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clifhiker

Gastric Sleeve Patients
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Posts posted by clifhiker


  1. On 4/13/2021 at 10:11 PM, catwoman7 said:

    oh - just so you know - it seems like the majority of us gain about 10-20 lbs after hitting bottom, and then we more-or-less stabilize there. So you might want to account for that "bounce back weight" and shoot for a little lower than your goal before calling it a day.

    thanks! That's good advice! I may readjust my goal to 175 or so ... just never dreamed I'd ever reach that weight in the first place. I played high school football at 175 haha


  2. yeah who knew that losing TOO MUCH would ever be a concern but

    I'm coming up on my three-month anniversary of gastric sleeve. Have had no problems really at all ... Started at 280 with the two week pre-op diet and weighed 218 this morning. Never really stalled at all and am starting to wonder what's going to happen when I reach my weight target (190). I eat four meals a day but only 200-300 calories per meal so averaging around a 1000 cal/day. I swim 2-3 times a week and do yoga 2-3 times a week and I make sure I hit my Protein goals every day.

    And am never really hungry. In fact my afternoon meals often leave me feeling like I ate too much. When I reach my goal how will I add calories? 1000 cal/day is not sustainable forever ... is it?


  3. the day I went from puree stage to soft stage, we celebrated by going to a our favorite restaurant with some family .. I ordered a cup of crab Soup and a side of baked Beans. Ate about 5 bites total. Server was afraid there was something wrong with my food haha. Family couldn't believe how little I could eat but were very supportive and curious. Was kind of hard to believe that I used to get the soup as an appetizer, then a sandwich or meal with beans as ONE of the sides. And I always ate every bite!

    the rest of the soup and beans fed me for about 3 days afterwards haha


  4. On 2/20/2021 at 11:40 PM, BayouTiger said:

    Hi y’all, I’m back for some support because I can feel mine waning so quickly it’s actually outpacing my weight loss. So today I got to see a friend for a second for the first time since November. (I’ve lost 48 lbs since then). She told me I looked “sickly” and “50 lbs is plenty” and that I was going to regret “butchering my body” in 10 years when I end up back where I started. She said all what I’ve done is undermined the hard work that people like her have put in to do it “the non cheaters way out.” I was actually stunned to hear those words uttered to me. I’m not trying to toot my own horn, but I’m nice to a fault, like I get told by people all the time I have no mean bone in my body. I didn’t have the guts to stand up for myself in that moment. I would never dream of being unsupportive of ANYONE trying to better themselves. So seeing people I’ve confided in and spent so much time with in my adult life turn on me for something that was done for health reasons that would have eventually killed me, has absolutely demoralized me. I don’t need to be coddled, but a little bit of “yeah we’ve seen first hand, your health deteriorate in the last 2 years, this is definitely something that’s going to help you so we’re here” would just mean a lot. But alas, I guess my expectations are too high.

    This is my 3rd friend in 3 weeks to completely rail on me and tell me how dumb I am or how big of a failure I’m going to be, and I don’t think this isn’t the kind of journey that I can do on my own. I don’t know what to do, I don’t know who to confide in, and I don’t know how to convince myself that people are gonna judge and I’m just going to have to be okay with it. But I’m struggling. Never thought doing something to save my life would rid me of all my 3 best friends. And these aren’t co-workers or acquaintances, these are hang out every weekend, talk daily, been doing it for 5 years, type of people. How do I get through this? Any advice is welcomed and appreciated.

    Sorry for being so long winded. If you read this far, thank you. I just needed to vent.

    jealousy is such an ugly thing ... hard to say but maybe you need 'new' friends. Anyone who thinks WLS is the "easy way out" is just plain ignorant.


  5. 7 hours ago, XtinaDoesIt said:

    I know its nuts to complain about having an easy recovery but I'm about 3 weeks out and I'm starting to feel like my normal self. I can tolerate a lot of different foods (although it still takes a while to chew it all up to mush). I can chug my Water, take my pills and Vitamins without any issue.

    I'm scared that I'm going to just go back to my normal self. Everyday I feel like I can eat a little more. I am tracking everything with the bariastic app and haven't eaten more than 500-600 cals a day and I am hitting my Protein goals. But I already hit a stall as soon as I went off liquids. I lost 22 lbs from feb 2 until last Saturday and then nothing since.

    Am I just being impatient or irrational? I feel like I should back pedal and go back to Protein Shakes. I have a surgery twin (same doctor) who was experiencing some issues and is still on the liquid stage and she is losing more than me (I know I shouldn't compare but its hards not to...) I just have this fear that this is not going to work. It was biggest fear before I got the surgery. I hope I break this stall soon...

    Thanks for "listening" to my rant. Im just frustrated about being frustrated this early on...

    I had surgery Jan 20th ... have been consistently losing a pound every 1-2 days. Started at 280 at the two week pre-op (Jan 6th) and am now at 237 ... My calorie intake has crept up (500-600 up to ~1000 now) as we experiment with eating out a bit. We love Mexican food ... I order refried Beans and sometimes a tamale but only eat about 1/3-1/2 of it. I think portion size is the key and I love that my new stomach very much vehemently tells me when I'm full!

    Hang in there. Slow and steady wins the race after all. If you maintain at less than 1000 calories/day you WILL continue to drop pounds.


  6. 21 hours ago, FINFAN3DP said:

    That is one of my biggest pet peeves, people saying "you are gonna so feel so much better"... I don't feel bad now!!!! It's driving me nuts, from the doctors, nurses, family members, it's really beginning to tick me off. Am I the only one that feels this way?

    For a little background, i was 417, no diabetes, no high cholesterol, no joint pain (except knee from previous patellar rupture falling down stairs), no health concerns at all, except for sleep apnea. If it wasn't for the umbillical hernia, I probably wouldn't even be getting the sleeve, but I figure what the heck, they are in there, might as well get the two-fer! :)

    I was the same way ... no real health issues at all (except high blood pressure which was easily managed and genetic as much as weight related). However when I hit age 58 or 59 I noticed that things were starting to get much worse quite rapidly. By 61 when I couldn't tie my shoes or walk up the stairs without being exhausted and my knees hurt constantly and back spams every few months (and the worst was the 10 minutes of yoga needed to loosen up enough to do a number 2 and clean myself) ...

    I knew it was time.


  7. 21 hours ago, FINFAN3DP said:

    Hey, the cardiologist receptionist gave me the idea of Protein 2.0, because she said she was getting sick of the Protein Shakes. I ordered some and have it on hand for when i get home.

    How much pain were you in the day of and after the surgery?

    Not ashamed to admit it, but I'm scared to death. Tried making doc understand he should give me some meds that i could take the night before so I don't back out, but he wouldn't listen.

    My big issue is I am the fussiest fat guy you will ever meet. There are very few things on the different diet stages I will eat, so I hope i get to regular food quick!

    hope the Protein Shakes are palatable .. I've used powdered Protein for years and like it well enough but it seems that I've lost my taste for sweetness (which is not uncommon so I've heard).

    yeah I was pretty anxious the night before and the morning of surgery ... not allowing your partner to come into the prep area was also tough. Checked in at 8; sat and waited for the rapid covid test to process; was called back into the prep area at 9:30; vitals all checked, changed into the gown, and answered the same questions over and over; belly shaved and iv inserted; talked to the doc, both anesthesiologists (checking my mouth and neck for intubation problems), and various other people mostly making sure I was who I said I was and what procedure I was having done; and then waitttttttttt (was so cold and had to pee .. they gave me a bottle and I said that ain't gonna work so they let me get up and use the bathroom, course that's when they came for me); entered the OR at noon or so .......... woke up at 2:30 in recovery, took an hour for anesthesia to wear off so they could move me to my room. Not so much pain at all really, discomfort and really gassy feeling. The gas pains increased turning into cramps in the evening and overnight. Tried to walk that first evening but couldn't .. was too dizzy and a little nauseous. But that was all the nausea I had really. Nurse gave me an oxy at 2 in the morning and then I slept fine til 6 (would have slept longer but it's a hospital you know). Second day was more of the same, gas cramps, but I was able to walk and sit up which helped some. Breakfast was broth and Decaf coffee and Jello. I ate maybe a third of it. lunch was same and I ate most of it. dinner was my first exposure to some full liquids ... V8, skim milk and more decaf coffee and I ate it all.

    Overall I was very pleased. Now I'm full on fulls and starting to experiment a bit. Tried a cream of chicken/ricotta cheese/milk Soup yesterday but was a little too soon I think ... didn't make me sick but it didn't settle well.

    anyhow long post sorry about that. Good luck and let me know how it goes!!


  8. haha yeah I was waking up in the middle of the night craving chinese food ... and who's ever heard of eating just one piece of pizza!!

    Good luck on Friday!! I'm on day 6 post op ... good news is that your appetite and cravings simply disappear (or at least mine have). Less good is I'm getting pretty tired of Protein Shakes already. Am gathering recipes for other full Liquid Protein rich Soups and broths.


  9. surgery on 1/20 ... two nights in the hospital and home. Been working on hydration and Protein Shakes. My doctor stepped in the morning I went home and told me to focus more on hydration than on Protein my first month. So I'm trying to do both ... but finding I can only get down 2-3 oz of a Protein Shake and maybe 4 oz of V8 and I'm done. I guess if I do that 5 times a day I'll be ok. Carrying the everpresent water bottle with everywhere I go haha


  10. surgery on the 20th (wow only three days ago!! really?)

    no issues so far, as reported pain was less than I expected although the cramping was pretty horrible the first 24 hours or so.

    biggest and best feeling was the relief. Now I have a fighting chance! No more staring at that 95% diet failure rate and just getting depressed and eating a pizza.


  11. 2 hours ago, WafflingWafa said:

    Very glad to see that I'm not the only person over 60 doing this! Surgery date 26th January ( I'm getting a little anxious!)


    I just had mine this past Wednesday ... I was terrified! And I'm a retired high school teacher (in other words I'm hard to scare haha). Sleepless nights the week before, no partner allowed in the hospital, waiting in that cold pre-op waiting room ... But the feeling of relief during the recovery in my hospital room was enormous.

    It's not a trivial thing and it requires a lot of fortitude and determination ... which we all know a LOT about as that's what we've been told our whole damn life that we needed more of to succeed at controlling our weight (and which leads to our loss of self-esteem and depression which we use food to control yada yada yada).

    Hang in there and message me if you like.


  12. 61 here (will be 62 in March) and 280 lbs (266 day of surgery after two week pre-op diet). Came home yesterday (surgery was Wednesday the 20th) after gastric sleeve surgery. Sipping my gatorade zero and just finished some cream of wheat. So far so good.

    same story as most of us, yo-yo diets, and ultimately depression and discouragement and a dawning realization of the crushing price to be paid if I didn't do something. No regrets.


  13. late to the party here

    surgery date -- 20 January

    pre-op diet starts today -- woohoo we've prepping and practicing for this so I expect it to go off without much trouble

    concerns -- I sometimes feel as if I've somehow failed at life for going down this path. I've successfully gone through all the mental evals and meetings with the bariatric team ... but still

    no worries forward to a thinner healthier me!

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