OutsideMatchInside

I have pills from the derm for my skin. As far as the rest, I don't have any good answers. I had a terrible time with the hormones

Give up the granola, and probably the yogurt and have dense protein or a protein shake in the morning. Give up the fruit until you have lost your weight. Fruit is still sugar, even if it is natural and comes with some fiber. Granola is a starch if it has oats in it. The granola and fruit is probably slowing your weight loss, give it up for 2 weeks and see what happens.

What does your food log look like daily?

I like Vega, if you get their higher quality protein, the sports versions, they have less carbs. It costs more but it is worth it

When your Dr says you can, which is going to be different for everyone. No one here knows your medical history.

1. It drops dramatically after surgery but it does increase for most people, but not back to prior levels. The human body is an amazing thing, and it will adapt and repair itself. I'm almost 2 years out and I rarely get hungry. The biggest benefit I had from the early drop was, it created a complete disconnect between my brain and my stomach. So even though I might crave something, walk or drive past food, or see a commercial, mentally wanting it, didn't start my stomach to working and desiring food. Prior to surgery if I thought about food, my body responded and I was hungry and wanted to eat. That doesn't happen anymore. I can think about food all day, my stomach doesn't care at all. I track my food to make sure I eat enough. I can easily go 24 hours without eating as long as I am drinking fluids. This is the study about ghrehlin. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4280419/ Most people can't tell the difference between head hunger and physical hunger. It impossible to teach people if they are food addicts, impulsive and want instant gratification. 2. Well for people with RNY, their pouches stretch and since they don't have the valve at the bottom of their stomach, the top part of the connected small intestine can act as another stomach. So much of weight loss surgery information is geared towards RNY patients it is really annoying. Properly formed sleeves don't stretch. Emphasis on properly formed sleeves, there are lots of quacks out there, but a corrected created sleeve won't stretch. Once people are healed and swelling goes down. Yes you have more capacity. Most people still have very limited capacity for dense protein. I can still really only eat 4 ounces of dense protein, if it is fatty or moist I might be able to hit as high as 6 but I am usually uncomfortable for hours afterward. Most people that are even further out from surgery than me, still have similar capacity with dense protein. I can eat basically an unlimited amount of veggies. I can eat 4 cups of baby spinach in one setting I can eat a whole cucumber. I can eat probably a family bag of chips if I tried (I eat quest chips not real chips but its the same idea, there is zero restriction). Once people vary their diet from dense protein and start adding more things into their diet, yes you can eat a lot more, especially if you eat things all together. If I eat veggies as the same time as my meat, like alternating bites, I can eat probably double my normal capacity. How much you can eat long term, is based on choices not capacity. Besides the guy last year that claimed he had a 24 ounce steak a month after surgery, I never see long term sleevers complaining they are eating 12 ounce ribeyes and are totally out of control and regaining because they are eating 16 ounces of grilled chicken at once. They are eating sliders and carbs in large amounts. When people say they have increased capacity. Pay attention to what they are eating, not how much they are eating. When I did my pre-op research that is what really stood out to me reading forums, people were working against their sleeve. It makes a nice list of foods and habits to avoid. It is better to just never start then you don't have to stop. My post-op eating plan has all these carbs and things that are allowed, but my Dr hands his patients a flyer of what he thinks creates lasting results, and he says not to reintroduce carbs. Almost all the Doctors I know personally (college, childhood friends) are Paleo, Keto, and in general low carb. 3. Regain is kind of like wrinkles. If you live long enough you are going to have some. Everyone is going to regain some weight at some point. How you want to define regain is important though. Regaining 10% to 15% of you lost is not really considered regain, that is fairly normal and as you age, and for women go through menopause, you are going to probably regain a little. The problem regainers are the people that start regaining before they have finished losing. They never get to goal or anywhere near it and they start regaining in the 6 to 18 month range. Usually people like that are never going to get their weight under control from what I have seen. They never learned good habits. They usually go right back to eating how they ate before surgery just in smaller portions. They don't weigh their food, they don't track and they think restriction is going to be the same forever and protect them. It won't. Immediately post-op is the easiest time to retrain yourself and create new eating habits. If you blow it, it is lost forever. Anyone can learn at any point, but later on you are going to have just as hard a time as you did pre-op. Also people that never get to goal or close (like 10 to 20 pounds) seem to regain more often not just because they have bad habits but also because they seem less likely to vigorously defend their loses. Being close to goal and maybe still wanting to hit it seems to make people want to defend it more. These people also usually weigh and track their food and weigh themselves on a scale often. Weighing yourself daily is the only way to see trends. Anyone can have a weight fluctuation of a few pounds between days, but when you are solidly up 5 pounds for over a week, it is time to make some changes. If you don't weigh yourself, people don't catch the regain until their clothes are uncomfortable. When real long term vets used to post here, one thing I noticed about them was that they just kept eating the same and lost until their body stopped wanting to lose. Going as low as you can possible go in the best defense against regain. Then you have some comfortable bounce room.

@CharlyScott Are you Southern Illinois like Carbondale southern or mid central like Springfield? I know that memorial has a program in Springfield and I am sure they have meetings.

My nurse that was sleeved gave me a great view of post-op life, a very realistic one. Better than I have ever got from anyone on forums and more realistic than what the Dr and Nutritionist could provide. When you check it at Des Peres, you really don't have to bring anything, they provide everything you need.

Surgery isn't easy, but it is the easiest I have ever lost weight. Once you get past the initial healing, it is basically effortless for months. If you don't tell people you had surgery you don't have to hear their dumbass comments.

There are some people that have lost that low and lower. It is just going to probably take you longer than a year. I was 358 on the day of surgery and I am 187 ish, right now. I'm hoping to hit 170 or 165 by the end of the year. I'm not sure if I really need to go that low before skin surgery, but I am going to try,

Everyone dreams about food when they can't eat. When you can eat something and chew, it should go away.

I just want to add that I forced myself to exercise even in bad weather for the first year to remove excuses. If I can walk in the rain and cold at 300 plus pounds, I can walk at [whatever weight I am] in any circumstances. It was more an effort in habit forming and mental reset than anything else. Plus I have a dog, I have to walk some every day. I adopted him about 3 weeks after surgery and besides being excellent companionship, I knew I wouldn't neglect a dog and having one would force me to walk. It worked!

I had surgery at Des Peres, but with a different Dr. They will take great care of you in the hospital. A lot of the nurses on the floor are sleevers too! @stlclg You can send an email to the leader for more information

Walking along with the usual weighing all my food and tracking. I used to walk with weights until I injured myself. Not worth it for me, an injury sets you back. And my Dr friend told me off about doing. It isn't really necessary. I maintained my muscle by eating 1 gram of protein for 1 pound of lean muscle mass, every day. I've lost 180 pounds and only 10 of that has been muscle. I still have 125 pounds of lean mass.

It seems like you have been down since your recent still diabetic diagnosis. You worked really hard to lose weight and you are not necessarily reaping all the benefits you desired. I understand

Walk in the rain. I walked and didn't let the weather interrupt my schedule at all the first year. I walked in the rain and the cold, and the snow. I walked when it was 10 degrees. I made a habit and I wanted to keep that habit going. The only way to do it was to do it every day, rain or shine. I tried walking in the mall, it was so boring. I'd rather get wet.

No, I use full fat everything.

You should address the fibroids before surgery because if you start losing really fast and hormone dumping from burning the fat, that is going to make the fibroids worse.

I think a lot of time is wasted on trying to prepare people for avoiding addiction transfer and a lot of other mental and emotional post-op issues are actually ignored. No one ever tries to prepare someone who has been obese their entire adult life for the changes of longer being obese. Losing weight isn't a magic pill to problem solving. I think the best way to avoid addiction transfer is to be in a good place before hand. I also think by ignoring a lot of other issues that come with losing a massive amount of weight, they are ignoring why people become alcoholics after weight loss. A lot of people are dealing with depression for various reasons, including an inability to cope with their new looks, lack of support from other people and levels of attention they have never experienced before. Then a lot of people were not social before when they were obese. Now suddenly they are out more and partying. It is easy to lose control, that is a social and behavioral issue more that just a simple post-op issue. It is part of adjusting to a new identity and lifestyle and some people really struggle. There is little support for those kind of struggles since most people think losing weight should solve all of peoples problems. I was worried I would develop a shopping habit. Thing is I was already a compulsive shopper pre-op. Post-op I hate shopping. I can't shop online anymore, not even for jewelry. I have dropped more than 2 ring sizes. Necklaces even hang different on me. I have to try on every single article of clothing. Shopping went from being a relaxing joy to being a complete pain. It takes forever just to find a dress. I might have to try on 10 to find 2. Regular sizing has a lot more variation than plus sizes, so it is harder to know your size, add a changing body and it is a disaster.

Where are you having surgery? Who is your Dr? There is a support group that meets in STL County. I have never been but it exists.

I live in a completely different area of the country than you do. I also know exactly what kind of man I want. I have cultivated my habits to streamline the process. The kind of dates I want and the kind of man I want is specific to my needs and desire. I'm making a blanket statement that reflects my opinion on what I think is a boring date that I won't even accept anymore ever. I have a lot of dating options, I could book 2 dates a night for weeks if I felt like it and had the free time. I have to create a process to weed people out fast. I am self employed and my time is very valuable. Any free time I have is time I choose to turn into free time. I can literally work every waking hour of the day and make money. So a date has to be worth my time. I cannot get to know someone in a Coffee house. I have hired lots of people and I am great at conducting interviews but a Coffee House date is just an interview. I would rather evaluate someone doing an activity so I can get a better gauge on their personality, temperament and problem solving skills. Anyone who isn't an idiot can pass the HR interview, a coffee house date to me is the HR interview. Just sitting in at a table not much is going to happen, maybe a waitress is going to come by once or twice and you can evaluate how they treat the server, and maybe see if they know how to tip, that's it. An activity it the technical interview and that is where people always trip up. If they can't find a parking spot, how do they react? If someone bumps into them, how do they react? Are they kind to people they don't have to be kind to? If we do something competitive and I win, how do they react. If we are being active can they keep up? If I can't keep up with them being active (those dudes with long legs) how do they treat me? In a museum, do they actually know the arts? Are they well traveled? (anyone can fake these things with direct questions but not in an active environment) Can they appreciate a play? Even one with low production values (like a HS play)? Shakespeare in the park is going on (and free), do they know this play? Can they understand this play? What is their favorite play? The level of creativity of a first or second date says a lot about a persons personality and their compatibility with me and most of all how serious they are. I am a very adventurous and high energy person. I'm also aggressive and assertive. I'll run circles around someone that can't keep up. Been there done that and don't want to deal with that kind of resentment. If I was still just looking for someone to hang out with, then coffee dates or whatever wouldn't matter. I am, well was, looking for a real true match and they have to meet certain criteria. I've run across too many middle aged men he want to sit in the house and do ???? I have always been a person that likes to be out and about and active, even when I was a whale. I want someone plugged into to what is going on and what s happening that likes to be out and do things. A guy like that doesn't drag you to a Coffee House, someones boring ex-husband does.

This is the first good thigh lift I have ever seen! I'm really impressed. I had given up hope for myself. Thanks for sharing!

Yeah it is hard with the limited window you have to eat, like I do all my eating in an 8 hour time period but it is noon to 8 pm. You are probably going to have to adjust your sleep schedule some to make this work, but I have faith in you that you can do it. You might as well do it now, because even if you can't do it now, you would have to do it later anyway.

they are delicious. if you use the waldens farms zero calorie pancake syrup it makes for an amazing breakfast. There are other low carb tortilla recipes on the internet. I use the store bought low carb tortillas/wraps every now and then, but they still have grains in them. So if you have been low carbing, as soon as you eat them you are going to gain water weight.

I mean you could but why not just eat it in a bowl? I had fajitas all last week in a bowl. If you just have to make it portable you could make these with no cinnamon or sweetener. http://www.ibreatheimhungry.com/2012/01/cream-cheese-pancakes.html