Rdsegobia

While I'm getting ready in the morning I get a glass of Water and drink it. This is every day and I get 12-15 oz of Water extra by doing this. At the beginning I only had the water, now that I'm almost 5 months I add a tablespoon of chia seeds and 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed (this helps with any constipation) plus I get the Omega. But my point is to drink water as soon as you wake up and it will become a habit.

1) my sleeve, of course. It does its job of providing restriction as long as I do my job of feeding it healthy, non slider foods.
2) kitchen scale. For the first 3 years I weighed, measured and tracked everything. This kept me accountable and on track. Lost all my excess weight and was easily maintaining. Then one day I was in the kitchen, preparing lunch for myself and my husband and my food scale wasn't working. I was talking about having to run right out and get a new one and my husband casually commented that if I don't know what 3ounces of tuna fish and 2 ounces of veggies looks like by now I have a serious learning disability. I laughed...he was right. I had been eating right for so long I really did know how to do it, so since then, no measuring and no tracking. I just eat like I had retrained myself to eat.
3) Water container. I never go anywhere without something to drink. It's kind of an obsession. I drink when I drive, in the grocery store, at home on the couch, when visiting friends, at the movies, while working, etc.
4) activity. I live and work on a farm so my regular day to day chores are as good of a workout as any gym. I also walk as much as possible....Park the furthest away in the parking lots, take stairs instead if elevators, etc.
5) But the number one key to my success is my therapist. I wouldn't be where I am without her. Saw her regularly for over 2 years then kind of stopped. Revisited with her after a bad accident left me in the hospital then wheelchair and Walker for several months. I no longer have regular appointments, but she is my go to when things get tough and I need a refresher course on handling stress and emotions.

PS. I reread my answer and realized I forgot to post the obvious answer....eating a healthy, bariatric friendly diet. 80+ grams Protein, lots of low glycemic veggies, some fruits and whole grains. Minimizing (but not completely eliminating) high cal/low nutritive stuff like Pasta and bread and simple carbs like Desserts, candy and alcohol. Those last three are for my mental health, not my physical health
In the end, how you eat to lose your weight is more or less how you need to eat in order to maintain. This commitment is forever, folks!

One thing that I think a lot of people skip when they lose a lot of weight is, they don't ever hit the weights. They just do cardio. What burns calories all day long is your muscle mass, and you lose a ton of it due to the extreme calorie restriction of WLS. The good news is, if you were obese, at one point your body carried a LOT of muscle...and the muscle has a memory of being that size, so it's easier to build it back up.
I'd suggest to anyone who hasn't, and wants help maintaining their fat burning ability, to get involved with weight training and building muscle. Ladies, you aren't going to get "bulky" - trust me. But if you put on some lean muscle, you are going to find that you tone up, and you lose fat as your body composition changes. The muscle burns the fat. I would especially suggest working on compound lifts like squats and deadlifts. Check out Stronglifts 5x5 which is a great beginner strength training routine, with a cell phone app.
Remember...it's not all about the number on the scale, it's also about your body composition.

Don't listen to negative people. Do what is right for you! Take this time to prepare yourself mentally and if you feel in your heart that you are ready for the change then just do it! The only thing I regret is not doing sooner. Good luck to you.

Don't listen to negative people. Do what is right for you! Take this time to prepare yourself mentally and if you feel in your heart that you are ready for the change then just do it! The only thing I regret is not doing sooner. Good luck to you.

Don't listen to negative people. Do what is right for you! Take this time to prepare yourself mentally and if you feel in your heart that you are ready for the change then just do it! The only thing I regret is not doing sooner. Good luck to you.

Gosh I love these!!! So today is my 10 month post op surgiversary. I'm down 142 lbs so far and feel so much better. But these pics make rainbows and glitter shoot from my heart!!! Loving how I'm starting to look. My skin is an issue but it will not take my happiness from me. I've come a hell of a long way and I'm damn proud of myself. Please post all your pics, I love seeing all you beautiful people!!!!!

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Congratulations! You guys look amazing.

Congratulations! You guys look amazing.

Congratulations! You guys look amazing.

Congratulations! You guys look amazing.

I can't believe I'm coming up on 3 years post op in just a couple of months! Time flies! I just wanted to share some "non-scale victories" as I have more of those these days as the numbers get smaller. I'm not where I would love to be ideally. I have loose skin that I've come to terms with, and another 15 or so pounds to lose, but my husband and I recently went to Mexico for a vacation that I have been planning for what feels like forever and it was just crazy to me what a different experience it was for me to go 140 pounds lighter. I did things I never would have done like snorkeling, paddle boarding in front of strangers, Water zumba, etc. I got rid of all of those bathing suits with the skirts that I hated wearing so much & walked around in a bikini all week without feeling terribly self-conscious. I broke out of my comfort zone for sure, and had the most amazing time. I finally just felt "normal".... Just another experience to cross off my post-surgery bucket list.
Here are a couple of sneak-peeks, but I posted my full "Top-10" list with a bunch more photos here if you are interested!
http://themeiamnow.blogspot.com/

I'm going to have to try this Water. I wonder if my convenience store has this.
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Congratulations
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I would like to start posting more on the food I eat now at 9 months out. This is what I had yesterday:
5:10am 1/2 banana and 1 tablespoon Peanut Butter
6:30am coffee with Splenda and fair life milk (this is the reason I couldn't keep dr Weiner diet) I really need my coffee and it needs to be with Splenda and milk.
9:00 3 egg whites with turkey sausage, veggies, and cheese
11:30am premier chocolate Protein shake and 1 cup of veggies
2:00pm coffee again and nuts
5:30pm 1 cup of fage Greek yogurt 0% with a crystal light packet.
7:00pm watermelon and some more nuts
I haven't been tracking my food in my fitness pal! I guess I need to. My weight is still at 169-170. I bumped up my exercise a lot more this past week and have every intention on keeping up with exercise. What I found out that is much easier if I do the exercise in the morning - get it out if the way as early as possible .
So far within the past 8 days I have done 4 boot camp classes and one Zumba and walked on the treadmill 2 times for 45min. I hope I start seeing the scale move, however I will be happy as long as I feel good and see that my clothes fit better!
Hope everyone have a great day!

Below is the gist of what I posted on my first year surgiversary. I'm now 20.5 months post-op, have lost 100 pounds and am now maintaining happily and easily at 135 pounds.
Very best to you!
Ann
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 WLS forums 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 on www.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.

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 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. I'm on the down-low about WLS; other than my medical team, only my hubby and two good friends (who don't live anywhere near me) know about my WLS.

• 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.

I was craving a slurpee so I stopped at 7-eleven to buy a small one, but to my disappointment they did not had any sugar free.
However I found this drink that I actually liked and calories are really low plus 7 grams of Protein and 0 on sugars and carbs! Thought I should share it.

July 2 will mark 4 years since I've had surgery. Here are some before and after pics     
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This is where we do the boot camp and sumba classes, ohh and did I mention that it doesn't have any AC!!

September 11, 2002 I had gastric bypass. It was the best decision I ever made. I weighed 300 pounds and wore 26/28 size pants and 3x shirts. It took me a little over a year to lose 165 pounds. I've have been successful keeping it off but it is a daily struggle. I continue to watch my weight and exercise. I've only had excess skin removed from my thighs. No other skin surgeries.  
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Today I got a new badge from work and wow what a difference from last year picture. This just motivates me more to keep on working my sleeve and focus on eating healthy!!

Still making it! Swelling isn't as bad now, scar is thin and hidden well! I bought a new pair of Levi's (at my goodwill) and some tops. No muffin top! It's weird but wonderful!!! Myself and a few of the other girls have a hay day on FB together posting outfits ect... If you're not creepy and want to be FB friends you can inbox me for my info. We don't talk about our surgeries. We just have fun!

Hey guys I was looking at my pictures from last March when I weighed 355 lbs vs yesterday when I weighed myself and saw that I was 225 lbs. Crazy!
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