Tiffykins

My prayers are with you for a wonderful surgery, and speedy recovery. Don't forget to call or text when you can ! ! ! I'll be anxiously awaiting on Tuesday ! ! !

I love barbque for many reasons, but the number reason is because I can get in close 40gr of Protein in 1 meal by eating super moist, tender barbque. I was tired of spending 7-10 bucks every time I wanted it, so I decided to make it at home. I scoured for recipes, and settled on one that was super easy. 1 - 3 pound chuck roast (trim all the fat) 2 cups of favorite barbque sauce 1/4 cup of Worchestershire sauce Garlic powder Onion powder Black pepper Trim all fat from roast Rub a generous amount of garlic powder, onion powder, and black pepper on exterior of roast. Poke holes throughout meat with a big knife Dump it in a crock pot (invest in crock pot liners by Reynolds for effortless clean up) Mix barbque sauce and worchestershire together, and pour over roast. Cook on low for 8-10hours. Remove from crock pot, shred with a fork, dump all liquid from crock pot, put meat back in crock pot covered in your favorite sauce, and cook on low for another hour. Not technical, not difficult, and you can control how many calories/sugar by choosing a lower sugar count barbque sauce. I don't watch my intake as closely as I was last year so I use Sweet Baby Ray's original sauce. I actually set mine in the crock pot around 10pm, and remove it around 8am. So, I cook mine for about 12 hours, and it's super moist and tender. It's perfect for me, and I can eat about 6oz. I've also made this with brisket, and it turned out exceptionally tasty. If you do not have a crock pot, you can get the same results by cooking low and slow in your oven. Wrap the meat(with spice rub only) tightly in heavy duty foil, cook at 350 for 1 hour, drain fat/liquid from foil. Unwrap, add barbque sauce, rewrap in foil loosely, decrease temperature to 225, and cook for 5-7 hours until meat shreds easily.

It's my only true full signal. It's only 1 hiccup, and I know if I eat anything else, I'll actually "feel" full. My surgeon said that it's just sometimes the body's reaction to getting full. I remember pre-op when I overate, I'd get the hiccups especially with bready type foods i.e. pizza.

Personally, I would at least start the low carbs now. It'll be good prep work for life after the sleeve. It'll help shrink the slippery fat on the outside of the liver, and make surgery easier for you and your surgeon.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh I found it ! ! ! http://www.natrelle.com/simulator.aspx That's pretty awesome.

It says it's Unavailable? ? ?

Well, I didn't see a gain, but I did exactly what I knew I would do, and that is graze all fricken day up until an hour before I put the food on the table. For my meal, I ate a little turkey breast, a sliver of ham, 1/4cup of loaded mashed potatoes, 1/4cup of sweet potato casserole, and 1/2 of a brown and serve roll with a bunch of cranberry sauce. Food lube was my friend on Thanksgiving. I loaded up on gravy and cranberry sauce, and honestly that's the only reason I was able to eat as much as I did. Plus, I ate super slow, and drank a cup of coffee before my meal. I waited 1.5 hour and ate a small slice of homemade pumpkin pie minus the crust, minus the cool whip so I did pretty good on the dessert front. Of course, 3 hours later I had another slice of pie and 1 piece of ham for dinner. Again, I didn't gain or lose any weight, but I knew I was going to graze and "taste test" everything as long as I was in the kitchen. It happened, it's over, and done with. I have my birthday, Christmas parties, and NYE events coming up that I'm way more concerned about than I was about Thanksgiving. I'm pretty sure my birthday week will be a big test for me as I'm having several lunches, a huge night out with the girls, and our husbands so there's no telling what my "December" will look like on the scale. I also plan on doing something special with my husband for NYE this year, and I foresee several cocktails and parties in our future.

Sounds GREAT ! ! ! I'll see if LilMissDiva can PIN this topic for us so we can find it easily every day ! ! ! I'll be posting Monday. Plus, I think this will help me eat breakfast since I typically don't eat until 10-11. I will get up, get the mister out the door, slap on workout clothes (since I've bought them, but never worn them LOL), workout, have breakfast with the kiddo, and then log my workout here. We can do this ! ! !

YAY YAY So happy for you chickee ! ! ! My husband still doesn't "get it" when it comes to clothes shopping.

I struggle big time with motivation. I'm super active, but it's a lot of running around, not focused exercise. I just noticed that I'm getting saddlebags, and just about lost my mind. My mom had huge saddlebags when she was obese. My fat has definitely redistributed, and not good places. It's slipped back to my stomach, I now have a muffin top even at 125lbs, I have a little fat roll when I sit down in my pants UGH. It's been a solid 7 months since I've worked out, and I know I can do it. I just need to set a routine, and stick with it. I figure the mister leaves at 7:10 every day, and the kiddo doesn't get ready for school until 8am. I figure I could squeeze in a solid 30-45 minutes every day after John leaves, and before I need to make Breakfast for the kiddo. I do love my husband dearly, but he drives me crazy when it comes to working out. Plus, he wants to work me like field mule, and I'd like to knee him in the jollies within 10 minutes. I'm starting Monday morning first thing. I'll get back into it, and be successful. I don't want to lose anymore weight, but I really want to focus on toning and building some muscle.

I had a lot of gravity pain because my belly was bloated, and bruised. I carried the majority of my weight in my abdomen and couldn't sleep on my side for a long time. It's take longer for our "insides" to heal than it does our outsides, and it could be gravity pain or you might have pulled something when you bent over. I would still call your doctor, and see what they suggest.

Call your surgeon. Have you lifted anything, or twisted weird, is the pain by an incision? Do you have a fever? The weight gain could be Water weight so don't fret over that aspect.

I really hate when I hear that surgery will cure cravings because cravings are mental, and they're operating on our stomachs, not our brains. Retraining ourselves to avoid carbs, and sugars is really the only thing that keeps the carb monster at bay. Controlling our eating is a choice, and is dictated more by our brains than our stomachs. For example, my neighbor had RNY 7 years ago, she eats junk food, never dumped on sugar, and drinks a 6 pack of Mountain Dew every day of her life. Grant it, she weighs 103lbs, and has kept her weight off, but she's 33 years old, has osteoporosis, has spontaneous fracturing of her spine, is Vitamin D, A and Iron deficient, I know plenty of band and RNY patients that still have cravings, and the only thing that changed my way of thinking about food was realizing that I HAD to get in Protein, and I didn't room for junk food. The loss of hunger obviously helps, but I still have cravings for food. Food "sounds" good, and I try to make the best decision on what I put in my mouth when those cravings hit. It sure would be a shame to go with any WLS and think it's going to "fix" cravings. Thin people crave food, it's not always the mashed potatoes that make us fat, it's the 4 cups of mashed potatoes that make us fat. I didn't have true cravings until after I was at goal, and started in adding extra calories and carbs. Plus, I can eat twice as much at 18 months out that I could at 2-3 months out so I really have to be mindful of what I eat. I still have to take responsibility, and make the best choice when it comes to what I eat. It's easier to eat junk food, it's easier to slider foods, but I wouldn't make my protein goal, I could gain weight, and blow all the hard work I put in initially to change my relationship with food, and maintain a healthy weight.

My insurance will cover a tummy tuck and breast implants. The tummy tuck will be covered due to skin issues that I've had documented by my PCM since January, and I'm having my boob job covered based on the fact that it is emotionally and mentally affecting me. With Tricare, it's a pain in the butt to get approval, but it can be done. Documentation is the key to getting any insurance to cover plastics. I make sure every time I see my PCM he looks at my abdomen, and he documents the irritation and scarring even if I'm in his office for a head cold. I have 2 large stretchmarks from pregnancy that get irritated, and only surgery will resolve it. I've known people to purposely cause irritation under the skin, and take pictures of their progress to document their skin issues so insurance will cover plastics. I have photos of my stomach, and lower regions. I would like to have a lower body lift with abdominoplasty, and will look at all options. With our insurance, I have a girlfriend here that had RNY, and she had it done. Tricare covered 2/3 of the surgery. They didn't pay the surgeon's fee for the lower body lift portion, but all the hospital charges, anesthesia, and hospitalization fees were covered. She paid a nominal fee to the surgeon directly for the lower body lift portion of her surgery. I'll be going to the same surgeon, and 2 others down here to have consultations. I've decided to start working out again because I know I could tone up a lot of my flabbiness just by working out, and it'll be a solid 6-12 months before I have any work done. Plus, since I'm trying to get pregnant, plastics are secondary to baby LOL.

I don't eat "buffalo" flavored wings, but I do eat teriyaki or honey chipotle wings and fries at least 2-3 times a month ! ! ! Sweet potato french fries are now my favorite! ! ! I only eat the drummettes (the little leg looking wings), and I make my own at home in the crock pot about once a month. chicken wings were and still are a staple in my diet. I don't eat breaded wings at all, but the ones that are fried and then covered in sauce and ranch or bleu cheese dressing.

As horribly lazy, and unmotivated as this sounds, this is the specific reason I do not want and am not going off my Prilosec. I don't want to deal with acid either, but let's be honest here, HUNGER scares the sh*t out of me at this point. I haven't felt hungry in a year and a half, and I have zero desire to ever feel that again. I had a ravenous physical hunger that wouldn't quiet down until I had binged. It's also one of the big reasons why I've quit and gone back to smoking 3 times. I know it's head hunger for the smoking issue, but I sure as heck do not want to deal with hunger at ALL. I've never found any "studies/articles" on this subject, just a lot of personal experience from sleeve veterans that all shared the same results. Which is wean off PPI and within 3-6 weeks, hunger was back along with mild acid reflux and Pepcid/Zantac (h2 Blockers) helped with the acid, but the hunger was fierce.

Protein, protein, protein, and if you can, get the sleeve. I wouldn't let them put another band in me, and there's no way you could pay me to have all the PIA issues that came along with band life. NO way, especially now living with the sleeve for 18 months.

Around 7-8 months out is when I could eat these size portions. I still have the same amount of restriction at 18 months. The only change is that I can eat a lot more junk food like chips, crackers, rice and Pasta have become slider foods. Before rice and pasta kind of expanded in my stomach, and I could only eat a couple of bites. I'm sure a lot of it has to do with the fact that I chew, chew, chew pasta and rice up really well and that is what allows me to eat more. There are ways to "cheat" the sleeve. I can have a 1/2 glass of wine, or a cup of hot tea and be able to fit more food in. So when I'm having one of those days when I want to eat a bit more (especially more veggies), I'll have some wine or hot tea. I'm not advocating this behavior because it can be a slippery slope for some. I don't do it often, but for special occasion dinners, or big social functions, I tend to splurge which for me, that's pretty "normal" behavior. I can splurge and go right back to my normal eating habits without getting into an ugly cycle of overindulging. It takes some self-control, but the sleeve makes it much easier. My portions aren't normal at least not in my circle of average sized girlfriends, or my lean, naturally thin husband. My portions feel "normal" to me, but my girlfriends still comment on how little I eat, and they all know about my surgery. They just love it because they get my leftovers sometimes if I don't feel like bringing them home. I forgot that we went to Breakfast this morning at Cracker Barrel. I ordered a 2 egg (over easy) bacon and cheese sandwich on sourdough. I ate 2/3 of the eggs (minus a lot of the whites LOL), with1/2 of 1 slice of the bread minus the crust, 1.5 slices of american cheese, and had 1 slice of bacon minus all the flabby fat, and I had literally 3 small bites of hashbrown casserole, 1 small bite of a biscuit with strawberry preserves. I drank sweet tea before my meal was served, and took a few drinks of my husband's coffee right before I started eating. Our meal lasted 45 minutes. The slower I eat, the more I can eat, and I did sip through my meal. I don't take drinks, but I did sip my husband's coffee and my tea throughout our meal. I should toss out there that was around 9:45am this morning after shopping for 4 hours after 3 hours at WalMart. I was literally awake for 29 hours, and I had not eaten since about 5:30-6pm the night before.

The VSG was my 2nd, and final WLS. I could have easily had RNY, but I fought to have VSG as my revision from the band. Some factors I considered in deciding on VSG. The pouch that RNY offers is similar to the pouch with the band. Least to say, a pouch sucks, I love having a normal tummy, just less capacity and still fully functioning. 1) No blind stomach left behind that can be difficult to scope yet can still get ulcers and cancer. 2) 2 years max on calorie/carb/sugar malabsorption, but a lifetime of vitamin/nutrient malabsorption 3) I had a pouch with the band, and it sucked. I'm pretty fond of my pyloric valve and the sleeve let me keep it. I love having a normal functioning stomach, just smaller in capacity. 4) Regain stats and #of RNY patients seeking revision truly scared the poop out of me 5) I have too many friends in real life that struggle with vitamin deficiencies post-RNY, and most of them either never got to goal, or have gained back a significant amount of their weight. 6) The long term complications with RNY were too numerous for my comfort level. 7) I researched gastrectomies that had been performed for stomach cancer and ulcer patients, and found comfort in the long term results and minimal complications of patients that had lost most or all of their stomachs had dealt with over several years. 8) I was a volume eater, and knew a restrictive only procedure would work for me. That was my thought process when I got the band, and I thought I could beat the odds on complications. Sadly, the band only lasted 8 months before I had to revise. 9) I did not want to have food or medication restrictions. I chose WLS to have a "normal" life, and I think it's normal to eat a couple of cookies. With RNY, I wasn't willing to go through the possibility of dumping if I wanted to have a couple of cookies, or a slice of cake on occasion. I lost all my weight with the exception of 7lbs with the sleeve. It's been a fabulous journey, and I'm easily maintaining with zero issues.

1. What are your typical days meals and how much of it can you eat? (PICTURES WOULD BE FABULOUS IF POSSIBLE) I am not a huge fan of breakfast foods so I typically eat a yogurt with some dry Cereal, or have leftovers from a previous meal. For lunch, I eat out a lot, so it really it whatever I want just in small quantities. The other day, I ate 4 of the nachos from Chili's 2 with fajita chicken, 2 with just Beans, cheese, guacamole, sour cream and 3-5 jalapeno slices. For dinner, I'll have whatever I prepare for my family. I typically eat 3-4oz of meat, veggies, and a few bites of whatever starch I prepare. I can eat 1 slice of bread with 2 slices of deli meat and 1 piece of cheese without the crust. I can eat 1 soft taco from taco bell, or 2 wedges from a steak quesadilla from taco bell. Here's some pictures I've posted on what I've eaten, I eat about the same amounts maybe plus 1-2oz on mushies food. http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/2934-food-for-thought/page__p__27160__fromsearch__1#entry27160 http://www.verticalsleevetalk.com/topic/3049-another-food-for-thought-moment/page__p__28094__fromsearch__1#entry28094 3 tortilla chips, beans, rice with sauteed onions and queso blanco. 3 pieces of fajita skirt steak. About 1Tbsp of sour cream and guacamole mixed in with everything. 2. Do you every wish you could eat more than what you are eatting and get depressed over it? Nope, I don't wish I could eat more. I rarely eat to the point of being "full" anymore. I eat what I know will satisfy me, and in quantities that will allow me to hit my caloric and Protein goals and never miss the huge portions I ate pre-op. And, believe me, I could eat most men under the table. I had a huge appetite pre-op, I was definitely a volume eater, and would eat to get that "thanksgiving day" fullness every night at dinner. I had one case of "buyer's remorse" at 5.5 months out Thanksgiving 2009. I was still not able to eat a lot, and I sat there and watched my in-laws gorge themselves. I was furious at myself, but it was a fleeting moment, when I realized everyone was in their food coma, and I was ready to go do something. I felt alive, in control, and had so much energy while everyone else was napping. Least to say, I have absolutely ZERO regrets, and live an amazing life post-op. 3. Do you regret the surgery or are you happy you did it? Happy doesn't even begin to describe how I feel about my life post-VSG. I would do it over again and again to feel this amazing. 4. How many months/years post sleeve are you?Just a few days shy of 18 months post-sleeve

When I kept dropping weight I added a few healthy fatty foods and 100% juice to my daily intake. I drank grape juice on a daily basis, and would eat 2-3 avocados per week. I tanked up on peanut butter, and started eating white carbs(not in huge quantities, mainly potatoes, and tortillas). It's honestly the only way I've been able to maintain. If I cut these foods out, I lose weight again. Have you had any labs pulled lately, especially a full thyroid panel? I know when I saw my surgeon at my 12 yr f/u he was concerned that was struggling to maintain, and still losing. Of course, my labs were perfect, but my thyroid levels had changed from what they were pre-op. But, maybe getting some labs pulled would be a good place to start.

Band surgery was far more painful for me. But, I will say where my port was removed (also where my revision surgeon pulled the big part of the stomach out) was extremely painful for a couple of weeks, and it remained sore if I bumped it up against the counter or any hard surface for a couple of months. I did have hoards of scar tissue that had to be removed around the port area.

I agree with the others to go back a stage and test the waters in a few days. I went through a major "I hate food" stage. I stuck to mushies for the longest time because it was easier, and I could tolerate the foods on the puree diet much easier. Something finally clicked around the 3.5-5 month mark when food started tasting better. One thing that I found really helped was to overseason, use tons of different spices, and try different cooking methods for all my meals. I used more creole and cajun spice than I care to count, but it got me through. It's like my taste buds were bored, and I was mentally tired of food. I felt like I was force feeding myself with every meal, and it became a chore. But, it did get better. I guess it just takes time, hang in there ! ! !

Good news is that it does grows back ! ! ! It is kind of "HOLY CRAP" moment, but it's so worth it. I did chop my hair off after the shedding slowed down, cut major layers into it, and that helped "hide" the thinness. I've had a huge head of hair my entire life, and I literally lost half of my hair by volume. It's nowhere near pre-up status, but it's getting there. Come to think of it, I'm coming up on a year for when it finally stopped falling out. I just cut off 3 inches in the back, and did a dramatic bang for a different look. Finally all my layers have grown out, but I still have shorter hairs that are new growth coming in.