Sheribear68

What an amazing gift to yourself that would be!

Sorry guys. Worked a 12 today, then Pilates class, now I’m about to fall into bed exhausted. Dear Lord, but Mondays can be a challenge Okay so even tho my profile says I had surgery on 2/5, I had it on 2/6. No matter how many times I change it, goes back. 🤷‍♀️ Also, I made a promise to myself to avoid any sugars or artificial sweeteners. The main reason is I’ve gotten this reset and I don’t want to mess it up by spiking my insulin levels. My only drinks are Water, milk, and (eventually when I’m less fearful of dehydration, plain tea and coffee). I only eat whole food— even if that means I don’t hit Protein goals every day. Honestly it means that I still don’t have hardly any room for anything other than Protein, but I’m depending on my supplements to carry the load in the meantime I didn’t spend a lot of time in purées. Like Dub, I just chewed and chewed and chewed a LOT. If you chew enough and take small enough bites, it’s the same as purées, IMO. I’m really watching the carbs carefully, but am keeping in mind that not all carbs are as carb-y as others. For example, I have been eating some Beans with my meat for variety. Yesterday I put a pork butt with some carrots, onions and celery into my instant pot with some beef Bone Broth for extra protein and it was amazing and I actually ate over 1/2 cup! For lunch today I had 2 ounces Brie with 5 raw almonds and 1/2 cup fairlife milk. I also had over 80 ounces Water. One thing that’s helping is I set an alarm a lot of times for an hour at work and I must drink at least 12 ounces water in that hour. Lol, my coworkers are even getting used to the alarm and it doesn’t startle them as much anymore 😂😂 Last night I had to get up 4 times to go to the bathroom within 7 hours, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that maybe some weight will drop the next time I weigh

Thanks for the welcome! Right now I do barely get my protein in if I drink milk. And lol, you absolutely pegged my calorie intake. Usually under 500 cal/day I think one of the reasons I’d like to try IF soon is reading about how the body really won’t cannabalize it’s own protein and will burn fat more. Also a small part of me is scared that when my hunger kick in, it will be so much harder and if I start this now, I’ll have the habit for when the actual hunger kicks in. Ahhh.... I’m going to wait at least a week or two (or however long it takes to hold over 1/2 cup food at a time) then think seriously about this

Honestly if it weren’t for milk, I wouldn’t even come close to protein goals. I plan on drinking 2 glasses daily until my stomach can hold enough food to get my protein goals met.

My advice is focus on water first and everything else second. We humans can go days and weeks without protein, but water is the key to everything. I’m sorry you had such a rough go at first

Thanks so much for understanding guys. Yeah, it’s not a stall because there is a teensy bit of movement down. Honestly I’d be okay with the 27 pound loss had it been a bit more spread out. I know that doesn’t sound rational, but the whole reason I’m even here to start with is—like everyone else here—diets and exercise just have never worked in the past and my brain is going through some serious PTSD in not seeing the numbers move. It was okay when my measurements were also going down, but now that stopped. Lol, now I can’t even drink wine to cope with the stress 🤣🤣🤣

Okay guys. I tried to back read some of this thread, but 143 pages was too much, lol I’m currently 32 days post-op and just finished Dr Fung’s book. I’m trying to decide what kind of IF routine I want to follow but I have a couple of concerns that I hope you more experienced peeps can help me with. I’m trying to decide between 24 or 36 hr fasting intervals, but my main concern is that I’m still struggling to eat more than 1/4 cup food earlier in the day after “fasting” overnight. By dinner time, I’ve drank enough water that I’ve loosened up my sleeve, but I’m kind of worried what fasting for 24 or more hours will do. I’ll definitely want to eat on opposite days, but even now it’s a struggle to eat even 500 calories on a good eating day. I’m ready to get into the habit while my appetite is naturally suppressed by my recent surgery, but worried that I won’t be able to get in enough nutrients on the days I actually do eat. All thoughts and experiences appreciated please

Okay February peeps! I’m now 32 days post-op and I’m starting to get really peeved at the scale. Lost 24 pounds from day 1-12, and 3 pounds from day 13-32. At first I was still pretty upbeat because I was still losing inches, but measured this morning and the ONLY place I lost anything was bust (0.5 inch) and hips (0.25 inch). Nothing anywhere else. I know it may sound greedy for me to be complaining about “only” losing 27 pounds in the first month, but this 1 pound/ week for the last 3 weeks is getting old really fast. The part of me that has suffered through my body betraying me for the last 23 years is starting to overcome the rational part that knows the science behind this surgery. I’ve gone over my food logs and I haven’t had over 24 gm carb any day, so I absolutely KNOW I’m not overdoing sugars. I’ve consumed zero artificial sweeteners and have only eaten whole food. No shakes or anything else with hidden bad things in them. Heck, I even gave up my sugar- free jello! Water is on point with at least 80 ounces daily (most days I hit 96 ounces) and my job gets me over 10,000 steps per day in a typical 10 hour shift. I’ve also started doing Pilates 3 times weekly. I’m making sure I get at least 7 hours sleep nightly. This isn’t technically a stall because I am losing a pound a week. The negative voices in my head are now telling me that I’m either going to be the first person in history to epically fail despite doing everything perfectly, or I’m doomed to fight hard for 1 pound a week and I’ll hit my goal weight in 17 months. Needing the support from my February buds right now....

Yup! Which was exactly why I decided to take the reduction after all my chemo and radiation was finished at the end of 2010. The first time a worked out after breast reduction, I broke down and cried because could actually bend down and grab my ankles without fear of suffocation. 😂😂🤣🤣

I am SO GLAD to hear that you’re taking the March date!!! You deserve this and leave that guilt at the door. Heck, I’m a retail pharmacist and I took off beginning of February right when flu season was starting. Which basically meant leaving my partners with floater help during the MOST stressful and busy time of the year. It’s okay..... everything will still be there when you return at the beginning of April and nobody is gonna die while you’re gone.

I practically lived on cottage cheese for the first few days I went to purées. Did the eggs, but I made sure to soft-scramble it and it did go down easier than boiled. I also ate some ham salad (not the healthiest because it’s processed, but it was low in carbs and already puréed). Never got an ache in the shoulder blades, but I do get some pain and spasms in my diaphragm area when I drink or eat too fast, or try to drink less than 45 minutes after eating. Maybe that’s the same pain for you, but it’s being sensed differently. Honestly I don’t know for sure.

Okay. Take a deep breath with me and slooooooowly let it out. Repeat. Repeat. Okay, so remind yourself why you are here and think of all the hard work it took to get here. This is YOUR time. Take it for yourself and let the rest of it sort itself out. This is the only time you will go through this so embrace the process— even the parts that kind of suck and you wish you could hurry through. I’m barely a month out and even though I really wish I could hit the fast-forward-to-skinny button, that would be doing myself a horrible misservice by skipping all the hard work and all the ups and downs I’m gonna have. Don’t sweat the small stuff and embrace the fact that your “new normal” is about to begin!

Even though I’m still at the beginning of this journey (4 weeks post-op) I’ve already dropped 2 full clothes sizes and I’ve only lost 26 pounds. When I’ve lost weight in the past, I would typically need to be about 5-8 pounds lighter to be wearing my current clothing. Sadly I’ve been such a yo-yo dieter over the last 20 years that I literally could have picked any outfit and tell you what weight range each outfit required. It’s weird how the loss this time seems to be rearranging my fat distribution this time around. It can’t be any kind of exercise I’ve done because it’s all been too recent and I just got cleared for exercise 1 week ago. Anyway, back to the original topic: I’m 5’7” and have an average-to-large bone structure. When I’m thinner, my body tends to curves with most of my weight being carried in bust, hips, and thighs. My surgery date weight was 244 so I figured I had approximately 100-110 pounds extra fat. Based off of those numbers and taking my natural body type into consideration, I should shoot for somewhere between 155-165. Now this makes me need to lose about 80-90% excess fat, which is difficult to do, but I’m motivated to see how close I can get.

Didn’t have this exactly, but I had a big wedding to attend a couple weeks ago and almost nobody knew I’d had surgery. Every time I turned around someone was pushing a drink in my hand and so I spent part of one evening walking around with a champagne glass just to stop it. Can’t tell you how many times I had to remind myself not to reflexively drink the drink in my hand. Many people at this event were two-fisting drinks, so I had the bartender make me up a water with orange wedges and they put a straw in it. I was so worried about not drinking the champagne that I drank about half the water with the straw until my stomach started hurting and I realized my mistake. Ditched the champagne glass afte that and just told people I had hit my 2 drink limit for the night 😂😂

I had a similar incident a couple of weeks ago with a single poached egg with a bit of hollandaise sauce on it. Long story short, I was traveling out of town for a wedding, was only 17 days post-op, and we were on a tight time schedule. The only fast Breakfast option was hotel dining room and I thought I’d be okay eating one of my husbands eggs Benedict (I really did scrape off most of the sauce). Ate 3/4 of the egg (the waiter just could NOT understand that I was needing to take my slow time eating and tried to take my plate away TWICE in a 10 minute period of time so I rushed eating it so the man would leave me alone and stop hovering over my pitiful half egg.)Who knows...maybe he was pissed I didn’t order anything and was annoyed I grabbed a saucer and took one of hubs eggs. Anyway, by the time I walked back to the hotel room, I was in terrible agony. I had eaten eggs twice before and tolerated them just fine.... except before I’d had the luxury of taking my time and they didn’t have sauce in them. It subsided in about an hour- which was a blessing bc we had to be dressed and in the lobby within 2 hours of that breakfast- but for that hour I was scared to death that I had flown halfway across the country and spent thousands of dollars only to miss the whole thing sitting in agony in my hotel room. Since then I’ve eaten eggs again with zero problems, but the takeaway is that if I don’t have time, I just skip the meal and not stress too much about getting my Protein in rather than be sick sick sick and hurting It’s going to all be a learning process and you’re gonna do just fine.

All sleeved: Any kind of NSAID- Advil, Motrin, ibuprofen, naproxen, aleve, aspirin is COMPLETELY OFF-LIMITS It will damage your stomach

You guys are really inspiring. I worried I won’t be able to hit 100 lost in even 12 months. I’m 5’7” and started pre-op at 259. Because of my height and insurance requirements, I was told not to lose under 250 or they wouldn’t pay so I had to “maintain” in the low 250’s for 4 months. Therefore I didn’t have much loss before surgery, but as soon as I was cleared I started low carb, then liquid diet and lost down to 246 on surgery day. Today I am 29 days post-op and I’m down to 219, but I’ve only lost 2 pounds in the last 17 days. Not technically a stall, since I’ve lost 2 pounds, but compared to before it’s going sloooooooow I’m worried that since I’ve lost only 25 pounds in the first month, It will slow down and I’ll never hit my goal weight of 155, which I was hoping to reach in 8 months (my bday is in October and I would LOVE to give that to myself as a bday present) Whether or not this happens, I’m sticking to this new lifestyle and committed to being the best me that my body allows me to be

I’m so glad to read this. I also dropped super duper fast (24 pounds in 12 days) and now super sloooooow (2 pounds in the last 16 days). My dr told me that I could expect to lose 12-16 pounds per month once the initial weight drop settles in I’ll take that

Thinking about you @recividist and sending the most positive vibes your way.

So I’ve noticed that my portion sizes change as the day wears on. Now I’m 4 weeks from surgery tomorrow so tomorrow I make the final transition from purées to solids and this might change in a few days. 😂 Within the first 2 hr of waking up, it’s all I can do to get down 20 ounces of water and half a poached egg. By 11 am I’m starting to feel some hunger so I drink 6 ounces fairlife milk and make sure I get in another 20 ounces water. Then sometime between 12:30-1:30 I have lunch, which is by volume about 1/3-1/2 cup of food, followed by another 20 ounces water and another 6 ounces milk by 5-6pm. Dinner is typically between 7-8 pm and I eat again about 2-3 ounces of some kind of protein (I have a food scale and use it) and all I have right now is the protein. No room yet for veggies. Usually for dinner I’m mixing up meat and cheese. Like a single meatball with goat cheese is soooo delish and fills me up until the next morning. I’ve heard the sleeve can be “tighter” in the morning and stretches out during the day and this is exactly what I’m noticing

Okay so I have a job that is fairly physically demanding. I’m on my feet and moving quickly from the moment I arrive to after when I’m supposed to get off because we never have time to get stuff done so we’re always working at least 30-60 minutes extra unpaid every day. Oh yes and our shifts run between 10-12 hours. There are zero options to work a half day and the only time I ever get to sit would be when I sprint across my store to try to take a 30 second bathroom break. No breaks, no lunches. If you want or need to eat, you better do it while you’re multi-tasking doing 3 other things. That being said, all I needed was 2&1/2 weeks off work because I needed to make sure I could make the transition between liquids and solids before I felt “safe” to go back. I was surprised at how easily I was able to immediately transition back to 10 plus hour shifts on my first week back, but I knew that the only way to succeed at this was to let my coworkers know exactly why I need to be uninterrupted for 5-10 minutes to finish a boiled egg. Since I can no longer wolf down a sandwich in under 1 minute in 3 bites anymore, it was important they know why I’ve now become such a “needy eater”

Another thought might be to increase your calories in by a couple hundred calories per day. Since our bodies love homeostasis, your bp drop might be related to the corresponding slowing down of your metabolism. Maybe try this for a week or two and see if your bp rises?

Great plan! I lost 24 pounds in the first 12 days post-op (and that didn’t include the extra 2 pounds from the hospital stay) and in the last 14 days I’ve lost a grand total of 2 pounds. I’m weighing once weekly at the most, but the most important thing I did was take a lot of measurements. Even though I’ve “only” lost 2 pounds in the last 2 weeks, I’ve lost almost 2 inches in my waist, 1.5 off of my hips, 2.25 off of my lower abs, and many many other inches off of arms, thighs, etc.... The scale is only one single tool to measure progress and I’m going to assume that when the scale isn’t going as fast as we would like at times, our bodies are still changing.

Okay guys. Gotta hurry because I’ve got work soon, but I’m so freaking excited because I did a Pilates class this morning! I told the instructor before class what I had done and she was great with helping me modify a few exercises like planks to protect my healing core. I feel soooooo energized and ready for the day!

Omg this made me laugh so hard! KUDOS to you for sticking to your guns and doing the right thing. Don’t call yourself the meanest mom please. Instead think of the WONDERFUL gift you’re going to give: a HEALTHY and HAPPY mom who will be there for all of the little and the big moments in life due to this wonderful journey. My daughter is now 21, but I remember all too well those teenage years— we just can’t do enough for them to make them happy, can we?