catlady.2012

@Liz210, Best wishes on your weight loss. Looks like you are very prepared.

The graph is awesome. What program did you use?

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@Melissa315, I am sorry you were attacked for asking a question about having some wine at your wedding. Unfortunately that is one of the hot buttons here.

Of course your doctor is your best source for an answer. Everyone tolerates wine and alcohol differently. I am almost 5 years out, and my stomach will not tolerate either. Even a sip burns so badly it feels like a knife sticking me.

Please don't give up on the group; it does have many answers. Please feel free to private message me for any questions. I'm not sure what surgery you had--I had the sleeve. No matter what WLS you had the problems and questions exist for all of us. Best wishes in your journey. Don't hesitate to contact me. [emoji3][emoji780] [emoji736]

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There are a lot of myths being perpetuated on this thread. To be fair a lot of them are perpetuated by doctors who find it simpler to give axioms or simplifications rather than explain complexities.

First of all, sliders aren't things that form a slurry and slide through. All food forms a slurry when chewed and combined with juices (stomach acid).

Sliders are foods that don't have much substance to them and thus when chewed sorta dissolve away. Think of which foods you can crush down to nothing WITHOUT eating them. Crackers, chips, toasted bread, crisp Cookies etc.

Some other foods behave like sliders because they don't stay in your stomach--most of those are liquid to begin with like broth.

There are other foods that behave that way on a case by case basis, but a lot of the things listed here--donuts, cupcakes, bread in general, do NOT slide right through. Neither do they swell up in your stomach. The feeling you get that makes it seem like swelling is from the gluten Proteins becoming Gummy. Ball up some white bread outside of your stomach and you will see what I mean.

As for why or whether there is a honeymoon period of a year or a regain starting at 3 years... yes there is some observable data there. But is it because we reach our new set point and losing beyond that is harder or is it a time window... we don't KNOW. The best obesity researchers don't Know.

I'm four years out and maintaining well but I can't pretend to be an expert on anything except MY experience. I lost 136lbs and can easily maintain 115 of that. The last 20lbs are a pain in the butt! But you know what, that's NORMAL. I'm 47 years old. What normal 47 year old woman doesn't struggle with 20 lbs or so. Am I a failure? No. Heck I don't even consider that regain. Do I even care? Most of the time, no! That half a donut or three cups of kettle corn at the Father's Day car show sometimes mean more to me than those 20lbs. Other times I buckle down and drop them. It's all good.

Have I reframed my relationship with food, yeah. Do I still have a cookie in times of anger or stress or frustration, you bet I do, but I know it's an anger cookie. And you know what, my sleeve stops my from that cookie turning into 2 or 3 or a dozen just as much as my mind does.

We are all in this together and until we've walked in each other's shoes all we can speak to is our own experience and there is no universal.

That said, newbies should probably stick to their docs program and not believe they can listen to their bodies instead... listening to our bodies got us all obese. We picked our surgeons for their expertise. Why trust someone to cut you open but then not trust their dietary advice?!?!

Were all here for each other on this topic. Some other people seem to be " flawless" in their weight loss with no problems and wonder why we gain. Well, I keep it real, the struggle is real and we all need a shoulder to lean on when we hit the difficult moments️

Thanks for the responses! She called me today and I believe some of the things I said are sinking in, plus her ins requires a 6 month diet. She mentioned that having surgery a few weeks before a company party that involves travel & centers around food/drinking would be difficult. It brought me back to the days of scouring a restaurants menu online to determine what I would order.

The Beck Diet Solution book helped me with emotional eating. It doesn't have one scrap of information on dieting, which is nice because at this point, we know what to eat, we just aren't doing it. Instead it focuses on changing behaviors. I still use skills from this book and it's really helped me eliminate some bad habits. And finally, 2 1/2 years from surgery and I'm 2 pounds from goal.

I often think this way. Getting to a comfortable weight and size is sooo personal. 12 is great for me. (10's in a good month) but I'm not willing to struggle super hard daily. I eat right and work out and feel just right where I am
After 10 + years, and at 60 + age. I'm good right here

I had one PM me about being 'rude' to her after an "I'm hungry 5 days out from surgery tell me what I can eat AND ONLY SERIOUS ANSWERS" post and proceeded to tell me she was too busy worrying about passing her nicotine test to worry about what her post op diet was. She said she just wanted to "get on with the surgery".
So there ya go. Gives you some idea of the mentality of people. In other words, this will magically work without me doing any of the preparation or having any knowledge about what I need to do.

Can someone fill me in on what happened here?
I didn't sign in for a long time when I broke my back and eventually had surgery.
I came back and the whole site is different, and not necessarily better.
I heard a lot of the vets left and I don't know why. There were a lot of us who liked to keep in touch. Now I have no way to reach any of my online friends. I really miss Cowgirl Jane.
Can anyone explain what the heck happened to everyone? I Know it's difficult when a lot of the forums have all the wls surgeries mixed together. RNY, Band and sleeve don't have much in common other than we are thinner.

Yes, I need to start working out. I need to strengthen my core. So, I have to start doing exercises at home. I know how to exercise, I just preferred to do it at the gym. It doesn't make sense for me to join the gym again when there's so many of the machines I can't use.
My back surgery caused me to lose my appetite for a long time so I did lose my regain and that's a really good thing!

This place has REALLY slowed down. And not just this particular section, the entire site.
What a shame. A great wealth of knowledge was lost...

I am almost 4 years out and I lost my weight very fast!! I lost 132#'s in 6 months. Because I had stricturres and needed 5 endoscopes with 4 dialations with a ballon. It started right after my RNY, I got to where I couldn't even hold down Water. This started in Nov of 2013 with my last endo dialation on Jan of 2015. Strictures are like scar tissue that closes your opening so nothing gets in or it takes a long time to go down. It felt like the food or water would sit on the top of my pouch and then went down slowly. Only to make me vomit it all back up. So I developed a Food Adversion, because I was so afraid to eat. I lived on oatmeal, Baby Bell cheese and Cheeto's!! Which my Dr knew about the whole time. I was told that if I had to eat whatever it took to nourish my body. But up side of this is I am great!! I have finally been able to branch out at what I can eat beleive me. LOL Not one Counselor knew what to do. The one I went here in my town didn't have a clue of what to do with me. Finally, I called my Surgeon who set me up with a Bariatric Counselor. But I didn't like her anwsers. She wanted me to eat every 1/2 hour that I was awake. She had me buy BOOST High Calorie junk!! I was so frustrated!! I told my hubby that I just traded one eating disorder for another. Now for the good stuff here are my stats: HW 249 (this time I had lost down from 285's) SW 232 LW 117 CW 125'#. So I have maintained my 124# loss for 3 and 1/2 years. I really don't know if my quick weight was a probem with my skin issues or if it is my age because I had lost 135#'s during one of my ups and down dieting. I didn't have any skin issue then but I was 52 and very very sick at that time. I have had a Panni done in Sept of 2015. They removed 10 plus pounds off my lower stomach. Now thats another story. LOL Sorry that I wrote a book. I just have lots to say!! You should meet me in real life. My hubby threatened to buy a Chastity belt for my mouth. LOL When we were first married. LOL Those memories just pop up sometimes. Any how have a great Sunday. Congraulations on your journey. Look forward t following it.

Bradenton, FL

Tampa, Florida

Tampa, Florida

Fayetteville, NC

@@OKCPirate
@@CowgirlJane
@@Babbs
@@VSGAnn2014

OH DEAR LORD!! That apostrophe in the title is HORRIBLE!!! FIX THAT:


Veterans ONLY please. One year + post op.

Please respond to this thread ONLY if you are a year or more post op. Thank you for your consideration.

Many of us have expressed a desire to have a "safe place" for vets to discuss our progress, our maintenance plans, or just grumble in general. This forum is supposed to be that place, but it's quite often used as an "Ask A Vet" opportunity which is awesome, but sort of defeats the purpose.

@@Alex Brecher and I have been tossing around ideas on how to better suit the needs of us oldies but goodies.

We can restrict the forum by post number.

We can restrict it by time registered on this site.

We can restrict it by time post op.

It's MY opinion that post number isn't working. Time post op makes most sense, but people can easily lie. I truly think we can sniff those people out, so this is MY first choice. The third option also makes sense if we say they have to be here 18 months of so. That would give them 6 months of pre-op diet time and then a year post op. Of course, Alex can make exceptions on a case by case basis.

Please chime in with your opinions!!

If you don't like the idea of a Vet's Only Forum, that's OK, too. You don't have to utilize it, but you are more than welcome to.

I will probably always identify as a WLS "patient" if for no other reason than when I go to restaurants to eat. Although I feel more like a "normal" person when making food choices, exercising, etc., because my sleeve holds so little, when dining out I always ask about ordering from the kid's menu, and if that's not an option, hubby and I frequently split restaurant meals, or I'll order what I want and take the leftovers home for another 1-2 meals. I know there are plenty of "normal"/non-WLS folks out there who do that also, but that was not part of my pre-WLS habits so these days it's a regular reminder. I don't go into detail with the servers about why I would like to order from the kid's menu (assuming there's something on it I would enjoy), I just tell them I don't eat much. Most of the time they are quite accommodating.

@@jenn1
yes
i am close to 5 years PO
i can/will never forget my "roots"- days pre-sleeve
the day i do, is the day i can look "forward" to problems
the sleeve is NOT the only thing that defines me
but it's way up on my list
short and sweet - i will always be a sleeved "proud" grammy
my life has been saved with a my wonderful weight
health issues, you know the rest, are amazing
happiness abound
these issues were all helped/solved with the aide of WLS
how could i forget?
I need/will always monitor my food very carefully
i can't afford to go backwards where i started
that's why i will always consider myself a "WLS survivor"
i will always consider myself a proud 17+ year breast cancer survivor
no difference right??
Long live the sleeve
and me too!!!
that's my story and i'm stickin' to it!! LOL
Kathy

Only my husband knows, and 5 years after surgery he is still the only one. I have told no one else as I don't want the snide comments.

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Only my husband knows, and 5 years after surgery he is still the only one. I have told no one else as I don't want the snide comments.

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@NavyMom2006

I had a 2 year honeymoon period so was very lucky on that. An illness kept me mostly bedridden for awhile and I detoured somewhat from healthy eating and picked up 30#. I stepped on the scale after a few months and remember sliding down the wall in sobbing tears. Knew my jeans were getting tight but not that much.

I went back to basics and began Protein first and logging my food. Took 6 months but I lost the 30# plus another 20 over the next year and have maintained since. I am slightly over 4.5 years out.

Best wishes on your journey.

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For me going through Mexico was the far easier route, for two main reasons. The first was what I wrote about in my previous post - my BMI was around 32 at the highest, and my insurance only provides coverage if your BMI is over 40, or over 35 and you have co-morbitidies (my conditions do not qualify with them for eligibility). So I would have had to gain a substantial amount to be covered, and even then would have to go through a lengthy process. Or pay $29,000 to $35K which wasn't feasible at this stage of my life. The other reason why it was so much easier was full control over when I had the surgery. I didn't have to go through six months of nutritional classes, psychiatric evaluation, or a plethora of tests. I felt confident I was a strong candidate based on my endocrinologist's recommendation for having the VSG and the research I'd done on it specifically for low BMI women with PCOS. She ordered a full panel of blood tests to rule out cause for concern before I booked the surgery. I also had a blood test and EKG in Mexico before the surgery. I was able to choose the exact date for the surgery. I'm a professor and was wanting to fit it in during the stretch of time I had between quarters so I could recover before returning to work. It was an uncomplicated and stress-minimal experience.
In some respects I think going to Mexico requires more work on the patient's part to become informed because you have to educate yourself instead of receiving all the info from your surgeon's office. I did receive information from my surgeon's office - a binder - but that was after, not before, the surgery, and I wanted to be prepared in advance. It was simple to do, though, with the ample amount of information posted on sites like the ones for the mayo Clinic's bariatric center, Stanford, UCLA, etc, plus learning from forums, YouTube, and the like.
I also loved that I paid for the surgery, and that was that. I've gotten sucker punched by medical bills before, such as when I was treated in the Emergency Room and found out later on that the doctor was not in my network. That was painful. People on here have written about getting similarly unpleasant surprises, such as huge bill for an anesthesiologist who wasn't in-network, even though the surgeon who performed the WLS was.
So when someone says going to Mexico is the easier route, I don't take offense to it at all. As Einstein said, "everything should be as simple as possible, but not simpler." Some people really benefit from the educational classes their surgeon provides and all the required testing, and they can get their surgery fully covered by their insurance. For them, having the surgery locally makes perfect sense. I do think that going to Mexico because you were deemed to be too at-risk for the surgery in the US would be an entirely different situation. Someone over 65, diabetic, with a history of blood clots, etc, would be taking on far more of a gamble with their health than someone like me who was low-risk. The woman who died in Mexico might have had risk factors that contributed to her death after WLS, and she might not have; she might have been in fine health besides her weight. One of my friends who was never overweight, never drank, never smoked, was a runner, and the epitome of health died in January of a heart attack at age 32. She had no idea she had a heart problem because she'd never shown any symptoms of it, and was too young for the routine testings older people have to detect issues and treat them.

@NavyMom2006

I had a 2 year honeymoon period so was very lucky on that. An illness kept me mostly bedridden for awhile and I detoured somewhat from healthy eating and picked up 30#. I stepped on the scale after a few months and remember sliding down the wall in sobbing tears. Knew my jeans were getting tight but not that much.

I went back to basics and began Protein first and logging my food. Took 6 months but I lost the 30# plus another 20 over the next year and have maintained since. I am slightly over 4.5 years out.

Best wishes on your journey.

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