VDLT

Thank you so much for the information, you are always so helpful. It makes sense to keep with the shakes for now, specially since my weight loss has diminished to a crawl.
I will check into bars in maintenance though, hopefully this year! LOL

I hate to sabotage @@betterme38 's "self sabotage" thread.
But to answer your question, I was pretty strict. But not perfect. Probably did 95% of what I intended to do every day.
Here's a post I made on my first surgiversary, which I posted on another message board:
* * *
A year ago yesterday I was sleeved at age 68. I knew I had the energy for one last shot at getting healthy. Like so many of us, controlling my weight was the one thing in my life I’d been unable to manage. Failing at that was a tremendous embarrassment and disappointment to me, not to mention the cause of mounting medical comorbidities that had almost sidelined me from life.

A year ago I’d already been on this forum for 9 months. I could not WAIT to get my WLS show on the road. I’d already lost almost 20 pounds on a 2-month 1,400 calorie diet of my own and, later, my surgeon’s 14-day pre-op diet. I’d been practicing for months the behaviors I’d learned here—eating slower, chewing more, no more soda, a lot less coffee, no NSAIDs (ouch!), walking more (yea, Fitbit!), and my favorite tool of all—planning meals and tracking my food and drink onwww.myfitnesspal.com.

Fast-forward to yesterday morning, my first surgiversary. I weighed in at 143 pounds. I feel great, physically and mentally. I look so much younger (I’ll be 70 years old in December). And I truly feel like I’ve been reborn.

The New, Temporary Avatar

I’m on the down-low about having had WLS. Basically, only hubby and two friends know about this. But so many online VSG friends want to know what I look like, so enjoy my new avatar while it’s up. It’s coming down soon. Tough titty.

BTW, I’ll put up a full-body shot of me later. Again, tough titty. But this morning I didn’t have on “the right outfit” to show off my skinny ass. And hubby’s not here right now to take a good photo of me.

How I Lost the Weight

I was lucky—had no complications, had a great surgeon and team, healed well and recovered fast, and have had more non-scale victories (NSVs) than you could shake a stick at. I’m full of gratitude and amazement at all of WLS’s benefits for me.

Below is a list of things I did (mostly pretty well) that led to my success. As always, your mileage may vary. This was my experience. Yours will be yours.

• Ate the minimum amount of protein—at least 60 grams to start with (hit that target on Day Five post-op)
• Ate Protein first at every meal
• Drank 8 glasses of Water daily (or at the very least 8 glasses of liquids daily)
Protip #1: Dehydration slows weight loss and makes you feel like crap.
Protip #2: Our kidneys work overtime when we’re losing weight rapidly and need lots of Water to function well.
Protip #3: You can actually die from dehydration. • As healing happened and restriction eased, added healthy (colored) veggies, then non-starchy fruits, then whole grains
• Took my vitamins/minerals and Rxs daily and on schedule
• Ate 3 meals a day
• Chewed my food well and ate more slowly
• Didn’t drink 15 minutes before or 30 minutes after a meal
• When I got hungry (not bored), I added one or two Snacks of healthy food
• Didn’t graze between meals (note that “a snack” and “grazing” are different things)
• Avoided / minimized highly processed, high-carb foods and slider foods like potatoes, white rice, white breads, crackers, Cookies, chips, ice cream
Protip: These foods slow weight loss and, for some people, trigger binge eating. • Moved more than I used to move and gradually kept moving even more
• Followed the Number One Exercise Rule for Old People: Don’t injure yourself!
• Got some sunshine daily, which kept me full of happy thoughts and Vitamin D
• Tried to sleep 8 hours a night
• Minimized stress—for me, this meant I stopped sweating the small stuff and learned that most stuff really is small stuff
• Am seeing a shrink, even though I’m not crazy, to understand better why I couldn’t or didn’t care for my health better prior to WLS and to learn how to do better in the future (as the saying goes, they operate on your stomach, not your head).

Unsolicited Advice:

I’ve been at or below goal for 4 months now. Here are some things I learned while losing weight and during maintenance (at which I’m still a newbie). Some of these things have surprised me. And as always, your mileage may vary.

• Don’t feel pressured into telling the world you’re having WLS. Do what is best for you. Just know that “telling a few people” may not be the best way to keep your WLS private. There are a lot of mouthy people out there.

• Don’t overeat, but don’t starve yourself either. As your healing continues, eat more healthy food and raise your calories gradually. Otherwise, you may wind up reaching your weight goal but only able to maintain it eating 1,000 calories/day. Ugh! At 143 pounds, my daily maintenance calorie budget is 1,700 calories/day. I am over the moon about that. I think it’s because I didn’t starve myself while I was losing weight. I ate 800 calories during Months 1-4, 1,000 calories during Months 5-6, and 1,200 calories during Months 7-8. As my calories went up, so did my Protein grams. I still aim for 100 grams of protein daily.

• Post-op, don’t just eat to lose weight—also eat to become healthier. Learn more about nutrition—macronutrients, trace elements, Vitamin and mineral supplements. Read articles and good research. As smart as I thought I was, turns out I didn’t know nearly as much as I needed to know to care well for myself.

• If you’re craving sugar, you’re probably already eating sugar. The only way I know to kill those cravings is to cold-turkey the sugar.

• Don’t let anyone pressure you into having WLS. This is a life-changing deal. A year down the road you’ll probably be able to eat pretty much anything you want, although not in massive quantities at one time. And you’ll need to always be vigilant about your nutrition, meal-planning, eating behaviors, etc.

• WLS won’t prevent binge-eating or emotional eating. It will discourage it, but it won’t prevent it. There are plenty of WLS patients who’ve learned to eat and drink around their tools. I personally know folks who’ve wasted their sleeve, bypass or band with (sigh) sweet tea, Mountain Dew, beer, Wheat Thins, ice cream, chips and dips. What those drinks and foods all have in common, other than being high-calorie and lacking in nutrition, is that the sleeve cannot challenge them. They move rapidly through the sleeve and into the small intestine. You can eat that crap all day long and never start to feel full. Remember, it’s a shame to waste a sleeve.

Very, very best wishes to everyone out there considering a VSG or other form of WLS. You can change your life with WLS if you use your tool well. But you must understand it’s only one tool in a bigger healthcare arsenal that you must acquire and use daily.

Thang ya. Thang ya verra mudge.

Dance dance dance! So good for us.

I have been doing tribal belly dance for a few years and love it. Mostly improv. It is challenging but fun. I love that women of all sizes do tribal style

When I told my GP I was considering WLS, he gave me the name of the surgeon at the bariatric clinic at Loyola University Medical Center Hospital.
Get a copy of your medical records. Call a hospital that has a bariatric program and ask them if they could recommend a GP who is supportive of WLS.

1) your nut is an idiot by setting too high of expectations. I was down 17 pounds at 2 1/2 months and I never considered myself a slow loser.
2) drink more Water. You should shoot for 64 oz but more is better....I get closer to 100oz most days.
3)as for loriemoms nut saying shakes are artificial Protein, she, too, is an idiot. whey Protein is simply the liquid portion of milk that settles to the top during the cheese making process....just like what settles out of yogurt or cottage cheese. There's nothing artificial about it. In fact, it is the number one, fastest, best absorbed form of protein available. Better than meat, eggs, tofu, fish, etc.
GENEPRO, however IS artificial. It is a chemically modified molecule that started out as protein but no longer is. The company is a quack and cannot provide any amino acid profile for their product and has absolutely no science based studies supporting their claims or even show if our bodies can absorb it. Anyone with a basic understanding of biochemistry can look at their product and see it's not really protein.
Good luck, you are doing great!

Weight 2/22/16 is 156.5. Goal weight 152. Thanks so much!

@@dapplepie26 ... lol ....
I was also 206 on surgery day. During Month 1 pre-op I lost 10.4 pounds.
Congratulations. You're already ahead of where I was.
BTW, I now weigh 135 pounds.

I am also 5 feet tall and weighed 195 on surgery day. I have lost 39 pounds since my surgery day on October 1st. I would like to lose 21 more but will see where my body settles. Stalls will happen, I have had a few, and I am now averaging close to one pound a week but some weeks are less than that. I am thrilled with these results.

I take these and I actually like them. the Advanced Multi EA.
https://www1.bariatricadvantage.com/catalog/us-en/1/Multivitamins
And I have a Protein shake every single morning. I take my thyroid medication with 3 glasses of Water because I have to wait an hour to have anything else then drink a Protein Shake. I then take my Vitamins before or after lunch depending if I am working from home or office. Check the values on these versus what you are taking to see if they are comparable. I also take a Vitamin D gummie and a sublingual B12.< /p>

My sleeve surgery was April 15th last year but I went to Mexico for the first time last February when I was at my highest weight and I wasn't even looking forward to my trip. Fast forward to this February and I'm down 96 pounds and super excited for Mexico in less than 2 weeks!Last years swimsuit - size 20. This years swimsuit just a plain old size large!!!!
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I'm officially 6 months post op today and I have never felt better !!
Now, I will discuss the good, the bad and the ugly.
There are just so many positive things that have come from this surgery.
The good:
1. I am off all medication
2. I no longer need a CPAP
3. My knees feel so much better
4. I have energy out the Wazoozoo
5. My self confidence has sky rocketed
6. I can fit in an airplane seat with no issues ( Going to Jamaica in May)
7. I can stand and walk for hours without even thinking about pain or fatigue
8. My family relationships are even better
9. The stylish clothes I can wear
10.I hopefully saved myself from an early death due to obesity
The bad:
NOTHING
The ugly:
Constipation
I am down 104 lbs so far. I should weigh 141 lbs at the most, to be in a normal BMI range. That means 79 more pounds to go. Wish me luck !!!!

Quite honestly, this question comes up all the time and in the end it is always the same answer.
It's up to you.
If you make the change for the rest of your life to eat clean, get out and move and become active, and take full advantage of this tool; then you will not gain your weight back.
If you want it to be a magic trick or miracle pill that makes you skinny and you can eat junk like we do now (or used to) and make no change to your life... then yes, you will gain the weight back.
Now if you fall into the latter category, I don't think you will get much sympathy from anyone. Here or in real life. If you fall into the first category, you will gain self respect and confidence and that will carry over to all aspects of you life. Professional relationships and personal will only be able to improve. The people who are toxic in your life will show their colors quickly, but you will be able to finally brush them off and focus on the ones who are there for your benefit.
This surgery is a life changing event that can have incredible results. If you are brave enough to commit to it that is.

OK a couple if things. First, omeprazole isn't a Vitamin. That is an acid reducer. That one shouldn't make you sick but if you feel it does, take it right before you go to bed that way you will sleep thru the nausea. Second, Biotin dies not prevent your hair from falling out, it just helps regrowth. There is a lot if speculation on whether it truly works or not. If that ones makes you sick, just skip it for now. Third, check your Multivitamin to see how much Iron is in it. There may be sufficient Iron in it for you not to have to take the separate supplement. And lastly and most importantly, you HAVE to get your Protein up. At 3 months post-op, you should be getting a minimum of 60g (and possibly more). You indicate "you think" which means you are not logging your food. You need to do that at least for a while until you are sure you are getting the tight nutrients. And PS insufficient Protein is likely why you are losing so much hair.
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The best things I've found are chewable and sub lingual Vitamins. I have a hard time swallowing pills after surgery and would throw them right back up until I started doing chewables. I started to have Hair loss too, I started taking Biotin and my hair is feeling extremely healthy and is no longer falling out. Best of luck to you!

Some of you may remember that just 2 weeks after my sleeve surgery, my son was shockingly diagnosed with Stage IV Rectal Cancer with metastasis to his liver (5 liver tumors). My world shattered. I didn't eat. Didn't drink. Barely got out of bed and wasn't functioning in any normal capacity. I was just at the point where I was trying to learn how to be healthy with my new body and failed every single day. I received so many words of encouragement from this community, so much support and so many helpful suggestions/tips. And even when I'd sink in my chair, something someone said would remind me of what I needed to do - because I was no help to him if I couldn't help myself.
Jason's first liver surgery was last Monday. They removed 2 very invasive tumors from one lobe that were much deeper than the scans portrayed. Next month, three more liver tumors will be removed. The chemo has caused abscesses that resulted in his hospitalization for days at a time. It's caused mouth sores that make it impossible for him to eat. It's caused intolerability to the cold. And we're in the Northeast - where we've had a blizzard and too many other storms. Yet he continues to smile every day and encourage others who are fighting this awful battle to never give up.
Last week, while I stayed at the hospital with him, I brought my Protein Shakes. I reminded him to drink his Water and I did the same. I walked with him around the unit. I ordered eggs for Breakfast and chicken for lunch/dinner. I had chili for a snack. I felt like I was finally getting it. And was able to share my recovery and food tips with him.
And today, this happened, and the sparkle in my eye that has been absent and the smile on my face that left in November reappeared. (sorry the pic is upside down... )

I started a tattoo on my shoulder in honor of my daddy who passed away. I want to finish the tattoo with a half sleeve but have been entirely too self-conscious to do so at my current size. Along with that self-conscious mind set, I have wanted to get my hair cut SHORT in a pixie style. I searched for ideas last night and am beside myself with anticipation/excitement. I've always used my hair as a camouflage so I'm ready to chop her off and rock a more sassy style!

This reminds me that I need to figure out what weight milestone I want to hit before I get a new passport. I had one years ago, never used it, and never renewed it. I just talked to a good friend who is planning a destination wedding in the fall. I MAY be able to travel comfortably by then so I want to be prepared.

The first thing that I'm doing its going to my country Dominican Republic and show my family the new me! Jajajajja.

Banded in 2001 and did well with weight loss for a while. A series of fills and unfills caused severe shoulder pain, esophagitis, gastritis, and a hiatal hernia. I was miserable for such a long time. Went through a complete unfill in 2012 and regained all my weight. Converted to sleeve in October of 2015 after 14 years with the band and could not be happier. I have in these 4+ months lost what took me almost a year with the band and am more confident that I will reach the goal I never did with the band now that I have my sleeve. My hiatal hernia was repaired when I converted so my reflux and heartburn also resolved.

2/15 weigh in 156.5
Didn't make my goal but happy with the results! Will be joining the next one...

I never EVER thought that would be a statement I would make ...
Never used to care about what I wore ... as long as it was bigger than me and hid me completely ...
But now ...
I actually LIKE clothes and FIT properly ... and it's ok to show off the new curves!
I put on a shirt this morning and to me it looked big and sloppy ...
I asked the Hubster what he thought ...
He said it was too big and didn't show off my figure like the other shirts I've been wearing ....
He said take put it in the give a way pile !
Wahooo !!
Gotta love that start to your day!!!

I am also 5 feet tall and weighed 195 on surgery day. I have lost 39 pounds since my surgery day on October 1st. I would like to lose 21 more but will see where my body settles. Stalls will happen, I have had a few, and I am now averaging close to one pound a week but some weeks are less than that. I am thrilled with these results.

@@Tootsietoes how far out are you?

@@sam1016 keep trying and know it is a lot easier to do the right thing after surgery because you are not as hungry, it helps tremendously

Please let us know if you need anything. My husband leaving me was one of the hardest things that ever happened to me. I'm happier on the other end; no one wants to spend their life trying to make someone love them (especially when the real problem is that the person doesn't love themselves.)
My parting thoughts?
1-You will survive this.
2-Don't fight for him; I beg you. Please. I've been there. Let him go.
3-Cry a bunch and kick things. Let him go.
4-Don't do the surgery to show him how much you don't need him or to make him sorry for leaving you. The surgery won't fix him. Do it for you and you only.
5-Let him go.
❤️ We're here for you!
-Julianna