The Greater Fool

What you may need to bring on vacation depends on your eating plan and how firmly you intend to stick to it. If you do protein drinks and intend to stick with them then you'll need to bring protein drinks. Obviously, anything you just must have that may not be available on vacation you need to bring. Or your can adjust by eating foods on the vacation that still allow you to achieve your protein and calorie goals. Or, you can just ****-it all because you're on vacation. Personally, I'm somewhere between the last two options on vacation, depending on the meal. My plan since puree has been easy to follow no matter where I am with no special potions, lotions, or concoctions. As for drinking, you have similar options. Be careful, though. At this point you're eating very little, so alcohol can hit harder. Many sleeve folks are also generally affected by alcohol faster and harder so be very careful. If you're going to drink do it in a safe place initially so you can get a handle on the new paradigm for you. Also, transfer addiction is a hazard, so again, be aware and careful. Again personally, I don't recall drinking until more than a year out, on vacation. I don't drink normally but ****-it all, I'm on vacation. Once people understand your vacation, goals, and plan, they can offer a ton of tips. The requirements for a backpacking trip would be different than a 5 star resort. Enjoy your vacation. Tek

An accomplishment you will be proud of the rest of your life. Congratulations! Tek

Get in touch with a Pain Management Doctor. There are a lot of things they can do for chronic pain. If you hear "suck it up" it's time to get a new medical team. Good luck, Tek

First, there is no amount of weight one "should" lose by now. Everyone is different. If you are on plan you are doing great. Focus on your plan not on your scale. Get rid of your scale, it will make like much easier. On to plan. Again, each of our plans are different. Some are better or worse but it's probably more important to learn the discipline of following a plan than the particulars of the plan. By 3 months I was at my "forever" plan, which was 3 meals per day consisting of 3oz protein, 1oz veggies. I can't always manage the whole meal. If I can't get past one or two bites I may try again in an hour or so. I dump on sugar and fats, so I learned pretty quickly to avoid those. Otherwise I could eat anything. Some foods, like most snack foods, anything potato, I could eat easily and in volume. For the first two or three years I avoided such foods completely until I could master moderation, which for me was a new concept. Surgery doesn't deal with 100% of our issues. What goes into our mouths is still a choice. @liveaboard15 I've commented before that your pictured food would be a perfect meal and it looks delicious. The great aspect of them is that even if one is eating the chicken (as an example) for 4 or 5 meals in a row, adding and changing the sauce can still create quite a variety of flavors. BBQ, Asian, Italian, Italian, Curry... Yum. Good luck, Tek

Thinner Times seems to have gone to a happier place not of this world. It seems the Forums are closed, there is a Facebook group that appears to have a last post of 5 years ago. Welcome to this forum which does seem to still exist with fair to midland activity levels. Good luck, Tek

It's been years now since anyone ran into a wall, a pole, or even other people because they were staring at me. Social distancing was normal for me back then, as in a crowd the area around me would just organically be people free. Now I have to deal with crowds like everyone else. People used to be very concerned that I might want to sit on their fragile chairs. Every chair was fragile back then. No chair worries anymore, people must have stronger chairs now. Don't get me started on eating in public. I shoulda sold tickets. I guess folks might be right, it was probably how I carried myself. After all, there was a lot of myself to carry. Good luck, Tek

Relationship changed: [Because of WLS?] No; For Better or worse: [Because of WLS bow chica bow bow?] Yes; Good luck, Tek

Joint issues are why I approached it as a short term challenge rather than a long term solution. It turned out I was able to do more running than I expected for longer than I expected. But ultimately I couldn't sustain running as long as I wish I could and still wish I could. We each are forced to live our own lives, after all. Good luck, Tek

Congratulations! Much like you, I was not one who enjoyed running. I decided to do a program amazingly similar to C25K just to challenge myself, I had no intention of continuing. As it turned out I enjoyed running. I used the time and repetitive motions to meditate and focus on what the day was going to be about. From a weight loss perspective my weight just kept consistently dropping until I passed a completely unexpected normal BMI. Good luck, Tek

Congratulations! Enjoy your 'doo. Good luck, Tek

Congratulations! Those x00 milestones are rewarding in themselves. Good luck, Tek

I guess the easiest for me was the new eating plan. My favorite part of every meal is the protein, so "protein first" was easy. The food volume change was also quite easy as I filled up ridiculously quick, still do. Even dumping, which is devastating to some post-ops taught me rather quickly that sugar and fats were not safe as "every so often" foods. Good luck, Tek

My spouse and I are old school gamers. We still do Everquest 2 when a new expansion comes out. We started Everquest way back when it was released when our Warcraft 2 guild moved. I used to do moderately well in Warcraft 2 PVP but usually was able to team up with the best player in 2v2 games. I also ran a successful ranking system. I've tried various other games but things never connected to me, I suspect it was all my friends were elsewhere. We also are doing Age of Empires 2 now, and every few years revisit Diablo. We are solely PVG. We also dabble with Diablo 2 every few years. Good luck, Tek

Mine were much like yours. I wanted to fit in a bath tub. With my spouse; There were a couple other things to do with my spouse, but I won't go into detail. Stop asking ; I wanted to be able to ride the rides; Rode every coaster in Orlando, had a blast; I wanted to be able to sit anywhere worry free; This is amazing when I realize what I am doing. Kayaking, which I've done on vacation several times now; Horseback riding, which is something my spouse wanted to do together, which we have done several times; Running, just a 30 minute run. I did 5 marathons and got to run across the Golden Gate bridge; I wanted rolling over in bed not to be a huge 3 stage production that required planning and cleverly arranged ropes and pullies, or at least it seemed that way. Not even a thought now; I wanted to be able to go out in public and be anonymous, People used to run into things staring at me. Crowds of people would naturally part to get out of my way. Now I have to wade through crowds like everyone else. No one pays be any special attention anymore. The clothes thing has been amazing. I bought a lot of stuff just because I could. I had quite a list of 50 things I wanted to do after surgery. about 15-20 were related to weight and clothing size milestones, the rest were life things like the above. There were a couple things I realized I wasn't actually interested in doing when I got to the appropriate weight. Go figure. All these years later a lot of things are so normal for so long that I don't think about them. Occasionally, out of the blue, I realize I'm doing something that was once impossible. It's still cool. Good luck, Tek

I was worried they wouldn't do it. My surgeon told me that if I gained weight between the last appointment and surgery (about 30 days) they would not do the surgery. Of course, I gained weight. I found out my surgery, being open, was being used as an educational experience for several other surgeons. Had it not been for that... Good luck, Tek

You have definitely found yourself between a rock and a hard place, and another hard place. You are probably correct that nagging him is not going to have a positive effect. If I get a vote in this, I would vote that tattling on him to the nutritionist is going to work out even worse than nagging him directly. No matter how wrong I am, if my spouse gets between me and *my* medical team that is going to create a very big trust issue on top of anything else going on. Get on the same team again. You have the same goals in mind. Do you have the same ideas on what the current problems are? Do you have similar solutions? Work it through together. Good luck, Tek

I can't say I ever had a real "goal" weight. Like you, my early goals were what I called odometer weights... 500, 450, 400, 350, 300. 300 was my most important of the odometers because that was where I pegged being able to do actual exercise where I wouldn't hurt myself. I didn't have odometer weights after 300 because that was already beyond anything for which I hoped. Eventually I was just waiting for my weight to stabilize for the plastics I needed. So not so much looking for a particular number, just waiting on the same number to show up for a few months in a row. The number I ended up at was not even on my "wildest dream" list. There is no rule that says you need to create a goal weight. Good luck, Tek

Dietary science, as we experience it at the consumer level, is equal to how we approach witchcraft. And even acknowledging this my sense is we are being offensive to witchcraft. Again, at the consumer level, we are given such nonsensical and arbitrary rules to follow because most consumer level dietary science is people just like us reading the same non-scientific articles on the current fad approach to losing weight, with every author's personal beliefs mixed in. If there were any kind of consensus there would be one generally accepted program with minor variations. Instead we get every fad diet with as many variations as there are patients. So, we are stuck with telling everyone to do what their surgeon's program demands, no matter how disconnected from reality is is. That is the only advice we can give because it's just as likely our program was one of the crazier programs. Of course there are good programs out there. Each of us are so lucky that the program we picked is one of the good ones. It's hard to go on a rant such as this and come back to a positive landing. Perhaps we should talk about something less controversial, like politics. Good luck, Tek

I was wondering who drew the "That Guy" chit this week.

It sounds like your surgeon's plan is pretty specific on what is consumed when. If this is so then you're surgeon is your source for this information. Check your documentation, you're answers may already be in hand. If your surgeon's plans are not as specific as they sound then typically simply continuing what you are doing is a pretty safe choice. Good luck, Tek

If your travel includes long period of sitting, that is a big risk factor for blood clots all on it's own. Surgery is another big risk factor for developing blood clots. Odds are you'll be OK, but I don't think I would take the risk myself. With or without blood thinners, if your travel involves long periods of sitting get up and walk around a few minutes every hour. Good luck, Tek ETA: I missed that the last reply was you. Blood clots can form anytime in the first few days. Also, no visible blood does not necessarily mean you are in the clear, it takes an amazingly small amount of blood to form a clot. It seems like you are on top of things and going the safe route. Good job.

My Doc generally did it prophylactically since so many people had Gaul Bladder issues later. We talked and he agreed he wouldn't do it unless it was necessary. It was necessary, it was already in quite poor shape. As far as I know I haven't missed it. Good luck, Tek

Congratulations! Good luck, Tek

Congratulations on your successes. Continued success and good luck. Tek

On the sleep eating: Have you recently starting taking a sleep med like Ambien or Lunesta? In many people it can cause sleep behaviors that you don't remember. Both caused me to act on whatever I was thinking about when I went to sleep. It got interesting. On the passing out when standing and weak after eating thing: It sounds like Orthostatic hypotension (postural hypotension). Also, when your losing weight and meds you take may need adjusting. Again, a year or so ago I lost some weight (more or less against plan) and I started passing out when I stood. Left a nice hole when my head hit the drywall once. A couple of my meds needed to be adjusted downward and the problem resolved. On the loose skin thing: There are no creams, lotions, or pills that will help. This is largely an issue of age, genetics, how long you were overweight, how much damage was done to the skin. Of course surgery can help. Also exercise to fill in some of the skin with muscle. Time also can help a little. One last thing: You're dealing with a lot. In addition to working with your physical symptoms you may want to talk to a therapist to help you learn coping mechanisms to replace food. It can also help in coping with the other things that seem out of your control. It definitely can't hurt and can be surprisingly helpful. Hang in there. You are your best advocate. Get the help you need and keep pushing until things improve. Good luck, Tek