IncredibleShrinkingMan

Be careful what you wish for. I was asking the same questions and then I stalled big time, and still not out of it, with about 40 lbs more that I really want gone. Just saying.
I think the way to stop is easy...just add some more calories from things that aren't going to send you back flying the other way, so high quality, like lean Protein and dairy.

Congratulations on reach the great divide! Wishing you prosperity in your slimmer days...

ISOPURE...from the Vitamin Shoppe...40 g of Protein, no carb, in 20 oz bottle. Slightly sweet tasting, but always did its job with me. Helped me with the pre-op diet a lot, and made clear liquid stage pretty tolerable. I use it to break out of stalls and it usually works!

Wow, congratulations! I guess it's time to last-supper up and get stocked up for pre-op! I think the quick turn around is quite a blessing...I went throughout months of mental anguish as to how I would spend my stomach's remaining days.

Good luck. Hope you are in the zone!

It isn't a lie unless you've said something that isn't true. Therefore, if you say you lost weight using diet and exercise, you are not lying, because that is required of both traditional losers and WLS patients. You just didn't mention that you had a little help.
A little kid once told me on a subway train that "you haven't lied unless you had an obligation to tell the truth." I was taken aback at his sophistication, and I assume he picked it up somewhere himself, and while that's not strictly true (if I told you I had a salad for lunch when in fact I had pizza, I still lied despite the fact that I had no obligation to tell you what I ate), it should inform much of our interpersonal conduct and communication related to this surgery.

Be careful what you wish for. I was asking the same questions and then I stalled big time, and still not out of it, with about 40 lbs more that I really want gone. Just saying.
I think the way to stop is easy...just add some more calories from things that aren't going to send you back flying the other way, so high quality, like lean Protein and dairy.

Fantastic idea. It is just a mental prison. So are all numbers. LOL. I think there needs to be a scale that will only respond to you twice a week. I find myself arguing with my scale from time to time. We don't have a good relationship.

ISOPURE...from the Vitamin Shoppe...40 g of Protein, no carb, in 20 oz bottle. Slightly sweet tasting, but always did its job with me. Helped me with the pre-op diet a lot, and made clear liquid stage pretty tolerable. I use it to break out of stalls and it usually works!

I hope this is helpful for you. I had two straight therapists try to talk me out of my surgery, and you have to make sure this does not occur. You absolutely need to get the emotional eating addressed, but only go with a therapist that will support your underlying decision and work within those confines. If you end up changing your mind in the next six months, it should come from you and only you. Good luck.

I hope this is helpful for you. I had two straight therapists try to talk me out of my surgery, and you have to make sure this does not occur. You absolutely need to get the emotional eating addressed, but only go with a therapist that will support your underlying decision and work within those confines. If you end up changing your mind in the next six months, it should come from you and only you. Good luck.

Congratulations in advance!

No, you do not "need pizza". Your head is telling you it does, but it lies.
Do you want to know what would happen if you actually tried to indulge that craving right now? first, you would probably only get down a bite, maybe two. Then it would hurt, like crazy. And then it would come back up.
You did not do all the hard work you did to have surgery to let your head derail you now. You just had surgery. Your body needs rest, fluids, liquid nourishment (to avoid stressing your very swollen and healing tummy), and some walking.
Honest, it doesn't "need" anything else. More than likely your head is trying to sell you on all the foods you know you can't even try for a while. Time for your rational side to tell your fanciful side to stop distracting you.
You can do this. Really.

This has been a very philosophically oriented day on Bariatric Pal. A lot of people are posting about the meaning of lying and I will be painfully obvious and say, "you haven't lied unless you've said something that's not true." LOL. If you say you have done this through diet and exercise, you cannot call it lying, because that is absolutely necessary. This is why telling "the whole truth and nothing but the truth" is a hard thing to swear to on the stand because an infinite number of things are true, just like an infinite number of things are false, and therefore there are an infinite number of things that are true that you don't end up saying, even about a very particular matter. Back to you: there's nothing in your story that strikes me as a lie, so don't apply that label, especially seeing as it seems to bother you.

This has been a very philosophically oriented day on Bariatric Pal. A lot of people are posting about the meaning of lying and I will be painfully obvious and say, "you haven't lied unless you've said something that's not true." LOL. If you say you have done this through diet and exercise, you cannot call it lying, because that is absolutely necessary. This is why telling "the whole truth and nothing but the truth" is a hard thing to swear to on the stand because an infinite number of things are true, just like an infinite number of things are false, and therefore there are an infinite number of things that are true that you don't end up saying, even about a very particular matter. Back to you: there's nothing in your story that strikes me as a lie, so don't apply that label, especially seeing as it seems to bother you.

It isn't a lie unless you've said something that isn't true. Therefore, if you say you lost weight using diet and exercise, you are not lying, because that is required of both traditional losers and WLS patients. You just didn't mention that you had a little help.
A little kid once told me on a subway train that "you haven't lied unless you had an obligation to tell the truth." I was taken aback at his sophistication, and I assume he picked it up somewhere himself, and while that's not strictly true (if I told you I had a salad for lunch when in fact I had pizza, I still lied despite the fact that I had no obligation to tell you what I ate), it should inform much of our interpersonal conduct and communication related to this surgery.

Anything for a little more on the bottom line. Teenage girl sees jawdropper eating a Thickburger -> runs out after school and buys it -> extra $6 for the franchise -> extra money for the corporation in licensing fees. Maybe one day a clever enough regulator or lawyer or somebody will find a way to require a "bad" image for every "good" image seen on TV. I was pleasantly surprised enough when NYC and Philadelphia began requiring calorie counts in the same font size as the price on the menu above the counter. The only better thing would've been calorie counts posted in font as big as the inflated image of the burger.

Have you thought about Isopure? It's 40 g Protein in a 20 oz bottle. I swore by them well after clear liquid stage and they really just taste like iced tea. Get it at the Vitamin Shoppe. I'm pretty sure it's soy free, but it is whey protein. I don't know if that is contraindicated based on your medical history. As always, see your NUT and surgeon.

A lot of the language can seem very daunting, but 9 months out, let me tell you that my feelings are nothing but positive and I do not believe my life or my relationship with food is restricted or, as you say, "unnatural," in any way. No, I can't get the weekday large pizza special at Domino's and expect to get through much of it...any more than two slices in an hour, unless there were people with me. Yes, I barely know the word "appetizers" any more. And no, I don't consider Thanksgiving a competitive sport any longer. I'm fine with all of that. My brain had tricked me into thinking these were worthwhile endeavors, but I no longer think so, and I credit the sleeve to eradicating those mental cancers from which I suffered. That really does change forever. But at the same time, there isn't a food out there that I can't enjoy. 9 months out, I give very little thought to food, and I am settling into my desired general weight range, and hope to lose the rest in the next six months.
I think you also need to spend some time re-defining "natural" for yourself. What got us here in the first place wasn't the least bit natural. The food environment we live in hijacked our healthy brains and stomachs and made us think that huge heaps of fast food and refined carbs were the desirable norm. This is a return to normal, with some built in protections against a total backslide (which almost all of us presumably have experienced if we ever tried to lose weight "naturally" in the past). I feel like for the first time ever I have a very natural, amicable relationship with food, and one that gives us a fresh perspective on how horrible awry food and eating have gone in this country. Believe me, there are many societies on Earth today where a sleever would experience no restriction whatsoever...and that because that is the natural way of nourishing oneself.

Can't advise about the drugs, but I agree that people need to be more supportive, and should only have clicked here if they had a useful answer.
As to the booze, I had a drink at 4 months out and it went perfectly fine. I had been scared out of making that move, and perhaps if I tried earlier I would've been in some trouble, but I enjoy happy hour regularly nowadays and am very grateful for the sleeve for allowing me to do it the right way.

I have tried to eliminate everything associated with before surgery, and I have found that the people are more critical parts of the past than the foods. After all, I believe, in a certain way, food choices were influenced by circumstances of life, within a few key confines of availability and lifestyle. I am making sure to indulge in things I love, albeit with a very strong emphasis on things that have come to me since surgery, to be sure I am living in the present and not the past. I have met better people as well as better foods!

A lot of the language can seem very daunting, but 9 months out, let me tell you that my feelings are nothing but positive and I do not believe my life or my relationship with food is restricted or, as you say, "unnatural," in any way. No, I can't get the weekday large pizza special at Domino's and expect to get through much of it...any more than two slices in an hour, unless there were people with me. Yes, I barely know the word "appetizers" any more. And no, I don't consider Thanksgiving a competitive sport any longer. I'm fine with all of that. My brain had tricked me into thinking these were worthwhile endeavors, but I no longer think so, and I credit the sleeve to eradicating those mental cancers from which I suffered. That really does change forever. But at the same time, there isn't a food out there that I can't enjoy. 9 months out, I give very little thought to food, and I am settling into my desired general weight range, and hope to lose the rest in the next six months.
I think you also need to spend some time re-defining "natural" for yourself. What got us here in the first place wasn't the least bit natural. The food environment we live in hijacked our healthy brains and stomachs and made us think that huge heaps of fast food and refined carbs were the desirable norm. This is a return to normal, with some built in protections against a total backslide (which almost all of us presumably have experienced if we ever tried to lose weight "naturally" in the past). I feel like for the first time ever I have a very natural, amicable relationship with food, and one that gives us a fresh perspective on how horrible awry food and eating have gone in this country. Believe me, there are many societies on Earth today where a sleever would experience no restriction whatsoever...and that because that is the natural way of nourishing oneself.

This has been a very philosophically oriented day on Bariatric Pal. A lot of people are posting about the meaning of lying and I will be painfully obvious and say, "you haven't lied unless you've said something that's not true." LOL. If you say you have done this through diet and exercise, you cannot call it lying, because that is absolutely necessary. This is why telling "the whole truth and nothing but the truth" is a hard thing to swear to on the stand because an infinite number of things are true, just like an infinite number of things are false, and therefore there are an infinite number of things that are true that you don't end up saying, even about a very particular matter. Back to you: there's nothing in your story that strikes me as a lie, so don't apply that label, especially seeing as it seems to bother you.

A lot of the language can seem very daunting, but 9 months out, let me tell you that my feelings are nothing but positive and I do not believe my life or my relationship with food is restricted or, as you say, "unnatural," in any way. No, I can't get the weekday large pizza special at Domino's and expect to get through much of it...any more than two slices in an hour, unless there were people with me. Yes, I barely know the word "appetizers" any more. And no, I don't consider Thanksgiving a competitive sport any longer. I'm fine with all of that. My brain had tricked me into thinking these were worthwhile endeavors, but I no longer think so, and I credit the sleeve to eradicating those mental cancers from which I suffered. That really does change forever. But at the same time, there isn't a food out there that I can't enjoy. 9 months out, I give very little thought to food, and I am settling into my desired general weight range, and hope to lose the rest in the next six months.
I think you also need to spend some time re-defining "natural" for yourself. What got us here in the first place wasn't the least bit natural. The food environment we live in hijacked our healthy brains and stomachs and made us think that huge heaps of fast food and refined carbs were the desirable norm. This is a return to normal, with some built in protections against a total backslide (which almost all of us presumably have experienced if we ever tried to lose weight "naturally" in the past). I feel like for the first time ever I have a very natural, amicable relationship with food, and one that gives us a fresh perspective on how horrible awry food and eating have gone in this country. Believe me, there are many societies on Earth today where a sleever would experience no restriction whatsoever...and that because that is the natural way of nourishing oneself.

Starting the shakes again, as though you were in clear liquid phase, have worked wonders to break stalls, even without a single other change. But to really keep it going, the other changes still need to be made, i.e., to get over the hump. I have four family visits, three reunions, two weddings, and a partridge in a pear tree that I would like to be in peak appearance for this summer, and I am planning on doing a "reboot" with the shakes and other liquids. These are people that have not seen me since anymore than about a month after surgery, and some who have not seen me since I was at my heaviest.