FluffyChix

Haha Agreed! I was like..."Dayummmmm! I wouldn't even look that good at any of her weights AFTER PLASTICS!" *snort* Still laughin my butt off over here! But I do bring up the diff in low abdomens too...I have noticed, since adding back some very limited maintenance crap, that even though my weight is low (at 133 this morning now at 131.6), my tummy/hip measurement is slightly larger than it was when I weighed close to 140lbs. I can only attribute it to the question I'd posed to @ms.sss. I think that even adding my treats and the occasional wine or booze, is giving me more insulin response and I'm gaining weight in my lower abs from it. Thoughts?

Hahahaha! I thought that was @ms.sss! Damn better reading comprehension skills needed today! TY for letting me know!!! Apologies to Ms.SSS!!! She and you are still two of my heroes I'd be thrilled and happy to grow up to be when I grow up!

Let me start by saying you look ABSOLUTELY amazing!!!! What a gorgeous figure!!!! In any of those 3 pics (they all look diff), but you are gorgeous!!! So wild how subjective this is, but I think you physically looked leaner at 137lbs. Question for you...had you started weight loss shenanigans with food/sugar and booze at 137lbs? Cuz you look like super low body fat on the right. It looks like you have abdominal padding (tiny bit more) on the left. That could be explained by bigger insulin responses to food...puts the fat storage first, on the lower abs.

Yes, it's very common. What does the doc advise?

Absolutely. This is me. For that reason, I made a pact with myself and Mr. F. that no matter the day, our day starts early enough to get 30-45 minutes or an hour of exercise in and done for the day. That way, there is no guilt if we're beat. But if we can do an extra 15-30 minutes after dinner, then it's a bonus day. Takes a lot of pressure off too to do it when you're fresh and have the most energy.

It took me 3-4 months before I could feel the PO "full feeling". So I never "chased" that feeling. I went and still try to go "by the book" meaning, I go by my doc's and RD's prescription for food volume and protein quantity per my stage. At almost 19 months, I'm on my forever diet plan which is 1 cup of food by VOLUME per meal total. And daily I must get between 55-74g protein. I must also get 100+fl oz liquids daily and take my vitamins and exercise. Every dang day. So. That's the life plan. For you, 12 days PO, you may only be at 1oz liquids every 15 minutes. You MUST trust and follow the doc and RD prescript for volume. Cuz volume is king. Forget about chasing the full feeling. At that volume, it would be legit that you would experience hunger every hour or two. Cuz in full liquids you're probably getting in about 350-400 calories per day. Nowdays, if I experience hunger between meals, I KNOW it's cuz I'm thirsty. So I ALWAYS drink first. I can drink about 6-8fl oz of water very quickly before I say, wow! My rule forever is hydrate with water first and if still STARVING in 20 minutes and can't defer, eat a hard boiled egg or raw veggies. Something low reward and <100cals. Oh and BTW? I still don't chase the full feeling. I try with all my might to stop at 1 cup per meal regardless of whether or not I'm still hungry or no longer starving. Hope that helps.

Congrats! That was quick!

You should be fine. Reactions to the contrast are very low. It makes you feel warm in your who-ha area and maybe in your tummy but it isn't alarming. It literally takes only a couple of minutes. They'll start an iv. That's the worst part, but it's not a big deal. Good luck! It will be awesome to have that baseline scan!

Do you take metformin?

Ohhhh! See I can't think of avocado as a sweet treat. I can think of it as a thickener and healthy fat underlying a chocolate berry smoothie though. It replaces banana! I will try your avo sweet smoothie though. Maybe this weekend. But the green smoothie is ball busters awesome!!! It's almost like a green gazpacho maybe? So so good. You can even add a spoon of greek yogurt if you want. I just use water. But you can do any kind of milk or liquid that you want. Sometimes I use hibiscus tea as the base of it.

Daily Water intake = A+ : I get 100+ oz of fluids per day from all liquid sources Daily Protein intake = A I get exactly what I target per day cuz I pre-plan my day of food based on what I know I will be eating. Food choice = A+ I adore my KISS meals that we eat about 80% of the time. I crave clean food and love how I feel after making great choices, whether that's eating in or eating out. Flexibility = A+ I never plan for cheating. I think we're human. And no one can be a 100% perfect ever. So the cheats take care of themselves. Cheats happen. So no need to plan an organized one. But when a cheat does happen, then I go with the flow and enjoy the hedonistic pleasure of it all. When it's done, I don't beat myself up. I just get back to TCB. Portion Control = B+ I still struggle with the concept of whether I should be eating to my pouch volume, or staying at my doc's and RD's prescription for me. I know I have a larger capacity and could eat more than most people here. I just don't let myself do that very often. And the times I do eat 1 1/2-2cups of food (mostly with salad or veggies), then I feel guilty even though it's all legal and healthy food. I don't want to stretch my pouch or injure my stoma. Mindful eating = B+ : I really do try to think about my choices in the moment and the big picture. I also try hard to make mindful selections. But I need improvement in savoring each bite and slowing things down. Exercise = A+ I feel very proud of my daily exercise habit and am starting to use bands for toning and doing quit HIIT routines which will help me build muscle. Vitamins = A+ I'm very programatic and have my times down for when I take daily vits. Self image = C- Dysmorphia is a *****. I see myself as heavier than I am, especially if bloated and not poopin like a princess. The dysmorphia really forks with my self-esteem. But I am doing serious head work on this and I have a great support system that is helping me improve. Mental Health = A I feel very strong and healthy and happy. So blessed and thankful/grateful to live this new life. What's not to love. Relationships = A I feel that my relationship with Mr. F continues to grow and evolve in love and respect. Family and friend relationships have continued to be stable and happy. Self care = A I may have swung too far in the self-care department. Ha! Trying to not think of myself and care so much. I have been focused on losing for 3 years super-intensely and in healing. Now I'm focusing on how I look. Now that I'm in maintenance, it's time to turn my focus outward toward helping others. Love the post!!

hahaha! I sure hope a sf popsicle is ok anytime. I'm really just trying to address the habit of feeling like I'm entitled to feed cravings at bedtime. Just trying to train the dragon (hypothalmus=aka lizard brain) Can't imagine a sweet avo smoothie! What I do for "green" avocado smoothies: 1/4 avocado (about 2 oz) 1-2 oz baby spinach (fresh) 1-2 oz cucumber fresh lemon juice/zest (lots) 1/2oz celery (optional) garlic s/p cilantro scoop of super greens powder (adds a little tart sweetness)

You are NOT a slow loser. You’ve lost 4.85lbs per week over the last 7 weeks. You are above average!!! Ave loss is 2-4lbs per week.

Stop watching My 600lb Life. LOL! Seriously, that show is cool, but gives all of us the impression that we should be able to lose 25lbs in a week! LOL! The average rate of loss is 2-4lbs per week. That's it. If you weigh more, you "can" possibly lose a lot more than that per week in the early months. But that's not a general truth. You're doing great. There will be stalls. I had a 3 week and a 6 week stall.

As the others have said, each doc has their own plans and you totally need to work with your doc and RD to determine their plan that fits your nutritional needs. We're all very different as are the way our tools react post surgery. The one thing I learned is that you just can't "chase that full". For many of us, it doesn't exist or exists in a form we don't yet recognize. I didn't start feeling a send of fullness or a "stop" signal until about 3 months. Our nerves have been cut and they aren't sending trusty signals to your brain as they should. That's why VOLUME is KING. It's important not to exceed the quantity PER MEAL that your doc recommends for your particular stage. Once you have that, then you work backwards starting with protein. I literally have a 1 cup limit. I CAN however, eat around 1 1/2-2 cups of food depending on if it's protein and veg or if it's salad, or a fancy gooey casserole, or soup/stewp. But just because I CAN, doesn't mean I should. You know? So I try to rack up as many meals as possible where I honor my doc's and RD's limits for me of 1 cup per meal--ever--forever. Cuz that's gonna protect my tool from stretching and hopefully protect me from regain. I place a 1 cup measuring cup on a scale and then I weigh in my 3oz of protein. (I'm 18 months out and can easily eat 3-6oz of protein at one sitting if I let myself. But I honestly ONLY need 2-3oz of protein per meal for my body size.) Then I weigh in lean veggies (al dente) until my 1cup is full. That's it. That's the meal concluded. Add a tsp of fat equivalent. And you have your meal. The End. Right? Except, we're humans. And sometimes that won't satisfy. And that's ok. We're human. But our job is to PLAN to have as many days/meals on target as humanly possible. And also, to not stress or beat ourselves up over that 1 meal where we mess up. It's just important not to PLAN to mess-up. Right? The reason I weigh is so that I know exactly how many macros I'm getting in and grams does that more accurately than volume. But your tummy doesn't recognize grams. It recognizes VOLUME. That's why it's important to do both.

I woke up between 4:30 and 5am each morning and drank steadily until 10-11pm. It took focus and timing. It MUST be done.

Personally, if you KNOW your tum empties quicker than normal, then I would want to start with the sleeve procedure where you keep your pyloric valve. When you do RNY, you cut out the valve and only have a stoma, so it's an open system. I think you will have issues with satiety in both surgeries. But you might have a better chance with satiety in the sleeve where more of the vagus nerve is cut, more of the grehlin producing portion of the tum is cut away and the pyloric valve is intact. Also, if you have to revise, you would be able to revise to DS with more malabsorption for better weight long term sustained losses. Also with DS, you can eat quite a lot of food due to the malabsorption. So if you were struggling with satiety, would have better tools to deal/manage it. An RNY surgery is pretty much the "golden shot surgery" and no really helpful revisions can be made from it.

I would agree. I'd revise to a DS. You probably need that surgery. I don't think you will be happy with the RNY and think you will likely not get to your goal weight with it. I can say this because I have RNY (virgin surgery) and have a larger capacity. So I do not feel a whole lot of restriction. And food goes through my stoma very easily. So I have to be extremely careful of what goes in my mouth, calorie, volume count and limit food in the face of hunger. And I got to my goal. But it took iron balls to do it. And not everyone can put that kind of limit on themselves. If you haven't already, you need to have your sleeve evaluated to see if they left too much of the fundus in tact, or if it can be revised to make the sleeve smaller in a re-surgery. If it's surgeon error, they should have to fix it. If it's your error through overeating or eating around restriction, then a new surgery won't necessary fix your head and you will need to consider counseling along with a new anatomy if you want to avoid having this same discussion in the future.

Ughhhh! The pits feeling! Just a thought hon. Can you just drop the carbs to about 30-40g per day and keep calories up around the 1000 mark by adding fats/protein and see if that helps? I'm sorry this is happening!! Also, did you only just recently start working with a trainer? Are you doing anything different?

I'm so sorry to hear about your ulcers hon!!! Take that medicine, especially the carafate! Exactly as they tell you. One of the things that is a hidden acid is dairy--like milk, whey, and yogurt. So I'd avoid that. I'd go for soft meats such as foil baked white fish, poached chicken (minced with meat lube aka low sugar, low fat, low carb gravy), ground turkey, ground chicken, shrimp, eggs, egg whites. I'd go for very soft veg like canned green beans, broccoli and cauliflower cooked to beyond hell. Applesauce, canned pears, canned sugar free peaches. Mashed cauliflower rather than mashed potatoes. Mashed butternut squash or even brown butter pumpkin is an awesome savory and low carb side to your meat. You can make a bunch of tuna salad (the recipe can be repeated with canned chicken and also canned salmon and crab). Low residue diet for sure as @RickM suggests. LOW LOW LOW acid and low spice/heat (chiles chile peppers etc). Heal quickly hon!

Can I officially become a fan girl? This is me to a T. I intuitively ate my way up to 325lbs. Yes, I have some genetic predis, some medical stuff, a few meds, but I also have behaviors that were all Willy Wonka Oompa Loompa around food. And I am gonna just own it. I didn't magically end up at the Morbid Obesity Ball. I contributed to my own destruction through willful self-indulgent choices and emotional and uncontrolled pursuit of hedonistic food panacea. So if I want a snowballs hope in hell of "magically" keeping this weight off, I better hold my toes to the fire and my actions accountable. The only way I can do that is to not "wing it" or "eyeball it" or whatever euphamism you want to tack in there. Cuz I sure as hell plan on weighing daily, and weighing and measuring to know how to fix things when I'm 3-5lbs up from goal. I hope and pray I never see anywhere close to 325 again. I was a dead woman walking and felt miserable 24/7/365.

Oh dear god. This should come with a warning. ? Do I really have to read "Female Ejaculate" in the Frequent Posts Column until this post gets buried into submission?

What are you eating? Are you weighing and measuring and logging your food? How much water are you getting in daily. How many calories and your macros that you target. What surgery did you have. Are you measuring and taking pictures?

were you sweating, and shaky with your heart beating fast/

You know that's not puree right? That's WAY too much texture for puree. That is more like smashable soft foods. That could be part of why you are having issues. Puree is VERY smooth and baby food texture and sorta kinda runny-ish...think of VERY thin pate.