bookpusher

@@Kila Rass
I told immediate family and a friend that lives out of state. It's not like I could hide the rapid weight loss.( 6 months to goal) My weight loss became the topic every time people ran into me. Many people have speculated I had surgery.
Being honest. People know. Even when you tell them your eating healthy and exercising.
two and a half years later. Life is normal. No more shock. No more discussing weight loss. People just except this is me now.

First off, we all deal with food cravings and bad choices, no matter where you are in your journey. I guess my question is why did you make the choice for surgery in the first place? Because there are the things you want and then there are the things you REALLY want. I may be different from some on this board but I think there are no foods off limits, but you have to find ways to make better choices to make those foods into healthy options. For example, You say you love fried chicken and mashed potatoes, so make your own, I take breast tenders and use Panko (or use a crushed up high Protein flake cereal) and spices to make a baked chicken tender. You have lots of choices for the potato, smash a red potato with seasonings and a little cheese, or try sweet potato mash or cauliflower. I know in the past when I was out of control I would take one thing at a time and take control of it, so start by getting all your Water in, then keep that going and add in Protein, etc. Good luck and I hope you can find your path
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@@Rachel79uk
Why be scared? She did a good job losing almost 70 pounds dispite not being completely prepared for the reality of the surgery. She's had a set back. So what? Life is full of them. We have to learn to navigate our new lives around those set backs, and if we can't do it on our own, we get help so we can.
The reality of it is this:
You MUST change your lifestyle or it won't work. Period.
You MUST change your relationship with food or it won't work. Period.
You MUST find the motivation to keep going when life doesn't cooperate, or when we get 'behavior fatigue' or it won't work. Period.
You MUST feel enough self worth to know you DESERVE to be healthy and happy, or it won't work. Period.
The surgery is such a small part of the equation, really.

Welcome, @@vsg_malexander!
I've lost 11 lbs. Is this normal?!
It's awesome! more than a pound a day?! It isn't magic, patience. IDK what your weight before surgery was, but heavier/high BMI people lose more at first
I feel like I haven't lost what I'm supposed to for some reason.
Looks to me like you've done amazing.
It might be in my head, but I've had this anxious feeling like "what if this doesn't work for me?"
Totally normal. After all, every other time you've lost weight it hasn't worked. So you've learned that "it never lasts" over time. BUT I encourage you to read the posts of vets here who are 1, 2, 3 years post-op. Discovering that they really did change their whole relationship with food and exercise will keep your head on straight.
Also, I feel very low energy.
Of course - you're having hardly any nutrition and you just had your insides carved out. You need to heal. I'm post-op day 11 and definitely have less energy than before surgery. I know when I went from clear to full liquids, I got a boost. Excited to go from full liquids to puree foods and get another shot of energy.
Don't be too hard on yourself!

For 2017, I make the following resolutions:
To eat healthy food.
To lose weight.
To join a gym and exercise more.
Wait... hold on a minute here...
I'M ALREADY DOING THIS STUFF!!!!! :P
Resolutions!?! We don't need no steenking resolutions!

Hey- I just wanted you to know how much you've already helped me! I've got less than a month until my surgery, and I've mostly been doing okay with the anxiety. But today, for some reason, something switched in me and I felt terrified and was questioning my decision. I felt like I had made a huge mistake, I wasn't up for all the pain and change, and surely some "magic pill" would be invented next year that would make all of this a waste of time and money. I saw your post here, though, and decided to check out your blog. 2 hours and a few crying jags later, I have read the whole thing! I really appreciate the time you put into writing it, and for sharing all those pictures. I'm starting to feel like maybe I can do this after all. Thank you so much!

January 20th.
VSG pre-op HW: 325 CW: 305

January 20th.
VSG pre-op HW: 325 CW: 305

I don't have much else to add to the other's great comments, except that I'm an RN so I've seen the "behind the curtain" of surgery and recovery. That can either give you a lot of confidence in healthcare or scare the pants off of you. My experience is that it gives me a lot of confidence. Even though I've run across a few (very few, thank goodness) complete idiots in my career, healthcare has a lot of checks and balances so the rare idiot doesn't get a chance to cause a real problem for a patient. And surgery has more checks and balances and better-trained and more experienced personnel than most other areas of healthcare. You really can rest assured that you will be monitored continuously during surgery and recovery and they are prepared to handle anything that comes up.

I think we have all felt all the feelings and thoughts you have pre-surgery. Very normal. Maybe look at this as a process, journey whatever resinates with you. Do your checklist again
- why Im having surgery
- surgeon credentials
- well informed of risks
- after care
- support
- possitive gains
Then go for it! Your still going to probably be nervous on the day - but thats good. Others arent - we are all different and so is the journey. As for pain - everyone is different again. Thats what meds are for! Just remember it all goes. Have faith in your surgical team, they have done this before. All the very best mate. Heres to a new you!
PS- just follow your pre op diet. Its important. Its also disgusting hahaha but everyone is different! Hahaha! Its all for the greater!
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One of the things that made me relaxed was knowing that I had a room full of highly trained people who just wanted me to be safe taking care of me. That's their job and they're only there for you during that time.
I was worried about not waking up, but now that I've gone through surgery, I'm no longer concerned about anesthesia.

Over the last few weeks, I've seen a number of posts about "cheating" on the diet plan in the days and weeks immediately following surgery, and I am very concerned about this trend.

I am not a doctor, I do not play one on TV, and I am not dispensing medical advice.

However.

I am a registered nurse, and what I'm about to say is an informed and educated opinion.

Surgeons tend to give VERY detailed instructions about what to eat after a stomach surgery, and for VERY good reason.

Even when the surgery is arthroscopic and looks to be a very tiny surgery on the outside, it's a VERY BIG surgery on the inside. The VSG surgery leaves a staple/suture line the entire length of the stomach. That incision has to heal, and if you could see it, it would look like raw beef. If the incision were on the outside, we would be very careful with it, keeping it clean and bandaged while it healed. Of course, it's on the inside, so we can't do that. But we need to keep in mind that it needs to heal in the same way.

We have to eat, and that food will be against that raw incision. At the same time that we have to protect the healing stomach, we also have to get in plenty of fluids and nutrients, specifically Protein, in order to support healing. Protein is the primary building block for tissue, so it's critical to healing. Carbs are mainly just energy sources, so they're not as important, especially given that people having bariatric surgery have plenty of energy in their fat stores. This is why protein is stressed so heavily over carbs in the diets.

Additionally, the stomach is now in a new shape, and it basically has to learn how to function as a slender tube instead of a big bag. There's a learning curve. Kinda like a newborn baby's stomach. We don't dump steak and salad into a newborn's stomach for good reason - it doesn't know how to deal with it. Similarly, we don't want to do that to our new sleeve. We start off with stuff that's easy on the suture line and easy to digest, and as the suture line heals and the sleeve learns its job, start working our way up to "real" food.

So over the years, doctors have learned what foods are best for a healing stomach, and that translates into the post-op diet progression instructions.

Typically, that looks like this: Clear liquids, then full liquids, then pureed foods, then soft foods, then slowly move into a "full" diet beginning with high moisture content foods first. When moving from one stage to the next, it's typically advised to add just one food at a time, in small amounts, and see how it's tolerated. A food that's not tolerated well can be tried later on as well. If an entire stage is not being tolerated, back up to the previous stage for a while, and then try again more slowly.

Surgeons tend to specify how long to stay in each of these stages, what types of food make up each stage, and how to transition to the next stage. Every surgeon's instructions are a little different, and it's based on their experience and sometimes changes based on the patient's specific medical case.

The general idea in the very early weeks is to eat foods that will not stress the healing suture line, and do not have particles that are known to cut into the raw tissue or get embedded into the suture line. If a cut or embedded food particle gets infected, it can become an abscess and develop into a leak. A leak can be life threatening, and at the very least cause the patient to have to be hospitalized and possibly have more surgery to correct it. Foods that are particularly known to cause issues are those that swell up like rice, have seeds like strawberries, or have rough hard edges or hard to digest fibers like wheat crackers or raw vegetables.

There are people who eat all sorts of things against their doctor's orders and have suffered no ill effects, but this should not be used as an argument that the doctor's orders are not important. Similarly, you will find some people who smoke a pack of cigarettes every day and drink a pint of whiskey every day but live to 100. They are not representative of most people, and should not be used as the example other people follow.

The reality is that some people will develop abscesses and leaks because they ate things before they were cleared to by their doctors, and there is no way to predict who will have the complications and who will not. And the consequences can be as severe as death. It's not common, but that's how bad it can get. That's why the doctors give the instructions they do. They're not just testing you or trying to make your life hard. They are giving you the best information they have to keep you safe.

Violating these orders is not "cheating" on a diet. It's risking your life. I am not being overly dramatic with this statement, it is a fact that it has happened. You are risking your safety and your health if you violate these orders. It's not about "being human", it's not about "food addiction". It's about your safety and your health. It's hard to be on liquids only for 2 weeks (or more). Some people have huge cravings, or "head hunger" as we tend to call it here. Or just want desperately to chew something. No one is saying it's easy. But it's necessary. Distract yourself. Eat/drink anything that's allowed on your plan - freeze it, heat it up, try something that's opposite of what you've been having to shake it up. Walk around the house or the block. Suck on an ice cube. Count to ten or a hundred. Post about how hard it is, and ask people to help you get through it. But muscle through. It's nothing less than your health and safety.

As for why one surgeon will have his patients on Clear Liquids for 2 weeks while another only does 2 days? Or why one will skip a phase entirely? Each surgeon has different experiences that inform his practices. One is not right and the other wrong. They are each operating out of what they were taught and what they have seen in their own patient groups. They may have even modified the plan because of a specific health concern in your specific case. As a patient, you need to fully understand what your surgeon expects, and if you have a problem with the protocols get it straight with your surgeon and team BEFORE you go under the knife.

If you don't trust your surgeon and his protocols, find another surgeon. I personally would question a surgeon who doesn't allow any Protein drinks including the clear ones for 2 full weeks post op (saw that in one patient's instructions on this site) and likely wouldn't work with that surgeon, given what I know about the needs of protein for healing. But after surgery is not the time to be questioning the surgeon's protocols. Get those questions asked and answered to your satisfaction well before the surgery date.

If you are having surgery, and you have not been given your post-op instructions, at the very least for the first 2 weeks post-op, do not proceed with the surgery until you have that information. We have people posting here stating that they were sent home without clear instructions as to what they were supposed to eat or drink, just a vague statement about "full liquids". That is not sufficient information, and instructions should be given WELL BEFORE the surgery, not after. You should fully understand what will be expected in the weeks after the surgery before consenting to the surgery, or your team is not doing their job.

(This ends my sorta rant about post-op diets and "cheating")

Good luck to everyone!

When I question myself, I remember that recent study saying only 1 out of 677 morbidly obese women can get to and maintain a healthy weight for at least 10 years without surgery. I'm not that special, and I've been trying to do it for 30 years now. If it was possible for me to lose the weight through meds, diet, or exercise, I would have done it already.
VSG 1/20/17 HW: 325 CW: 305

When I question myself, I remember that recent study saying only 1 out of 677 morbidly obese women can get to and maintain a healthy weight for at least 10 years without surgery. I'm not that special, and I've been trying to do it for 30 years now. If it was possible for me to lose the weight through meds, diet, or exercise, I would have done it already.
VSG 1/20/17 HW: 325 CW: 305

When I question myself, I remember that recent study saying only 1 out of 677 morbidly obese women can get to and maintain a healthy weight for at least 10 years without surgery. I'm not that special, and I've been trying to do it for 30 years now. If it was possible for me to lose the weight through meds, diet, or exercise, I would have done it already.
VSG 1/20/17 HW: 325 CW: 305

January 20th.
VSG pre-op HW: 325 CW: 305

When I question myself, I remember that recent study saying only 1 out of 677 morbidly obese women can get to and maintain a healthy weight for at least 10 years without surgery. I'm not that special, and I've been trying to do it for 30 years now. If it was possible for me to lose the weight through meds, diet, or exercise, I would have done it already.
VSG 1/20/17 HW: 325 CW: 305

When I question myself, I remember that recent study saying only 1 out of 677 morbidly obese women can get to and maintain a healthy weight for at least 10 years without surgery. I'm not that special, and I've been trying to do it for 30 years now. If it was possible for me to lose the weight through meds, diet, or exercise, I would have done it already.
VSG 1/20/17 HW: 325 CW: 305

Hi everyone! I remember looking all throughout these threads prior to my surgery. I kept searching and searching the threads trying to convince myself I was doing the right thing. I read all the wonderful success stories and the horror stories, in the hopes that I would be able to gear myself up for what was to come. I was sleeved on 9/13/16. Now I want to share my three month update and experience with you. First, here are my stats:
Starting Weight: 296
Day of surgery Weight: 280
CW:215
This has been the best decision I have ever made for myself! I have tons of energy, and am truly enjoying this new lifestyle change that I have embraced. I will say that after surgery your body completely changes. For example, 7 years ago I was 200 lbs and a size 14. The minute I hit 210 I became a size 16. Now, after surgery, I am 215 and wear a size 14 again. It's crazy. My husband swears I am thinner than I ever have been since he's known me, even though the scale doesn't match his assertion. Maybe it's the muscle I've built and the excess skin that has added to the scale( yes, I have excess skin). I don't know. But I do know that I feel fabulous. Prior to surgery, I took a "worst case scenario" approach regarding what to expect after surgery. Luckily, I wound up with the best case scenario! I haven't lost any hair, I never regretted my surgery and I only suffered from bad cravings for the first two weeks. I credit a lot of this to my nutritionist from Dr. Tom Umbach's office in LV. She has an unconventional approach. I was allowed to eat after two weeks. I was instructed to count carbs and Protein, not calories. She also insisted that I don't bother measuring my food. This advice was life saving for me, as I experienced physical hunger after two weeks and I could eat more than most of the posters on here (about 1/2 cup). I was afraid that something was wrong with my sleeve, but my nutritionist assured me not to worry. I kept doing what she advised and the weight keeps falling off. I also noticed that, for some reason, as the months went by, I developed more restriction that what I originally had after surgery. Some days I have more restriction, some days less. Although I eat less food, I actually eat more times in the day than I ever have before (about 6 times). The difference is that eat much healthier foods. I actually crave them. Every now and then I get a naughty craving. I'm a CA girl and I love Mexican food. I don't always deny myself the craving. Sometimes I indulge and get 1 rico taco and take off the extra corn tortilla. I have gotten cravings for Chinese, but considering that is all carbs and sugar I usually have a pickle to curb those cravings. I've found sour foods do the trick when it comes to craving starch. Don't get me wrong, there have been a time or two that I've had a few spoonfuls of rice or noodles from Panda Express, but they're never as good as I imagine and I don't want to risk temptation with going to better Chinese restaurants to try theirs.
Bottom line, this surgery worked for me because I eventually came to accept that some foods (starchy carbs) are not every day foods. And other carbs, while good and sometimes necessary, should be limited and always accompanied by protein. Every day I am faced with the choice of eating foods to promote health or foods to promote obesity. I understand that these are choices I must make make everyday, at every meal for the rest of my life in order to prevent the weight returning. This surgery allowed me to come to a place where I actually am capable of making the right choices and am confident that I can continue to do so. I must remember that even though I couldn't have done this without the surgery, the surgery will do no good if I don't continue to keep my head in line with healthy eating habits.
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Was she silly - yes - was she unprofessional - yes - was she intentionally out to hurt/expose you - I'm thinking maybe not - she was probably mortified & although it was highly embarrassing to you, or could have been if people were near, I don't believe she should be hung drawn & quartered for it - unless of course you know that she is a yabber mouth & has done this before? Exposure diverted no real harm done & she probably feels worse than you ????
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I've read various comments about this book in various posts, and I'm planning to buy a copy to read on my Kindle. Anything that helps me retrain my brain to think like a thin person is appreciated. Thanks to all who mentioned so that I learned of this books existence and value to others.
Banded 10/12/16

I was sleeved in May 2014 and converted to RNY in July of this year because of severe GERD. While I was sleeved, I never vomited. Not once. I've thrown up once since my conversion surgery and it was when I tried to introduce a new food (quinoa, although I ate it all the time with my sleeve). Nausea and vomiting is very individual and there's no guarantee that you will ever have either.
I'm not quite sure what you mean by what affect the reduced portion size has. For me, it has allowed me to lose weight at a relatively slow but steady pace. I'm maintaining a 133lb loss 2 years and 7 months post surgery. Also, a forced reduced portion size has allowed me to change my relationship to food and to understand what a proper portion size is. Being 2 years 7 mos post surgery, I can eat a relatively normal portion size. 3-4 oz of Protein and about 1 oz of a vegetable. I now know, and more importantly understand how food is fuel and what the appropriate amount is to fuel my body. If you had something else in mind by your question, let me know and I'll try and clarify my answer.
My advice would be to work on your head. Realize the the surgery is just a tool to help you keep weight off. You're not going to wake up skinny and you shouldn't let that discourage you. This process takes hard work. So work on your self and commit to doing the work. Finally, I would recommend choosing a surgeon and team that you trust and then following your plan. I see so many people challenging their doctor's plan because "they know what's best for their body." If you are at the point where you need surgery, somewhere along the line, your way has failed. I decided at the beginning to put my faith in my surgeon and follow what he tells me to do. You know what? It's worked. I never could have lost the weight . . . and more importantly kept it off, by straying from plan.
Good luck and feel free to ask if you have other questions.

The other day we did a read aloud at our fall festival tons of pics were taken and ended up on Facebook. I passed over this pic twice before realizing that it was me. I feel so much better. I am 2 lbs from Onderland!
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I'm self-pay, and I'm staying in the US to have surgery, so it's going to cost me a good chunk of change. I'm struggling to be okay with that, but it helps to remember all the money I've spent on obesity-related medical problems over the past few years. I've spent $2500 for a hysterectomy, $1500 and another $1000 on foot doctors and orthotics, $2000 on an endoscopy, $200 on my GP, $100/month on various meds, and $100s on shoes I hoped would be comfortable but weren't. And I'm only in my early 40s. If I wasn't so heavy, I don't think I would have needed any of it, and who knows what I'll be paying for next if I don't do this.
VSG pre-op HW: 325 CW: 305

My husband has a hand crank snow cone maker that has been a blessing. Every night he makes me a huge bowl of snow ..... and I cover it with sugar free/fat free/no calorie snow cone Syrup from Ralph's online store. Ralph has tons of sugar free flavors like blue raspberry, Hurricane, fuzzy navel, sour watermelon and so many more. A wonderfully sweet, filling day-ender that helps with my Fluid consumption. And the ice shaver can be found for about $14. Makes my day and wanted to share!!
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