Dub

Well.....you've certainly kicked azz. On with the living !!!!!

Somewhere around the 8-9 week mark my desire to grill was rekindled. I freaking love it.....the grilling and the flavors. I've got slabs of ribs on right now, in fact. Collards on the stove. I'll have a rib...maybe two....and a couple bits of collards. Protein & Fiber. All good stuff. Grilled some salmon this weekend.....love it, too.

It's really not that difficult. Limit the sugary stuff, but sample the things that interest you. Stay active. Hit the gym every morning and go on active excursions. I was dieting during the last cruise we went on and followed that plan.....7 day cruise.....drank every afternoon....ate well and weighed in before and after the cruise.......lost 5 pounds that week. The flavor of some of the food is really good.....especially the dinner meals. It's the buffet environment that I avoided.....heavy carbs and sweets....no thanks.

liquid pre-op is the worst time. Everything that comes afterward is easier !!!!! Yes..........it is worth every bit of it. Best decision I've made in decades.

I decided to track my activity a month or so prior to my sleeve surgery. The results were telling......and motivated me to get to stepping ! I have a Fitbit ONE on my keychain. I chose this because we can't wear watches/wristbands/etc at my job due to safety rules & regs. Very archaic rule....but it is what it is. The ONE in my pocket does a great job of tracking things for me......so long as I have my keychain with me. I don't always have it on me, though. I also think some of the other metrics such as sleep activity would be interesting to track and am considering adding one of their wristband models. I'd wear it all the time except for work. Will dual units like this work in conjunction with each other or will I get skewed measurements ????????

Man...that is versatile right there !!! I'm saying with fitbit though as I have an awesome friend base there. They inspire my passion to get get fit. See there Bo Banna.......you just aren't as jiggly as I am. Stuff stays where it's supposed to. You have that hardbody thing going on. Me? I'm bad. Supper Jiggly Bad. Too much bounce and wiggle. I'm always losing stuff, too. For instance, I just lost a really nice pocket knife and I'm steaming over that. Wait a minute......you said you hooked yours in a bra. Hhmmmnnnnnnnn..........I may need to get over to the mall.......stroll into Victoria's Secret and get fitted for one, too.

Dumbbells have always been more versatile for me.

Oh......OP is a a man ???? Never realized it. Dude just needs to reach down and hitch his sack up and not have hissy fits. Funny thread, truly. I like @@Djmohr suggestion.......go have a drink of whatever you like and enjoy this glorious day. The Panthers are laying the smackdown on the Seahawks and I'm loving it.

Well done on the progress. Sorry about the ouch. People are weird sometimes. The public, at large, is so under educated on all things weight related......nutrition, our surgeries, etc.

Powerful !!!!!!!

There is a lot you can do with resistance bands and dumbbells. A lot. A couple pairs or a set of adjustable dumbbells aren't very expensive and can be used at home with ease. Until I get my clearance from the surgeon (hernia repair) I am simply walking. It works okay....but the elliptical machine would really amplify the calorie burn. DO NOT worry about the folks at the gym. Every single one of them started somewhere and is proud of you when you walk through the door......trust me on this. It's the people in their lives who will not go to the gym that they are unhappy with. Use their treadmills and ellipticals......get yourself some earbuds and some music on your phone and pop them in and enjoy the solitude and peaceful quiet time to have your me time. A person on the treadmill doing their thing becomes invisible.

Was out with my Dad yesterday. On the way back to the house he said he wanted coffee.....I zipped through the Dunkin' drive through to get his.......then never even had to take it out of 1st gear to roll through the adjacent Starbuck's drive through for my hot dark roast. Gotta love my town's "coffee corner". Coffee runs have now replaced beer runs, I guess.

Way to go !!!!!!! Bravo !!!!!!!!!!!!! You look great. Please know that you have been a strong asset and supporter and have truly helped so many people change their lives. Thank you, thank you and Go You !!!!

Well done !!!!! Keep kicking butt and taking names.

First movie that I've been to since my sleeve surgery was two weeks ago. My son and I went to see Star Wars......he loaded down on popcorn & soda. I was perfectly happy with a ginormous bottle of Water. The old cravings are no more. Thankfully.

I've gone back to GNC mega packs again. They have most everything I need and are always available. The particular mega pack I now use is called Men's Mega Joint. It has some additional stuff targeted at joint pain relief.

That's a crappy situation. I rely on coffee quite a bit as the low calories sometimes leave me with low energy. I'm wondering is it's attributed to something else entirely. You have a whole new way of eating now and don't have the same foods in your system to "buffer" against the effects of coffee. Maybe that is the reason for the immediate reaction. Not being funny, here......but at least you now have a sure fire laxative. That is not something I take lightly after a few months on the low-carb-lifestyle. I appreciate such things. I was in the grocery store yesterday and noticed they now have a decaf-regular blend....Maxwell House I believe it was. Maybe this will be less intense on your system.

I just chewed them up and chased with some water.

Howdy, Tamika. You're story sounds really familiar.......as in just like my younger sister's story and like my own. Little Sis was the smart one, though......she had bypass surgery when she was a year or two out of college and went from around 370 down to 140......had all the plastics done and became a new person. It was a transformation like nothing I've ever seen before or since. She then met a really cool guy who I respect and enjoy hanging with. They were married and have had a wonderful marriage and have two of the greatest kids you could ever imagine. Respectful, energetic and really well-rounded. Then.....there is me. 9 years older than her. Football from 6th grade through 12th. Weight lifting and wrestling team to support football......both knees wrecked and surgeries ended football dreams by September of my 12th grade year. College letters of interest ceased immediately. Figured out a way to get to college and somehow graduate.....and had way too much fun along the way. That fun didn't stop after marriage........and it translated over to more weight piling on every year. Still was very active in hunting, golf and fishing. Golf ended in 2011 when I ripped ankle-foot tendon and had to have it repaired. Hurt like a beast being way too heavy and healing after that surgery. A couple hernias from doing stupid stuff in the woods and weight room required a couple surgeries, too. Being heavy during the recovery hurt like crazy. I've lost and regained so much weight over the years that it's incalculable. A heap of it. Lost.....but always found. Battled this way for a long time. Weight and desire to still do all the stuff I enjoy took it's toll on my knees....but ultimately a herniated disc knocked me down for several weeks and I had lots of time to think and reflect. I decided then that doing the same things I'd always done would lead to the same results. I entered a local bariatric plan.....then transferred over to another local bariatric plan....a center of excellence. I was dead certain that I was going to have a bypass. I began all this in June 2015. My BMI was just shy of 60. My new surgeon said that a bypass was not a safe surgery for me in my current state then.....tall and heavy and had a ginormous umbilical hernia that had to be repaired during the surgery. You can see it really well in my profile pics. He was concerned with the repiping done by bypass....routing near the repaired hernia.....stretched due to my height......probability of hernia repair blowing out and involving the already taunt repiped plumbing.......bad juju. He was emphatic that I should have the sleeve. He also was persistent the the sleeve would allow me to continue taking the highly effective NSAID's that help with my knee arthritis. I caved in but was worried that I'd not loose the weight I wanted to lose. He was not yielding and said if I wanted bypass I needed to lose more weight. I'd lost 55 pounds by this point already and knew I was running out of gas......back wasn't healing and it be even harder to lose more in the state I was in. I'd already chosen to self fund the surgery and we agreed on the sleeve and set the date for just 3 weeks from that appointment. He did my upper endoscopy a week later and the next day I started my 2 week pre-op liquid diet. The surgery went really well and he said my sleeve was "textbook" and that my hernia repair was rock solid and should hold well into my old age timeframe. All music to my ears in the recovery room. The weight loss has been steady and it feels freaking great. Every day is a new opportunity to enjoy life and every aspect of it is better. I am very, very grateful for my sleeve and can see how it will be a tool for me to use for the rest of my life. My only regret is not doing so much sooner.......like my wise little sister did 15 years ago.

Well done !!!!!!

Losing on your own is great. Losing after the surgery is great. Losing is great. You have a tool to help you do that even better than ever, now. Getting satisfaction from food is an area to be mighty cautious of. I remember that 3 week period like it was yesterday......because it almost was. 3 months now and I can tell you with absolute certainty that it gets much easier to approach daily living....but the weight loss rate that you'll be getting in those first weeks is intoxicating and I'll occasionally go back to 3-5 days of liquids only in order to bust through any stall periods. Real food is coming your way soon. For now, heal up and focus on that early stage weight loss. There is no mystery to me why there is normally a stall at 3-5 weeks for folks......that time frame coincides with all of us transitioning off full liquids and we may be taking on more calories than needed. Hopefully you have a NUT that can help you cut down on experimentation and stay dialed in on weight loss and reaching your goals and not backsliding with foods/calories/macros that don't support this. It gets much easier in a very short time frame.......hang tough and stay strict for just a while longer. Heal up.

Awesome ! Well done, man.

My fitness pal is the easiest calorie/macro tracker I've used. Fitbit does a great job on the activity level and isn't bad on calories, either, now that my diet is more or less similar each day. Makes entering the data very quick.

Make no bones about it........the liquid diet is a solo endeavor. You'll not likely find anyone under your roof to champion that particular cause......unless they are insane. Insane is where we, the patients, find ourselves, though. The liquid diet is a rite of passage and medically necessary (as far as my knuckledragging self knows). Gut it out and stick with it. The weight loss will begin and you'll profit tremendously well before your surgery.....plus you are doing your part to better ensure a safer surgery. We've all been there and know it's no fun......but you'll be glad you were strict. As far as making your ripples and impacting those around you with better eating choices.......that will come soon......really soon....just a couple months and you'll be eating good foods and hopefully so will they. Stay strict. You've got this.

Once. It happened to me once. It was a couple weeks after I could have solid foods. Wasn't something I wanted to ever go through again so I began to measure and asses the quantity of what I eat....BEFORE....I eat it. I've found that once I get full.....it's too damn late and discomfort and possible pain is heading my way for the next 30 mins. So much easier to know that 5 bites is the limit and not find out AFTER 7 bites.