etc. etc. etc.

My tailbone would get sore, too. I've found that I have to sit either ramrod straight or fully reclined. I can't slouch in a chair anymore. And the way I keep my driver's seat (at about a 90 degree angle) weirds my wife out. But you find ways to cope.

For my last meal before my pre-op diet, I went out like a champion. We went to a seafood place and I had the following, clipped directly out of MyFitnessPal: Lobster Tail - Lobster, 16 oz 202 3 1 42 1,456 0 Melt Butter Spread - Butter Spread, 2 Tablespoon 160 0 18 0 170 0 Taste of Home - Double-baked Mashed Potatoes, 0.75 cup 363 30 19 12 537 0 Dinner roll - Dinner Roll, 3 One piece 300 57 5 6 390 6 Homemade - Bananas Foster, 1/3 cooked 400 0 0 0 0 0 Coffee - Brewed from grounds, 2 cup (8 fl oz) 5 0 0 1 9 0 Sugar - Sugar, 4 teaspoon 60 16 0 0 0 16 Half & Half - Half & Half, 3 tbsp 105 3 9 3 45 3 Homemade - Sauteed Shrimp and Scallops, 8 oz. 209 2 9 30 298 1 Wegman's - Salmon - Horseradish Crusted, 0.33 fillet (6oz) 109 1 6 12 102 0 Three Floyds Brewing Company - Alpha King (Estimated), 300 ml 165 14 0 2 105 0 Miller's Ale House - Buffalo Shrimp Appetizer, 1 serving 740 103 77 40 1,760 5 2,818 229 144 148 4,872 31

Overall, I'm pretty happy though. 111 pounds down so far. My wife posted a pic of me today with our kid. It was the first time there'd really been a picture of me on FB where you could see what I look like anymore. People were very nice. Here's another one I took just now.

I'm mostly feeling good these days, but the weight just above my waistband/belt isn't really budging. I have a pretty notable muffin top, I guess.

Undereating is the cause of a stall more often than the solution. You likely need to up your calories a bit.

I think nearly all of us include the pre-op weight loss. But nearly everyone will answer if you ask what the split on pre-op/post-op weight loss is, too. Mine is 27 lbs. pre-op, the rest post-op.

I drink wine 3-4 times per week.

I hear y'all on the airplane seat belt thing... The last time I flew, I had to huff and puff and suck it in to avoid using an extender. It was pretty embarrassing. Shouldn't be a problem anymore, thank goodness.

I went to visit family for NYE and didn't have a BM the entire five days. I got back yesterday and took some Dulcolax and... this was a rough morning. Constipation is maybe the hardest part of this whole thing. I was looking over my numbers in MyFitnessPal and I'm getting virtually no fiber. I think I'm going to have to rework my diet to fix that. Hopefully it won't slow me down too much, but extreme coonstipation is a miserable way to live.

My family finally saw me at New Year's. Except for my mom, none of them knew I had had surgery. It went pretty well and people were mostly really happy for me and excited. One of my brothers did say how proud he had always been of our dad, who had insisted that instead of having surgery, he would do it "the right way" with diet and exercise. "Yeah, but he died," I wanted to say. "His heart literally gave out and he died." But I just changed the subject. Later, though, when that brother started to hear the details of how hard I was working and how carefully I was following the doctor's and nutritionist's instructions, he really got on board. I lost a few more pounds this week, even with the holiday, and I'm in the 220's now for the first time since I was first dating my wife, about 12 1/2 years ago. I'm looking forward to getting to 220, as that will mean I am as light as she has ever seen me. Plus, that will mark the point at which I go from "obese" to merely "overweight" by BMI. I've gone from morbidly obese to severely obese, to obese, but that one will feel good, I think.

Four and a half months out from surgery... This morning, I noticed something weird above my thigh getting out of the shower. Kind of a lump, it looked like. I was worried for a minute then I noticed it was on the other side, too. It was my hip bone. It has never been visible before in my entire adult life.

People are ignorant. This is not easy AT ALL. Read the forums. People judge fat people. They only want them to get better if it comes through a crucible of tremendous shame and suffering. %$#@ that. Get healthy.

I managed to lose a small amount of weight at Christmas. That went way better than Thanksgiving.

Protein2o saved me. It's a flavored water thing available at most grocery stores (usually near where Propel and Powerade and stuff are stocked). The flavors vary, but they all have 15 grams of protein and 0-4 grams of carbs. These drinks have been extremely useful for me in keeping a high protein intake without having to go nuts. I like the coconut and mixed berry, but all of them are at least decent. http://www.drinkprotein2o.com/

I wish I'd seen this challenge earlier so I could've joined in. I was at 250.6 on 11/15 and I'm at 231.0 today.

Are you logging everything you're eating/drinking/taking in? What kind of numbers are you taking in for calories/carbs/protein?

Kroger stores often have some of the Premier shakes as singles. (Kroger owns a bunch of things under other names, but if you have one, you probably know which it is.) Some of the bigger convenience stores/gas stations have them, too, which seems weird, but it's true.

And I most definitely get buzzed/tipsy faster. One drink wears off at the same rate as a normal person, but it hits me like two or three. I wouldn't want to have to drive after having any. Take it easy the first time, as you don't want to end up like me, falling asleep at the table on Thanksgiving because somehow I though two glasses of wine would be okay.

I'm about four months out and I have an occasional drink. It's tricky, though. Liquor burns, most mixers are pure sugar, and I've been told in no uncertain terms that we have no business putting anything carbonated into a stomach that's the size of a banana, as that is practically begging for complications. So beer, champagne, and soda/tonic mixers are out. But wine has been fine. Less acidic white wines, like Chardonnay agree with me, and I have a few glasses a week. There's a cheap-ish no oak chard from Smoking Loon that doesn't upset my stomach and goes down easy. I make sure to save calories for it, as those calories count too. I didn't start adding the occasional glass of wine until I was healed and had dropped off of omeprazole. I just didn't want to push my luck while it was still healing.

I don't really spend any energy looking for "sliders." I'm always about finding the foods that will let me get protein in with the smallest possible amount of carbs and calories. Like those Starkist Tuna Creations packets? Those are 70 calories and 15 grams of protein. If I have one of those for lunch and a Protein2o a bit later, I've saved an extra 200 calories and a bunch of carbs so that I can have something better for dinner and still stay on track for the day. I have Halo Top ice cream or a glass of wine a lot of nights, because I saved room, so why not? The other day, I realized sashimi was loaded with protein with zero carbs and minimal calories. I wish I could afford to eat that every day.

Asking how many pounds a person should lose a week is like asking how long a pair of pants should be. There isn't a one size fits all for this. And 8 pounds in 11 days is a pretty good start! I've lost 73.6 so far in 17 weeks since surgery (plus 26.4 before on the pre-op diet) and I've only gone as high as six three times. It adds up though.

I'm with James. This isn't a wild guess they have. You probably have sleep apnea. A huge percentage of heavier people do. I do. The good news is, getting this surgery may help you get rid of it eventually. I had severe sleep apnea, but I have an appointment with my pulmonologist for March during which time I am expected to get released from my CPAP machine.

I wish I'd spoken more to VSG patients in advance as the advice I got from them on what to eat was waaaaaay better than what my nutritionist said. Don't get me wrong, I stay within the macros and limits my NUT said, and I follow her overall guidelines. But taking her advice on what might taste good to me was like getting a non-drinker's beer recommendations.

Clusie is great. Saved by a Sleeve doesn't have that level of polish and isn't a natural entertainer like that, but he's a regular guy who is very honest and frank and usually checks in regularly. There aren't nearly the number of male VSGers on YT as female, so that makes him worth seeing. https://www.youtube.com/savedbyasleeve

This week, my kid took off running across the park area near his after school care... and I ran after him and caught him. He was as delighted as I was. I don't think he had ever seen me run.