NtvTxn

Love reading all these posts by others who are maintaining. I look back on my life 3, 4 or more years ago. It is sure different. Besides being back home in TX, I'm in Dallas, where vanity rules. LoL It's nice to feel like I fit in and am not ever the biggest girl in the room. I didn't realize how uncomfortable I was having to trry and find something to wear and then walking in and trying not to feel like all eyes were on me. I KNOW it was never all about me, but y'all know what I'm talking about, that self conscious feeling. Ugh.....I love being out and about now, love shopping, a LOT. Life is good.

LoL - busted!!! I had to share it over and over again. I've been going to support group meetings for over three years and although I've learned a LOT and met a lot of people, this ONE THING seems like just about the most important thing I've ever heard. ONE TB of Peanut Butter is 100 calories!!!! That floors me!!! I hope you're feeling good today!!! See you soon!

A friend of mine got banded years ago....and she wanted me to follow suit. No way would I ever have WLS, there was no reason medically, I was healthy as a horse. I did feel down after I HAD to go shopping when I HAD to have something new. I did always feel like the biggest girl in the room, I did hate to have my picture taken....but I was healthy, I had a husband who loved me big or small. No way, hell would freeze over first. Well three years passed and my friend had lost 60 lbs and she had not died. Ok, positive things, but still. At 2 o'clock one morning, I got up to go to the bathroom and my tummy was in my lap.....right then and there, I made the decision to do it. Yes, I think clearly and come up with great ideas in the middle of the night, some times I'm in the bathroom, sometimes I just wake up and something comes to me. The next day, I told my husband I'd made this decision. I was firm about it, not wishy washy. He was not on board with fixing something that was not broken. I had no health issues, I wanted to have fun shopping and feel good about myself while I was younger (49 yrs) and while I was still healthy. Vanity and preventive maintenence, priorities rule!! That was Dec 2009, my DH wanted me to do research. I did, I read every single thing I could come across. I found a support group and started attending, and so did he. This guy became my biggest cheerleader!! He attends all my group meetings, even asking questions and taking notes when need be. I found a doctor in Texas, our 'home'. We were at that time living out of state, but I knew I wanted someone in Dallas or Houston to take care of me. I knew we would be moving back at some point. I first thought I'd get a band, but the more I read and heard, even though my friend did ok and did not die......it wasn't the best choice for me. I chose the sleeve procedure after days upon days of talking to different doctor's offices, and after obsessively reading everything I could find. I attended the seminar in Dallas in April and in June 2010, six months after that fateful 2 AM decision, I did it. I never, ever, ever regretted it. Not one minute of buyer's remorse. I've loved every single second since I woke up in recovery!!!! It is a wild ride and the most fun I've ever had!!! Clothes started falling off me, people started to ask if I'd lost some weight, which can be uncomfortable some times. A saleswoman called me LITTLE. LoL I have bones and my mom was wrong all those years, I am NOT big boned!!! I love my collarbone!!! It's my favorite NSV to this day. I'd wake up and all of a sudden have hip bones and my shoulders feel so boney now days!!! I finally got use to going to the Missy dept instead of the Women's. That was hard and it is STILL difficult to get a size that fits. I tend to want a size larger. It takes a long time for your head to catch up with your body!!! I'd read on this forum somewhere that we should get a disposable camera prior to surgery. Have someone take a picture the day before or day or surgery, then once a month on the date of your surgery. I did that, and then after my 1 year anniversary.....I got it developed. Wow, those pictures laying side by side from the previous year, I saw my transformation. I highly recommend doing this!!! I reached my doctor's goal in just under five months. My goal, five lbs less, a month later. My total loss is anywhere from 81 - 84 lbs, depending on the day. I lost 23 of those lbs prior to surgery. I have been maintaining for over 2 years now. I had a hard time stopping the weight loss....is this possible???!! Yes it is! I added calories and gained back to where I was comfortable. Would I do it again....in a New York minute! Forced portion control, that is what I needed. I still make choices, but I don't feel deprived at all. I'm not hungry, my new hunger is an empty feeling, which makes making wise choices much easier. I weigh myself every single morning, first thing. I've done this from the beginning. I log my food on line and I weigh and/or measure my food when I'm at home. This is part of my life, it's like a game. I love it, it also keeps me aware of what's going on with my body. Even if it isn't the wisest choice, I am aware of everything that goes into my mouth. No more mindless eating. I need 1150 - 1275 calories per day to maintain. I do not exercise, not really, so I knew that I'd have to make life changes I could live with, that would allow me to accomplish what I wanted. I get anywhere from 60 - 95 grams of Protein per day, almost without fail. It's all been pretty easy for me. I think I eat pretty much like a naturally thin person. This is my new life, it's fun. I feel good. It is possible to lose all you want, still enjoy food and maintain, but this is not a magic bullet. You can't have 85% of your stomach removed then eat chips, ice cream, drink alcohol, milkshakes and eat food from a drive through, and expect to be successful. We still have to make good decisions. 'Nuff said!!

I was recently at a support group meeting, headed up by a clinical psychologist. He broke it down like this. 100 additional calories per day, 365 days a year.....36,500 calories and that equals approx. 10 lbs a year. None of us went to bed thin and woke up fat. It happened over time, over years. One year you weigh 7 lbs more than you did one year before, but hey, it's only seven lbs, easy to lose. Then we get accustomed to it and that's that. Then the next year, 6 lbs heavier, but it's only six lbs. In two years, that is 13 lbs. That is how it happens, that is how it happened with me. I remember when I woke up weighing 180, 'at least it is WAY under 200'. OMG, then all of a sudden, in ten years I am in a constant struggle to maintain 225. Seriously!!! Let's examine this, how easy it is to do this. For many of us, we can get an additional 100 calories just tasting while we are cooking. I suspect when we are cooking a holiday meal, we can get in an additional 300 calories or more. For young moms, eating what your toddler doesn't eat.....that adds up quickly. Shoot, a Quaker lower sugar granola bar is 100 calories!! Think of all the 100 calorie pre packaged stuff we can get. In my opinion, this is why it is so important to stay on top of it, forever. Log what we eat, weigh and measure when you're at home. It's just so easy to go '100 calories' more than we should.

I am sooooo not kidding. I'd do it!!!!

That is why I wanted to be five lbs below my doctor's goal. I wanted that five lb pad. So when I do go up a little, I'm still UNDER HIS GOAL, which keeps me at a healthy BMI. You just have to stay on top of it. I weigh every single morning, I have since two weeks after surgery when I got back home. (I was living out of state and flew to TX for surgery and stayed with family a week and then in Galveston for week #2) My doctor recommends weighing daily. It is much easier to drop a few lbs...actually it is real easy.....but if you only weigh once or twice a month, losing 8 or 10 isn't as simple, and we ALL know how easy it is to gain. We should all keep in mind, 100 additional calories per day, every day, is over 36,000 calories a year and that's about 10 lbs a year. None of us woke up one morning fat, we did it a little at a time. Five or 10 lbs a year. It sneaks up on us!!!!

They are USE to seeing you bigger. You go with what you're comfortable with. I'm 5 foot, 6.75 inches and have been maintaining at between 144 and 147 for a couple of years now. I got down to 132, briefly.....for one day maybe.....and knew it was too low. MY goal was 145, Dr. Davidson's goal for me was 150. I added calories to my diet and regained where I wanted to be. Even typing it sounds bizarre, but I did NEED to gain a little bit. I had size 4 jeans that were baggy, and size 2's aren't easy to come by. Yes, I do have priorities!!! LoL I still wear a size 4, some times a 6. The 4's fit like they are suppose to, which is nice. Good luck!

I think are left with a normal sized tummy for a field mouse!!! LoL I love, love, love it!!!!

I think I'd resort to playing dirty. Tell this person that if she says that again, you will tell everyone she's had Vaginal Rejuvenation. (this is a copy and paste description) It is combined Labiaplasty and Vaginoplasty for a cosmetically enhanced and tightened vagina in one surgical visit. Tell her that folks like to believe things like that, soooooo, true or not, it will get them talking. This procedure is clearly more interesting than having WLS!!!! LOL I'm just sayin'

I personally think 'popping pills' or counting points was easier than having major surgery to remove 85% of my tummy....and still, I must make good choices. I'm just sayin'

BigDog - today's the big day. It is a life changing decision. I have loved every single minute of it since I woke up in recovery!!! It's a wild ride, hang on an enjoy!!! If you didn't take a picture, have someone go buy a disposable camera and take a picture, then take one every month on the 13th. After your one year anniversary picture, go have it developed. Laying those pictures out, side by side....it is amazing to see the transformation right before your very eyes. Good luck!!!

Hey "Luck" - I have to ask, does the one person who wishes she hadn't done it....does she wish she had all her tummy and weight back??!! You mention eating veggies first....what about Protein? At the seminar and all support groups I go to, the dietitian always says, protein first. Were they preaching something different when you had your surgery? I've never had one minute of buyer's remorse!!! I've enjoyed every single second from the time I woke up after surgery. What a wild ride.....oh-so-fun!!

You posted this a year ago. How are you now? I'm almost 3 yrs out. I'm finding it easy to maintain, but I stay on top of it. How I eat, what I weigh, measuring and/or weighing food.....it's all part of my life. It's habit. I weigh every morning. If I gain a few lbs, I address it immediately. Like you, I've never exercised. Well, I have a 5 lb weighted ball that I toss around occasionally and I have a 'band' that I picked up this morning and worked with for the first time in about five months. But all in all, I do not exercise. I knew I'd lose interest since I have the attention span of a four year old, so I made up my mind to make lifestyle changes that weren't temp like a fad diet, changes that were forever. I.E. I never keep chips in our house, other than baked scoops, which my husband eat and I don't like unless I have some guacamole to dip in. This does not mean I don't attend a Sunday school party with burgers and chips and not touch a Frito (my favorite). This just happened, I ate my burger, no bun and no cheese.....with six or seven Fritos. Loved every nibble!! I've just made changes, I try not to set myself up for failure often. I'd love to hear how you are now days!!! Any hints, tips....whatever advice you might have.

44 lbs in six weeks??!!!! That is fantastic!!! Think of it, 44 lbs, gone FOREVER!!! Prior to surgery, even though I could do the newest fad diet, or pop prescription diet pills and LOSE some weight, I always knew I would regain it, plus some, eventually. This is different, this surgery allows us to make better choices. Forced portion control plus, without the hunger, even if we 'want' something, we are in control, it is so much easier to resist. At least that is my experience for the past 33 months!

An endoscope is a camera they all use during laproscopic surgery, it lets them see what they're doing/dealing with. The bougie is kind of like a templet. It's a medical instrument the physician uses. Here is a youtube video, it's graphic, but pretty cool.

The first time I was in a stall, when I asked the office nurse about it, she said up protein and fluids. It worked every time. I've heard people say they've been told to up calories. Common sense should tell us, increasing calories didn't make up lose weight prior to surgery....that has not changed. Stalls are just part of it, if we aren't eating stuff we should not be eating during our honeymoon period, then everything is like it should be.....it's part of it, and it will end. It's frustrating but then we wake up one morning, get on the scale and two or three lbs are gone!!!

Oh Lordy, I know what you mean about five cups of coffee. I am on #3 so far. For about four months, I've been making a small pot mid-afternoon. I was at a support group last night and the clinical psychologist was talking about caffinated (sp?) drinks, especially coffee. Right this minute, I cannot tell you what he said.....I think I may have blocked that part!!! LOL You can lay off the Half & Half, like you said, for a week or so, and see what happens. You are running??!!! I wish I had YOUR oomph!!! Also, something else to think about......cheese, even 2% cheese is HIGH in calories. When I started maintainence, I had to get MORE calories and initially bought some cheese and also got some roasted almonds. I realized that even though they are both considered good Snacks, both are very high in calories. I believe a fourth cup of nuts is about 200 calories. At almost 3 years out, a fourth cup is not a lot. Eating cheese once a day as a snack and eating nuts once a day......and then if I WANTED something else.....it was way too much, those calories add up quickly!! Now days I'm buying LF Graham Crackers and Natural Peanut Butter....a little PB on a graham, I'm addicted, I think!!! It's all about choosing, even now...especially now. I can eat a half serving (1 full cracker) with a little PB on it, 3x's a day now that I'm in maintenence. Or yesterday, I had that twice and once I had an orange. I was having a morning snack, but recently cut that one out. I eat lunch at 11, so it was just a 'habit' that I'd developed. This continues to be a learning experience!! Good luck!!!

I agree, I don't normally do fat free. We drink skim milk, we have for over 20 years, but it took 2 years to slowly go from whole milk, to 2%, to 1%, half % then to skim!!! LOL Fat free Half & Half is good, I am sure there is a taste difference if you were to DRINK it, but adding it to 'Bold' coffee.....it tastes the same in my opinion. Other than those two things, I always go with 'Lite' - 1% cottage cheese, Lite Sour Cream, 2% cheese - and in fact, the dietitian who Dr. Davidson's patients see says, "I'm not going to ask you to eat anything I won't eat" She says go 'Lite', we don't have to do FF. Yay! She also said she isn't going to tell us 'no coffee' because she likes to have hers every morning. Gotta love that! LoL

Sure, I don't mind at all, but I'm three years out. Do you want an example of now? To maintain and stop losing, I had to 'play' with calories to see how many I needed to add to stop losing. That sounds crazy, doesn't it? Let me know and I'll do the best I can!!

After I reached goal, I started using FF Half & Half. I decided that it was a luxury I didn't want to indulge in that often. I drink about four cups of coffee at home every day, sometimes five. That was way more cream than I needed. We DRINK skim milk, but now I do not get Half & Half for home, I buy a quart of 2% to put in my coffee. The only time I use Half & Half now is when we go to StarBucks, which is anywhere from one to two times on the weekend. When we are there, I STILL use 2% but I put a 'splash' of cream as well. It's a treat now.

You were instructed correctly!! At a week out I was getting about 300 calories per day and I was so worried I called the doctor's office. I was fine, they said worry about protein and liquid! At a couple months out I was getting between 400 - 500 and NEVER had more than 800 calories per day until after I reached goal and had to start adding calories in so I'd quit losing. I maintain with between 1150 and 1250 per day.

I have a couple of family members, on my husband's side....who do NOT acknowledge that I've lost over 80 lbs. Seriously??!!! LOL The ones I'm speaking I suspect hate it that I've gone from being the 'biggest woman in the room', to 'the smallest', or at least close to the smallest woman in the room. They could do the same thing, but one would have to give up several glasses of wine per night and the other would have to give up her several Dr. Peppers a day habit. Congrats to you....keep up the good work!

I don't know all your particulars, but I'm just under 5'7" and June 11th will be three years for me. I am taking in 1200 calories per day. I don't know who told you that, but be careful. At five weeks out, I was lucky to get in 400 - 450 calories per day. I NEVER went over 850 during my losing phase. All my labs were always good, I was getting in ALL my Protein with food starting at 2.5 months. My doctor and dietitian were not concerned at all with my low caloric intake. I was very strict with myself while I was losing, NOTHING sweet and of course I avoided and still avoid fried food and bread is at a minimum. I reached goal in just under five months. Nothing is off limits, but I pick and choose what I put in my mouth. Good luck.....weigh and measure your food. I also suggest weighing every single morning. I did and still do. I go up and down, did when I was losing too, but that is just part of this journey. I am in control now and I want to keep it that way!!!

I reached goal pretty quickly. My physician's goal for me was 150, I reached that just a few days shy of five months. I wanted to get down to 145 and did that a month later. I kept losing, and had a hard time stopping. I reached a low of 132 and that was too low for me. I added a couple of Snacks a day and gained back to 145. I never thought I'd NEED to gain weight. I maintain between 144 and 148, which is what I'm comfortable at. I was very strict with myself until I reached goal, but now I eat like a naturally thin person.

Thanks you! Prior to surgery I was wearing size 18's and 20's. 1X and some times 2X. I bought a pair of men's Levi's and they were a 36x34 - that about killed me! June 11th will be three years!