notmyname

I’m down 75#. Biggest NSV is that packing for a trip is so much easier. My jeans take up a fraction of the space! For someone who packs carry-on only, this is a HUGE (or maybe small) deal. :). I was even able to pack tennis shoes to work out - I’d never have had room for that before!! Now I just have to resist the urge to fill my bag.

I take bariatric fusion orange. They have a sample pack so you can try all flavors before committing to a big bottle.

Even though I haven't always been overweight, I've always felt overweight. In HS/college, I was likely in the high end of healthy weight (didn't stop my mom from putting me in WW/Jenny Craig/Nutrisystem constantly since I was in middle school). Got overweight in college, obese in my early 30s, probably. Because I always thought I was big, I didn't realize I was SO big until I was morbidly obese. In a lot of ways, up until then, I was just growing into my self-image.

Hot chocolate: 1 cup milk (I use fairlife for more protein), heated. 1 TBL unsweetened cocoa powder, 1 packet sugar substitute of choice, a drop of vanilla and a teeny-tiny bit of salt (like VERY little salt). Yum and counts as protein.

I was able to have any puree I wanted except cruciferous veggies (e.g. brocolli) at 3 weeks. I don't eat beef or chicken, so not sure if I could have had those. That said, I didn't buy store bought baby foods because they have too much sugar, are expensive, and taste like crud. So, I just made my own purees. I got some half-cup glass jars and made a bunch of purees (sweet potato, spinach, beans, lentils) and froze them. Then at night, I'd put some in the fridge to defrost for the next day's meals. Super easy and it maybe took me an hour or two to make all the purees I needed for that stage.

Edited to add: I'm a sleeve, not RNY, but for my doc the following would apply to any of his patients - RNY or sleeve. Agree with fluffy that it may be the sliders. But you also mention drinking water with your egg and crackers. My doc doesn't want us to drink water until at least 30 minutes after we eat because it can push food out of the stomach faster than it should. So, if you're drinking water with your food, maybe try that? Also, sometimes carbs (the crackers) can make you hungrier - at least they do for me. Maybe try egg with a bit of some sort of other protein (breakfast meat/faux meat or something like that)?

I took a bunch of stuff and ended up not needing most of it. I wore a very loose dress to the hospital and wore it home (I mean, I was in it for all of an hour the day of surgery). Because of the heart monitor, I couldn't have worn PJs if I had wanted to. I used my iPhone/iPad, chargers, lip balm, and hand lotion. I had my hair up in a pony tail and didn't brush it (to be fair, I have curly hair, so I never brush it). I also took a pillow to put between me and the seatbelt for the ride home, but my hospital gave me a pillow for that, too - not sure if all do.

I remembered another one - I have a shoulder bag that never really fit over my shoulder. Now it does

Remember, most people will post if they're having problems, they won't post if everything is going well. So, there are always going to be more posts about problems. And don't compare your previous bills to what you might need to do self-pay. Those numbers are basically invented. Nobody pays those. Sure, self pay for any complications would be high, but not nearly as high as what they "bill" insurance - that's just a dance the hospitals do with insurance.

re: rings, I highly recommend these spiral ring sizers until you reach your ultimate size. That way you can wear the rings and not get them resized until the end. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0757JLTY7/ref=oh_aui_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1 my glasses are also too big (I've had to start wearing my spare pair, which are tighter), and my pants too long. My wrinkles are definitely starting to show now that my face skin isn't as tight. My cross-body purse hangs lower on my body. The seatbelt in my car no longer scratches the bottom of my neck - it sits lower where it is supposed to. And a ton of other things.

well, i joined a stepbet. You bet on yourself (games are $20-40) and they draw your steps from your fitness tracker and create a daily goal for you to meet 4 days, then a higher "stretch" goal for 2 days. Its based on where you are, so someone who runs every day currently will have a higher goal than someone who is currently sedentary. If you meet the goals for the duration of the game (2-4 weeks), then you split the pot at the end. If you don't make your goal any given week, you lose your money. So, I guess it works - to get my stretch goal for today, I stayed on the treadmill an extra 15 minutes. So, I guess its doing its job. Just need to keep it up for another 4 weeks!

I use sparkpeople. Basically the same thing as my fitness pal. When I first had surgery, I had a google doc chart that tracked the following things: Medications (when I took them) Liquid/Protein (Time, what type of liqiuid/protein, oz of liquid, g of protein) Breathing exercises (the hospital gave me a breathing device and asked me to use it several times a day - I tracked the time, number of breaths, and volume) Walking (time and how far. For example, at first it was how many laps around my row of townhomes, then by time). Space for notes. I did this for about 2 months just so that I could see the progression. For example, I could see when I was able to increase from 1 oz of wter in 15mn, increase how any laps around my row of houses, etc. I found that after 2 months, I just needed to track via sparkpeople and my fitbit tracks my exercise.

Thank you. That helps.

I'm trying to decide how much oil to add to my tracker for my restaurant meal. I had about 2 oz of seared shrimp and less than 1/4 c. of charred broccoli. Clearly there was some oil involved. I'm thinking 1TBL is too much, but would rather over count than under count. Does that sound about right? Thanks!

Make sugar free hot cocoa: 1 cup milk (fairlife to get more protien), 1TBL unsweetened cocoa, 1 packet sugar substitute of choice, a drop of vanilla, and a teeny tiny bit of salt. Made with fairlife milk: 92 cal, 14g protein, 9g carbs, 1g fat I'm craving veggies. I don't have enough room to get my protein and eat many veggies. I used to have a big ol' veg stir fry for dinner and salad for lunch on most days and I miss both.

My labrum in my right shoulder was torn half way around and I was looking at surgery to fix it. In fact, that's one of the reasons I had WLS - I felt like I was too big to take care of some things left handed after my shoulder surgery. Both my sleeve surgeon and my shoulder surgeon were 100% comfortable with my having shoulder surgery around 6+ weeks after WLS. Luckily, somehow my shoulder has been feeling much better since WLS, so I haven't had to worry about it. I don't know why its better (one guess is the gas used in surgery migrated and helped stretch the joint so it wasn't pinching my tear - happened when I had my MRI with contrast, too. Other guess is that resting it for about 3 months - the 6 weeks to recover from surgery and 6 weeks recovering from a broken foot - helped). So, no direct experience, but I know both my surgeons said that after about 6+ weeks from WLS, I'd be healed from that and OK for shoulder surgery. Good luck!

I know enough about myself to know that if I set a goal and don't attain it, I'll feel like an utter failure. So, my first goal is to lose 60% EWL, so I'm gunning to be average. My second goal is still in the overweight range, but it was the point I really started to feel like I was really heavy (even though looking back I looked good). And I've also set a hopeful goal which I won't feel bad if I don't meet, which is a point where I felt comfortable with myself when I was in my late 20s/early 30s. It is above the "normal" weight range, but I tend to be really muscular and I looked good at that size. When I was in my teens I lost a LOT of weight and looked terrible. Even as a teenager I looked bad at those lower weights. I can't imagine what it would look like on a 40-something woman with extra skin (looking back, I realize how unhealthy it was for my mother to consistently put me on a diet so I'd be in the lower end of healthy BMI).

re-measured this AM. Actually lost an inch at my waist over the month. Phew! Although that means that means I had 2.25 inches of fluid retention yesterday. Need to look at that. I eat almost no salt (in fact my doc says I need to eat a bit more), so not sure what it is.

Thanks - I mentally know this. Just irritating. Need to remember to measure in the AM next month.

So, I know this is a journey, and it'll start going the right way, and blah, blah, blah. So I just want to rant. I take my measurements once a month. As of today, I'm 3 months out from surgery. I lost 10.6 lbs this last month. And somehow I GAINED 1.25 inches on my waist. Also gained 0.25 inches in each calf. Lost inches everywhere else (except my neck, which is the exact same size it was before surgery), but still just a touch irritating. I know I measured at the end of the day vs. in the AM, so there's food in there, but it can't be 1.5 inches worth of food/liquid. OK, rant over. Focusing on the fact that I'm losing, and that I'm still almost 34 inches down over my entire body (bust, chest, waist, hips, both thighs, both calves, both upper arms, neck). And am down 70.6 lbs overall - roughly 50 since surgery.

It is antibiotic ointment. A lot of places don't have it because they don't believe it really works. I remember a doctor telling me i was mad for using it when I lived overseas.

I've lost a total of 70 (both pre- and post- surgery). I just started to see it a little. It didn't help that I didn't lose a pant size until I'd lost 50#. So, now, every month I take pictures (front and side in a full-lenth mirror wearing roughly the same thing) and measurements (bust, chest, waist, hips, both thighs, both calves, both upper arms, and neck). I still really don't see it in the pictures, but I can see where it's coming off in the measurements. For example, I saw that I lost a LOT in my legs and hips in month one, but almost nothing in my waist - which is why I wasn't really losing clothing sizes. Month 2, though, I could see that I lost several inches in my waist. So, while my brain still looks in the mirror or at a picture and says "You look the same", my brain can look at the measurements and logically know that isn't true. It has helped me a lot.

Different programs have different rules. I didn't have to stop at the beginning of the program, but my doc does not want us having alcohol after surgery during the rapid weight loss phase (he'd prefer not ever, but he's realistic). Both because of the empty calories, but also because of something I don't completely understand about the liver - that the liver is busy dealing with the weight loss - and we metabolizing alcohol differently after surgery. I haven't really asked because it wasn't that important to me. I'd eventually like to have a glass of wine every now and again, like on my birthday, but I'm not worried about it now. It may be good to taper off before surgery, but its worth talking about with your surgeon.

I think they all pretty much do that. I know sparkpeople will also let you put in a recipe and how many servings and it'll calculate the macros for a serving. It will also let you save groupings. So, for example, I drink hot cocoa - so I have a grouping with 1 c. fairlife milk, 1TBL cocoa, & 1 packet stevia saved to use. I think most of the apps do this.

I use sparkpeople and really like it. I also use a fitbit, so use that app to track exercise. For vitamins, I have an app called Good Habits that I'd been using for habit formation. You set a habit, say when you want to do it, then check when it's been done. It then tells you your trends in what you're doing. for example, pre WLS, I wanted to get in the habit of bringing my lunch to work, so I set that up as a habit. I could see how well I was doing or not. So, I set up my vitamin schedule in there (it will also send a reminder) and check them off when I take them.