Tiffykins

Calcium Citrate, I admit that I am horrible with remembering. But, I just take the Citracal with D Petites. I only take 2-4 a day and some people say you need to take 6 a day. Ehhh, I'm not swallowing 6 pills considering you can only take 2 at a time then you have to wait a couple of hours to take more. It's just a pain. I take my multi in the morning, both at the same time. Wait 2 hours, take 2 Citrates, and if I remember I take 2 more citrates at night before bed.

I take an Omega3 with EPA and DHA which is extra folic acid, and stuff in it because we are trying to get pregnant, so I need extra stuff. Plus, it's good for your skin and hair.

Hey chickee, I have taken these multi-vitamins for over 2 years, and before I even got my band. I love them. They taste kind of like Tums, just not as chalky. I have never come up deficient with these, and I like that they are chewable. I take 2 a day, and they are reasonably priced. I thought about changing to a Twinlab daily with Iron but I heard the capsules were large, and I just hate swallowing a bunch of pills. So, I'll stick with my chewable wafers.

GNC Solotron? Chewable - GNC - GNC

I also take a 25000mcg of b12 under my tongue that I buy at Wal-Mart. I take that every day sometimes every other day. If I'm going to be doing a bunch of errands, working out, or when I know I'm going to be busy, busy, I make sure to take one on those days.

It took mine a couple of days to change, make sure you click show my full name to make sure it shows up then hit save.

Thank you bunches Kathy. I promise you will have fabulous success if you put your mind to it. I promise, life with the sleeve is fabulous ! ! !

I have my photos and blog set to "Friends only" so I just sent you a friend thing, and you can now view my blog and photos.

I've been bouncing between 121-125, and been maintaining for about 2 months.

Hey chickee, I haven't been on the boards much this week. Just been busy with other crap around here.

On OH, you can go in and make your First name Sleeve and your last name Genie, and it'll show up like mine does, just hit the thing that says display full name, and that will be your display name, but your log in will remain the same. That's what I did to change mine on there without deleting my account.

I'm so glad all is going well for you and your sleeve.

You're about 3 weeks out, and it seems most people hit a stall. I could not work out for 3.5 months due to complications, so all I did was walk. At 4.5 months, I joined the gym, and did strength training 3 days a week, and 1 day of cardio at home. I do hip hop abs as my cardio and love it.

Don't get discouraged, 30lbs in 20 days is remarkable. You may stall out, but don't fret it's normal, take your body measurements, thighs, calves, waist, bust, hips and you'll still see inches leave even when the scale doesn't move. At 3 weeks out, you'll need to be careful for exercise. You have internal sutures as well, and your internal incisions need to heal completely.

You're doing great.

Hey there,

I simply stuck to the rules set forth by my nutritionist and surgeon.

600-800 calories per day

60+gr protein

no more than 30gr of carbs

64oz+ clear liquids

Other than that I didn't do anything special. I ate 4 meals per day that consisted of 15grams of protein and that gave me my protein goal. I lost 80lbs the first 4 months. I started adding in a few more calories and about 20 extra grams of carbs, but continued to lose 2-3lbs a week. Now that I'm maintaining, I eat anything and everything. I get in about 1500-1800 calories a day, I don't count carbs anymore, and make sure I get at least 60-80gr of protein per day.

I have a blog on here, and I'll send you a friend request so you can view it and my photos.

Sadly, I do smoke, but am trying to quit again. I've stopped and started back up 3 times now in the year. It's way harder to give up than food. My surgeon advised that we shouldn't smoke obviously during the healing period, and I did refrain for a couple weeks once I got to go home. My surgeon never gave me an "okay" time to start again, but he knew that I had picked it back up again. My stress level was just too high when John was deployed and our communication was done. I could only take so much. No food, no booze, no cigarettes was a bit too much. Smoking was the lesser of all the evils. I've read other people say their surgeons told them to not touch them for a minimum of 3 months because that's when the swelling and inital trauma from the surgery is really apparent.

Go easy, don't do it any time soon. You don't want to cough and hurt yourself. Plus, be aware that now that you've had surgery, your immune system may be a little weak. You don't want to get a chest cold.

I'm so sorry, I won't be in Texas probably until the fall or possibly Spring of 2011. . . We're stuck here with John being able to get leave due to his unit having extended deployments. . . But, if I get to come to Texas, I'll let you know. I'd love to meet you, and hate that I'm so far away.

If you accept the friend request, you'll have access to my pics and blog.

Why were you not on my friends list? Did you take me off? or was it just a fluke?

To set up a ticker, go to tickerfactory.com select the ticker features to your liking, and make sure you set it up with a pin so you can edit it. Once you have the ticker made, you will get to a page with codes on it, Copy the bBcode, come back here to USER CP at the top of the webpage, on the left hand column, click EDIT SIGNATURE, Right click the mouse in the signature box and PASTE that code. Hit PREVIEW SIGNATURE, if it shows up to your liking, hit SAVE SIGNATURE.

To edit your signature, you can click on your ticker in any of your posts, and it will ask for your PIN, hit edit/update weight.

No, my insurance covers the psych eval. But, that is the standard rate from what I've read around the boards.

I take 1-20mg Prilosec every morning one hour before eating. The over the counter Prilosec is the same strength. I recommended taking it first thing in the morning then waiting a minimum of 30 minutes before eating anything solid. If you don't take it in the morning, you can take it at night, but I didn't get any relief doing it that way. If you want to eat first thing in the morning, you can eat then wait 3 hours to take the Prilosec.

I hope this helps. Start off with once daily for at least a week. Prilosec takes about 7-10 days to fully kick in so don't get discouraged.

Several people have to go through a 6 month supervised diet/exercise program. It helps show that you're willing to make some behavioral changes along with surgery. You'll do great and keep me posted.

My revision was performed at a military hospital. My surgeon had performed several hundred VSGs, lapbands, and RNY. He had removed a couple of bands, and had done a few revisions. Most of the revisions he performed were band to RNY. So I felt confident that he would do a fabulous job with my revision to VSG.

Send me a private message if you'd like on what city, state you live in, and I'll see if I can help you find a good surgeon.

I was so excited to see the update on OH! ! !

To post a reply, click on the thread, scroll all the way to the bottom, there should be a box at the bottom, and you can type your reply in there, and hit "POST QUICK REPLY". If you want to add all of those cutesy little smileys and stuff, you will need to hit the box that says "GO ADVANCED".. Type in your reply and hit SUBMIT REPLY".

If you have any other issues let me know, also make sure you are always logged in because you can't reply is you aren't a member and logged in.

Hi there Bev, You should limit your activity, but driving is not off limits usually. Now, that doesn't mean that you won't stress the internal sutures that they use to close the lap sites. A couple of people on here did a little too much early out, and ended up with painful incision sites and internal hematomas. Take it easy, and don't overextend yourself or your ab muscles.

To Start a new thread, at the top, go to Forums, find the sub-forum that you would like to post a topic on. Such as Tell Your Story, Pre-op/Post-op Diet. You will see a "button" on the corner of the top of the forum, on my screen it is kind of yellow or orange color, and it says "NEW THREAD" click that and a blank box will pop open. Put in a title and then start typing in the blank box. Then you'll need to hit "SUBMIT NEW THREAD".

Mine is a 32, but the difference between a 32 and 34 is right around 1mm. No big difference. I can actually eat more than some people with a 36fr so as long as your sleeve is made with a 40 or smaller, you'll do great. . . Congrats on your date. You'll love the sleeve ! ! !

I'll add you to my friend's list. My pictures and blog are both set to private because I have had photos stolen from this site and used on youtube without my consent on a weightloss video site.

It's probably water retention. When I was obese, the only way I could not retain water is to consume around 90-100 ounces of water per day. 64oz was just enough, but for me to get the kidneys kicking and filtering better, I had to increase the water intake. It was tough, but I managed it.

I would definitely check with you PCP and have some labs pulled to ensure there is not an underlying cause for the weight gain.

I am not sure if this could affect your weight loss.

Best wishes on getting your date.

If you crash diet, you could lose it fast, and then possibly gain it before you surgery. I would think if you could use some protein shakes/drinks to help curb hunger, and keep you full longer that may give you more success. Also, steer clear of white carbs. They can cause hunger and cravings. So, try to stick to protein foods, meats, cheese, greek yogurt, salads (to get some fiber so you don't get constipated), grill or bake chicken breasts use them for chicken salad, or make a thick stew with veggies other than potatoes.

If you want potatoes, try a baked sweet potato. I hated them pre-op, but they actually are really great and full of vitamins.

I know it's tough to lose pre-op, but you can do it.

Hang in there. Once you get the sleeve, it will be much easier.