PorkChopExpress

Congratulations! You are on your way

I just came from my 1 week post-op appointment. All is good. Down to 266 lbs (on Drs scale). I was able to start mushy food today and enjoyed a little bowl of scrambled eggs for Breakfast. After 3 weeks of liquids - the eggs were exceptional! We went grocery shopping after the Drs and just walking through the store wiped me out. Going to try some refried Beans in a little bit. I am doing great with fluids - not so great with Protein. Ordering some GENEPRO to help with meeting Protein goals.
Hope all the October Sleevers are doing well!

I didn't cheat at all. In fact I took the sample diet my nutritionist gave me and that's basically what I ate every day for two weeks. I took a lot of pride in not having screwed up, that two weeks...and the scales the morning of surgery made it worthwhile, when I saw I'd dropped over 30lbs before surgery.

It's not real hunger, it's "head hunger." The very fact that you are indulging things that you SHOULD NOT BE INDULGING tells me that your head isn't in the right place, right now. It's normal to be a little obsessive about food the first couple weeks after surgery, your brain has a hard time letting go of its old behaviors. But instead of embracing that change and letting go, you're letting your brain dominate you again. If you continue to do that, you are not going to be successful long-term. The internet is littered with stories of people who did this and regained all of their weight, because they were not committed to change, ignored their surgeon's instructions, did what they wanted and gained it all right back. Sure, the surgery will force you to lose for a while...but it won't stop you from regaining it, if you're motivated.
11 pounds in a week and a half is excellent weight loss, so when you say you think it should be more, it tells me you don't really know how much of a calorie deficit you're running, how many calories your body needs to stay its current weight, and how many pounds you SHOULD be losing, given your calorie deficit. These are all important things to know, and these are knowledge and skills you will need to acquire if you are to be a success.
Right now, you need to commit to following your dietitian and surgeon's instructions with 100% compliance. Not 99%, not mostly kinda sorta, 100% without fail. You also need to commit to a lifelong change in your habits and thought patterns related to food. If you keep letting it dominate you, you will fail at this.
The rumbling in your stomach that you're feeling is not hunger, it is something that goes away after enough time post-surgery...your stomach just had the majority of itself cut away, it is a recovering muscle and it is spasming, doing all kinds of stuff that has nothing to do with hunger. It'll do all of that AFTER you eat, too. You also likely feel a "bite" in your stomach which reminds you of hunger pangs, but in reality is stomach acid buildup because your stomach hasn't adjusted to its new size yet, along with some residual soreness from the full-length staple line. Again, this is something that will resolve in time. It is YOUR HEAD that is driving your feeling that you're hungry...and your behavior is allowing your old mindset to control you, yet again. "I'll just have some of these wings, they're small, I'm so HUNGRY." No, sorry...you're screwing up already...less than two weeks after surgery.
Water, and Protein, in whatever form your dietitian and surgeon have advised. You are probably still supposed to be a liquids only. Next would be puree, most likely. STICK TO YOUR DIET. You went to all the trouble and expense to get operated on, why wouldn't you put the work in to fix the thing they can't operate on - your brain? That is at least 90% of what needs to be fixed, for you to succeed. The surgery was just a tool.
Sorry if this comes off as harsh, but I hate it when I see people asking questions about whether they're stretching their stomach or if they should be able to eat so much, when they aren't following the rules that have been laid out for them, at all.

It's not real hunger, it's "head hunger." The very fact that you are indulging things that you SHOULD NOT BE INDULGING tells me that your head isn't in the right place, right now. It's normal to be a little obsessive about food the first couple weeks after surgery, your brain has a hard time letting go of its old behaviors. But instead of embracing that change and letting go, you're letting your brain dominate you again. If you continue to do that, you are not going to be successful long-term. The internet is littered with stories of people who did this and regained all of their weight, because they were not committed to change, ignored their surgeon's instructions, did what they wanted and gained it all right back. Sure, the surgery will force you to lose for a while...but it won't stop you from regaining it, if you're motivated.
11 pounds in a week and a half is excellent weight loss, so when you say you think it should be more, it tells me you don't really know how much of a calorie deficit you're running, how many calories your body needs to stay its current weight, and how many pounds you SHOULD be losing, given your calorie deficit. These are all important things to know, and these are knowledge and skills you will need to acquire if you are to be a success.
Right now, you need to commit to following your dietitian and surgeon's instructions with 100% compliance. Not 99%, not mostly kinda sorta, 100% without fail. You also need to commit to a lifelong change in your habits and thought patterns related to food. If you keep letting it dominate you, you will fail at this.
The rumbling in your stomach that you're feeling is not hunger, it is something that goes away after enough time post-surgery...your stomach just had the majority of itself cut away, it is a recovering muscle and it is spasming, doing all kinds of stuff that has nothing to do with hunger. It'll do all of that AFTER you eat, too. You also likely feel a "bite" in your stomach which reminds you of hunger pangs, but in reality is stomach acid buildup because your stomach hasn't adjusted to its new size yet, along with some residual soreness from the full-length staple line. Again, this is something that will resolve in time. It is YOUR HEAD that is driving your feeling that you're hungry...and your behavior is allowing your old mindset to control you, yet again. "I'll just have some of these wings, they're small, I'm so HUNGRY." No, sorry...you're screwing up already...less than two weeks after surgery.
Water, and Protein, in whatever form your dietitian and surgeon have advised. You are probably still supposed to be a liquids only. Next would be puree, most likely. STICK TO YOUR DIET. You went to all the trouble and expense to get operated on, why wouldn't you put the work in to fix the thing they can't operate on - your brain? That is at least 90% of what needs to be fixed, for you to succeed. The surgery was just a tool.
Sorry if this comes off as harsh, but I hate it when I see people asking questions about whether they're stretching their stomach or if they should be able to eat so much, when they aren't following the rules that have been laid out for them, at all.

It's just a disciplining of the mind, I guess...it's the same thing you'd have to do if you were trying to diet normally. We can't expect anyone around us to change, we're the ones who need the changing. Over time, our lives will become more normal and we'll be accustomed to eating far less than we once did, and our choices will start getting better, and our indulgences will be "once in a while" and not every day...and most important, we will never overeat again.
It's a commitment, for sure...but you know, it's one meal. It only lasts for an hour or two, and it's over. You can get through an hour or two

I went to a local Thai place and picked up an order of chicken satay today, now that I have finally graduated to "whole pieces of meat." It's one of my favorites. I chopped it up into small pieces, tossed it in the peanut sauce and then separated it out into 1.5oz servings with my little ziplock containers. What came with the satay was fried rice with shrimp in it, which I didn't realize (I should have just ordered it alone, but apparently they misunderstood and gave me the dinner order). First of all, looking at that giant portion of fried rice and then the 8 skewers of chicken, I found myself going, "This is a dinner...for how many frickin' people?" As it is, the chicken alone is going to last me three days. My how times have changed.
So I decided I'd eat the shrimp and the egg in the fried rice, which was good. Shrimp seems to be agreeable. I took a couple small bites of the rice, and realized that I wasn't very interested in it. Another change...because I really used to like fried rice! I just knew that it was only going to swell up in my stomach and rob me of space for "the good stuff."
It's weird how bread, Pasta and rice have all sort of fallen into this category of "pointless foods" to me, now. It's great, it feels like I'm adapting, but it's a strange feeling. Or being at the stores and knowing that in the checkout aisle pre-surgery, I'd have been tempted by a candy bar or something...and now I look at them and think, "What is the point of these things?" I'm surrounded now by stuff that makes me realize how much food = entertainment in our culture, now. Go to the movies and you HAVE to have treats, right? Candy and goodies, and wash it all down with a sugary soda or a slushie. But for what reason? It's not for fuel, it's not to feed your body...it's just to entertain yourself.
I'm realizing that I'm not just the product of my youth and low self-esteem, but I'm also a product of conditioning...social behaviors and marketing have helped create an environment where you will really struggle to succeed without help, as an obese person. Now that my eyes are wide open, I can see how we're doing all of this to ourselves in American society...the messaging and the culture are all creating an environment that encourages obesity. It's hard to fight against that machine.

It's not real hunger, it's "head hunger." The very fact that you are indulging things that you SHOULD NOT BE INDULGING tells me that your head isn't in the right place, right now. It's normal to be a little obsessive about food the first couple weeks after surgery, your brain has a hard time letting go of its old behaviors. But instead of embracing that change and letting go, you're letting your brain dominate you again. If you continue to do that, you are not going to be successful long-term. The internet is littered with stories of people who did this and regained all of their weight, because they were not committed to change, ignored their surgeon's instructions, did what they wanted and gained it all right back. Sure, the surgery will force you to lose for a while...but it won't stop you from regaining it, if you're motivated.
11 pounds in a week and a half is excellent weight loss, so when you say you think it should be more, it tells me you don't really know how much of a calorie deficit you're running, how many calories your body needs to stay its current weight, and how many pounds you SHOULD be losing, given your calorie deficit. These are all important things to know, and these are knowledge and skills you will need to acquire if you are to be a success.
Right now, you need to commit to following your dietitian and surgeon's instructions with 100% compliance. Not 99%, not mostly kinda sorta, 100% without fail. You also need to commit to a lifelong change in your habits and thought patterns related to food. If you keep letting it dominate you, you will fail at this.
The rumbling in your stomach that you're feeling is not hunger, it is something that goes away after enough time post-surgery...your stomach just had the majority of itself cut away, it is a recovering muscle and it is spasming, doing all kinds of stuff that has nothing to do with hunger. It'll do all of that AFTER you eat, too. You also likely feel a "bite" in your stomach which reminds you of hunger pangs, but in reality is stomach acid buildup because your stomach hasn't adjusted to its new size yet, along with some residual soreness from the full-length staple line. Again, this is something that will resolve in time. It is YOUR HEAD that is driving your feeling that you're hungry...and your behavior is allowing your old mindset to control you, yet again. "I'll just have some of these wings, they're small, I'm so HUNGRY." No, sorry...you're screwing up already...less than two weeks after surgery.
Water, and Protein, in whatever form your dietitian and surgeon have advised. You are probably still supposed to be a liquids only. Next would be puree, most likely. STICK TO YOUR DIET. You went to all the trouble and expense to get operated on, why wouldn't you put the work in to fix the thing they can't operate on - your brain? That is at least 90% of what needs to be fixed, for you to succeed. The surgery was just a tool.
Sorry if this comes off as harsh, but I hate it when I see people asking questions about whether they're stretching their stomach or if they should be able to eat so much, when they aren't following the rules that have been laid out for them, at all.

I didn't cheat at all. In fact I took the sample diet my nutritionist gave me and that's basically what I ate every day for two weeks. I took a lot of pride in not having screwed up, that two weeks...and the scales the morning of surgery made it worthwhile, when I saw I'd dropped over 30lbs before surgery.

If you can't get it paid through your insurance, you may want to consider going to Mexico for it. There are a lot of reputable surgeons and facilities there, and your out of pocket will be FAR cheaper. Look into it, because it's better than dropping $30,000 on it. You will probably find it difficult to raise money through a GoFundMe or similar crowdfunding type of site, but you'd have a better shot at finding $5,000 or so than you would $30k.
It sounds like you're ready to get this done, so best of luck to you!

Barely get to 500 calories, on my fifth week post-op. Add the 30 minutes of elliptical I've been doing and I'm at like a net intake of 300 calories. It's ridiculous, but there isn't really any way I could do more, unless I started putting a bunch of refined sugar in my body, which there's no way I'm doing again. I'm detoxed from it, so I'm not going back.

Give yourself at least six weeks to be fully healed, that would be my suggestion. Then start easing into the weights and see how you feel. But they say it takes six weeks for the stomach to heal fully from this surgery, so give it the time it needs. I'll be starting in a little over a week or so, probably.

If you can't get it paid through your insurance, you may want to consider going to Mexico for it. There are a lot of reputable surgeons and facilities there, and your out of pocket will be FAR cheaper. Look into it, because it's better than dropping $30,000 on it. You will probably find it difficult to raise money through a GoFundMe or similar crowdfunding type of site, but you'd have a better shot at finding $5,000 or so than you would $30k.
It sounds like you're ready to get this done, so best of luck to you!

I didn't cheat at all. In fact I took the sample diet my nutritionist gave me and that's basically what I ate every day for two weeks. I took a lot of pride in not having screwed up, that two weeks...and the scales the morning of surgery made it worthwhile, when I saw I'd dropped over 30lbs before surgery.

Crazy that they used staples instead of sutures or glue strips.
Also...don't make what you're craving. That's kind of exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Go ahead and ask your surgeon if they think it's a good idea to eat a bunch of sugar now. I mean, unless you're just eager to get your first case of dumping syndrome, and don't plan to change your habits and behaviors post-surgery, and just see how it goes.

I didn't, actually...I had chosen the RNY. The problem is, the surgeon who had repaired my umbilical hernia years before used a mesh that allowed the intestine to grow into it, creating adhesions that made the RNY impossible. So the surgeon opted for the sleeve, with me. In my reading post-surgery and discussing it with a few people who had RNY, I feel like I might have ultimately gotten the better procedure, at least in terms of long-term health. One of my mom's friends who had RNY about 10 years ago said the malabsorbtion aspect is only really a positive for the first couple years, while you get to goal. After that, it's a hinderance and she said she actually developed celiac disease as a result of it. She wishes she could have had the sleeve, but at the time apparently it was not covered by her insurance.
I feel like, for me, the combination of the restriction and the lack of hunger are enabling me to get my mind right and start establishing better habits, and that's really what I needed from the surgery...I needed it to enforce the Portion Control, and ease the impact of hunger pangs so that I could focus on the task at hand. It was the combination of the mental and physical issues that made it so hard for me to lose weight, long-term. I've taken the physical part off the table, to a large extent...so now I can just focus on the mental. So I would say, as someone who got unintentionally switched to a sleeve, I now think it may be a better option, long-term.

Yikes man, too expensive. I'd almost buy a used exercise bike and some free weights instead...after one year at that gym, you'll have already spent $600.

Stop weighing. The surgery is going to do its job, just follow the plan prescribed by your surgeon. Weighing all the time is only going to drive you nuts. The body loses how it loses and you can't affect that very much right now. Fat cells absorb Water before they expel their contents to be excreted by the body, you are going to be retaining water in the fat cells a lot and it'll make your weight fluctuate from day to day. At most, weigh like once a week...and since it clearly affects you a lot, I'd consider weighing every couple of weeks. Myself, I don't weigh unless I go to the doctor's office, because the scale has always been my enemy, mentally. Consequently my weight on this site isn't going to be updated nearly as frequently as most peoples'

Just remember that you still have adipose fat in your skin, concentrated in that area...that's why it looks the way it does right now. The lower your bodyfat percentage goes, the less pronounced it's going to be. As you get closer to goal, it'll require fine-tuning your diet to hit that last stubborn fat, and zeroing in on your exercise. Weight training can really help a lot, in that regard. When you see people who have lost all of their fat and get really lean, the skin just looks wrinkly around the abdomen, loose but not thick. So don't get discouraged, just realize that this is where you start to zero in on that perfect balance of Protein, carbs and fats, and your exercise regimen, to get the bodyfat percentage down. It's exactly what people have to do in order to get their abs to start showing, too. They only show when you get the BF% down.

Stop weighing. The surgery is going to do its job, just follow the plan prescribed by your surgeon. Weighing all the time is only going to drive you nuts. The body loses how it loses and you can't affect that very much right now. Fat cells absorb Water before they expel their contents to be excreted by the body, you are going to be retaining water in the fat cells a lot and it'll make your weight fluctuate from day to day. At most, weigh like once a week...and since it clearly affects you a lot, I'd consider weighing every couple of weeks. Myself, I don't weigh unless I go to the doctor's office, because the scale has always been my enemy, mentally. Consequently my weight on this site isn't going to be updated nearly as frequently as most peoples'

No. If you are averaging 5 pounds a week there is no reason at all to change anything that you're doing. That is an awesome pace.

I went before my extremely obese husband because he was terrified. The surgeon recommended a two week difference due to the possibility of a problem. YES, it happened. My husband spent 4 days in the hospital with a problem. My husband is my priority. Not sure he would have done it if I had not gone first. I count my blessings I was allowed to go first and take care of my most precious asset.

Just remember that you still have adipose fat in your skin, concentrated in that area...that's why it looks the way it does right now. The lower your bodyfat percentage goes, the less pronounced it's going to be. As you get closer to goal, it'll require fine-tuning your diet to hit that last stubborn fat, and zeroing in on your exercise. Weight training can really help a lot, in that regard. When you see people who have lost all of their fat and get really lean, the skin just looks wrinkly around the abdomen, loose but not thick. So don't get discouraged, just realize that this is where you start to zero in on that perfect balance of Protein, carbs and fats, and your exercise regimen, to get the bodyfat percentage down. It's exactly what people have to do in order to get their abs to start showing, too. They only show when you get the BF% down.

You will wade into it, don't worry. You'll start on liquids only for a couple weeks, then they'll gradually work you into more solid food, until after about 6 or 8 weeks (varies by surgeon and patient) you'll be left to your own devices. But in that six week period, you'll start seeing where your priorities need to be with the food, and how small your stomach's capacity is. So you'll be better equipped to make appropriate choices.
Basically, you're going to discover that breads, rice and Pasta are not a priority because they swell up in your stomach and don't leave room for Protein...and Protein is your biggest priority. You focus on that first, every meal. You'll probably focus on complex carbohydrates that aren't super filling, like the breads are. Beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, etc...
Let's just say that if you've got yourself squared away mentally, you won't be thinking it's time for a burger and fries. You don't have the space in your stomach, and you will have new priorities when it comes to food. These are good changes.
Don't panic, it doesn't happen all at once. Let yourself get used to the changes. Also, you probably aren't going to have to worry too terribly much about calories until you get closer to your goal weight. The sleeve is so restrictive that you probably will struggle to exceed 500 calories a day for quite a while...and that means if you are doing a reasonable amount of cardio, you're going to be in a steep calorie deficit. Unless you start drinking a bunch of sugar drinks all day and whatnot.

I went to a local Thai place and picked up an order of chicken satay today, now that I have finally graduated to "whole pieces of meat." It's one of my favorites. I chopped it up into small pieces, tossed it in the peanut sauce and then separated it out into 1.5oz servings with my little ziplock containers. What came with the satay was fried rice with shrimp in it, which I didn't realize (I should have just ordered it alone, but apparently they misunderstood and gave me the dinner order). First of all, looking at that giant portion of fried rice and then the 8 skewers of chicken, I found myself going, "This is a dinner...for how many frickin' people?" As it is, the chicken alone is going to last me three days. My how times have changed.
So I decided I'd eat the shrimp and the egg in the fried rice, which was good. Shrimp seems to be agreeable. I took a couple small bites of the rice, and realized that I wasn't very interested in it. Another change...because I really used to like fried rice! I just knew that it was only going to swell up in my stomach and rob me of space for "the good stuff."
It's weird how bread, Pasta and rice have all sort of fallen into this category of "pointless foods" to me, now. It's great, it feels like I'm adapting, but it's a strange feeling. Or being at the stores and knowing that in the checkout aisle pre-surgery, I'd have been tempted by a candy bar or something...and now I look at them and think, "What is the point of these things?" I'm surrounded now by stuff that makes me realize how much food = entertainment in our culture, now. Go to the movies and you HAVE to have treats, right? Candy and goodies, and wash it all down with a sugary soda or a slushie. But for what reason? It's not for fuel, it's not to feed your body...it's just to entertain yourself.
I'm realizing that I'm not just the product of my youth and low self-esteem, but I'm also a product of conditioning...social behaviors and marketing have helped create an environment where you will really struggle to succeed without help, as an obese person. Now that my eyes are wide open, I can see how we're doing all of this to ourselves in American society...the messaging and the culture are all creating an environment that encourages obesity. It's hard to fight against that machine.