BajanSleeve

Thank you ladies! I don't mind a kick in the pants every now and then. I posted this last night and would you believe I woke up today 1 lbs smaller? lol crazy. Yes @GreenTealael I HEAR YOU gotta drink that fluid. It is impacting me, I can feel it. @FluffyChix it takes me 3 days because I have to take many breaks, its not a flat terrain. Got lots of hills.

Thanks ladies. I'm also hoping it never comes back!

Aaron I am just here to encourage you. Consistency is always the challenge. Having to push through pain to exercise is no joke. Can your primary care giver help with that? What I like about what you have said is that you are not in a defeats mindset. You see where the challenge has been and acknowledge it. I can hear your will and desire to get back on track. I am positive there are those like you who have faced weight gain after WLS but have reversed it and you are not giving up. Often we have to be our own best coach and not rely on others who do not understand or appreciate the battle with obesity - sadly even a spouse. Kudos to you for pushing through and remaining positive in spite of having so many balls to keep in the air with kids, studying, marriage, botched skin removal surgery and weight management. Nuff respect to you. seriously.

Well, I thank God that I have lost 50 lbs. I have gone down 3 pants sizes which makes me quite happy. I have just gotten back 4 pairs of pants from the tailor that were all taken in. I can do SO much more than what I used to be able to do at almost 300 lbs. I can mow the lawn, weed whack, I can stand up long periods, I can dance, I can bend down and tie shoes and wear enclosed shoes because my feet are not as swollen as they once were. I have far more energy and since my blood sugar is more under control I just feel a lot better in general. So here is the be honest with yourself part. I could be farther along in this process if I were stricter with calorie intake and if I were exercising. I am not writing this so that I can receive lectures - I am choosing to be transparent and honest. I know I could be doing better. I have not lost weight in 3 weeks. I have gained upwards 3 lbs and then got it off but not gone past my last weight loss mark. I have reached the stage where I think the honey moon is over and now I will need to work to keep that scale moving. I can also eat more than I could before. Thankfully I can now eat chicken and I seem to be able to tolerate an egg even though that still makes me feel sick. I find that I am not hungry during the day time but my hunger starts from around 6 pm onwards. I am hoping that the weight I have lost so far will be the catalyst to help motivate me to further changes and incorporate some kind of exercise that I enjoy into my life and be consistent with it. I do have a treadmill in my bedroom - geez - I know. I am not motivated. I by the treadmill. I have found a class on Saturday afternoons that does a community African dance class for adults and I am seriously thinking of that. My only exercise right now is when I mow my 1.5 acre lawn with a push mower. Takes me 3 days and that burns tons of calories but that is only every 3 weeks. In general I do not binge eat. In general I eat good, whole food. I get most of my protein from meat now but I do still use protein powder. I do not always drink my liquid goal. Actually, I don't get it done most days. I will have dark chocolate, ice cream and some chips. In small amounts. I am encouraged though. Encouraged that I can still make the adjustments going forward to reach to at least 100 lbs weight loss in a year. I will not quit. My main goal in this whole journey of VSG is to be able to come off of insulin because of weight loss and day to day controlling my diet. I am at 250 lbs which is still very big. I'd be happy with 60 more lbs off. I will be so happy to make that post when that day comes. I am off to my college reunion where I have not seen friends in 25 years! I am so much bigger than I was back then but grateful that they wont see me at 300 lbs! It will be the first time travelling since VSG so we shall see how the eating regime goes when I am overseas.

Hello ladies. I actually was on my period the day of my surgery but I had started to get sporadic periods prior to it - maybe every 2 or 3 months I would get my period. I am almost 49. I have not had a period since surgery which was 3 months 5 days ago whooooohooooo! Listen, I am not complaining. I am looking forward to menopause actually. But I just wondered if anyone in my age range experienced your period stopping after you had VSG. And if it stopped did it stop only for a certain period of time and then come back? Or did it go away and never come back ? The latter is what I am hoping for lol

What made you choose the Sleeve over the Lap Band? LAP BAND IS AN OLD VERSION OF WEIGHT LOSS SURGERY. YOU WILL GET BETTER AND LONGER RESULTS WITH VSG 2. Have you had Hair loss with the Sleeve? IT HAS BEEN 3 MONTHS SO FAR AND I HAVE NOT LOST HAIR BUT I AM VERY CONSISTENT WITH TAKING BIOTIN AND SUPPLEMENTS. I ALSO USE A NATURAL BIOTON SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER 3. What can you absolutely NOT eat now with the Sleeve? 3 MONTHS IN FOR ME AND MOST MEATS ARE STILL DIFFICULT TO TOLERATE EXCEPT FOR SOFT MEATBALLS, SHRIMP AND SOFT FISH. NO BIGGIE TO ME BECAUSE I AM LOOSING SO MUCH WEIGHT 4. At what point did you know you made the right decision with the Sleeve surgery? WELL, I HAVE LOST 50 LBS IN JUST 3 MONTHS. BY THE END OF THE YEAR I HOPE TO BE ALMOST 100 LBS SMALLER. THAT IS A HUGE THUMBS UP FOR THE VSG 5. What as been the best tool you've used in keeping your weight loss progressing? STAY AWAY FROM SUGAR AND CARBS AS MUCH AS YOU CAN AND YOU HAVE TO THROW IN SOME EXERSIZE, ESPECIALLY WHEN YOUR INITIAL SET OF WEIGHT COMES OFF

2 years??!! wow...…….I would really be sad if I could not eat a good piece of roast lamb again. So I should not think its strange then. Sigh.

Well geez. I am 3 months post op and I had a convention and had to eat out. I tolerate soft meatballs so I decided to buy 2 tablespoons of soft beef stew for lunch. Oh boy that was a disaster. When I left the mall and was driving to my event I had to pull over twice to vomit. My gosh did I feel sick for about 3 hours. awful awful awful. I just don't understand why at this point I cannot seem to get meats down. Its protein! And low carb which is important to me as a diabetic. Has this happened to anyone before? it was projectile vomiting UGH!I am getting ready to celebrate loosing 50 lbs!! Its only 1 lbs away. I am SO thrilled. I am traveling for the first time since my surgery to my 25th college reunion. Really hoping that I will be able to get by being overseas and no access to my usual go to foods. Guess it will be protein drinks galore. I remember feeling like I would fail at this but here I am getting ready to celebrate 50 lbs after 3 months. I can clearly see how loosing another 50 by the end of this year is possible and I am getting EXCITED! I bought my first 'regular size' clothing 2 weeks ago. A regular size large. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh that felt GREAT! I have not been able to fit into anything but plus size clothing for about 6 years so I was real fussy

my go to food at the moment is cooked shrimp. I don't seem to do well with most meats except soft meatballs and occasionally soft fish. So shrimp it is with cocktail sauce. I will be 3 months post op in 10 days. I try to stay away from carbs, no rice or pasta but I will eat a little bit of mashed sweet potato with onion powder in it. I still like my blended soups with blended meat in it. Still can't hack chicken or pork. I always have small packs of peanuts at home. They are my most popular thing to eat when I am on the road. I only have one pack a day. 180 cals per pack

I would say 3 weeks is the better time frame to recover from VSG. Even after 3 weeks I still felt weak but much better. Maybe you could reconsider asking for an extra week. No harm in asking the question

Hi there. For aprox 2 weeks after surgery you will feel weak in general after going under general aesthesia and weight loss surgery. So factor that in. I could not really do much at all during that period and had zero energy. you have to give your body time to recoup from the stress it was under during the surgery and it does not necessarily mean its the food. I always remind folks 2-3 weeks post surgery that its important to put electrolytes in your liquids. The tired and weak feeling is often related to low blood pressure and dehydration. The electrolytes help with both. Try using them and you should feel a difference. Make sure you do your lung exercises. Did you receive the thingie that has the 3 balls in the chambers and you have to suck through the tube to make the balls rise? Do that for 2 weeks.

I was able to drink a lot as well. I think its pretty common. Just try to avoid drinking and eating at the same time once you have moved to pureed foods

I am using the patches. We will see if they have been working in about a month and a half when I have blood tests

I mix a 64 oz bottle with my drink at the beginning of the day and put 3 scoops of protein powder in it which is 60 grams. I use the unflavoured protein powder. I also add a pack of powdered vitamins into the mix and then shake it all up very well. Sometimes the protein powder can develop into little tiny 'bits' but I don't really mind that. I make sure I drink the whole thing by the end of the day and then I add more unflavoured protein powder into my tea, or soup and even in yogurt. Unflavoured protein powder is ma best friend! They sell unflavoured protein powder on this website. The one I have found in Barbados is the Designer Whey unflavored

amen to all of what you said! The diabetes and hypertension would have killed me young too. I am really striving to come off insulin altogether with significant weight loss. I feel like I a have been born again with just 42 lbs and cannot wait to see what life feels like with even more WL. I am inspired by how much weight you lost too

I am just 2 months in and I am very pleased with VSG! I have lost 42 lbs and I feel like an entirely new person with increased energy and I can finally DO things that I could not do before because of so much weight. I think its essential that you get into your mind that VSG is not just about getting 'skinny'. It is about getting HEALTHY because obesity and its related illnesses will send us to an earlier death. So weight loss is what gets us to a great new life because we are much healthier Also, VSG is not a magic solution. You can still gain weight by drinking all of your calories and not really exercising. Its a commitment and you really have to be all in if you are going to spend that kind of money and go through the surgery etc.

I was allowed to eat blended oatmeal in the pureed stage (stage 2). I put an immersion blender into it and pulsed a couple times. The thing about oatmeal though is that its very high in carbohydrates. Even though I used natural oatmeal and the low sugar prepacked kind I stopped eating it because of the high carb load

I will be 2 months one week post op next week. I am still having difficulty eating meat unless its blended into soup. Chicken seems to be the hardest for me and always makes me feel nauseous. the only meat I seem to be able to handle is a soft meat ball made of ground beef. I tried tuna and its ok but I don't really love it. Shrimp is OK too if you count seafood as 'meat' At what stage in your gastric sleeve post op were you able to eat meat generally? Sometimes I wonder if I am 'normal' in this regard

Where is the WOW!!!! button!!!??? That is an amazing set of weight to have lost AND kept off. Don't loose any more - you are very slim and no doubt healthy

Stalls are all a part of the WL journey so don't get depressed - factor them in. I am currently on my second stall since my surgery in May. my first stall was around 5 to 6 weeks. Now mind you I have not been consistent on my treadmill and when I do that my weight loss kicks up. But I do my own property maintenance with a push lawn mower and a weed whacker and that burns a lot of calories with 1.5 acres! I have to start another set of mowing from tomorrow so maybe the WL will budge. I am only 2.5 months out from surgery so not experienced per se but I have noticed that when I do exercise it seems to help push me out of the stalls. But as many who are far into their WL will tell you, stalls are all a part of it but they do end. Chin up

@Matt Z thanks for much for your reply. What I note is that YOU have been using them for a while and your labs are good. So that is a controlled experiment as far as I can tell. I really wanted to hear from people like you who have actually been using them for a long time. Thank you for taking the time to reply I had my surgery in Mexico and I live in Barbados so I do not have access to a medical support team. My GP is really not au fait on bariatric surgery so I have to rely on doing my own research and asking questions like this in a forum.

I bought 3 months supply of vitamin patches before I had surgery and 2 months in and I am starting to use them. But I have been on Google looking up Vitamin Patches and what I am reading is starting to cause me to think they are not a reliable source of vitamin intake. So now I am quite concerned that I am not getting the vitamins I THINK I am. Have any of you been using vitamin patches for a long time? when you have gone for your check ups have you been deficient ? im thinking of going to get a vitamin B12 shot since reading all of this cautionary reports On another note the vitamin industry is not regulated and some of the reports I have read are that many of the tests revel that they don't have the level of vitamins they claim to have in any event. Do you know of any vitamin brands that are certified and independently tested? Maybe some of you have already searched this in depth and can share the info. Thanks.

Try to stay away from starchy veg, potatoes, pasta, rice. Its way too early for them and even later, remember weight loss is a goal and they will slow your WL down. Try sweet potato instead of white potato when you do crave starch. Its a different kind of carb. I drank watered down premade protein drinks (glucerna protein) by day 9 post surgery that had in milk. I also made very watered down squash and sweet potato soup that I strained by day 10. I felt like I would have fainted without something that had flavor substance so I get where you are coming from

I ate a small banana in week 3 with no issues. I chewed it very slowly. I also used them in smoothies from week 4, a half of one. Make sure they are small or eat a half of a large one. I will be having a small one for breakfast tomorrow actually.