Dar61

I started out wearing size 36 - I still have one pair of pants in that size. I used to put them on about once a week and run to the mirror just to see. Wearing size 16/18 these days, which isn't really all that small but I can buy clothes in a regular store now - big milestone for me. Nothing fits for long. Funny part is that my feet even shrunk. Isn't it kind of awesome to always have wardrobe issues because your clothes are just too big?

I actually bought a pair of pants two sizes too small in May. Because and this was a BIG because, I was able to get them on and my sister (who does NOT know and will not know if I can help it) said that I shouldn't get them, they don't fit. Guess what, now THEY FIT!
I've had to give away some of my favorite clothes because my daughter told me I looked like I had a floppy diaper on under them. Yep, loving my sleeve!

I have learned this lesson the hard way but I will say it took me a while and some money!
I now wait until my current size is slightly lose and then I buy pants one size down. They are very tight but I know when I drop 10 pounds they will fit me great.
Last week I was shocked when I went to try on a new packer sideline jacket. All the stuff I got in January I am swimming in including a brand New Jersey.
Ugh! Anyway, I figured I would need a large instead of an xl. I tried on the large, too big. I tried on the medium thinking it would be too small.
It fit perfect! Part of me was thinking maybe I should be thinking about a small but just could not get my head around that.
Same thing with Victoria's Secret yoga pants. I bought extra large because there is no way, I also bought larges. The xl are too big and the large is even slightly baggy.
I returned them both and ordered a medium.
By the way, I started in a 26 for tops and a 24 for bottoms. Wow! I am now in a 12 comfortably.

Sorry, couldn't get photo to load before.  

I am down 60 pounds as of today. Some days I eat more than others. Some days I have to remind myself to eat. Very strange but I make sure to get my Vitamins and eat Protein first. Lots of Water too.

Conscience, schmonscience!
I think you're doing great. I say the bigger, the better. You could even add these:
1. They discovered I have a tapeworm, and it's so big they have to operate to get it all out.
2. Now, they've discovered that the big tapeworm has had baby tapeworms, and they have to do even more complicated surgery to remove the baby tapeworms. It's becoming very dangerous!
3. Turns out it's not tapeworms, after all. It's Amazonian leeches that have attached themselves to the inside of my intestinal walls. We have NO idea how they got in there. It's possible they crawled into my mouth while I was asleep on a Caribbean beach last fall when hubby and I were on that cruise. But it's bad!
4. I just had a pre-op endoscopy, and now it seems that I've also swallowed some car keys--three of them, the electronic kind. And none of them are a match to our cars. My husband thinks this could also have happened on that cruise. One night I didn't get back to our cabin until 5:00 am and don't remember a damn thing after the baked Alaska. Hubby won't stop teasing me about it. I'm pretty pissed.
5. Hubby bought me a beautiful new ring for my birthday and also as an apology for teasing me so much about the car keys in my stomach. Trouble is that he hid it in a piece of birthday cake, and I swallowed the ring! And it hasn't come out the other end yet! The doctors are worried that it's been swallowed by one of the Amazonian leeches. So we're adding that to the list of things they're going to remove during gastrointestinal surgery.
See ... you could get much more creative about all this.
Have fun!

First time in 100's since 25 years ago. Feeling proud. Down 109 lbs now since November

My advice is develop a habit of eating healthy replacement foods. Want ice cream? Eat a sugar free Popsicle. Need a snack? Have beef or turkey Jerky, or a beef stick or string cheese.
For a bread substitute I eat low carb tortillias. About 3 carbs per, 10+ Fiber and they taste great. Just had a 4 oz tuna salad wrap and I loved it.

I also have BED and in the first 30 days I binged twice but I managed to do it on 40 calorie fudge pops so my total calorie count for the day still wasn't off the chart. This will be a forever struggle and relapse is part of recovery. I am one of those people who tracks EVERYTHING so that even if I go off the rails I know what I did. Usually it's not as bad as my imagination makes it out to be so tracking helps me. Two donuts is what? 600 calories. Let it go and move past it. Don't let it define you. I'm just glad I can't eat a large pizza in one sitting anymore. The surgery will help so much!
I know I will never binge like I used to and that makes me feel great. One day at a time.

I couldnt get 800 calories at 3 weeks I was just getting about 600 at that time. it took me till about 6 weeks to consistently get 800 calories and I'm at 9 weeks now and still just barely get 800 calories daily. sometimes a little more. yea there's nothing wrong with the 800 per day at 3 weeks (I would actually say its a little high).
but yea, 400 calories for a shake is too much. 1 shake is almost a half day's calories. if you do a second, your pretty much done for the day. To me, it seems like that thing where people say "I just had bite of cake". a bite turns into 2 bites, turns into a slice, turns into a bigger slice and before you know it, you're eating just like you were before.

Per my surgeon my goal at 4 months post op with exercise is to get to 900 calories per day. Per my nutritionist, same office, she is not a fan of subtracting Fiber for net carbs so I don't.
I am exactly where I need to be. As I said, for me, I don't want a 400 calorie shake. I drink one I make ever morning and it is only 175 calories. You quoted 50 g of Protein and it doesn't add up, also the body cannot absorb more than 30g at a time.
Just be careful what you quote as fact here as some don't do the research and will just eat/drink what someone says. We have a responsibility to be accurate as well as supportive.
You are always entitled to your opinion but when you posted your "shake", include the macros up front.

3/4 cup ice cream- 120 calories Protein 2g carbs 13g
1 cup Fairlife milk- 120 calories Protein 13g carbs 6g
2 scoops publix organic vanilla whey protein powder- 160 calories protein 16g carbs 3g
total- 400 calories!! protein 31g and carbs 22g
That is unfortunately way too high for me. That is half my days calories and not enough nutritional value.

Congratulations! You are doing great.

P3's are my go-to snacks!! Love them. Good sources of protein!

@@wannaBthinsoon
I am also a big fan of P3 snacks! They are made by Oscar Meyer and consist of a small amount of meat, cheese, and nuts. I carry with me to work all of the time.

Wonderful advise,so glad to hear about your success!

I agree.. The scale is soo important.
Guestimations can be really off and if you stick to never eating more than 4 oz of food all together then you should never be in a situation where you stretch your sleeve.

Today I am 2 months and 5 days post op, I was sleeved on June 10th, I posted to my friends on FB last night that I have officially lost 10 waist sizes, and 85lbs since January, I couldn't go to the gym today because my wife needed help with the minions while she worked on her finals, so I had to go change the oil in my car this Morning, I pulled out a pair of camo cargos that I had purchased 7 yrs ago on my last diet, they are size 50w, I was a 60w, by next month I hope to be posting some pics since I can finally get some new scrubs for work, I was still proud of how far I have come so far, except for the 6x shirt I had to wear, I'm probably a 3x now, but it's all good, just canna stay focused and keep meeting my milestones.......

I HAVE LOST ABOUT THE SAME AMOUNT AS YOU. I FEEL THE SAME WAY. SOME DAYS I FEEL THIN ETC BUT MOST OF THE TIME I FEEL LIKE I DON'T REALLY LOOK MUCH DIFFERENT (THOUGH DEEP DOWN I KNOW THAT I REALLY DO BASED ON REACTIONS FROM OTHERS ETC). I THINK IT WILL GET BETTER WITH TIME. I'VE EVEN HAD PEOPLE TELL ME I DON'T NEED TO LOSE MORE ETC (DON'T KNOW I HAD VSG) BUT I JUST CAN'T FATHOM THAT SINCE I STILL DON'T FEEL NORMAL SIZE YET. I STILL WEIGH 207. BUT ALL IN ALL SINCE 2013 I'VE LOST OVER 100 POUNDS TOTAL SO I SHOULD FEEL WAAAAAY SMALLER THAN I DO. BUT I AM SO SO THANKFUL FOR THIS JOURNEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! DEFLATED BOOBS AND ALL...

I lost all my weight and then some so the "norm" is not always the case. I followed the rules to get to goal quickly and wanted to worry about maintenance when I got there. I've been easily maintaining my current for over 6 months with the sleeve.

I'm only 3 months out and my surgeon said the same, but if you look here a lot of people lost their excess weight and more! That is what the average person loses but I'm hoping to lose most of my excess by going to the gym and working my sleeve to the max. I lost more than half of what i want to lose now(about 60% of my excess), so I'm quite confident that I'll lose more, and I'm even thinking now that I don't wa\nt to lose that much more cause i think I'll be too skinny. So i guess it depends mostly on us and the way we work our sleeve and not so much on the statistics

I got in 70 grams a day and 10 glasses of Water on average from the beginning. Nowadays I get in around 60-80 grams of Protein and 8 glasses of liquid.< /p>

It's been two years now since my sleeve, and it's the best choice I ever made. My weight is stable +/-10 pounds or so, and it's relatively easy to take off weight that creeps up.
I can eat pretty much all kinds of foods now. I still eat relatively small amounts, eat slowly and with small bites. I don't drink with my meals except a small sip now and then. I focus on low carb and high Protein meals. I eat plenty of fats. I still eat my Protein first at every meal. I try to stay away from carbs, particularly refined carbs like breads, sugar, honey, rice, potatoes, corn, etc. I don't mean I never eat those things, but I try to limit it or I start to gain.
How much can I eat? I can eat 5-6 ounces of meat and a 1/2 cup of vegetables at a meal. Sometimes I can eat more. I can eat a fair amount of salad, as lettuce doesn't seem to take up much room.
I walk for exercise, take the stairs, and use a standing desk at work. This keeps my metabolism working better. I hate working out or gym classes. I still drink a lot of fluids and if I don't I get dehydrated very easily. I do drink alcohol, but I try to stay away from sugary cocktails with lots of fruit juice or sweet mixers.
The first six months are the hardest. The next six months are difficult, but so much easier than the first. The second year things get much easier, but this is also a danger zone for a lot of people, I think. You must always be aware of what you eat. That said, it is easy to stay on track if you follow your rules:
Eat your protein first Eat your vegetables second, and eat a good variety of them Enjoy fruit but limit it Avoid starches and sugars as much as possible (potatoes, rice, corn, bread, tortillas, Cereal, pasta) and save them for special occasions. pizza is my downfall. Keep up with your Water, Vitamins, and tests to insure you are not deficient When you want to drop some weight, do 3 days of Protein shakes. That will reset your sleeve. Then eat high protein/low carb until your excess is off. Once you are back at goal, slowly reintroduce foods back in and try to minimize those carbs to stay at goal.
I'm happy to answer questions. Good luck to you all.

I had VS surgery almost one year ago on Aug 4, 2014. It's been quite a ride and I've fallen off the wagon more times than I'd like to admit, but I wouldn't go back for anything! I'm 5'8" and weighed 265 at my highest. Today I weigh 178. I still have 10-15lbs to go-- by far the hardest pounds to lose! Here are my before/after pics.

Mine was an inspirtation. A friend of mine (and past diet buddy) ran the NY Marathon. She had been around the same weight as I was and had bypass surgery about four years ago. I had always marveled at her weight loss, and even met with her several times to discuss the surgery. I kept thinking I would try to do it on my own, rather than undergo something so drastic. Well now, here I was at my highest weight ever, feeling tired, disgusting and miserable, and there she was running a MARATHON!! That was when I decided I had put my life on hold long enough and immediately started steps to get the surgery. It took me nine months from that decision to the actual proceedure, but now I am finally on my way to being a happy healthy person like she is. I do not really see the NY marathon in my future (I hate to run and always have, even when I was thin) but who knows. Either way, I know now that the future now looks bright for me and I will have my own "marathon" moments as a new, healthier, lighter me!