Neversaynever

I love this article. In fact, I just set daily alarms for my Calcium since I have been forgetting.

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This is a godsend. Thanks for posting this!

I think of it as both a gift and a tool. It is, of course, a tool that is in my toolbox for losing weight. It will be driving the bus for the next year and all of the weight I lose will be because of the surgery. After that, it's on me. It is also a gift, for me, because of all of the other abdominal surgeries I have had on my intestines, I never thought that I was a candidate for the surgery. I went to the original seminar back in March with the intention that I would have the surgery if they say I can, but that I would do the diet plan no matter what. Here I am three days post-op and I'm very happy that I could do it.

I get that for you @sharonintx it is overbearing and obsessive, but for me, it is well-written and to the point. I CHOSE to have this surgery. It is up to me to make sure I do not fail.

To me if I view it as a gift, it's because of the fact that these surgeries exist. The fact that we had the surgery was a choice. With making that choice we chose to do what we had to do to succeed. After the fact, what we have to do becomes the next choice. What I got from the article was if you know what you have to do to succeed, whether it be crushing pills or drinking Protein Shakes ( Other methods for those that cannot physically do that) get over your complaining/crying and make the choice to do them. Otherwise your making the choice to fail.
I personally found it motivational and again thank you @Neversaynever for posting it.

GREAT article. So much truth. Thank you @Neversaynever for posting it!!!
If I tried saying what the writer did It would come off in such a different way. In my head it would sound exactly like they wrote it but whoever I said it to would hate me because of the way it came out. Copy/paste the link to this anytime a new post on the issues mentioned is made.

Good frame of mind, I like it. I keep considering sending my picture in to Bariatric Pal, but I have resisted, see I was told so long I was obese, ugly and no one would want to look at me, pictures were prideful that I can't believe anyone would want to see mine. So Looly you look with "fat" eyes I guess I'm still looking with "ugly" ones. But the Fat Shell is cracking, at this point I think I still resemble my dead Mama but surely by Spring I will look younger, maybe I'll get brave then!

Still wearing my same sweatsuit and sweaters wardrobes dang it! Good news the panties I bought accidently at Wally World over a year ago that were too small now fit, I am on the verge of undergrowing some of my bras, and I think my legs are starting to look less like elephant foot umberella holders, and , dare it say it? curves and definition like normal ladies, rump starting to flatten out but belly looks balloon air has leaking out of, rather blobby and flaccid. And my waist is inching smaller, oh I may never make 36-24-36 but maybe 40-27-38? that was in my prime, maybe 20 years old, oh being alive is reward itself, but I would like to be known or spoke of, by my name instead of so-and-so's fat whatever, be it mom, grandmom or friend. And I plan to be more decisive instead of appeasing everybody. The roadway of life is littered with flat squirrels who failed to make a decision. And when I replace clothing it will be in pastels, bright shades, maybe polka dots or plaidsn tired of retiring into the background of life. I am going to be so vibrant I shall vibrate!

I had my sleeve surgery in November 2016. Pre surgery weight was 470. After 2 week pre-op diet I was 440. This week I weighed in at 220 pounds. That's 250 pounds LOST and it's been easy. I am insanely glad that I made the decision to get this surgery. I've heard stories of people who gain weight back after this surgery, and it baffles my mind because even 2+ years later I still get full so quickly. I can't imagine how anyone can eat too much with such a reduced stomach size. I know instantly that I cannot eat anymore once my stomach is full. I know instantly that if I took another bite I would feel physically ill. Anyway, I am beyond happy with my health and the way I look. From a 58 waist to a 36 slim fit in jeans.
Yay me!

Ok so I know a lot of you don't weigh yourselves more then once a week. I usually weight myself about 3 times a week. I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that I am actually losing weight ☺️ So I weighed myself on Friday I weighed the same as I had 2 days before 201... Today I got on the scale just knowing I must of gained after having stuff I should not of had at a party last night. Hey it is the season to Celebrate. To my astonishment the scale read 197 whoooohooooo. I have not seen anything under 200 in years.
I did a happy dance in the bathroom. I am so happy I took this journey. I'm getting my life back.

Right after surgery, I wondered if I did the right thing. It was a little rough and I worried just like you. But each day things slightly improved. It doesn't happen overnight but it is pointed in the right direction. It took a full 6 months before I was really happy with the decision.
Some people right after surgery cannot even get a good nights sleep. Therefore they are deprived of the rest they need to restore their bodies. Some on this site found it easier to sleep on a recliner for a few days. So this site is full of people who lived problems after surgery and found ways to deal with them. So if you have a specific problem put it out there and someone may have a specific answer that will provide relief.
The three most important elements after RNY gastric bypass surgery are to meet your daily Protein, Fluid and Vitamin requirements. food is secondary because your body is converting your stored fat into the energy that drives your body. Thus you lose weight.
Weight loss is achieved after surgery through meal volume control. You begin at 2 ounces (1/4 cup) per meal and gradually over the next year and a half increase the volume to 1 cup per meal. With this minuscule amount of food, it is next to impossible to meet your protein daily requirements by food alone, so therefore you need to rely on supplements such as Protein Shakes.
So hopefully, your surgery team gave you detailed requirements for the various daily vitamin requirement, the fluid requirements and the daily meal volume and food types (liquid, puree, solid) as a function of time. Mine were provided in a 1 inch thick binder. If this was not spelled out in detail, we will try and help.
I wrote a short article about my experiences after surgery. It may help. http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/Surgery.pdf

Happy Holidays everyone. Just wanted you all to know I did end up losing 7 pounds after 14 days of hellish torture LOL. My doctor said my liver shrank a little but not a lot. He said it will continue to shrink as I lose weight. I was on 19 medications and he said that can sometimes have an effect on the shrinking... so now we know. Surgery went well and other than feeling like I did 100 situps I wouldn't really know I had surgery. No real after effects. I threw up once in the hospital when I took too many of my 19 meds at once but other than that no other issues. I'm back to drinking normally with no problem. Still no food yet, I have 8 more days to go to get to puree but I get milk and yogurt on Wed and I'm really looking forward to it. I think it will settle okay but will do small amounts at first. Thanks, everyone for being so nice and supportive! Love this group!

Last Christmas, I was one week post op. Sore hips, knees.
Versus now. Running, diving, cycling and loving a whole new life, 100lbs lighter.
A smooth run all year, rigid adherence to my programme for the first 9 months, more relaxed in maintenance mode but hold myself in a 133-137 lb range with good diet (lowish Protein - except today because it is Christmas so I am relaxed about it!) and 80g protein a day (ham and turkey are ON my plan today!) and exercise.
Love love love this new life.

I live in the US, but will be visiting family outside Oxford for two weeks in May 2019. I’d love to attend a meetup if one happens then. Obviously I can’t speak to anything involving NHS, but the post-surgery experience is about the same for everyone.
One thing I am hoping to do while there is go to Alton Towers and ride all the roller coasters I wouldn’t have been able to ride before the surgery!

Hi,
I'm new to this site but feel compelled to give my review of the Adjsutable Gastric Orbera Balloon procedure and weight loss afterwards.
I started at 51 years old 103 kg. I lost 17 kg in a year with the balloon. That was Nov 2014. Now all the weight is back on.
After researching all weight loss surgeries and procedures I really wanted a kick start but not an invasive, risky and permanent surgery which I thought was a bit drastic for my particular circumstances. I have been overweight all my life really. I think I was looking pretty good at age 17 in a bikini but even then I was 70kg.
FIrst child born at age 23 and from then on till age 50 I have fluctuated between 85 and 100 kilos. Kept a bit extra weight on after each of 3 children.
Like most people I have tried all the diets and programs, been regularly walking and to gym, spin class etc and then fallen off the program.
I usually managed a weight loss of 7 - 10 kgs only to put it back on after a plateau or falling off the diet for various reasons. Personal tragedies and medical surgeries can throw anyone off their motivation for weight loss. I never judge anyone who battles the weight issue because you never know what any person has been through. Sometimes your own health and diet is the last thing on your mind because youre doing well getting through the day.
In Nov 2014 I decided to have the Orbera Gastric balloon inserted. Of course you expect to feel a bit nauseous and that was the cases. You have to adhere to a strict Optifast diet then clear Fluid diet before the procedure. This is so there is no risk of food going into your lungs. Its a fast and simple procedure.
Initially I thought this is fantastic!! Drastically reduced appetite. Couldnt manage very fibrous things, cant eat steak or hard meat but I was getting by without feeling faint or weak on so little food I was completely amazed. Like many overweight people I thought I'd be passing out on so few calories. I still managed to eat most things just very small servings.
After a few months you get used to this new reduced stomach size and without CONSCIOUS WILLPOWER you can start to eat more and more. I was NOT eating chocolate cake and rubbish but once again found my servings growing. (One negative i found was that for the entire year I had it in me I had to sleep on my left side as the balloon seemed to slide to my right if I lay on my right side. This caused muscular problems now and then but was just inconvenient and annoying more than anything).
Every few months you go back for a quick anaesthetic (after the usual Optifast then clear Fluid diet) for a top up of the liquid in your balloon. For me this process went like this
Initially - 500ml....After 4 months...700ml.....After 7 months...800ml... After 9 and half months ..900ml. (I was told the Balloon is only guaranteed for a year)
By 11 months I couldnt stand the sick feeling constantly and lack of sleep and had it removed. I was on Nexium for the reflux and nausea for the entire year.
Sometimes I woke up in the middle of the night mid-vomit. It was easier to sleep on your back but I often needed a pillow under my knees.
Summary - I can see that the balloon is a really good kick start tool for somebody who has put on weight but who doesn't eat for emotional reasons, is disciplined, perhaps not a full on foodie, is prepared to really follow a strict Portion Control permanently even after the balloon is removed.
It was my fault and I now realise I MUST be disciplined or nothing will work.
I now feel I really do need a reduced appetite. I am going to a lecture this week about the gastric sleeve surgery. My GP says she has several patients who have had the Gastric Band and the balloon and have later decided to get the sleeve done. I personally dont like the idea of the band for the catching of food around it, nausea etc. Some people I know who have had the sleeve are really pleased. It's my last dash.
I wish you all luck. Just thought my review might help some decide eve though this is just my experience.
Over to sleeve issues now ...

You look so different, amazing!

Not quite at goal, but I'm beginning to think this is where I need to be. Total of 72 lbs lost in 8 months. I feel incredible inside and out. Finally broke down and bought much needed clothes.

Oh my @ Miss Poodle, quite a backstory here. You probably saw from the thread I started September 2018 Surgeries and Success my post-RnY- road has been twisted and rocky not the smooth highway I had planned. After I was diagnosed in October with A stomal stricture and multiple ulcerstions. I started complaining less than a fortnight in, but I was just a stupid fat patient, They Knew it ALL and I knew nothing! Maybe I don't have fancy diplomas and degrees, but I have lived in this body Many Many. Years, I can TELL. some things aren't right. And I can into this surgery with a DX of gastritis and one ulcer per my gastroenterologist. In hindsight, an alarm bell🔔should have gone off in someone's head, but NO--- THEIR MAGIC SURGERY WOULD CURE EVERYTHING in my previous life. And a BIG HA HA THERE!
Okay they started me on Carafate, to sooth my ulcers into submission. By this time I had 5 evil little critters, 2 in the pouch, 3 on the back wall of the jejunem. And these were the type that could bleed or perforate. I have followed Dr Noria's instuctions, deleated and diminished foods so I was back to a basic bland liquid duet, started taking Carafate, keep on Zofran and all the Vitamins and minerals, every 2 weeks or so I am back getting scoped. 12th October, 26th October, 9th November and finally 28th November. Although the way one of the instructions was to not smoke, no problem, never did, neither did my son, we don't even allow it my home as I am also asthmatic. But I am not allowed to be in the presence of an active smoker or someone with the residue on their clothing.
So I went in late November, would have been sooner but Dr Noria took herself a Thanksgiving holiday and that delayed things. Well I have had 7 endoscopies lifetime do I could write a textbook on the sequence of things, the Endoscopy staff recognizes and calls me by name, that sort of thing. Dr Noria must have suspected something because this time I was positioned in a different matter. I asked for enough sedation that I would be asleep, they did mess up once and leave me totally awake, see ginger-tops like me require a different level of sedation, but that's not pertinent now. When I woke back up in recovery,usually I am just in a holding area temporarily, something is up. Nurse says " Doctor wants to talk with You" ought oh this MIGHT NOT be good! Dr Noria came in along with Dr Steven Stinson, who I had net in the main office and developed a rapport with, he had not even been there when they did the endoscopy. Either he had been wandering around aimlessly on the surgical floor or she asked him to accompany her. I suspect the latter, I have never seen anyone there who had the luxury of wandering aimlessly. Well not only did Precious Pouch still remain red, angry and swollen but my intestinal well was continuing to ulcerate and it showed signs of continuing to move down toward the third segment. Not good at all! Then I was told I would be admitted. as soon as a room on the 10th floor, the same floor where I recovered from my RnY. The Endoscopy suite was on Floor 2. And I had a beautiful big one, 1006, I think it might once have been a double, at the opposite end was a futon couch and a couple tilt back chairs so my son could stay with me. Still had my IV in, only thing I was taking orally was a part of my meds and a Protein enhanced Water drink,in peach mango. On Thursday the 29th Dr Noria told me I was unable to take orally enough protein to heal, I would require 90-120 grams daily and on the diet I had it just wasn't going to happen, so that afternoon I would be having a PICC LINE installed late in the afternoon. Scary Larry proposition but I had come too far to quit now. Was scared first I would have a port in my subclavian on my upper chest wall, but no , it is kind of interesting, it was introduced into my left basilic vein, went up into ever increasing sizes of veins until it rests in my superior Vena Cava a scant distance of several cm from my ❤, just above my Atrium. And the Cath is 48 cm,in length. They let the site rest for about 18 hours but then started my TPN feedings on Saturday, at first 24 hours and cycled 12 on, 12 0ff. and when I went home on 5th December, I have a battery powered pump which fits in a medium sized black backpack, fed 14 hours, free of it for only 10 hours usually during the daylight hours. And I am worried I am developing food indifference, anorexia, something in that neighborhood. If I manage to get it down it means no more to me than a 💊, just something to keep me living. Someone told try eating something that appeals , nothing does, and these before and after diets sillykitty, Green Tealael, Fluffy Chix keep posting pictures of, I just scroll by, they disgust me!
My son brought me some cereal with milk, 2 spoons and I'm not sure it will stay down. He is trying so hard to please me, I'm ashamed I'm so broken.😪😭💦

This time a year ago, I was lying in hospital having had open surgery. I had my gastric band removed, including the port which had been replaced using mesh which had rolled up and caused a few issues including abscesses and infections on and around my liver.
I had the band removed, and a ‘fobi pouch’ variety of the RNY - with a slightly longer but narrower stomach than is usual, with a small silastic ring sutured loosely around its middle - no stomach stretching for me!
Initially I made my weight goal the same as my gastric band low - 80kg (176lbs) and then as the weight dropped, reset it at the top of the ‘not overweight bmi’ range for my height 70kg (156lbs) - this seemed wildly optimistic to me.
I dropped just below that at my 6 month mark - remember, though, I was a ‘lightweight’ at the start at 106kg (234lbs) pre surgery, down from my 260 top weight pre the gastric band 10 years ago.
I dropped another few kilos when I got gallstones, bringing me down to about 145lbs or so, and all together pretty healthy and happy. But getting OFF my weighloss treadmill (metaphorical) was a challenge. Changing to maintenance eating was harder than I imagined, and giving away that desire to see the scales drop a small bit every morning was very hard indeed. I could see how eating disorders could take root at that point!
Anyway, in July I decided that if I was going to have a successful maintenance, exercise needed to be a regular feature in my life. I started the Couch 2 5k programme using an app, and from not being able to run for one full minute at the beginning, I now run 5-8km (3-4 miles) three times a week, and do weights at the gym the other four days. And I am loving LOVING the new me! Being mid 50s and starting running is a bit unusual, but building muscles long since forgotten is a new challenge and I love seeing the gains. Running a bit faster has replace being a bit lighter. Lifting a bit heavier has the added bonus of toning and making that lose skin a bit less bothersome!
I eat 1200 calories a day, including 70-80g Protein at least. I have three meals a day, with one healthy snack - necessary to get the calories up - I really needed to stop losing weight as I got down to 130lbs briefly and it felt TOO light - 135-137 is a good range for me, mostly psychologically! I try to limit useless carbs - if I eat sweet rubbish (even sweetener instead of sugar) the sweet cravings return with a vengeance. I suspect this is addiction-like and I will have to guard against backsliding in this area for a long long time.
The worst part of the journey? - dealing with people constantly asking when I will stop losing weight, telling me I am too thin, telling me I am taking it too far etc. Only women, by the way - blokes have been uniformly complimentary. Most women too - I love being told I look strong. People comment on how much more energy I have, how strong I seem. People literally don’t recognise me in the street. I see them thinking ‘I think I know this person’ and then jolting in surprise.
I have not one, single bad word to say about this whole experience - but, I utterly, religiously and with the help of many here, stuck to my programme. No excuses. Some slips - but straight back in the saddle (after a ‘penance’ session on the hated elliptical!)
THIS WORKS.

Yep varied plans maintaining. You know me, I indulge. I have times I carb load. If your in weight loss mode don't eat what I have in my food diary.
I posted it earlier, Hope it brings a smile your way. I want to see who can keep up with Henry. Everyone dance!

So happy that people are continuing with this chain! I am down 75 lbs since the my start weight. Coming off much slower now...but still losing several pounds each month. So I'll take it.
Would ultimately love to get to 100 lbs off...but if you had told me that I'd be down 75 pounds by New Years, I wouldn't have believed it was possible. Best. Decision. EVER. is right!
Happy 2019 to everyone!

I am 20 lbs from hitting goal weight and feeling real strong. As of Monday, found out I am pregnant. My husband and I have tried concieving the past two years, and did so many tests. No outcome. After weight loss, followed by improvement of health (No high blood pressure, apnea, etc) we got a miracle baby. I was told at the start of surgery to be careful and NOT get pregnant but at my age, we're thrilled.
Before pregnancy my weight loss was great! I feel strong and my skin is pretty good (besides my lower stomache) Now, Im doing my best to eat healthy and not overly gain weight because im eating for 2. Im still chowing down on veggies, salads, staying away from fried foods, etc, and really planning on only gaining weight around my belly not everywhere else and safely shed baby weight with diet/exercise. Ive had stalls but I feel like alot of my stalls was from gaining muscle. My stomache is still small and im glad ill be feeding my baby healthy nutritious food instead of pizza, and just bad stuff that I would have been eatting a few years back.

I was sleeved 5/17/18. I’m now maintaining in the 130-133lb window. I’d like to go to 119 just to say I weighed under 120 lbs again but it would be ridiculous. I already look too thin at this weight. I’m a size 6. I could fit in the same clothing I fit in from the time I was in my teens all the way through my mid 30’s. Not losing more/maintaining is as difficult as getting the last 79 pounds off in the first place! The desire to lose is always with me. However, just as I was disciplined with myself about reaching this goal, I have to be equally disciplined about remaining a safe and healthy weight.
If it’s not one thing, it’s the other. 😄. I much prefer this challenge!!!

Down 95.5 since my pre surgery diet which started mid April this year. Surgery was the first week of May.
I stalled for almost a month, but this week I'm dropping fast. I made no changes, just rode it out.
I'm in onederland which I truly knew I'd never see again before I made this choice.
I'm "obese class 1" now. Still work to go, but I'm more than happy with my slow and steady approach.

Doing amazing here!!! I’ve stalled at 180 the past few weeks but I’ve not been keeping to a strict diet because cherry cordials are my weakness!!!!!! But still feeling great! Down 107lbs from March when I began this, and 80lbs from surgery . Best. Decision. EVER.