craigcu

My wife and I called them "Food Funerals". Had some between insurance approval and pre-surgical diet. Best was Cracker Barrel Breakfast with country fried streak, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and hash brown casserole... the thought of eating that much food in one sitting is disgusting now, but my old stomach sure did love it! :-)

it is undeniable. when you see a single man in their late 30's and 40's you have to understand the reason they haven't found someone else is because they are assholes masquerading as men. their problems are so deep-rooted they can't be fixed by even the greatest compassion. Now i don't mean this of all men, just close to it. There are a few that were able to overcome their past problems, but not that many. Id like to give you wonderful ladies the five warning signs of an asshole male. here they are in no particular order.
1. He thinks a bar is an appropriate romantic date destination.
2. He has children from different women and doesn't pay child support to any of them.
3. He has other women's names ( not his mothers) tattooed on his body and shows them to you.
4. He doesn't own a tie or a suit, and thinks a tuxedo was the t-shirt he wore to the prom.
5. He tells you how to improve yourself or your life.
if you witness these things, run, do not walk, just get away. It's just not worth it.

I think jaw hit the nail on the head ... your upset you even needed to be in this position in the first place. Me, too! But you're here regardless. Time to pull up your big girl panties and make this work for you. You can do this!

That's so great! I have been taking walks with my kids after dinner and it feels so good to keep a fast pace! They like to take turns with my 5 lb dumbbells its so cute! They keep me motivated big time. I definitely feel the same way.. best decision of my life. I'm excited to order my scrubs and not have to get the extra XX for the school year!

thanks gracy, I went out today and bought smallest bowls I could find and a handful of baby spoons and forks. Going to try the smaller bowl for awareness and the small utensils for speed control.. Give some physical form to my mental pictures of what I need to do. See how this goes..

Back in town, weighed, 356.4. I'm in the dreaded 3rd week stall... This too shall pass

These are awesome. Thanks so much to the amazing posters. I need to go find some male variants to balance the scales... Pun intended.. ????

I previously had a lap band and lost only 35 pounds. So when I got to the 35 pound mark with my RNY I panicked thinking this is it I'm not gonna lose anymore and then I got on the scale and I'm now losing 2 pounds a week which is fine for me. When I first had the surgery I wanted 10 pounds a week to come off. It's just not like that I might go week without losing anything and then I would lose five or 6 pounds in one day. So stick with it and don't be too discouraged because you'll be able to eat anything you want in moderation as long as you know your full

One of my most shameful slob moments happened during the period of my life when I was struggeling through a divorce. I can't even remember what sent me off on this emotional eating binge....but it started at the Arby's drive-thru ordering a giant roast beef sandwich...then on to McDonald's for a 10 pc. McNugget, fish sandwich, and fries....then to Wendy's for a frosty ans spicy chicken sandwich...then to the last fast food joint before I hit my street which was Taco Bell for some soft taco's. I was eating food from a previous resteraunt while sitting in the drive-thru for the next resteraunt. I remember being so physically stuffed and sick with food, sick with shame, hate, and guilt, sick with self-loathing.
Today I am exactly one year post-op and below goal. The most amazing part of this journey has been cutting the emotional hold that food had on me. Best decision I ever made.

This is a great topic, thanks all for sharing. I'm sleeved on 5/19 and struggling some with the transitions from liquids, letting my brain dictate how much to eat and then throwing up, etc.. I was lucky not to have any real complications post op except for dehydration, so that went well. I'm having some of the mental issues, but I'm looking for my solution to dealing with them. I don't regret my sleeve decision, but I grieve for its necessity. But my weight was killing me at 394 lbs.
I look at it this way, if I had had stomach cancer, and the way to save my life was to under go this surgery, would I have made any other choice? No. This surgery for many of us is about saving our lives. You may be young, you may not have had the comorbidities yet ( but they were coming, I assure you). I had them all and I was expecting not to be alive in 5 years from 47..
So, once I get through denial, I can get angry and kick my own ass back into the gym.
So, I will pull up my big girl panties ( which seem to fit looser now), and figure out how to make this work so I can live... food is fuel @stephenhud..
3 weeks post op, 356 lbs..

Weight loss surgery can be a daunting experience under the best circumstances. That’s why this journey is more easily traveled with boon companions who lighten the load with a positive attitude, some self-deprecation, and a sense of humor.
We have in common our WLS challenges, but we also have a lot of differences. So come in, pull up a chair and leave your self-righteousness outside. If someone on the board gets huffy because everyone doesn’t see things their way, don’t huff and puff and try to blow their house down. Instead, come over to this thread and crack a joke or post a cartoon.
After all, there’s nothing healthier for us than a good belly laugh.

@@Stevehud Love this line, "food is what you live ON , not what you live FOR." I am learning that right now and it's an adjustment. I'm getting there though.

There are ways to make it better.
Firstly, think about taking a single Multivitamin. Ask your surgeon about it - I am on a single Multivitamin a day. When it's only one, it's really not much of a problem to take it.
About dinner parties and not being able to eat normal portions - yes, this is tough. It's all well and good saying 'but that's the choice you made', but I know how different it can feel after the surgery than before it. If you're going to dinner with people you know, and who know you had surgery, then it's fine. They'll know. If they don't, then even having one person there who does know can help, because if conversation turns towards 'OMG you didn't eat much', that person can help change the subject.
But also you can let people know you are watching what you eat. Or just tell them you had a big breakfast/lunch.
You can also get into the habit or organising more dinners yourself. That way you're in control - you can give yourself a smaller plate, you can cook foods that aren't as obvious when you don't eat much. An example is something like a sharing platter where everyone just picks at what is on the table during the meal. No one is keeping track of what you eat, and because you eat slower, you finish at the same time.
I had to learn to be less self-conscious (people really aren't watching what you eat as much as you think) and to enjoy what food I could eat (accept that some yummy food will end up in the bin, don't mourn for what you couldn't eat but instead enjoy being able to eat until you were satisfied and not have to worry about the impact on your weight.
This is a gift - most people who eat delicious food have to choose between heating a healthy amount that won't fill them, or eating an unhealthy amount that will fill them. You don't have to make those choices now - you can eat a small portion AND be full. It's the best of both worlds - satisfying AND healthy.

I spent my whole adult life thinking I could do this on my own. I lost over 50 pounds several times and gained more back with each attempt. i even joined a gym twice and signed up for swimming lessons.I kept trying and trying until I had a stroke. I was becoming my mother who died too young of an abdominal aortic aneurysm. She was 5'2" and weighed over 320 pounds. I wish she could have had a sleeve, but nobody was doing them in 1992. I got one on 12/23/2013, to save my life. I am coming up on 18 months.
My sleeve is inconvenient. Not giving in to my taste buds is maddening. My tongue always want more long after Miss Tummy is done. She is the boss of me and wins every arguement one way or the other. My family understands why I did this to myself and are supportive because we have lost too many family members to the ravages of - not cancer - but obesity
My grandparents, parents, and most of thirteen sets of aunts and uncles are gone now, taken down in their sixties, when a trim few others lived well into their nineties. Mother died at 67. Her mother and all of her eight brothers and sisters lived to their late 90's in good health. Grandma made it to 98.
Now my 60 first cousins are being picked off by obesity one by one in their forties and fifties. My oldest brother died of a heart attack at the age of 47. He weighed 420 pounds and needed a double coffin built and twelve pall bearers.
As you progress, this process gets better. I can eat a cup of food at one sitting and that is fine. I did not nearly need all the food I was eating before. My energy level is great, now. The first two months, I thought I was going to drop from exhaustion from getting up and getting dressed.
It is a crying shame that we are socialized around eating rather than enjoying each other's company. Why should my family care if I eat an apple instead of a huge piece of Aunt Esther's apple pie with two scoops of ice cream? Do I want to hurt her feelings or just go ahead and tape the pie to my hips?
I do hope you can come to terms with your doubts and stay here for support and encouragement. There are indeed people here who struggle with differences between expectations and actual results. What's done is done, so look forward....the best is yet to come. Wondering "if only" is a crazy-maker. I like the idea of focusing on all of the new things you will be able to do as the weight drops off and you begin to recover further out. Eating more nutritiously results in a happier heart, lungs, brain, muscles, nerves, bone, skinn - all of that. And the next thing you know, your pants are falling off and you feel better.
Hang out here with us. I wish you good luck and good health and a better day tomorrow.

Ok. I have had the band and then later the sleeve...you made the right choice.
You have a brand new baby tummy! Like a Newborn it needs alot of TLC but it will mature and become much easier.
I am 3.5 years post band to sleeve revision. I can eat enough at a sitting I just look like a petite eater. I am healthy, I am normal size, like my looks and like single digit clothing sizes.
Give this time. What you experience now is temporary and take advantage of it to lose weight because a year from now you will regret not taking full advantage if you don't.

Try to relax a little about all these intense and scary thoughts and feelings you are having. Really, they ARE normal for some people and nothing to feel odd about. But right now, please consider that your thoughts are lying to you. You have several stages of new eating to go through while your stomach heals and your body and brain adjust. Stuff you have never come close to experiencing in your entire life. But does that mean you are doomed for life???? NO!! You must have patience and follow your program. Remember you DID just have MAJOR SURGERY. You can CHOOSE to feel sorry for yourself for awhile. And that is ok if that is what you absolutely need to do. (Ask yourself though--is it REALLY?) But please remember that you have to be good to yourself to be successful long-term with WLS. YOU made the decision for WLS. Wishing you didn't is very unproductive thinking and takes away from your precious energy that you soooo need to build that POSITIVE ENERGY and POSITIVE ATTITUDE AND SELF-TALK to view your decision as a FUN ADVENTURE, full of possibilities instead of a lifetime of regret. You have a lot of work to do down the road in learning your new lifestyle and eating habits. You knew this was going to be HARD WORK before you signed on the dotted line. I respectfully must disagree with you--if you could have done it "on your own" you would have done it a long time ago.
I had my surgery one day earlier than you four years ago on 4/26/11. You are probably not ready to hear, must less believe this right now, but my lifestyle and eating is totally normal. I don't think of myself as a freak compared to other "normal" people who haven't had WLS. I eat 3 meals a day and 2 healthy Snacks. The quantity of my meals is very close to what I ate before surgery. Breakfast is often a 1/2 cup cottage cheese, 1/4 cup Greek yogurt, 1/4 cup fresh fruit, 1/4 cup All-bran, made into a pretty parfait! Most sleevers by one year can eat an average of 1 to 1-1/2 cups of food per meal. For dinner that would equal about 4-6 oz of some kind of meat Protein, and 2 servings of veggies and/or complex carb. I dine out with friends (although I choose to keep restraunt eating to a minimum because I like to eat the most nutritious meals that I can and those are the ones we prepare at home).
You will learn to not "hate what you did to yourself" because who wants to live their life feeling that emotion? We want to LOVE life. You are way too young to regret ANY decisions you make. You honor yourself, trust yourself, and live in the present, not yesterday. We cannot change yesterday no matter how hard we try and cry!!!
I wish you peace...

4 Oz of seafood salad from Hagen and I am stuffed

Highest weight:244 lbs
Surgical weight: 229 lbs
Current weight: 214 lbs
I'm 5'4. My goal is 125 lbs. Would love to make it there within a year of my surgery.

Highest Weight: 291
Pre Surgery: 266
Current weight: 258
I am 5'5 and my goal weight is 150.