mb20mom

You freak out because you feel something hard and sharp and foreign when you reach behind your butt in the bathtub...and realize it's your tailbone. Has that always been there?

I don't know about you, but I chose the sleeve over gastric bypass because I don't want to never be able to eat another piece of birthday cake! Forgive yourself. The fact that you feel guilty about it is a good sign. You wouldn't have cared about it a year ago, so consider the progress you've made. The only problem is now you've seen the danger of being able to eat slider foods. Why can't they just fill us up like chicken does! Why do they go down so easy and why did the whole piece of cake fit in my sleeve! (This is how I feel about popcorn). We should all enjoy birthday cake once in awhile, especially our own. They key is "once in awhile" like normal folks do! Congratulations on your weight loss so far.

Unfortunately some of us don't lose our hunger. This was very disappointing to me since it was something I was very much looking forward to after surgery. But I do find that my hunger is reduced if I keep my carbs low. And I still enjoy food very much, which some say they lost when they lost their hunger, so maybe it's not a bad thing to be hungry. You just have to be prepared with healthy snacks so we don't make bad choices when the hunger hits.

We can eat a little more partly because of being completely healed and not swollen at all, and after this much experience at eating the right portions, we've already tested our size intake and we know our limits. In the beginning we're much more cautious about how much to eat, thinking we're going to overdo it, but after a year you've pushed it enough times to know you're capable of one or two more bites sometimes. And gaining back weight is not ever going to be a problem, I can tell. I've eaten some pretty unhealthy stuff before and not gained, so I think it would take a lot of consistent overeating of very high calorie foods to cause much gaining.

Sounds like you hit the euphoria of low carb eating and seeing results! Good for you. Welcome to the losers club. Don't you feel incredibly lucky to have this secret weapon that allows us to finally lose weight and not gain it all back? Enjoy your journey! It's a great ride.

I went thru this with Kaiser. It also included Options classes each week and weigh ins. Hated it at first and it seemed like an eternity to get to the surgery, but so glad now that I went thru it! You will be so much more ready for your surgery when its over. It will keep you accountable and by the time you have surgery it will be a new lifestyle and makes eating easier to get used to. Log your food and calories and have little goals. We had a 1500 calorie meal plan and I stuck to it and lost 27lbs pre op. Remember you are on a journey starting now, not when the surgery happens, so use the time to learn all you can from this site. Good luck!!!

I went through a snacking phase with popcorn. Unfortunately I can eat a ton of it at once. Also nuts, chips, whatever I wanted seemed safe at first since I wasn't gaining, but I sure wasn't losing either. I had to go pure protein to get rid ot the carb cravings and now the lbs are coming off again. Now my snack is greek yogurt! You have to have SOME snack options so you can eat every few hours, not just 3 meals a day. If you're hungry, eat!

Greek yogurt tastes like vomit...unless you sweeten it. Stevia and sugar free vanilla syrup works great. I tried so many times to like it and hated it until I learned this!

Oh WOW! What an awesome accomplishment that is. I'm a few pounds away from reaching this goal myself, so I can understand your excitement. Go shopping and try on those size 10's or 8's or whatever!!! Go forth and CELEBRATE.

I went into this journey wanting the LapBand. Thank goodness I found out about the sleeve instead! The RNY never appealed to me due to the diet restriction on fat and sugar (because of dumping) and it sounded so much more evasive having your digestive system re-routed. With the sleeve you can still eat anything, just not as much. Now at over a year post op, it's so normal to me that I forget I had my stomach reduced at all. With RNY, you can regain weight if the stomach pouch stretches but the sleeve stomach can't be stretched. RNY is the perfect choice for many many people, but you may want to really research the sleeve before making your choice.

Welcome to the site. Glad you found us because there's so much good information here. It's great that you're in a 12week program. That helps tremendously to make you prepared for life after surgery. I hate to see people who self-pay, rush in to get surgery without much preparation and then struggle with life afterwards. Being prepared is so important. At Kaiser it was a 6 month program (now changed to 12 weeks) and I remember going through it thinking how stupid it was but now I'm so thankful. Good luck!!

I think the hair loss cannot be prevented, even with all the protein, biotin, and vitamins we may take. The good news is, it will stop in a few months and immediately start to grow back. Mine fell out for about 4 months. It is scary, I know. But it's pretty inevitable so don't think you've done anything wrong. And remember that it will stop. Small price to pay for our health in the long run. Soon you will be over the trauma of it all and dealing with short stragly sections of hair that won't lay down when it grows back! And your new problem will be that your size 12's are getting too big. It only gets better and better!

I don't know if it was CTS but my hands used to go numb very often, especially while on the computer. I can say after losing 85lbs that ALL my aches and pains have gone away, including the hand numbness. My sleep apnea went away after losing 35lbs and nothing hurts anywhere anymore. I haven't even had a cold or flu since losing weight. I never would have thought that carrying so much extra weight around was doing so much damage to my body. I feel so much better now. I had a shoulder impingement problem (quite painful, couldn't reach behind my back) that got better and better with each 10 lbs I lost. The fat in our bodies can cause so much discomfort it's amazing.

I love this stuff. It's exactly what I've been looking for since I only like very little flavor in my water. The strawberry watermelon is great too. Another great drink I found is FUZE slenderize. OMG it's soooo fruity and maybe 10 calories. Great flavors too.

Sophia, Would you mind posting our last group photo in this thread? We can keep using this post for future meetings and have a record of our group! Just an idea. Thanks and I'll see you there. Peggy

I remember that first day and I had a scrambled egg. I thought it was the best thing I had ever eaten in my life. I ate about 3/4 of it and still enjoy eggs almost every day now. I remember eating refried beans with melted cheese, ricotta, mashed potatoes, egg salad, tuna salad and applesauce. Enjoy your mushies!

I still struggle with getting enough fluid each day..not because I can't, just that I forget. Since we don't drink with meals it's hard to remember to drink later and for some reason I don't get thirsty. I can definitely gulp quite a bit now though, if that is your question.

It's hard to tell yet whether what you're feeling now will be the same in 2, 6 or 8 months from now. I still experience hunger but it sounds like you don't, so maybe that makes it different. I do tend to sometimes get real moody about what to eat. Nothing sounds good and you just want to fill the void and then you'll try something you thought sounded okay but you take a bite and want to spit it out! I hope that the more you heal, the more that food sounds better. It is a joy that most of us had before, and weird when that joy is gone.

You are my inspiration. You look so great! It must feel awesome to reach goal. Great job, woman!

Awesome! You are truly just melting away so fast! I may not recognize you at our next meeting! Keep it up, woman.

At over a year out, still not a single regret. Most days I barely remember that I had surgery because it's so normal now. I do want to warn you however that it's perfectly normal to have extreme regret the first day or two, but that will go away, so don't feel like you're alone when you feel it. I think we all went through that. Good luck!

Yes I drink this every morning as my breakfast and sip on it for about 2 hours (I add a lot of ice) I also add a scoop of protein powder. I'm finding it harder to find in some stores, so I will check WalMart now that I've read these posts. It's nice and filling, but I think it might be what's making me a little gassy in the morning! Anyone else experience this? I guess the protein could be the cuprit also.