Crafty-in-Carolina

Yes! It certainly does. You look fabulous. Congratulations!

It is confusing. I've read that caloric intake for women less than 1200/daily over an extended period of time will wreck your metabolism. Last thing I want is to be 5 years out and gain weight from merely looking at a piece of chocolate, lol. I tested at a very high metabolism and my doc had me at 1200-1400 calories by the 3 months out. I'm pretty active and started out with a lower bmi (with co-morbidities). I was losing only about 1 pound per week, but sure enough when my calories/carbs bumped up, I noticed my weight loss bumped up to 3 pounds per week. Crazy and seems counterintuitive. This also happened around the time that I added strength training to my normal cardio, do who knows. I imagine it there are huge variances between individuals. The down side to a fast metabolism is that I'm hungry.... all . the. time. I can foresee getting back into serious trouble if I'm not extremely careful about food quality and watching the macros. So I track everything. It's a pain, but less so the longer I do it now that typical meals and recipes have already been entered.

You can do it!!!

You look awesome and I know you must feel fabulous too!

Well, 3 months + 1 week I can feel the beginning of carb/sweets cravings. I've gotta get this in check asap. So I decided to cut and paste my "before" and "now" pics side by side. I may need to tape this to my fridge. Unlike many, I've felt hunger, real hunger from very early on. I seemed to heal quickly and have had absolutely zero intolerances. I'm quickly finding out that I like sweet stuff way too much. Thought I had more control than this. No regrets, but no illusions either, this is going to be work for the rest of my life, sigh. For now I'll take solace in each little victory. I've been telling my husband I don't think I look all that different, but the side by side pics are an eye opener and good for continued motivation. 3 months progress

My insurance did not require any supervised diets, etc, so I was able to move fairly quickly. But it still took time to get all the paperwork coordinated from PCP, asthma doc, etc., plus attend the info sessions the clinic required and schedule appointments with NUT and Psyc. My seminar was mid-July and surgery early-Oct. Even if you are self-pay, a good clinic will require visits with a nutritionist, psychologist, etc. If your insurance doesn't hold you up and you can take whatever appointments are offered, you *might* be able to make it on your proposed timetable. Not impossible, just exceptional. :-)

Yes! Such truth. My happy buttons (besides food, sex) are unfortunately sedentary ones. I love sewing, knitting, reading... these things I do alone, in peace, but I am trying to find ways to be more active and social. Thanks for posting. I want to try some sort of dancing, but I feel weird going without a partner (hubby is not interested). Gotta ditch the excuses and just do it.

So I'm almost 3 weeks out and got to switch from full liquid diet to purees. I'm feeling a little paranoid reading how little some people eat, like only a couple of bites??? I pureed some roasted cauliflower for a mashed potato substitute and can eat about 1/2 cup before getting full signals. Is this unusual? It's a lot less than a pre-sleeve meal, so I'm thankful, but it seems others have more restriction.

What have you used to lighten appearance if surgical scars? I have a light olive complexion, so I think scars tend to be more visible. Is straight coco butter best? Shea butter? When did you start applying it and did it help? All the glue finally came off and I would like to be proactive. Any suggestions?

I'm 44 yrs old, 5'3" tall. My first consult weigh-in was 206. After the pre-op liquid diet I think I was 190 on the day of surgery. I'm about 2 weeks post-op now and scale says 183. I was told up front to expect to be a slower loser due to starting out in the lower bmi. I'm good with that. I too think it's important to look at %excess weight rather than raw number comparisons. So far I've just been walking, but I can tell a difference in how I feel already. Looking forward to trying some yoga and dance classes when I get cleared for it. Slower loss has its upsides too.

Triple Grande pumpkin spice latte. And it was delicious.

I was feeling pretty rough on days 1 and 2, but significantly improved by day 3. By day 4 I was worried something was wrong because I was having no trouble getting in all my fluid and protein. I know experiences vary greatly and I'm so thankful to be feeling so good so soon. But yeah, I totally get the whole "something must be wrong feeling.