanity sizing is a very real phenomenon. When I was about this weight in high school (about 1995?), I don't think I was ever in smaller than a 7/8 in pants. (Oh, and BTW, I am currently wearing a modern size 2 pants but I'm a size 18 in 1940s clothing/patterns. Ha!) I would have been thrilled to fit into an 8 or 10, but my body decided otherwise, at least for now. I initially set my goal weight at 145, which was still "overweight" for my height (5'2"), but it was the lowest I could fathom weighing, and a weight at which I remembered feeling OK. Once I had surgery and started dropping weight, I realized that I could revise my goal downward, so I set it at 135, which is the highest weight of the "normal" range for my height. I hit that in December and have lost another 15+ pounds. It's mind-boggling!

It has been very weird getting used to being catcalled again after so many years of being an invisible fat girl. Most of the time it's just gross (yelling at me out of a moving garbage truck?), but I did have one really nice experience recently. I was waiting for a coworker to pick me up outside of a Wawa (local convenience store chain). I wasn't dressed up or anything, in fact I had on a rather baggy jacket. But a guy pulling out of the parking lot paused and called out his window to me, "I hope the rest of your day is as beautiful as you are!" before going on his way. That's the way to do it, guys!

I haven't gotten to the point where I'm underweight, but I am under my goal and still losing. My surgeon said at my 6-month follow-up not to listen to anyone who said I was losing too much. And then I immediately went into my session with the dietitian, who said she didn't want me to lose any more than I had. She amended that to saying that she didn't want me to go below 115 lbs. Technically, at my height I would have to be 103 lbs or below to be classified as underweight, so I dunno why she picked 115. I'm 122 right now, and I see her again in 6 weeks. Part of me would like to get down to 115 so that even if I have that bounce of 10-20 lbs later on, I won't go over my goal of 135. But I'm also noticing lately that I'm just not always satiated with the amount that I'm eating and end up adding in some more nuts, or cheese, or a Protein bar. The dietitian told me to stay between 1000-1200 calories a day, and I'm near the top of that range most days lately. I'm torn between feeling like this is normal and my body is trying to level things off, and feeling like I'm getting into dangerous territory and on the verge of gaining it all back!

I have been feeling crummy for the past couple days, I guess with a cold (sore throat, headache, generally feeling 'blah'). It's the first time I've been sick since surgery, and I'm wondering how to stay on track--both with food and with exercise. My old go-to foods when I was sick are things that I no longer eat--cinnamon toast, Kraft mac-and-cheese, Mrs. Grass noodle Soup. When I'm sick, I don't feel like spending time in the kitchen making healthy Soups and stuff from scratch, so I'm not sure what to do, besides survive on Protein shakes and bars. I also worry about not getting my normal physical activity in while I'm taking it easy. I use a fitness tracker, and my daily number of steps has completely tanked the past couple days, since I'm lying around a lot more and haven't gone to the gym or on my regular walks. I'm not sure what to do about this... I certainly don't want to push myself too hard, make it worse, and end up sicker than I was in the first place. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Nearly every day for Breakfast, I eat half a packet of lower sugar oatmeal made with skim Fairlife milk and 1/2 scoop of vanilla Protein powder, plus one Morningstar Farms veggie sausage link. (I'm 7 months post op and under goal but still losing slowly)

Immediately after waking up from surgery, I felt nauseated. Once they gave me Zofran for that, then it was mainly sore and bloated feeling--not my actual stomach, but my abdominal area in general.

I went to adjust my dress form to my current measurements, and I realized that it wouldn't go small enough! Guess I know how I'll be using the Joann's gift card I got for Christmas!