MSinger

Hey all, this is a very long overdue post. My 1-year surgiversary was 5/23/18. I am down a total of 90lbs, so I'm still on my journey to my goal weight. Things are going well. I had a horrible plateau right around my surgerversary, but I have been steadily plugging away. I may not be losing as quickly as I'd hoped, but I am thrilled to be where I am now. 10lbs away from exiting obesity, which is something I didn't think I'd ever see again before having this surgery.

My sleeve still functions and provides restriction. Not as much as the first few months, but I feel it's only a slight difference. I still have to stick to high protein foods for the most satiety. 

My eating plan is pretty routine: 

fage yogurt for breakfast

cereal with fairlife milk for "second breakfast"

1oz almonds as a snack

1 protein bar

Dinner is usually 4oz meat with a side of veggies cooked in butter

Evening snack is a half bar of Lily's chocolate. 

I exercise on my spin bike 4x/week. 

Drink 2L of water every day.

The name of the game for me is routine, routine, routine. I don't feel good when I veer off my eating or exercise plan. Even though I'm not losing as quickly as I've seen others on this board, I am losing steadily which was not happening prior to surgery. I still feel reduced hunger compared to preop.  The sleeve absolutely helps me every day. Even on days I fall off the wagon, I don't eat nearly as much as I used to, and then I just get right back on the wagon.

Some changes I'm still feeling since my surgery is that I still get nauseous when I drink plain water so I have to flavor it. I always drank plain water pre-op. It's not as bad as before, but if I push it and try to drink more than one glass of plan water I start getting queasy and need to add flavor. I still have difficulty tolerating vanilla. It tastes super sweet so I stay away from anything vanilla flavored. I still have to be careful with chicken breast - making sure I chew slowly and pace myself. 

Plans on the horizon is to get to 100lbs lost which is also when I am officially not obese anymore. I would also like to start running when I get down to 220 as I've been having joint pain when I tried to start running at a higher weight. I am also in the middle of a cross-country move that I am excited about. Hopefully, all the activity next month with packing and running around will give me a bump in weight loss for the month. 

Anyway, I thought I would drop a line with some progress. I've also noticed some wonderful progress from other members since I was last on. Congrats to you all!

Month 2 is in the books! I am 8 weeks out today and weighed in this morning. Down 4lbs for the month. It's not the number I was hoping for, I had a few struggles this month and fell off the wagon a couple of times. I also had to play around with my eating program a bit, but I feel I have figured out what my sleeve needs. Eating 6x a day and limiting the number of calories I eat per meal has been working well.

Activity-wise, I'm plugging away with my daily walks. My activity tolerance is slowly improving and I'm not as dizzy as I have been, but I'm not trying to push it. I'm still heavy enough to feel small injuries. What I hope is that as I lose more weight the activity will come more easily for me. For now, I learned not to feel guilty or compare myself to others. As long as I am losing I'm doing ok. I also noticed that days I push myself too hard physically my hunger goes crazy. I'd rather take it easy on activity than to eat back all of my progress. 

Going into month 3, I feel like I have my eating program, activity program, and my food tracking figured out. I just need to stay focused and keep plugging away. I am happy that my weight is down for the month, but I'm hoping for a better loss next month. Let's do this!

Well, all the status posts on AM workouts had me in the mood to try my hand at it again. I believe this was the first time I've taken a morning walk as a post op. It went.. ok. I really loved it for the same reasons I liked it preop, but I didn't drink enough water before I headed out the door and came back home very dizzy. So I'm gonna try again tomorrow, but this time I'll make sure I'm better hydrated before going out.

Today marks 7 weeks post op! This month has not gone as smooth as last month did as far as eating on plan. I had a couple of days this month where I ate well over my calorie budget. Even though it was not nearly as much as I used to eat before surgery, it doesn't take much for me to stall.

I'm not sure of my weight loss (if any) because I'm still weighing once a month, but whatever number pops up when I weigh in next week, I am still doing better than I ever could have before having surgery. I still know that I for sure would have blown it by now as I have never been successful for more than 2 weeks. I am also taking every failure as an opportunity to learn. I realized I made bad choices in some of the foods I bought because the sugar/carb content stimulated my hunger. There are certain foods I have to stay way from if I want to be successful. Even with that, I made some adjustments and do not feel deprived at all. 

My plan is still to weigh in once a month. I feel it really makes me focus on nutrition and what I can do starting at my very next meal to be successful. When I'd weigh in weekly sometimes I'd have a week where I knew I was not eating as well as I could have, yet I still had a loss. It could have been a big poop, or pee, or dehydration, but I'd remain blissfully ignorant and loosen up on my diet the next week to celebrate. On the flip side, I had weeks where I was working hard, diet was on point, and I'd lose less than a pound, sometimes nothing, sometimes I'd gain... and it would break my spirit. Weighing in weekly is too emotional for me and I believe on some weeks it can be misleading regarding the overall trend. That's what I'm interested in now - the overall trend. If I weigh and measure everything I eat, stay on plan, then I feel comfortable weighing in once monthly for the time being.

This post is much longer than I was expecting, but lastly, I'm learning how important it is to stay positive and believe in yourself. It truly makes a difference. Preop, when I would wake up in the morning, I would always be in a terrible mood, but I'm stopping myself and changing the script now. There was a story on the radio of a famous science fiction writer. When she was initially writing her best-selling series, she would line her manuscripts with little positive mantras. She believed in herself and achieved her dream. I think all of us can do the same with the right mindset.

So I've been playing around with my eating schedule and decided yesterday that I was going to increase my meals from 5x a day to 6x a day with smaller portions. I went from 4x a day to 5x a day a few weeks ago, and it went well, but I was wondering if it might be better for me to constantly be eating, even if it is smaller amounts.

Today's the first day I'm trying it out, and I'm noticing something very strange. Even though I'm eating smaller meals, today I'm feeling MORE restriction from my sleeve. I don't know what it is... Is there a "sweet spot" where if you eat past it your stomach goes numb? I know it usually takes me a long time to feel my restriction after I've eaten, about 45minutes or so.  Anyway, I've been eating every 2hrs and for the entire day today I've been feeling full.

It's weird. I'm coming up on 7weeks out and I'm still learning how my sleeve works.

This post is an attempt at, as the kiddies say, keepin it 100...

I've decided I need to re-vamp my diet. Starting today I'm transitioning to low carb eating. I have always been extremely carb sensitive. I've always loved sweets and would spiral into terrible binges the more carbs I introduced into my diet. I've been doing ok post op since I'm focusing on getting my protein first, but over the last few weeks, I've been able to eat larger volumes of food and started introducing more carbs into my diet thinking I'd be able to control myself better. Unfortunately, I noticed I'm starting to slip.

I thought since I had my surgery that it would be ok for me to eat carbs and I wouldn't have the same food cravings since I would have restriction, but that line of thinking isn't quite working out. Carbs are easy to digest, even if it's paired with protein. The only thing my sleeve keeps me from doing is eating an ungodly amount of food all at once. I can easily eat a smaller amount several times to total an ungodly amount of food. 

This choice is tough for me, because I always wished I could be that person who eats one serving of chips and is satisfied, or has only one serving of ice cream, or one slice of bread. The "control" I think I have only lasts a few days, and then descends into me repeatedly going to the refrigerator for more food. This never happens when I'm on a low-carb diet. 

I know I have restriction because although I have been eating more food this week, it is nowhere near the amount I was eating preop. But this is not the only thing I need in order to successfully lose weight. I have to meet my sleeve halfway and focus on foods that do not stimulate my appetite the way simple carbs do. I'd love to have chips, ice cream, crackers, but those are the foods that led to where I was preop. No more. I am thankful for the help my sleeve is giving me, but it's not a complete solution. I have to do my part and choose the right foods that will help me be as successful as I can. 

Happy 4th to everyone 

Looks like I burned out my first kitchen scale. Checked the batteries and it's still not working and nope.. dead. Got a new one on Amazon, so I'm gonna have to stick to pre-portioned foods until it comes in.

Today I am 6weeks post op. I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone by! I've been thinking about how much I've learned since my first surgeon appointment in March up to now. The last few years have been really tough as I tried so many different ways to lose weight, only to see little to no results. Unfortunately, feeling so much disappointment really took a toll on me mentally and made me question myself.

Although I had my recent slip-up, I am still so thankful to have had this surgery and to experience the discipline over food that I now have. I feel so much more in control and happy with the foods I eat. You don't have to have a gigantic, greasy, calorie-dense meal in order to feel satisfied. My lunch today was 2oz of smoked rainbow trout with 2oz of kale yogurt dip and it was delicious 

Well...I just got my first lesson on how this surgery is a tool, not a miracle. Went grocery shopping hungry, bought some "extras", came home and made some poor choices for the rest of the day. It is scary how quickly the calories added up, and how quickly my sleeve feels empty after eating. I ate a lot of food 

I feel bad, but I'm gonna use this as a lesson. First off, it's not the end of the world. I'm 6 weeks out tomorrow, and this is the first time I've fallen off the wagon. That level of adherence to my diet was unheard of preop - I always broke within a week or two. Also, I went back and re-read my NUT materials. It's a good time for a refresher. I'm gonna learn what I can and just move on. Yesterday's poor decisions have no control over my choices today. 

I have a new-found respect for cottage cheese. 4oz is 100cals and 15grams of protein. Super filling for my sleeve too!

Happy Monday all! Well, I hit my step PR today during my walk - 4k steps. It's not much, but it's progress so I'll take it. And I wasn't dizzy after I got home. I wish I could have stayed out longer since it's so beautiful out, but I started feeling a bit woozy so it was time to pack it up. 

I also increased my calories from 800-950cals, so I'm wondering if that's what is helping with the dizziness. In the grand scheme, I know it's a low amount of calories for anyone, but it's like I almost feel guilty for eating "so much". I'm only 5 weeks out as of tomorrow, and I've seen people posting 600-800cal/day at 5weeks. I'm 6'0 and I'm wondering if that may have anything to do with it. I don't want to undereat if that could be what is making me so tired and dizzy, but I also have this fear that it's a slippery slope and before I know it I'll be back to overeating. Of course, I'm doing all that I can to prevent that, but this is something I feel I'm gonna worry about until I learn to trust my sleeve more.

Happy Thursday! Nothing much to update on, I'm just writing to keep up the habit. I've been plugging away at food/protein/water goals. Going grocery shopping tomorrow, so next week I'll be (slowly) introducing new foods to my sleeve. I still feel a good amount of fatigue which currently is my biggest frustration. There are people who reported feeling their energy come back by now, and while I have had a steady increase, I still get fatigued pretty quickly. Fingers crossed that I'll turn a corner soon!

Month 1 is in the books!! 17lbs lost since surgery, 32lbs down in total. I am so happy with my progress. I have a long way to go, but I am so psyched to see a loss this big on the scale. It's been years since I've seen any real loss at all. Goal for this month is to work on increasing my activity. Let's do this!!!

Happy Friday!! I bought a case of isopure protein water in the punch flavor and am not crazy about it. I liked the blue raspberry, but wanted to change the flavor up. Hopefully I'll get used to it, but I guess I'm gonna have to power through 12 bottles of this stuff. Ahh.. the things you do for protein...

Increasing my meals from 4-5x/day went very well. The portions are smaller, so I don't feel as run down after eating, and I had more time to drink my fluids instead of rushing in the evening to get the rest down. Hooray for successful experiments  

I'm considering changing up my eating schedule. I currently eat 4 times a day, but may decrease my portions and increase my frequency to 5x/day. I feel like my meals are too large and experience quite a bit of pressure after my meals. We'll see how it goes...

Today marks 3 weeks post op  I already can't believe all the changes that have occurred. I still have my ups and downs energy wise, sometimes I get a little attitude from my sleeve when I take too big of a spoonful at once, but I'm happy that I'm tolerating foods well and I'm continuing to slowly progress my diet. 

I was thinking today about how just a few days before my surgery I was contemplating whether or not I should even go through with it. At that point, I was thinking maybe I could do all this on my own (even though I have been trying to lose weight for the last several years and have done nothing but gain weight). Well, it's been 3 weeks now and I have followed my diet to a T. Although I've had some junk food "fantasies", I have never been tempted to actually break my diet. Preop, the longest I could last was a few days, 4 days max, and I'd break and order grubhub. Yes, the sleeve is a tool, but right now it has been instrumental in my ability to stay on point. I would never have been able to do this pre-op. Trust me, I've tried!

3 weeks post op tomorrow... yay!! Woke up dizzy this morning and I'm really not sure why. Been doing great with meeting and exceeding my water goals, but it could be the heat. 95 degrees outside as of right now 

Still surprised that plain water is making my queasy. I really wish I didn't have to depend on flavorers to drink my water, but minor complaint overall. Made my queasiness worse when I drank some plain water and took my vitamins without any food. That, I learned, is a no-no for my sleeve. We're still getting to know each other...

Lesson for the day: Get. Your. Water. In. 

I only drank about half the water I should have yesterday. I usually make my water goal, if not exceed it a bit, I just was not in the mood and let it slide. This morning I went out for my walk and all of the sudden felt dehydrated adn overheated. Of course, it being almost 80degrees at 10am didn't help, but it makes it all the more essential to make sure you are well-hydrated. I came back home a dizzy, parched mess, and barely made it through my shower. Today is gonna be fluids, fluids, fluids!

Feeling much better today. Yesterday I was very run down, so I stayed in and took a nice long nap during the day and ate an extra yogurt. Right as rain now  Happy Friday!

The fatigue lifted a bit the past two days and I even went both days without taking a nap, but I think it's catching up with me today. I might be taking my *second* nap for today....zzz....zz..z...

Just had my dinner: 3oz ff refried beans, 1 ultrathin slice of colby jack cheese, 1tbsp sour cream. It was the most delicious meal I've had since I started my pre-op diet.  

Second status update for today... look at me  Doing better with mushy foods, tried 2oz ricotta cheese, had some hiccups but otherwise did well. I also killed it on my walk - 2k steps! It was tough, I was a little tired, but the dizziness was minimal and I had enough energy for my shower afterward. Hooray for small victories!

First day back to work today! It feels good to have a regular routine again, but after two hours of sitting at my desk I'm dizzy and tired. I work from home, so I'll just take a nap during my lunch break, but if I were in an office, I probably would have asked to go home by now. 

Going to see surgeon and NUT today for 2-week follow-up. I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. Feeling better every day, my pain is minimal at this point, so no more getting stuck on the couch! I'm meeting my protein and fluid goals too. The only thing that is still bad is my energy levels. I still can't go past the end of my block without feeling dizzy and having to turn back. Hope that advancing my diet will help give me more energy.

I'm a week post op today and I've been walking as much as I can tolerate. I thought I was doing well until I looked at my step count and saw I'm getting 2-3k steps per day. I tried to go out to the park for a walk today and really enjoyed it since the weather is beautiful, and this was the first time I've been outside walking since surgery. Well.. I stayed out too long and didn't have enough steam to get me back home. My large incision was extremely painful and I almost passed going up my stairs   

So I guess my lesson for today is to listen to your body. Right now, I feel challenged at 2k steps per day and I suppose I need to lay off the pressure to do more until I'm better healed. I feel like my activity tolerance should be higher, but I'm not going to push it.